June 16, 1898.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



568 



ART. VI.-DUTIES OF OFFICERS. 



Sec. L President. It shall be the duty of the President to preside 

 at the -winter convention and at the meetings of the Executive Com- 

 mittee. He shall appoint all committees except as provided in Art. 

 VTI. He shall have no vote except in the election of officers and of 

 new members, and except on equal division, when he shall have the 

 deciding vote. 



Seo. 2. Vice-President. It shall be the duty of the Vice-President 

 to perform all duties of the President at any meeting in the absence 

 of the President. 



Sec. 3. Secretary-Treasurer. The Secretary-Treasurer shall issue 

 calls for all meetings of the Association and of the Executive Com- 

 mittee, and he shall keep a record of all such meetings. He shall 

 keep a roll of membership and take charge of all papers belonging to 

 the Association ; he shall collect all moneys belonging to the Associa- 

 tion and dispense the same under the direction of the Executive Com- 

 mittee. He shall transact such other business, and fulfil such further 

 duties as may be directed by the Executive Committee. He shall 

 be required to execute a bond of indemnity in favor of and satisfac- 

 tory tw the President of the Association, to an amount not less than 

 $ — before assuming office. He shall not be a delegate. 



Sec. 4. The duties specified in the foregoing sections shall not apply 

 to nor include those to be performed by the Tournament Officers as 

 provided for in the next section. 



Sec. 5. Tournament Officers. It shall be the duty of the Tourna- 

 ment President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer to perform 

 all duties usually pertaining to their officos which shall relate to the 

 summer convention. Within five days from the adjournment of such 

 convention the tournament secretary shall transmit to the secretary- 

 treasurer the minutes of the meeting, and a copy, duly attested by 

 the tournament president, of any changes in the Rules and Regula- 

 tions adopted in such meeting. 



ART. VTI.— EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 



Seo. 1. How Constituted. One delegate from each club shall be 

 named by such club to be a member of the Executive Committee, 

 and the delegates so named, together with the delegate or delegates 

 representing the associate members, shall constitute the Executive 

 Committee; the term of office shall be for one year; the President 

 shall be ex-officio a member of the Executive Committee. 



Sec. 2. Duties. The Executive Committee shall have general 

 charge of the interests of the Association named in Sec. 1, of Art. II. 

 and of such interests only. It shall consider and report to the Asso- 

 ciation all proposed changes in the game laws, represent to the 

 Legislature the sentiment and action of the Association respecting 

 the enactment of such measures, and urge their adoption or rejec- 

 tion ; it shall secure the enforcement of the game laws ; disseminate 

 literature relating to game and fish protection ; promote fishculture, 

 forestry and the introduction of fish and game; and adopt such 

 other means as it may deem expedient to further the objects of 

 the Association. 



Sec. 3. Sub-Committees. The Executive Committee may appoint 

 such committees as it shall deem expedient. 



Sec. 4. Financial Control. The Executive Committee shall have 

 full charge of the funds of the Association and power to expend the 

 same, but shall be prohibited from incurring any obligation for any 

 sum above the amount of funds in the hands of the treasurer, and 

 from making any expenditures or creating any liabilities for the ob- 

 jects named in Sec. 2 of Art n. 



Sec 5. Meetings. The first meeting of the Executive Committee 

 shall be held on the 13th day of October, 1892, in the city of Syracuse. 

 Thereafter the Committee shall meet four times annually, viz., at the 

 time of the annual winter meeting of the Association, and on the 

 second Thursdays of April, July and October respectively. 



Sec. 6. Reports. The Executive Committee shall report to the As- 

 sociation annually at the winter meeting. 



ART. VIII.-DUES. 



Sec. 1. Clubs. The annual dues to the Association from each club 

 to entitle it to representation in the winter meeting shall be a sum 

 equivalent to twenty-five cents per capita of its highest membership 

 in good standing at any time during the current year. The dues 

 from each club to entitle it to participate in the summer meeting 

 shall be one dollar. In all cases the membership shall be attested 

 by a certificate signed by the president or secretary of the club. 



Sec. 2. Associate Members. The annual dues of an associate mem. 

 ber shall be twenty- five cents. 



Sec. 3. All dues shall be payable in advance before the second 

 Thursday in January, which shall be the beginning of the fiscal year. 

 A club or individual in arrears may be suspended or dropped from 

 the roll by the Association or Executive Committee, but may be 

 reinstated upon the payment of the amount in arrears. 



ART. IX, — AMENDMENTS. 

