Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21, 18 9 5. 



Terms, U a Ybak. 10 Cts. a Copy. \ 

 Six Months, 82. j 



f VOL. XLV.-No. 25. 



I No. 818 Bboadway New York. 



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tion no one can say nay to him; but when he uses his 

 own creations as measures by which to rule the actions of 

 others, contrary to established usage, he then enters into 

 the realm of fanaticism. 



Spring shooting is destructive to the duck supply, and 

 if persisted in will eventually result in still greater de- 

 pletion of their numbers. To shoot or not to shoot them 

 in the spring is a material question for the consideration 

 of the sportsmen of the land, not an ethical question 

 which makes butchers of all those who advocate and 

 practice spring shooting, and sportsmen of all those who 

 shoot ducks in the fall. 



Forest and Stream has been and is opposed to spring 

 shooting for material reasons, reasons which have a 

 solid foundation in the economy of the sport, which ap- 

 peal to the sportsmen of the land as sportsmen in general 

 in moving for the general good, and not confounding 

 with ethical principles with which it never has been con- 

 ceded a part. 



SPRING SHOOTERS AND "BUTCHERS." 

 The self-assurance with which one individual will 

 sometimes adjudge another individual or group of indi- 

 viduals as this or that, and devoid of claims to sportsman- 

 ship, is well exemplified by a recent ruling of a contem- 

 porary that President Cleveland and ex-President Harrison 

 were shooters, not sportsmen; and specifically that "both 

 are spring butchers pure and simple, that and nothing 

 more." 



The question of sportsmanship stripped of the fallacy 

 and intolerance with which it is invested by different 

 men who have different personal hobbies is one deter- 

 mined by the ethical standards and usages of the best 

 sportsmen in the land, and not by the oracular utterances 

 of any self -constituted authority. 



Confounding a question in game-supply economics with 

 ethical matters of sportsmanship does not show a true 

 perception of the question. 



It is safe to assume that gentlemen who have graduated 

 in the highest schools of life and who move in the high- 

 est circles of the business and ethical world know what 

 is correct and proper in their business or their pleasure. 

 And it is certain that the usages of a large class of gen- 

 tlemen throughout the land, more particularly when the 

 usages clash with a thin scattering of isolated and indi- 

 vidual opinion, determine the status of what is proper 

 and what is not. Individual hobby is not usage. 



Surely a standard of sportsmanship, measured by the 

 notions or dicta of one person, is not a sufficiently broad 

 ground from which to denounce a class of sportsmen 

 throughout the length and breadth of the land, of which 

 class the President is singled out with invidious spitef ul- 

 ness. 



There is no universal sentiment nor statutory law 

 against spring shooting. As to the possibilities or desira- 

 bility of abolishing it, there are differences of opinion. 

 Common consent, however, has never established it as a 

 test of sportsmanship, the dicta of any individual to the 

 contrary notwithstanding. 



Spring shooting has long been in the realm of debatable 

 questions in the economy of the shooting interests of 

 America. It is an important question for the considera- 

 tion of sportsmen, merely a3 it relates to a restricted kill- 

 ing of the ducks with a view to a future supply. There 

 is a general sentiment which disapproves of the making 

 of large bags, of killing for the sake of making a large 

 count, or killing after the manner of the pot-hunter; but 

 the question of the season, spring or fall, has never yet 

 been definitely determined as a subject of expediency, 

 much less as one of ethical rule. The wrong of spring 

 shooting must be recognized by common usage or by statu- 

 tory law before it can be cited as occasion for denouncing 

 any one as a butcher. 



One may feel that spring shooting is wrong; he may 

 make a resolve that he himself will not indulge in spring 

 shooting; he may cherish a belief that he has the true 

 ethical principles of sportsmanship within himself; and 

 so long as he makes his own beliefs his own rule of ac- 



have us believe that to kill without stint is to transgress 

 the laws of consideration for others, restrictions which it 

 is a sportsman's first duty to remember and regard for his 

 own self-control. Such considerations are likely to be 

 applied to this bag of 264 ducks made by a Long Island 

 gunner, and it might be perfectly just so to ap- 

 ply them if we | had to do with a case which 

 was to be classed exclusively under the designation of 

 sport. As a matter of fact Mr. Thorne sent his birds to 

 market, and we presume that he would resent any dis- 

 cussion of his achievement which took the narrow 

 ground that the feat was a sportsman's only. He might 

 very well claim the greater privilege of the market 

 hunter, a privilege which is unrestricted by any foolish 

 notions of consideration for others. The one rule which 

 the market hunter knows is to kill as many birds as can 

 be disposed of to the consumers. Tested by such a lasv 

 Mr. Thome's duck score was a very creditable per- 

 formance. 



SNAP SHOTS. 

 Here are three shooting scores to be noted, those of 

 Emperor William II., President Cleveland and Mr. Ed- 

 win Thorne, of Long Island. The German Emperor 

 went to the boar park of Hanover last week for his 

 annual pig and deer hunt in the forests of Springe and 

 Landenau. The programme of the royal hunt called for 

 the killing of at least 350 pigs and of red deer in propor- 

 tion, the trophies to be laid out in rows after the hunt for 

 the admiration of the participants in the sport and of the 

 public. Affairs of state, however, intervened and re- 

 quired the Emperor's return to Berlin before the hunt 

 was half over. Most of the 350 pigs which were con- 

 demned to slaughter are still foraging for the acorns of 

 Springe. For the very interesting photographs of the 

 game killed on a former hunt in the same preserves we 

 are indebted to Mr. W. Hesse, Head Forester of the royal 

 game parks. The pictures hint of the ceremonial char- 

 acter of a royal hunt, this in such striking contrast to 

 the simplicity and ^absence of display which mark the 

 shooting excursions of a President Harrison or a Presi- 

 dent Cleveland. 



