Feb. 17, 1894.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



1SB 



G. criticises, he takes all the facts, and as they are par- 

 tially unknown to G., into consideration. Before assum- 

 ing the role of a critic, G. should first of all make himself 

 familiar with the subject at issue. He cannot expect that 

 I explain and exemplify every statement I make; if I did 

 I would have to write volumes instead of columns on 

 questions of the character at issue. 



According to his figures a shooter must lead a quarter- 

 ing bird at 40yds. fully 13ft. Let Mr. G. reduce his 

 theory into practice, and challenge me for a shooting 

 match at live pigeons. Although I am a novice in live 

 pigeon shooting, I think I can manage to get the better 

 of him under such conditions. I will agree to be con- 

 tended with a lead of 2ft. at such a distance, although I 

 know that this would be too short a distance for leading 

 such a bird for others. 



Mr. Justus von Lengerke devotes over three columns of 

 your last issue to me and my last reply to him. Much 

 what he says does not concern me, and if it is not written 

 for the benefit of some particular powders, it is, in my 

 judgment, then intended for a county down in North 

 Carolina called Bumcombe, for I really have a better 

 opinion of his knowledge in the premises than to suppose 

 that he actually means what he says, or rather, says what 

 he knows. My reply will be as short as the circumstances 

 will permit it to be, and I intend to single out only those 

 of his statements which appear to have a general interest, 

 and which go to show that it is not distasteful to him to 

 treat me and my utterances unfairly. 



Mr. von Lengerke knows that I am not a green hand in 

 making powder tests. He knows that I did this work 

 before and that I am acquainted with the manner and 

 methods employed by the London Field for carrying out 

 such tests. He has good reason to supppjse^that I am 

 aware how E. C. and Schultze powders must be wadded. 

 He has been informed time and again that the powders 

 named were loaded by a disinterested, competent party, 

 not by me. He knows that the London Field never 

 specifies the wadding material used under similar circum- 

 stances. The Field simply uses the term "Field loading," 

 which means that a trap wad was employed next to the 

 powder, a white felt wad on top of this and a cardboard 

 wad over the felt. I mentioned in my report U. S. C. Co. 

 wadding. I learned at Chicago that a black-edge, or two 

 of them, are frequently used here for nitro powders in- 

 stead of the white felt wad. I had no occasion to object 

 to such a method of loading, which has been found to 

 answer the purpose well. In speaking of the wadding- 

 material employed I made a mistake. Instead of saying 

 that a cardboard wad was used over the felt I said black- 

 edge wad. Every fair-minded and intelligent reader un- 

 doubtedly knew that by a slip of the pen I used a wrong 

 technical term, and Mr. von Lengerke was aware of this, 

 in fact he admits that he knows the shells were not 

 wadded as I mistakenly said. I have good reason to be- 

 'lieve that he knows even more than he cares to know, 

 that he knows that the powders were indeed wadded 

 properly. But in spite of all this he makes all the capital 

 he possibly can out of my mistake. He makes it appear 

 . as if I had never seen Schultze or E. C. powders loaded 

 before, and that I accomplished what he himself admits 

 r is an impossibility. The powders were loaded in the 

 presence of intelligent spectators, all sportsmen, among 

 them Mr. Ike Watson, who, as I found, commands a great 

 deal of experience in loading nitro powders. Yet Mr. 

 i Lengerke does not find it distasteful to exploit my error. 

 , He makes a great fuss about nothing, and I do not think 

 . that I deserve to be treated thus at his hands. I would 

 certainly have displayed more fairness toward him under 

 : similar circumstances. 



I compared the nitro powders with tamed wild beasts. 

 ' This has apparently caused Mr. von Lengerke much mer- 

 ] riment. He tries to be funny and says that I evidently 

 ] had Walsrode powder in my mind when I made the com- 

 j parison because, as he claims, according to the London 

 t Field a certain German testing institution considers a' 

 i double charge of Walsrode powder extremely dangerous. 