 All proposed amendments of the constitution shall be submitted in 

 writing at least one month before the winter meeting, to the secre- 

 tary-treasurer, who shall at once mail a printed or type-written copy 

 to each member of the Executive Committee, and no amendment 

 shall be adopted unless it shall Have been so submitted, nor unless it 

 shall be approved by three-fourths of the members present at such 

 meeting. But a proposed amendment may be entertained and acted 

 upon without such previous reference by unanimous consent of the 

 delegates. 



ART. X. -RULES AND REGULATIONS. 



Sec. 1. The Rules and Regulations hereunto annexed shall govern all 

 contests in the summer convention of this Association. 



Sec. 2. Immediately after the election of officers in the summer 

 convention the Tournament President shall appoint a committee of 

 five delegates, who shall constitute a standing committee on Rules 

 and Regulations relating to the summer convention. The committee 

 shall hold office for one year or until their successors shall be ap- 

 pointed. 



Sec. 3. All proposed amendments of the Rules and Regulations shall 

 be submitted in writing to the standing committee on rules at least 

 one month before the date of the annual summer convention ; and 

 shall be acted on in such convention, 



ART. XI. — ORDER AND DEBATE. 

 Cushing's Manual shall be the authority for order and debate. 



Edward Pardridge, the big Chicago wheat operator, who 

 has more than once made a turn of $500,000 by a break of 

 the market in a single day, was asked recently what had 

 been "the proudest moments of his life." Mr. Pardridge 

 climbed out of the noisy pit to answer, and he said in his 

 abrupt way: "Well, there isn't any doubt that I was never 

 prouder or happier than in the old days on the farm, when 

 I used to run in bare-headed from the riyer with a big 

 string of suckers and lay them down before my father." An 

 uproar in the pit cut Mr. Pardridge short and he scrambled 

 back to catch other kinds of fish, — Evening Post. 



m\d §>ivqr fishing. 



Trout and Bass Fishing. 



We have secured, for the private information of the readers of 

 Forest and Stream, knowledge of a number of streams and 

 lakes easily accessible from this city, where we believe that eood 

 fishing for trout and black bass may be had. The information 

 we shall be glad to furnish without charge to any reader of Forest 

 and Stream who will apply for it, either personally or by letter. 



THE SHADOW OF A LIFE. 



BY IGNATIUS. 



In rippling shallows where the gravel clean 

 Is bathed in waters from th' eternal hills, 

 Pure, sweet and cold, the youngling found its birth, 

 And there in mimic shoal? its childhood spends, 

 Seeking its tiny prey, and quick to see 

 The shadow, in the sunlight, of a foe. 

 When swift as swallow in the upper air 

 It darts to find the safer, deeper tide, 

 And learns to chase or fly aB need requires. 

 Then dawns a time when a new impulse stirs 

 The ganglia that are neither heart nor brain 

 To follow out this 9trange, mysterious flow; 

 This ever widening, deepening liquid world, 

 And know to what it tends. With steady stroke 

 It scuIIb mid-depth, and learns to pierce the gloom 

 Of deeper, fouler waters; feels the want 

 Of something for the need of which it pants 

 Like racer overtaxed on sultry day, 

 Feels strange reversals of the onward flow, 

 As if the river's mind had changed, and learns 

 That neither strength nor skill nor toil alone- 

 Can gain the end apart from wind and tide. 

 Then comes a new and sickening bitter taste, 

 But day by day less nauseous, more desired, 

 Until at last a very wine of strength, 

 Surcharged again with that rare vital force 

 That mountain streamlets brought in childhood's days, 

 But richer now, more sapid, more intense. 

 Ah, this is Life, and this at last the World ! 

 No sedgy shores on either right or left, 

 No rocky floor to bruise the diver's breast, 

 Bat overhead an ever-heaving sky 

 Of ever-charging hues, while seething sounds 

 Tell how its crests are yielding to the breeze, 

 Or thunderous with awful resonance 

 When from that upper world the storm beats down, 

 And blacker than the utmost of those depths 

 Which none can sound save the strange things that bear 

 Their own weird torches where the daylight fails, 

 And right and left no limit to the ways, 

 Nor barriers to thwart the swimmer's will. 

 Ah, this is Life, and this at last the World ! 

 Dangers ? Ah, yes; what would you have, I pray ? 

 Shall this illimitable field be ours, 

 Teeming with living creatures that were made 

 To be our prey, and this fierce energy 

 Born of the crested waves and sunlit weeds, 

 Shall these be ours, and we pay not the price, 

 When swift and sudden from the distant gloom 

 There comes a rush, a gleaming of white teeth, 

 A swirl of waters ? Some of us are gone ! 

