Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. I 

 Six Months, $2. ( 



NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1895. 



J VOL. XLV.-No. 20. 



| No. 818 Broadway New York. 



For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page in. 



The Forest and Stream is put to press 

 on Tuesdays. Correspondence intended for 

 publication should reach us by Mondays and 

 as much earlier as may be practicable. 



CONCERNING ORACULOUSNESS. 



In the old days— and measured by years they are not 

 extremely long ago— every sportsman was more or less a 

 law to himself in the theory and practice of his special 

 sport. It was an idiosyncrasy of the guild that, while 

 each one was a sportsman, each one was possessed of the 

 most superior knowledge and method. The knowledge 

 might have been derived from a limited experience in 

 every detail; the method might be that employed by his 

 great-grandfather — 3uch in nowise shook his faith nor 

 lessened the ardor of his advocacy. 



His own science and art were the best, and he promptly 

 and openly opposed them to all others. If he claimed 

 that a hornet's nest made the best gun wadding and pos- 

 sessed some inherent virtue for that particular purpose, 

 and that the correct manner of measuring a load of pow- 

 der was in his open hand, or a load in the gun was to be 

 measured with his fingers, notwithstanding that four, 

 five or six fingers conveyed no definite information unless 

 one had a personal acquaintance with him or had a dia- 

 gram of his hand, he was slow to accept any argument 

 against it. 



His more advanced confrere, who cut gun wads out of 

 cardboard with a wad cutter and who measured his pow- 

 der in a graduated measure attached to a powder flask, 

 was considered finicky and impractical. 



There was quite as much, or more, to sustain in the 

 amour propre of the individual as in the soundness of 

 innovations. The exaltation of the individual was first; 

 the progress in art was as it might happen. 



Each one of the old-time sporting mystics was a per- 

 son of note in his community, a possessor of knowledge 

 unshared by his neighbors, a man who could shoot "birds 

 flying," who knew their haunts and habits, and could 

 train dogs to point; or he knew when the fish would bite 

 and the only bait that would lure them, and in what 

 waters they could be found ; or he knew where the big 

 game frequented and could travel through the forests 

 without compass or guide. He had supersensory powers. 

 Argument served not to convince so much as to irritate 

 him. 



Long sought as wise in his craft, in the days before dis- 

 cussion became rife, he hesitated not to set himself up as 

 the oracle and sole arbiter on any question concerning his 

 hobby, whether it was in regard to dog or breeds of dogs; 

 or powders, hard or soft, coarse or fine; or guns, big or 

 small bore, light or heavy; quick or slow twist in a rifle; 

 round ball or cylinder; muzzle or breechloader; trajectories, 

 point blanks, drifting and '-holding up;" rods, reels 

 and lines, poles and bait, and so on ad infinitum. 



In short, what at the present day is only determined by 

 the most delicate scientific instruments in long and com- 

 parative tests by scientific experts, was a few years ago 

 determined empirically in a short time without compari- 

 son. It mattered not that a man had tried but one kind 

 of powder, one kind of rod or gun, one kind of shot, or 

 one kind of the many implements of sportsmanship, his 

 own preference was better than all others and his dictum 

 was final— to himself at least. Having success with his 

 own selection, was not that sufficient proof of its uni- 

 versal superiority? 



Or if he tried some other make of gun, or powder, etc., 

 and his success then diminished, was not that a proof of 

 its inferiority? His own physical conformation — a matter 

 of importance in the use of a gun — the success which 

 comes from long habit and familiarity in using one gun 

 or powder or rod, etc., were never considered as factors 

 in his conclusions against others. 



His own idiosyncrasies were never considered as hav- 

 ing any effect for better or worse; they were in his mind 

 a universal and unvarying unit of measurement. 



If such claims had been granted, all progress would 

 have ceased; for if he had the best and was himself the 

 oracle, what was there beyond the best knowledge, skill 

 and product? There might be opposed to him many 

 other men who asserted that a part was equal to the 

 whole, ones whose claims were not less opinionated, but 

 whose experiences might have been different. It mattered 

 not. 