 '/This is my opinion too. Walsrode powder reacts very 

 '^violently to such increased charges, and has in this respect 

 jmuch in common with the tamed wild beast — it is treach- 

 erous. But to give Mr. von Lengerke still more cause for 

 .merriment, I shall give him another illustration showing 

 ithat other nitro powders too resemble in their behavior 

 ■wild beast pretty closely. I refer bim to his authority on 

 iballistics, to the London Field. If he will glance over the 

 files of that journal of 1893, he will find that on several 

 occasions the regular charge of Schultze powder, 3 drams 

 or 42 grains, loaded In-a 12-bore shell, suddenly showed 

 traces of the nature of wild beasts. It damaged guns, and 

 when the Field tested these shells for bursting strain, it 

 was found that their loads developed a bursting strain far 

 beyond the permissible limit. And these shells had not 

 been baked in an oven like Boston beans, they had been 

 stored on a shelf in a room, where black powder for in- 

 stance would not have been affected the least by the warm 

 temperature. By making this statement I do not intend 

 to convey the impression that I consider Schultze powder 

 particularly dangerous. It is in my opinion a compara- 

 tively reliable and meritorious propelling agent. 



What Mr. von Lengerke says in regard to the difference 

 in the cheaper and better grades of, black powder, proves 

 that he has been wrapped up too much in. E. C. and 

 Schultze powders to find time to make himself familiar 

 with the chemical composition, process of manufacturing 

 and the properties of these powders. He is not able to 

 advance one single argument to prove that his opinion is 

 based on facts. Every ballistic engineer and every pow- 

 der manufacturer will tell him that the better grades of 

 black powders will not and cannot possibly be more vio- 

 lent than the cheaper grades, other conditions being 

 equal. He thinks that the FFFG DuPont black powder 

 employed by me was not this grade, but a special and bet- 

 ter grade. He is wrong, 



Thts powder tests were partly carried out on the premises 

 and under the eyes of the proprietors and officers of one 

 of the oldest powder manufacturing concerns in the 

 world. Their smokeless powder — not in the market— was 

 tested also. It was rated lower than either E. C. or 

 Schultze. Did these gentlemen find fault with me? 

 Would they not have done so if they had found that the 

 tests were not carried out correctly? Are they not capable 

 of telUng how such tests must be conducted? 



Mr. von Lengerke was in Chicago about the time the 

 tests were in progress, so was Mr. Money. Why did they 

 neglect to avail themselves of the opportunity of witness- 

 ing the tests? Did they stay away purposely in order to 



be able to raise the cry "foul" afterward? I am sorry to 

 say it looks to me that way. 



I again say that nitro powders are superior to black 

 powders in many respects. I claim, too, that the nitro 

 rifle powder has driven black powder to the wall to a 

 greater extent than the smokeless gunpowder has taken 

 the place of biack gunpowder. But I do not claim, nor 

 have I ever asserted, that the nitro powder is as safe, or 

 safer, than black powder. Whenever the former have 

 ceased to display the nature of tamed wild beasts I shall 

 readily admit it, for I am not an advocate of black 

 powder and hope that I and Mr. von Lengerke will live 

 to see such a change take place. Armin Tenner. 



[We think that this discussion has run as far as its 

 interest warrants.] 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



[From a Staff Con'espondent] 

 Got a Head. 



An old-time friend of Forest and Stream, "Ahmeek," 

 who is Consul for the United States located at Chatham, 

 Canada, is in trouble about one of the most important 

 features of Forest and Stream, and writes as follows: 



"I trust I am not trespassing too much upon your 

 courtesy in urging you to use your influence with the 

 proprietors of Forest and Stream to induce them to 

 change their outside heading. I have been a constant 

 reader of that invaluable paper ever since I first saw a 

 copy of it ten years ago, and it is now a great solace to 

 me in my exile. My luck under the crude but compara- 

 tively inoffensive old heading was very good, and I caught 

 fish and shot game without any suspicion of a 'hoodoo;' 

 but ever since that baleful caricature first put in an ap- 

 pearance I have found the fish all gone, or the game all 

 shot, or worst of all, been unable to get away to try for 

 either of them. This is not right, and as one of a large 

 and growing class which aaust depend upon Forest and 

 Stream for a large part of its mental pabulum, I write to 

 protest against its action in foisting upon an innocent and 

 unsuspecting public the monstrosity at the top of its out- 

 side page. 



