Around Our Camp Fire 



/ leave this rule for others when Pm dead, 

 Be always mre you're right — then go ahead. 



— DAVID CROCKETT. 



Many familiar faces are absent this month. 

 Stalwart fellows who were plodding faith- 

 fully, though reluctantly, to their offices all 

 through the long, sultry summer days are 

 now renewing their boyhood at the school of 

 Old Dame Nature. What a change has taken 

 place in the sentiments of Americans toward 

 field sports in a single generation! Twenty- 

 five years ago the word ''sportsman" was 

 synonymous with gambler. Today the high- 

 est praise we can give a man is to say, "He 

 is a true sportsman." 

 And, perhaps, a few years 

 hence we shall have 

 learned that the word 

 "true" is superfluous, and 

 that when a man is a 

 sportsman he is necessa- 

 rily true. 



The Self-Loader 



Those of us that have 

 had much actual experi- 

 ence with big game have 

 often felt the need of a 

 quick second shot. The 

 repeater seems capable of 

 rapid work when we are 

 handling it in a gun 

 store ; but sportsmen 

 have frequently found it 

 to be too slow in a tight 

 place or for game van- 

 ishing in covert. 



European sportsmen, whose experience 

 with elephants, rhinocerii, lions, tigers and 

 other large and dangerous animals is greater 

 than ours, prefer a double-barrel rifle for 

 such work, having found that the almost in- 

 stantaneous delivery of two shots is more 

 certain than a straggling string of five or six. 



For this reason we anticipate that the com- 

 ing gun is the self-loader. Moreover, it 

 should appeal to us on the score of humanity. 

 Fewer wounded animals will struggle off to 

 die a lingering death, and fewer maimed and 

 crippled birds will be left to fall victims to 

 the hawk, the owl, the fox and the mink. 



There is a vast difference between the self- 

 loader and the automatic. Such guns as the 

 Colt and Maxim Automatic, used in war, will 

 deliver a hail of bullets, so long as the rib- 



THE MYSTIC FIRE 



bon-feed contains cartridges and so long as 

 the trigger is held back. The self-loader, on 

 the other hand, is simply a weapon in which 

 the loading is done through the force of re- 

 coil, and before each shot can be fired the 

 trigger must be released, so that for the first 

 two shots it is little if any quicker than the 

 ordinary double-barrel. The discharges are 

 completely under the control of the shooter, 

 and he could not, if he would, keep up such 

 a stream of fire as that which the muzzle of a 



Maxim in action belches 



forth. 



Write For Us 



The invitation that we 

 gave our readers in the 

 August issue has been 

 accepted by many of 

 them; but there is yet 

 time to send in stories 

 for the November issue. 

 To become a contributor 

 to Recreation once is to 

 become a contributor for 

 all time ; if you have the 

 right kind of goods for 

 sale. You know what we 

 mean, — practical letters 

 from practical men, — 

 something that comes 

 from the heart of one 

 sportsman and goes 

 straight to the heart of every other sports- 

 man. We cannot get too much "copy" of this 

 nature. And then the photographs. Ah ! 

 those photographs ! What life and realism 

 they put into a story. It seems to us that a 

 very good tale could be told in a series of 

 photographs, and that no accompanying let- 

 ter-press might be necessary. In any case, a 

 good story becomes a vastly better one when 

 it is accompanied by a series of sun-pictures 

 taken by a good photographer. 



Frank Ford's Success 



There never has been quite such a success 

 as Frank Ford's Department. He seems to 

 have become the confidant of the American 

 nation. He contemplates, however, an ex- 

 tension of his work. He will probably add 