 But Kismet, it is fate; the sea is wide, 

 And we are many— and their pang was brief. 

 And ere our time shall come what leagues and leagues 

 Of this unfathomed world shall we explore, 

 What raptures of the chase shall we enjoy, 

 Under the Saragossas what new forms 

 Of life and beauty are for us to find. 

 In the rank tangle what preserves of game ? 



The seasons come and go unrecked of them 

 Whose aimless wanderings touch the Arctic seas, 

 And then the warm rich tide that from the Gulf 

 Flows up to melt the southward drifting berg, 

 But some day comes again an impulse strong 

 To seek once more the waters clear and sweet, 

 That from the Ocean's bosom went aloft, 

 Distilled from all their saltness, and were caught 

 Descending, in the filters of the hills, 

 And thence poured out in many a babbling brook 

 To make the Delaware, the childhood's home; 

 A longing strong and irresistible 

 And guided by an instinct sure as fate, 

 That cannot err in finding its own stream, 

 However many pierce the ocean's shore. 

 In vain the waters foul with landwash stain 

 And vapid with the loss of salt, disgust, 

 In vain the narrowing limits cramp the sense 

 Of freedom, and the things that should be food 

 Sicken with their unseasoned earthiness. 

 Surely the childhood's home had wider ways ! 

 The river has grown smaller in these years ! 

 And we forget how large to little eyes 

 The thing3 may be, and yet how small to them 

 Who later on have looked upon the world. 

 But let the way be sordid, narrow, mean, 

 The home is still the home, and on we press, 

 And some shall find it; and shall linger there, 

 And in the clean swept gravel leave in trust 

 The nest for Nature's kindly nurturing 

 From which another brood shall seek the sea, 

 And enter on the fullness of its life. 



But some shall fail. Alas ! the murky tide, 

 Befouled with all the washings of the land, 

 How shall the eyes that in the crystal seas 

 Could tell afar the glassy tentacles 

 That streamed beneath translucent jelly-fish. 

 Detect the coarse rude threads the fisherman 

 Has woven into snares ? How can the touch 

 That ever found the seaweed lightly yield 

 To give a passage through its tangled maze, 

 Reveal the danger of those knotted cords ? 

 A moment of bewilderment , and then 

 A gallant, desperate fight for liberty, 

 A moment more, and in the unkindly air 

 The life is gone. The groveller in the ooze. 

 The sluggish swimmer that in muddy pools 

 Finds worlds enough, when tossed upon the land, 

 May gasp, and linger, and hold on to life 

 Till every scale is hardened in the sun; 



But such a life as this, born In the stream 

 Of unpolluted waters from the hills. 

 Nurtured for years in Ocean's purity, 

 Apart from these can but a moment live, 

 Its native element, its liberity, 

 These, only these, or welcome death at once. 



But after all. Is it ignoble end ? 

 Whether is better, with scant funeral. 

 To find in some shark's maw a cold, damp tomb ? 

 Or to be borne in solemn state on pla.nk. 

 With mingled incense of the charring wood 

 From forests that o'erlooked the natal stream, 

 And subtle odors, latent in the sea, 

 But now brought out in fragment, misty steam, 

 The silvery sheen turned into richest brown, 

 Revealing here and there the flakes of white, 

 While grave and reverend men, the wise, the good, 

 Rise up to greet its coming, and pronounce 

 Their benediction on the Planked Shad ? 

 University o» Pennsylvania. 



A HEAD WAITER. 



I had walked out upon the trunk of a fallen tree, and 

 cast so as to be clear of its entangling twigs, when hear- 

 ing a succession of short sneezes, and turning in the 

 direction whence the sounds issued, I observed a full- 

 grown boy, barefooted and coatless, engaged in fishing 

 from the rock ledge a short distance from me. The point 

 I had reached through thicket and brier, was a wild, 

 unfrequented bend of the stream where no sign of life 

 had been visible, except here and there the quick, rest- 

 less flit of a bird, and the playful antics of a young squir- 

 rel, as he ambled along the zig-zag lines of a rail fence 

 on the opposite bank. I was therefore pleasantly sur- 

 prised in having my solitude broken upon by a human 

 companion so unexpectedly near, and decided to learn 

 to know him. I thereupon accosted him. 



"Good morning, young man!" I ventured. 