"To illustrate: The two sportsmen (God save the mark!) 

 in the foreground are clearly dudes out for blood . One 

 wears a full-blown necktie over a starched shirt front, 

 and the other has on boots that probably cost at least $16. 

 To the eye of the critical observer nothing but a miracle 

 keeps the rushing stream from overflowing its banks and 

 spoiling those boots, while the two specimens of Cervus 

 virginianus are braver than the rest of their tribe in that 

 they are not afraid of it. However, what else could you 

 expect of a buck that has his horns turned the wrong 

 way? 



"The cutter on the lake is fairly good, a little too much 

 peak in her mainsail perhaps, but then a yachtsman who 

 would use such a jib might use such a mainsail. The 

 paddler is using a doublebladed instrument in his birch, 

 but he matches his neighbor. 



"The two men in camp are in a wet place if it rains and 

 their tent guys are loose, but as the one on the log is 

 evidently tired, I assume that he is a tenderfoot and 

 probably pitched the tent in that manner and in that par- 

 ticular place. 



"The sky effect is bad, very bad, and leaves the awed 

 mind of the spectator in doubt as to whether it is a cold 

 gray morning in October or half an hour after sunset in 

 August. 



"The moose head in the center was mounted by a man 

 who had a cow for a model, and I think he must have 

 been a good copyist, but as an illustration of the pictur- 

 esque front of Cervus alees it is a rank imposture. And 

 in this connection let me ask, is the head surrounded by 

 the forest shade or a spring flight of ducks? This is an 

 important question, and it is your duty to settle it. I do 

 not think even 'Katie' of glorious memory could look 

 upon that flight unmoved, unless it was after twenty-four 

 cups of coffee. 



"I confess this thing has worried me, as this long letter 

 goes to prove, and now that I can contemplate the mis- 

 takes of my countrymen from a foreign soil its perspec- 

 tive haunts me. Cannot something be done to remedy it? 

 What right has my fireside companion to queer my luck, 

 and doubtless that of thousands of other friends all over 

 the world? The title is ail right, but the unities have not 

 been observed and the accessories before the act should be 

 punished. 



"To you an enlightened, an interested and a solicitous 

 public looks for succor. Shall it look in vain? " 



Nay, nay, it shall not be. If "Ahmeek," or anybody 

 else wants the head of Forest and Stream changed, it 

 must be changed at once. To so much, I am sure, I can 

 bind the proprietors of the paper as to say cheerfully that, 

 if "Ahmeek" will submit a design for a new and im- 

 proved head, it will have careful consideration. Barring 

 the. few exceptions named, he evidently thinks this head 

 is about right, so it will be but little trouble to get up a 

 perfect design. It will be carefully considered, and if 

 accepted, will be put in use at once. So will other de- 

 signs. Attention is, however, called to the fact that the 

 head can only be changed fifty-two times a year. 



To one thing, however, being sworn as a staff member 

 to support the Constitution of the U. S. and the head of 

 the paper, I must object, and that is any criticism of the 

 historic moose head. That moose head is known in all 

 corners of the country, and although it may be cowesque 

 in some regards, it goes. It dominated the Forest and 

 Stream at the World's Fair, it runs on the Forest and 

 Stream stationery, appears on book covers, shows on a 

 thousand news stand signs, and moreover, sagely presides 

 over every word that is written, every think that is 

 thunk, by any and every member of the Forest and 

 Stream family. The other day, just last week, a man 

 down in Texas found fault with this same moose head. 



