Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Terms, 84 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy. I 
Six Months, ?2. f 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1896 
j VOL. XLVL— No. 6. 
( No. 318 Broadway, New tfoRK. 
For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page v. 
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. 
THEN AND NOW. 
"The good old days," a phrase so often uttered with 
tenderness and regret, appeals to nearly every hearer who 
has arrived on the middle ground of life, where work is 
earnest and pleasure-seeking is only for times often far 
between. The good old days, associated with the hopes 
and pleasures of youth and mellowed in memory by the 
passage of time, seem better than all other days. 
Then, as pictured in memory, everything was rose- 
colored. Friends were truer, hospitality was greater and 
more genuine, human nature was better, and the game 
birds, animals and fishes were more abundant. The sun 
shone brighter, the birds had sweeter songs and the 
flowers were more beautiful. There were no irate land- 
owners who rudely ordered the wandering shooter off 
their grounds, nor were there fears of the more methodi- 
cal ones who posted up notices tersely proclaiming that 
all hunting was forbidden on their premises, and that 
trespass would be followed by prosecution to the extent 
of the law. 
The shooter with gun and dog simply sauntei-ed forth 
at pleasure. Sport then seemed to have a zest which is 
absent from the changed conditions of later years. The 
times seemed more pleasurable and life was more worth 
the living. And yet no legend is more deceiving than 
that of "the good old times." 
In youth or early manhood everything is comparatively 
new and novel. Life is accepted for all it appears to be 
on its face, and the future seems to be a perspective of 
pleasure, success and happiness. In youth everything 
seems to reflect one's own faith in the beautiful, the good 
and the useful. The cares, labors and responsibilities 
which accumulate as the years pass by, and the hard les- 
sons which life teaches to all, are unknown. "When they 
do coma, greater knowledge comes with them, and the 
individual is prone to think that the world is changing 
when the change is in himself. 
Sportsmanship is no exception in the estimate in respect 
to things of the good old days. Regrets for the pleasures 
and better ways in the sportsmanship of times gone by 
are not uncommon. 
And yet what we are pleased to call the old ways and 
old methods are not old when measured by the lapse of 
time. The muzzleloader with its percussion cap is now 
considered obsolete. The flint-lock gun is now a relic 
whose associations and uses seem to be far back in the 
vague and ancient past. Yet it is but a few years since 
the muzzleloader was in common use, and elderly sports- 
men are still living who have shot many days afield with 
the flint-lock gun. Changes have followed changes 
in such rapid succession that the transformation process 
has left a great distinction between the so-called old and 
the new. The practice of sportsmanship has been 
revolutionized. The improvement in sporting implements 
and their uses has takenplace so gradually and so naturally 
that they have been accepted as a matter of course. The 
innumerable intermediary stages between the practical 
sportsmanship of to-day and that which obtained twenty- 
five years ago have been stages of incessant improvement. 
The lapse of time between the old and the new has been 
within the lives of men who are yet active hunters. The 
old methods were once their methods. The old ideas 
were then the best. They were in the good old days. In 
reverting to those days, who would really care to be 
thrust back a quarter of a century in the world's progress? 
In those days the hunter was forced to rely on his own 
ingenuity, skill and industry from the time he resolved on 
a hunting trip till its realization. Did he need gun wad- 
ding, he must use his judgment in selecting it from such 
refuse material as had incidentally such texture as would 
serve his purpose, hence the common use then of old 
newspapers, hornets' nests, etc. Old cardboard boxes and 
old shoes were approved by the more painstaking hunter, 
who with mallet and wad cutter laboriously punched out 
one by one his supply of wadding. He was venerated as 
a man of exact science, for did not his tight-fitting wads 
drive the air through the nipples with a sharp hissing, 
and was not his loading done so quickly as to appear 
marvelous? 
The hunter then carried his powder in bulk, some- 
times loose in his pocket, or in the original brown paper 
package as it came from the store, or in a bottle or tin 
spice box; and it was much the same with the shot. The 
perfect equipment was a metal powder flask with fan- 
tastic hunting scenes stamped in relief on the sides and a 
leathern shot pouch, both of which were carried slung 
over the shoulder. In loading, all was left to individual 
judgment. The powder was poured into the palm of the 
hand till the shooter's eye was satisfied. The same 
measure served for the shot. 
Did the hunter use a rifle, he cast his own bullets, cut 
his own patches, and had his own personal theories as to 
the best loads and the best twist to make the bullet "hold 
up." For success, it was necessary that he should know 
the habits and haunts of the game; in short, he must 
have a knowledge of woodcraft. He had to rely on his 
own efforts. Gossip with his neighbors and local com- 
parison of methods were his sources of improvement. 
How changed is the new order of things. The hunter 
of to-day, in an age where specialties have made rapid 
action and enhanced the value of time, determines to take 
an outing or "go on a hunt." He consults Forest and 
Stream for the whereabouts of the best game country and 
finds information covering the ground from ocean to 
ocean. He consults the Game Laws in Brief and finds the 
laws of all the States. He takes a parlor car and rides 
swiftly to the very middle of his game country. He em- 
ploys a guide who furnishes all the lore of the woods. He 
takes a rifle or shotgun using fixed ammunition. To reload 
he has but to push a lever. In short, he is brought directly 
to the game with no cumbersome detail to delay him, and 
to enjoy his sport he has but to aim and pull the trigger. 
As between the bang of the gun in the old times and the 
bang of the gun in the new, there is a difference. 
them death as certain as the bullet of the poacher could 
bring. If such a capture could be made the Smithsonian 
Institution would have a lot of heads and hides, but the 
buffalo would be extinct indeed. 
However, the rough, broken and wooded character of the 
country where the buffalo inhabit makes it quite certain 
that no attempt at wholesale capture can be made. 