But the sportsman's journal afforded a medium for 



more intelligent and impartial investigation. It spread 

 the knowledge derived from intelligent experiment and 

 research and inventive talent. The old order of things 

 has been largely swept away in the march of progress. 

 Instead of individuals arrayed against each other with 

 the bitterness of wounded pride, and cherished hobbies 

 rudely assailed, there are now whole classes who have the 

 Same beliefs and who adopt the same methods. 



The spirit of investigation has been stimulated, not dis- 

 couraged. Men are more cautious in claiming an exalted 

 superiority for their own ideas or their own preference. 



Still, among men there are some who are of lighter 

 fiber than others, who fear not to claim that what they 

 use is the best [in the world, although they may not have 

 seen the whole world nor its products. 



It is a sad commentary that there are a few who can 

 see excellence in a product above all other products if it 

 be a gift from the manufacturer or dealer, the moral 

 question of the matter being entirely eclipsed by the satis- 

 faction of immediate gain. 



Then there is still with us the man who has the best in 

 the world, believing honestly in his claim, yet belonging 

 to an age in the vague past. The men who have seen but 

 a part of anything and know that, because it is them- 

 selves who saw it, it is therefore better than all other 

 parts, are becoming few. 



Intelligent discussion in the press has dissipated much 

 that was ignorant, obstructive and unpleasant. The 

 orach s have been dethroned; the empiric in sport has 

 drifted into the past with his methods, and true art and 

 science hold sway. 



Nevertheless, it is fit and proper to praise the excellence 

 of any favorite, but it is neither fit nor proper to make 

 comparisons against the products of the world until one 

 has had experience with all of them. 



MORE DUNRAVEN. 



The New York papers of Nov. 9 contained more or less 

 extended extracts, received by cable, from a communica- 

 tion covering some four columns of the London Field of 

 the same date, in which Lord Dunraven reviews the late 

 races. The offensive tone of the article has awakened 

 much criticism in this country, but until the complete 

 paper arrives, about Nov. 16, it would be useless to 

 attempt any thorough review of it. The most important 

 point of Lord Dunraven's statement is a direct charge of 

 foul dealing against Mr. C. Oliver Iselin, managing owner 

 of Defender, on the ground that ballast was placed aboard 

 Defender after measurement on Sept. 6 and removed prior 

 to remeasurement on Sept. 8. The manner in which the 

 charge is worded, to the effect that, probably without the 

 knowledge of her owners, Defender drew at least 4in. 

 more water on the day of the first race, Sept. 7, than on 

 the preceding and following days, in no way mitigates 

 the accusation of cheating; it is perfectly plain that such 

 a change of trim could be brought about only by the 

 addition of at least twelve tons of ballast, and that this 

 could not possibly be done without the knowledge of Mr. 

 Iselin, who has had personal supervision of every detail 

 about the yacht since she was launched. 



If Lord Dunraven had had any evidence whatever in 

 support of such a serious charge it should have been laid 

 before the New York Y. O. at once; before a second race 

 was started. This not having been done, there is no pos- 

 sible justification at this late day for a wholesale and 

 utterly unsupported charge of foul dealing against the 

 owners of Defender. Lord Dunraven has placed himself 

 in a most unenviable position; in default of that conclu- 

 sive proof of his charges which it will be impossible for 

 him to present, he must answer to the whole world of 

 sport for the false and slanderous accusation he has 

 launched. 



SNAP SHOTS. 

 To the inhabitants of cities, and especially of large 

 cities, there are few subjects of greater interest than the 

 care and improvement of their public parks. It is on such 

 breathing places that the health of the public largely de- 

 pends, and to them that a majority of the people — the 

 very poor — mu3t resort for much of their rest and their 

 recreation. For the care of such parks the very best men 

 ought to be secured — men who care more for the good 

 work that they may accomplish in such a position than 

 for any honor or emolument that may attach to the office. 