"It violates all principles of art," said he, "because it is 

 just stuck up there without anything on earth to hold it 

 up— not the least indication of a support for it anwhere." 



"My dear sir," I said to him, "you overlook the fact 

 that that moose head is supported by over twenty-one 

 years of success." 



Will this thought be of service to "Ahmeek" in getting 

 out his new head? He can jump on those tenderfeet, who 

 were formulated by one who thought long boots were a 

 good thing, and he can reconstruct the Chinese, had-to get- 

 it-all-in perspective, but as to monkeying with the moose 

 head— sweet sir, prithee, say not so. You can't very easily' 

 make Forest and Stream take down its horns. 



A Game Law Muddle. 



Chicago, 111., Feb. 10.— Last week I called attention to 

 the fact that the Tribune of this city had announced the 

 illegality of killing Illinois song birds after Feb. 1, and 

 suggested it might amend by adding that it is also illegal 

 to kill them before Feb. 1. The Tribune of Feb. 8 corrects 

 its error, and points out that it was misled by a game law 

 circular put out by City Game Warden Ghas. H, Blow. 



Get a copy of the Game Latos in Brief, Mr. Warden. 



The Tribune says; 



The game warden starts out with the statement that it is unlawful 

 to kill prairie chicken, grouse, pheasant, quail, deer, antelope, turkey, 

 squirrel of any kind, or any song birds after Feb. 1. Every farmer's 

 boy in the State knows that no prairie chicken may be killed lawfully 

 after Nov. 1, and that grouse (Bonasa umbellus) and quail are pro^ 

 tected by law after Dec. 1. Moreover, it is unlawful at any season o£ 

 the year to kill any of the song birds which Mr. Blow enumerates, 

 These birds are covered by law at all seasons. Squirrel3 cannot be 

 shot legally after Dec. 15 until the open season for them begins in 

 June. 



Mr. Blow has been led into error doubtless by the fact that game 

 may be sold in this State until Feb. 1, provided that the game so sold 

 has been brought from other States. It is unlawful to sell at any time 

 any game, except water fowl, that has been killed in the State of Illi- 

 nois. Further down in the game warden's circular stands this some- 

 what startliDg sentence: "The sale of all game except water fowl is 

 prohibited by law in the Stateof Illinois." If this was correct the tons 

 of game sold this winter on South Water street would, if the penalties 

 could be collecte.d, net the State enough money to run its government 

 for some years. Mr. Blow probably means that it is unlawful to sell 

 at any time game killed in Illinois. 



That's right, get a copy of the Game Laws in Brief, 

 Mr. Tribune, and you'll always be right. 



The American Field, in a burst of enterprise, sent out 

 copies of this erroneous circular as a folder to its sub- 

 scribers, hoping by this illustrated supplement to dissem- 

 inate useful information and accumulate some glory. 

 Some folks never do have any luck, and continually 

 accumulate experience instead of glory. 



If you see it in Forest and Stream, it's so. 



Not Stingy. 



A copy of the Game Laws in Brief is always at the 

 service of the editor of the American Field any time he 

 wants to send over to this office and borrow it. There is 

 really no good reason at all for him to make such mis- 

 takes. We may be tough people, but I trust we are not 

 stingy with our things. 



Stopped Fishing. 



Last month the summer residents who own property 

 around Fox Lake learned that the notorious Stanley 

 family of that locality were again at their fishing through 

 the ice, and had shipped over 2,0001bs. of fish to the 

 Chicago market. A meeting of interested parties was 

 called and investigations were made. The committee 

 discovered illicit fish in transit, and followed the trail to 

 South Water street, Chicago. Judge Green, one of those 

 owning property about Fox Lake, approached Stanley and 

 tried to state the thing fairly to him, and to induce him 

 to stop fishing. Stanley said he would not stop, and that, 

 if interfered with, would burn the buildings of every man 

 opposing him. "We'll break a few heads too, if you fel- 

 lows try to stop us," said Mr. Stanley. All this was re- 

 ported at the second meeting of the summer residents, 

 held at the Sherman House last Wednesday, Mr. M. R. 