Probably none will be attempted, but if it be attempted it 
is foredoomed to failure. A few animals may be captured 
in Captain Anderson's buffalo trap, and in course of time 
may be so gentled that it may be possible to ship them, 
but even this cannot be done without great risk. 
The Yellowstone Park buffalo should be protected and 
allowed to increase. It will not be time to try fool ex- 
periments with them until after they have become more 
numerous than they are at present. 
THE NATIONAL PARK BUFFALO. 
The testimony taken in the case against Courtenay, the 
buffalo killer tried last December in the Yellowstone 
Park, shows very clearly how weak the case against him 
was. "While it may very probably be that Courtenay 
killed these buffalo in the Park, it is yet within the bounds 
of possibility that they may have been killed in Idaho, 
and the Government evidence contained nothing which 
directly connected Courtenay with the Park, The testi- 
mony for the defense was direct, and though some of it 
appears to have been flat perjury, yet the burden of the 
evidence could not be disregarded. 
The arrest and trial of the man Courtenay can hardly 
fail to have a good effect on the Idaho poachers, who 
from it have learned that Capt, Anderson is well 
acquainted with their methods. He has had detectives 
living right among them for a long time, and their re- 
ports have taught him noc only what men he must look 
out for, but how and when they perform their wicked 
work. 
It must not be forgotten that it is the great State of 
Idaho that is responsible for this most recent slaughter 
among this diminished herd of buffalo. A few years 
since the Idaho statutes protected the buffalo, but a new 
law — passed, we believe, in 1893 — repealed the protective 
clause and left any one who wished to do so free to kill 
these animals in Idaho. There are not a few well- 
informed people who assert that this repeal was passed at 
the request and for the benefit of the Henry's Lake poach- 
ers, who were sharp enough to see that the repeal would 
give them free license to prey on the Park herd. For at 
that time there was no Federal law protecting the Pai k 
and its game. It is hoped that before the last buffalo 
shall have been killed the State of Idaho — though so 
late — will pass a law protecting these animals. 
At a meeting of the Board of Regents of the Smith- 
sonian Institution held recently in Washington, it was 
proposed to capture the Yellowstone Park buffalo en bloc, 
and to transfer them to the National Zoological Park at 
Washington. Here is a proposition for the lawful ex- 
tinction of the wild buffalo in the United States which is 
most extraordinary, and could have been made only by 
people who are ill-informed respecting the animal in ques- 
tion and of the regions which this herd inhabits. We be- 
lieve it to be true that no adult buffalo captured and 
closely confined has ever lived more than a few hours. 
At all events we have personal knowledge of many cases 
in which buffalo have been caught and tied up for trans- 
portation, but most of the individuals died within an 
hour and all within a day. The capture and close con- 
finement of the adult buffalo of this herd would mean to 
SNAP SHOTS. 
The non-resident license system for visiting sportsmen 
came up for consideration in the recent meeting of the 
Maine State Sportsmen's^Association. The plan of such a 
tax was suggested as a remedy for out-of -season game 
killing in the woods. Violators of the law, it was alleged, 
were principally sportsmen from other States; and to put 
an end to their killing game in September a tax of $10 
was advocated for the license to take moose in season, and 
$5 for deer. The convention did not indorse the proposi- 
tion; and even if it had done so, we question if the Maine 
Legislature would have followed the recommendation. 
Just how the purchased privilege of hunting in the open 
season was to prevent illicit slaughter in the close season 
was not explained. It is something which we have never 
yet seen clearly explained by those who recommend the 
non-resident tax system. Neither has it been demon- 
strated in actual practice where non-resident restrictions 
have prevailed. So far as our observation goes the de- 
mand for non-resident tax licenses comes from quarters 
where the game has been cleaned out by residents and non- 
residents working together in season and out, killing for 
sport and killing for the market; and the proposed re- 
course to a non-resident law is to provide something new 
in the way of legislation, where there is already quite suf- 
ficient legal restriction if it were half-way enforced. 
Our estimate of these non-resident discriminations as 
being un-American in spirit has been expressed fre- 
quently and freely. Such considerations aside, would it 
be good business for Maine to impose a penalty upon her 
visiting sportsmen? There is no other State in the Union 
whose fish and game interests constitute such an impor- 
tant natural resource. Sportsmen visitors leave in the 
State hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. The 
revenue is increasing annually with the growing hosts of 
tourists. No one questions that if the game supply shall 
be maintained the revenue will continue. As a business 
proposition, then, the policy to be adopted by Maine 
would appear to be this: Encourage the coming of sports- 
men and keep up the supply of game to bring them into 
the State. That is the system to bring money into Maine 
pockets. It is a system which is perfectly practicable 
with the laws already on the statute books. 
Our correspondent H. W. DeL. alleges that sportsmen 
are actuated by selfishness in their 1 discussion of the vari- 
ous phases of game legislation and game protection. 
What if they are? Personal interest is an impelling 
motive in most walks of life, where it is recognized as 
perfectly natural and altogether commendable. Why 
should it not obtain in the activities of sportsman- 
ship and game protection? The fact that one is a 
sportsman does not eradicate his human nature. 
More than this, self-interest or selfishness is the impel- 
ling motive to the active agency of which we must look 
for the accomplishment of whatever is attained in these 
fields as in all others. If it had not been for the alert- 
ness of the multitude of sportsmen, each individual 
prompted by his personal self-interest, and so all together 
working for the common good, we should have been in a 
much worse condition as to game supply than we are. 
We are informed by a sportsman who resides in the 
deer district of Long Island that there are constant viola- 
tions of the law protecting deer. Since the death of Mr. 
Benjamin some weeks ago, there has been no one to take 
proper interest in the law's enforcement, 