"Mornin', Mister.'' he answered pleasantly. 



"Your name isn't Wilkinson, is it?" 



"Nope, it's Brill. I'm Lije Brill." 



"Well," I replied, "Brill is a better name than Wilkin- 

 son, at least it is more easily spoken, because there is less 

 of it. How are they biting your way, Elijah?" 



"Only midlin peart. I've got a few bass, and some 

 goggle-eye, and a bachelor or two;" he said, as he raised 

 a tempting string that made me envious and anxious to 

 own it for the sake of my reputation and the encourage- 

 ment of our desponding commissariat of the camp ; "but," 

 he continued, "I'm not fishin', Mister! You see, pap, he 

 sent me to town to fetch a new beam for the plow; and 

 when I got to the cattle path as winds through the tim- 

 ber to the crick, I jest natchally, somehow, couldn't get 

 past it, and 'lowed pap might wait while I dropped a line 

 in and rested up a spell. This is not one of my reg'lar 

 days to fish. Only happened to be on my way to town 

 in somethin' of a hurry to get that dratted beam for pap; 

 and I must be goin', or ma, she'll" — 



"I dare say your father needs it," I said, interrupting 

 him. 



"Well— pap's waitin' for it. He likes to wait, Mister, 

 pap does. He can't plow till I get back, but he'll sit 

 around under the shady end of the tool shed and wait 

 and whittle, and whittle and wait. But, I must be goin', 

 Mister. Ma, she'll skin me whole, I do reckon. She's 

 the one as wants the beam to get there — not pap." 



"I see how it is, "Lijah," I interposed, "your ma runs 

 the tavern, as it were, and your pa is the head waiter." 



"That's the idee. Youv'e got it, Mister, Maybe you 

 know my ma. No? Well you ought to call, jest to see 

 her make him stand 'round and know his place. A cat- 

 amount honeymoon has lit up our farm for nigh on to 

 twenty year. But I must go. You haven't got a little 

 tobacco about you, I reckon? Obleeged to you. Here, 

 Mister, take my string. Ma, she natchally hates water 

 that fish swim in; pap, he'll wait till they spile afore he 

 cleans 'em, and I haven't got time, Dassent take 'em 

 home, anyway, Mister, kase I haven't been a fishin', you 

 know. Only resting up a spell to give pap another good 

 chance to wait." J. T. H. 



VIRGINIA'S DEFECTIVE LAWS. 



Lynchburg, Va., May 26. — Editor Forest and Stream; 

 A few simple, unvarnished facts about "Game Protec- 

 tion" may not be nice doses to swallow, but the truth 

 when plainly told may possibly do some little good. Sev- 

 eral parties were brought up on trial in our police court 

 for illegal fishing. The cases were sent on to the cor- 

 poration court, and the parties were forgiven of their 

 offense on promise to sin no more. I had gone over the 

 code of Virginia to find a law under which I could push 

 the cases to a happy final. The law was there, but the 

 provisions had expired by limitation, so I was satisfied 

 with the rulings of the court, as it was the best that 

 could be done under the circumstances. I am sorry to 

 say that at this time there are no laws in force in this 

 State protecting fish above tide- water. Those that were 

 in effect two years ago were so defective as to be prac- 

 tically useless. The law did not exclude from the rivers 

 all nets and traps, but specified such as should not be 

 used. There was one great mistake. It should have ex- 

 cluded all nets and traps, and allowed fish to be taken 

 only with hook, line and rod, and then only at certain 

 seasons of the year. This is the fight we will make be- 

 fore the Legislature next winter. Our Mr. Alex. Mc- 

 Donald, representing Lynchburg in the Legislature, will 

 be with us. Until then we are powerless. The waters I 

 and my friends are interested in mostly is James River 

 and its tributaries above Eichmond. If we can free and 

 protect this river it is just possible the government will 

 come to our aid in restocking. Up here the James is a 

 bold, rapid stream, just suited to game fish — and with 

 proper protection should afford thousands of pounds of 

 good, solid food. I am an uncompromising enemy of the 

 pot fisherman, and I want to see every net and trap 

 driven from the river. The bass are the fish we want to 

 see swarming in the James, and if we can get the proper 

 laws enacted we will have the game fish there. This 

 spring the catch of bass was very small. The season 

 was unusually backward, and I am glad of it. Our field 

 game is well protected. The universal individual posting 

 of land makes it almost impossible for the game butchers 

 to do any great harm. One must have friends in the 

 country to get a day's shooting. It's a good law and well 

 enforced. D, 