 Bortree in the chair. Meantime, State Fish Warden 

 McNeil was sent up to see the belligerent Stanley, and to 

 investigate the head-breaking and house-burning proclivi- 

 ties as per Mr. Stanley's earlier remarks. Stanley weak- 

 ened at once, stopped fishing and has not had a line 

 through the ice since. The property owners have called 

 this old bluff of the lawless fishers, and now if a house is 

 harmed around the lake it will probably be the worst 

 thing for the Stanley outfit that ever happened. 



Successful. 



The Lansing (Iowa) Rod and Gun Club have been suc- 

 cessful in their case against fisherman Hoag, charged 

 with illegal seining within Big Lake, an arm of the Mis- 

 sissippi River. The trials lasted three days and was 

 stubbornly fought on the ground of no jurisdiction. The 

 club is now going after the violators of the game laws 

 also. More power to their arm and may they never grow 

 weary. This is the way in which a good sentiment is 

 created, and the value and proper ownership of the 

 people's game and fish explained to the careless, the 

 ignorant and the wanton. 



A Valuable Correction. 



A correction and admonishment of great value is con- 

 tained in the following letter from Mr. C. A. Tuttle, of 

 Anaconda, Mont. : 



I notice your article in Forest and Stream under date of 13th inst. 

 wherein a Mr. W. H. Haskell figures as quite a sportsman, inasmuch 

 as he and his party succeeded in killing 4 elk and many deer. Doubt- 

 less Mr. Haskell is not aware that it is against the laws of this State to 

 kill elk under penalty of not less than $200, or more than $500 or im- 

 prisonment from 60 days to 6 months, else he would not have taken 

 the risk he did. But it seems to me the first thing any true sportsman 

 would do would be to find out the game laws of the State he was visit- 

 ing and then honor them. Furthermore the relating of such incidents 

 in a sportsman's paper of the tone of Forest and Stream;, does not 

 have a tendency to keep those of our own State in check. They reason 

 that they should be allowed as many privileges as outsiders. 



I inclose you a certified copy of the laws of our State, and call your 

 attention to our manner of notifying anyone whom we hear of violat- 

 ing the laws, and althougn we are unable to stop it all from the 

 vastness of the territory about here, we manage to hold a lot of them 

 in check. 



The section of the law referred to reads in full as fol- 

 lows, the act being approved March 1, 1893: 



An act to provide further protection to game, fur-bearing animals, 

 birds and fish. 



Be it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Montana: 



Sec. 1. That any person who shall wilfully shoot or otherwise kill 

 for the period of ten years from and after the passage of this act, 

 any bison, buffalo, or quail or Chinese pheasants, or who shall shoot 

 or otherwise kill for the period of six years from and after the passage 

 of this act, any moose, elk, otter or beaver, within this State, shall be 

 deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and be fined not less than $200 and 

 not more than £500, or be imprisoned in the county jail not less than 

 two months nor more than six months, or both such fine and impris- 

 onment for each offense committed, in the discretion of the Court, 

 and the possession of the skin or meat of any of the above-mentioned 

 animals, or of offering for sale any unmounted heads or horns, of said 

 animals killed during said period, shall be prima facie evidence that 

 the persons having either in his possession killed the same in violation 

 of this section. 



The above is offered to the observation of all readers of 

 Forest and Stream. Mr. Haskell was perhaps ignorant 

 of the change in the law, and I confess that I was also 

 ignorant of it. There is only one way to keep posted on 

 all the different laws of the <liff erent States and Territories, 

 and that is to do as Mr. Tuttle says, look up the laws of 

 the section in which one is about to shoot. The Game 

 Laws in Brief should be in the hands of all shooters. I 



