Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Ore. A Copt. I 
Brx Months, $2. J 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2 2, 1896 
VOL. XLVL— No. 8. 
No. 318 Broadway, New York. 
For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page v. 
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Forest and Stream Water Colors 
We have prepared as premiums a series of four artistic 
and beautiful reproductions of original water colors, 
painted expressly for the Forest and Stream. The 
subjects are outdoor scenes: 
Jacksnipe Coming: In. "He's Got Them* (Quail Shooting"). 
Vigilant and Valkyrie. Bass Fishing - at Block Island. 
SEE REDUCED HALF-TONES IN OUR ADVT. COLUMNS. 
The plates are for frames 1 4 x 1 9 in. They are done in 
twelve colors, and are rich in effect. They are furnished 
to old or new subscribers on the following terms: 
Forest and Stream one year and the set of four pictures, $5. 
Forest and Stream 6 months and any two of the pictures, $3. 
Price of the pictures alone, $1.50 each j $G for the set. 
Remit by express money order or postal money orde* 
Make orders payable to 
FOREST AND STREAM PUB. CO., Ptaw York. 
»3eisjf%3fjtf3ifiE^^ 
RECREATION AND THE BUSINESS HABIT. 
Long occupation in business day after day, week after 
week, month after month, which passing away make the 
procession of the years, at last becomes a habit, inflexible 
and dominant. The habit of work cuts out its own chan- 
nel through life, and the slave of it, following the narrow 
course of habit, misses much of the beautiful, ignores the 
recreation of his physical and mental well-being, acquires 
false estimates of humanity and perceives but little of the 
embellishments and refinements of life. 
A man who has a business habit to the exclusion of all 
other habits sees largely but one side of human nature — 
the coldest side — the side which is incessantly commer- 
cial and striving for material gain. In the competition 
of business there is no place or time for diversion or 
the play of the finer sentiments. Buying and 
selling, working and paying, with the constant 
undercurrent of care which links the responsibilities of 
to-day with the possibilities of to-morrow, are serious 
occupations and exclude all else from the mind. It is 
proper that it should be so in actual business. The serious 
problems Of life deserve serious consideration and atten- 
tion. The mistake is in making life all serious without 
relaxation. It is not inherently all seriousness. It should 
not be all grim and hard and laborious. Nature has 
her serious exactions, but she is also profuse in the beau- 
tiful and pleasing. The earth is in beautiful dress, colored 
in a profusion of delicate tintings and shadings, blending 
exquisitely and never out of harmony. The flowers, beau- 
tiful in "^themselves, have pleasing odors. The birds, 
animating the stillness of the air, have sweet songs which 
please the ear — in short, in nature there is everything to 
afford wholesome pleasure to the senses and health to 
body and mind. There is that in the air, in the woods, 
in the waters, from which man can derive new life, new 
inspiration and a better understanding of nature and of 
his fellows. 
The habit of business excludes all these. It holds the 
devotee to the sordid of life. Everything is then rated 
according to its commercial value, or having none, it has 
no value at all. 
The slave of the business habit comes to think in time 
that he cannot leave his business without ruin superven- 
ing. No one, he thinks, can manage his business but 
himself. Obnoxious competitors must be watched. The 
business world would suffer by his absence or inattention. 
These and many other excuses he has. But the material 
lessons of life teach us every day that the world at large 
misses but little or not at all any one man, no matter how 
exalted. 
There are men who love the sports of land and water, 
and who were ardent in their practical sportsmanship till 
they convinced themselves that business cares excluded 
all recreation. As year after year passed business theory 
grew into business habit and they drifted further and 
further away from healthful recreation, the enjoyment 
of the beautiful in nature and faith in their fellow men. 
The gun and dog and rod and boats were left to wear out 
in inaction. 
There are homely yet healthy sentiments of the masses 
brought forth from the wisdom of long experience, yet so 
trite that they are self-evident truths. Of these none is 
more valuable than that "All work and no play makes 
Jack a dull boy." Jack at work is in a narrow channel; 
Jack at play is in the midst of nature and his best devel- 
opment. 
Break up the business habit. Take out the old gun 
from its case or the fishing rod from its forgotten corner. 