 The people of New York are to be congratulated in special 

 degree on the appointment as Park Commissioner of Mr 

 W. A. Stiles, the editor of Garden and Forest who 



exactly fills these conditions. While eminently a practi- 

 cal man, Mr. Stiles is an able botanist and a student of 

 landscape decoration, and has given much careful atten- 

 tion to the subject of our public parks. His special 

 studies have thus been in the very direction to fit him for 

 the office to which he has now been appointed'. He is 

 beyond question the most competent man for the position 

 in New York city. 



The November number of the North American Review 

 has a paper by Professor Boyesen, written in the last 

 months of his life, on the "Plague of Jocularity." The 

 common tendency to make a joke of everything, even of 

 those things which are sacred, Professor Boyesen regards 

 as a national characteristic of the American people. The 

 cause of the phenomenon he thinks must be found in the 

 climate; for he has noted that even "the European immi- 

 grant, who at home would scarcely have made a joke 

 once a year, finds himself gradually inoculated with the 

 national virus, and surprises himself by attempts at wit 

 which are probably more gratifying to himself than 

 amusing to his listeners." 



There is doubtless much reason in the view taken that 

 the jocular flippancy which so largely prevails is some- 

 thing to be deprecated. Nevertheless much might be 

 said of the utility and saving grace of humor as easing 

 those burdens and lightening those difficulties and dis- 

 couragements which are all the more readily borne, 

 endured and triumphed over because they are met with 

 the American sturdiness which so commonly finds expres- 

 sion in jocularity. To allude to an example which must 

 of itself occur to everyone, take the case of President 

 Lincoln. By his critics, opponents, enemies, and even 

 by friends who misunderstood him, Lincoln was de- 

 nounced as a joker and teller of idle and of sometimes 

 coarse stories. Yet had humor ever for itself better de- 

 fense since the world began than when in the years of 

 gloom it helped this man to bear the tremendous respon- 

 sibilities with which he was oppressed? 



But we have referred to Prof. Boyesen's protest be- 

 cause it gives us occasion to remark upon what we have 

 long noted, the common tendency of the jokers of the 

 humorous columns of the press to crack jokes on the sub- 

 ject of death and bereavement. There is hardly any 

 phase of this experience — which sooner or later comes to 

 every household — which is not at some time or another 

 taken hold upon by the humorous paragraphists as fit 

 material for their coarse flippancy. Certain of our pro- 

 fessedly religious exchanges are particularly prone to 

 originate or to clip from other wits for their own funny 

 departments the current jokes about death. The con- 

 ductors of newspapers may count their responsibility 

 in such a matter so trivial as to be unworthy of considera- 

 tion; and yet common decency would seem to require 

 that a paper which makes its way into a man's house 

 should not bear with it the power to wound the sensibili- 

 ties of the home by thoughtless and irreverent jokes 

 upon those things which are most tender and most sacred ; 

 for in proportion as a journal's circulation is extended, 

 copies of it must every day or every week fall into the 

 hands of readers to whom the proffer of jokes which find 

 their inspiration in death and bereavement is more cruel 

 than blows. The Forest and Stream does not set itself 

 up as squeamish, but it has always considered the avoid- 

 ance of death jokes as good journalism, and by that 

 conviction has been governed in its dealings with its 

 readers. 



The sixth annual meeting and banquet of the Vermont 

 Fish and Game League will be held at Burlington on 

 Wednesday of next week. The League has accomplished 

 much for fish and game protection in Vermont, and we 

 take satisfaction in noting its continued prosperity and 

 usefulness. 



These are the days when earth and air and^sky unite to 

 beckon one into the field, and these are the days when 

 every man who won't go shooting should be fined. Some- 

 thing of this was suggested last week to a veteran sports- 

 man. "Yes," he said, "but make an exception in favor 

 of the man who would if he could, but can't. If his 

 heart is all right, remit the fine. You wouldn't find me 

 here in this office on Broadway if I could break the 

 links." 



Go if you can. If not, do the next best thing — read 

 Forest and Stream 



