57^ 



RECREATION 



publisher feared their own ability to make a 

 salable book and consequently produced so 

 close an imitation of one of the Beard books 

 that it is difficult to suppose it accidental. 



We have also received for review "The Sci- 

 entific American Boy," which, though written 

 in an old-fashioned style, has many things 

 such as bridges and other structures, which 

 should make it popular and useful, but, in 

 glancing through this book we also find a 

 plan of an underground club-house which is 

 almost identical with the one first invented 

 and published by Mr. Beard, and indeed so 

 closely resembles it that it needs a com- 

 parison of the two cuts, side by side, to 

 detect the difference. This is not as it 

 should be. It is manifestly unjust to use 

 any man's own material and inventions to 

 compete against himself, and we are grieved 

 and surprised to find that our friends whom 

 we highly esteem, in "The Scientific Amer- 

 ican Boy" should have allowed this to appear 

 in their book. We should like to be disinter- 

 ested in the matter and recommend "The Sci- 

 entific American Boy" because of its good 

 qualities but, under the circumstances, we 

 must say that, if our readers want books of 

 this kind, they had better go to the fountain 

 head and buy the Beard books that have 

 made the success and gained the popularity 

 that seem to have tempted other publishers 

 to forget professional etiquette. 



But when we pick up "Outdoor Pastimes 

 of an American Hunter," by Theodore Roose- 

 velt, we find a volume of original observa- 

 tion through and through and written by a 

 man who has the courage of his convictions 

 and would not stoop to imitate another per- 

 son's style or use any material but his own. 

 His dedication to John Burroungs is delight- 

 ful. We all love John Burroughs and we all 

 love Theodore Roosevelt. We love both of 

 them because of their charming personal qual- 

 ities and their undoubted sincerity, and we 

 should like to call the attention of all our 

 readers to this book of Theodore Roosevelt's 

 as it is filled, from cover to cover, with orig- 

 inal observation and will be of great value to 

 naturalists, nature-lovers, and outdoor people 

 the world over. The illustrations are photo- 

 graphs taken under most difficult circum- 

 stances on the hunting ground, and they bear 

 the stamp of being the real thing. We are 

 also rejoiced to find that so eminent a hunter 

 and so prominent a man as Theodore Roose- 

 velt, President of the United States, should 

 take the same grounds and advocate the same 

 common-sense policy in regard to the pro- 

 tection of game that Recreation has ever 

 since we took charge. Every reader who can 

 afford the price should secure a copy of 

 Roosevelt's book, and those who can not 

 should go to the library and read it. The 

 language is bright, breezy and unconventional, 

 the author's observations are keen, careful 

 and intelligent, and many of the things he 



tells about the cougar and other big game 

 will be new to most students of natural his- 

 tory. Published by Chas. Scribner's Sons; 

 price, $3.00. 



While we do not expect the authors of 

 boys' books to be as great as Mr. Roosevelt, 

 we do expect them to stand their own eggs 

 on end and the public demands that they 

 drop the paste-pot and shears and shake the 

 gray matter in their own brains before they 

 perpetrate a book upon the public. 



THE COAST WAY 



Editor Recreation : 



Your last number is a good one; but if 

 Brother Boyd expects to ever come to the 

 coast he will have to modify his pack outfit 

 to get his deer to camp. In the first place, 

 kill him, turn on the back, start at the point 

 of briskett, split open, take out entrails, split 

 hide on hip to knee and hock joints; skin 

 legs from hoop down and cut off, tie legs 

 together, fore and hind. From opposite 

 sides put arms through fore leg and hind leg. 

 Get up and go to camp. If you have two 

 deer and horse, tie together the same, throw 

 across horse and hike. 



Yours for sport, by Big Jack. 



After writing the above it struck me that 

 it would be hard for a man to skin a deer 

 and get a clean hide. Try hanging up by the 

 neck, skin down until you can take your hand 

 and push the meat away from the hide you 

 are working at, at the thick end of the pelt. 



B. J. 



THE LINE TREES 

 BY CORA A. MATS0N D0LS0N. 



I felled the trees a-down my line; 

 Their roots grew deep in land of mine ; 

 I trimmed them, as an axman should, 

 And corded them for fuelwood. 



But through the spring-time air, I heard 

 A homesick note from seeking bird, 

 And one small girl wept bitterly — 

 "You are a wicked man !" said she 

 But what of that? Another one 

 Would do the same as I have done. 



And yet, above my hearth at night, 



Sometimes, when glows the wood-fire bright, 



A little, troubled face I see, 



With tear-filled eyes that plead to me, 



And thrills a child's cry through my breast — 



"Where can our hang-bird build its nest?" 