Mr. Cleveland got back to Washington last Sunday 

 from his ducking trip to North Carolina waters. The game 

 which he brought back as the fruits of the expedition 

 was not laid out in rows on the White House lawn for 

 public inspection and admiration, but the newspaper men 

 were on hand when the party came ashore, and they 

 have recorded as the spoils of the trip a bag of fifty-two 

 ducks, five geese, four brant and thirty- two quail. 



But when it comes to making a bag of game that is a 

 bag, William II. and President Cleveland are insignifi- 

 cant sportsmen. Mr. Edwin Thorne, of Long Island, is a 

 "biger man than old Grant," and no Kaiser or Presi- 

 dent on earth can compete with him in duck butchering. 

 Mr. Thorne appears to be a combination of sportsman 

 and market-hunter, and when a favorable opportunity 

 offers he does what he can to insure the modest and mod- 

 erate gratification of both of these personalities. On 

 Nov. 23 there came to Mr. Thorne the chance of a life- 

 time; he improved it by killing 264 birds, which were after- 

 ward photographed, and are reproduced for illustration in 

 our shooting columns this week. The score was an ex- 

 traordinary one for Long Island, and if mere bigness is 

 to be considered, is one which will probably long 

 remain unsurpassed. The good fortune . which came 

 to the Babylon gunner will be noted with envy by 

 many a duck shooter. Moralize as we may, there is 

 no use in attempting to deny that fact. Probably as 

 human nature goes, nine men out of ten who had the 

 opportunity to kill 264 birds in a day would do so, pro- 

 vided they had a gun that would stand the test and shells 

 enough to do the work; and it is very likely too that they 

 would have their harvest of ducks photograpaed, and 

 would pat themselves on the back and expect others to 

 pat them on the back for having achieved a great feat of 

 sportsmanship. Whether any one has a moral right to 

 perpetrate such a slaughter in this year of grace and of 

 duck scarcity 1895 is quite another question. We have 

 been hearing much of late in condemnation of the record 

 killers. Experienced sportsmen like Didymus, who have 

 lived long enough to get beyond that early stage of sport- 

 ing life in which success is likely to be gauged by the 



-ulk and the dead weight of the day's shooting, would 



The name of Patrick Mullen is known but to a few of 

 the present generation of sportsmen, but it was familiar 

 enough to the older school of wildfowl gunners of New 

 York, and indeed of the country at large. From his 

 little shop in Maiden Lane, in this city, Mullen sent out 

 guns which had a deserved reputation, for he put into 

 their making honeBty, skill and pride. The duck shooter 

 who had in his blind a Patrick Mullen gun was accus- 

 tomed to feel the utmost confidence in it as an "old re- 

 liable," and the products of the Mullen shop were 

 considered the most perfect weapons one could count in 

 his armament; a very high measure of esteem was 

 accorded the maker for the lofty principles which con- 

 trolled his life; and no man might ask for a kinder re. 

 membrance after he had passed from earth than that 

 which is expressed in this tribute contributed by Mr. 

 James C. Carter to the Evening Post of last Saturday: 



He was a plain mechanic of the old-fashioned type, working for him 

 self, with no journeyman to assist him, and with no ambition except 

 to make his work perfect and to give it that finish and beauty which 

 come from perfect adaptation to the purpose designed. No money ' 

 could tempt him to turn out a poor piece of work, or to ask or accept 

 anything more than a fair and reasonable price for the best. Honest 

 in every fiber of his nature, with a self-respect that shone out with 

 dignity and pride, though never with ostentation, industrious every 

 day and hour, he lived his eighty years of life in a manner to com- 

 mand the admiration of every man who knew him. 



All his old friends will pay in thought a silent tribute to his memory- 

 1 ask you for a place in which to utter mine aloud. 



A distressing story comes from Quebec that tons of deer 

 meat are shipped from the Province into Maine wilds, to 

 be transported thence by sportsmen under the pretense 

 that their prowess brought down the game, or to be 

 shipped directly to the Boston market. The Canadians 

 are lifting up a great cry that they are being despoiled of 

 their venison. Now, it is known perfectly well that 

 hunters do bring out from Maine wilds deer by the thou- 

 sands, and it is also understood that many tons of venison 

 are shipped to Boston every season; but Maine has always 

 claimed and has been given credit for the game; and we 

 believe that the State deserves it, every bit of it. 



The Quebec Legislature has adopted resolutions pro- 

 viding for the leasing of unsettled parts of country to clubs 

 for hunting and fishing preserves. The parts so leased may 

 not exceed 400 square miles, and the annual rental is to 

 be not less than a dollar a mile. Vast areas of Canadian 

 wilderness^have already been taken up for hunting tracts, 

 and there is a well defined tendency toward the preserve 

 system on a still larger scale. We even hear talk of deer 

 preserves and trespass signs in the heart of Newfoundland. 



The Sportsmen's Exposition to be held in Madison 

 Square Garden next March gives promise of excelling in 

 magnitude and interest .the first affair. Spaces have 

 already been taken by the leading firms, and we hear of 

 previous exhibitors who are doubling their spaces for 

 March. Remember the dates, March 16 to 21. 



The New York State Association for the Protection of 

 Fish and Game will hold its regular annual winter con- 

 vention in Syracuse Jan. 9, and one of the important 

 topics then to be considered will be the section, No. 247, 

 of the game law, which permits the sale of game all the 

 year around. On this subject there should be such an 

 united and emphatic expression of opinion as to leave no 

 room to question the public in condemnation of the law. 