Put the one to your shoulder or cast a fly with the other, 
and you will be living pleasant parts of life over again. 
Take the old dog afield and see his youth return. Have 
the duck boat repaired; overhaul the decoys. Do not per- 
mit the tents to mildew. Swab out the rifle and look 
through the sights. See if the canoes need mending. If 
one can do these things without feeling a thrill of the old 
spirit returning, then the business habit is chronic and 
the patient is in a bad way. 
When the impulse is on, resolve to go forth again in 
the proper season into the fields and forests, or on the 
waters, and enjoy the sports so bounteously provided by 
generous nature. Resolve to go and go. 
The business habit enslaves men of wealth and men of 
talent more than any other class. The business habit 
gradually eliminates all else but business. It becomes a 
dominant master, cruel, merciless and exacting. It 
wears its victim out before his time. Old age comes at 
middle life, and youth is so short it is hardly recognized 
before it is gone. Break up the business habit when it is 
masterful and life is made both wider and longer, besides 
being more beautiful, more ennobling, and more worth 
living for one's self and for others. 
FREE SEEDS AND FREE FISH. 
We notice that the galleries of the United States Senate 
are being treated to perf ervid oratory on the great ques- 
tion of seeds or no seeds. As everyone knows, Secretary 
Morton, acting under the advice of the Attorney-General, 
has refused to send out the customary quota of seeds 
which Congressmen have been -accustomed to regard as 
one of their perquisites. When this seed business was 
started by President John Quincy Adams,'it was intended 
to be for the introduction into this country, for distri- 
bution and experiment, of valuable seeds not known here. 
From this original purpose the distribution has long since 
diverged and undoubtedly has involved a squandering of 
the public moneys for the private benefit of individuals. 
But now that the Senators are discussing the seed distri- 
bution by the Secretary of Agriculture, it might be well 
for them to investigate also the distribution of public fish 
to private waters by the United States Fish Commission 
in compliance with senatorial demands. The Washing- 
ton Times had a funny story, which we printed last week, 
of a Congressman who was importuned by one of his con- 
stituents for free fish, and who, apparently not having 
been let into the fish trick, did not understand the reason- 
ableness of his constituent's request; but sent him some 
fishhooks instead. This proved to be a serious mistake, 
for the gift to one was quickly followed by requests from 
others who thought that, as stalwart members of the 
party, they too deserved free fishhooks. There is no more 
reason under heaven why a Senator or a Congressman 
should give to a constituent a free lot of fish which have 
been raised at public expense than that he should distrib- 
ute fishhooks bought with funds appropriated from the 
United States Treasury. The expenditure of public money 
for such private purposes is dishonest in principle, and an 
imposition on the people. It ought to be stopped short 
off. 
eries, Game and Forest Commissioners, made up of a 
president with a salary of $5,000 a year and four others 
with salary of $1,000, the entire salaries and allowed ex- 
penses making an aggregate of $18,900, A bill has been 
introduced to readjust the salaries and the expense 
account thus: Five Commissioners, each $2,500, $12,500; 
for expenses, each $800 (limited), $4,000; one assistant 
secretary, $1,800; expenses secretary (limited), $200; total, 
$18,500. The proposed amendment drops the secretary, 
retaining the assistant secretary, and provides that one of 
the Commissioners shall be designated by the board as 
secretary without extra compensation, who shall devote 
his whole time to the duties of his office while so desig- 
nated. It also abolishes the office of assistant fisheultur- 
ist. The measure comes from the present Commissioners 
themselves; and they have filed with the Legislature a 
brief setting forth their reasons for recommending the 
change. 
The work of the consolidated Commission is now divided 
into five departments, and these are under the charge and 
control of committees who through their chairmen man- 
age the respective interests. The five committees have 
to do with Forest Preservation and State Lands; Hatch- 
eries, Fishculture and Game; Shell Fisheries and Licenses, 
Executive and Financial Affairs, Legislative Affairs. It 
is represented that there is a growing amount and detail 
of work in each of these several departments. The de- 
mands of the office are so constant and absorb- 
ing that all the five members of the board 
have actually and necessarily spent from eighteen to 
twenty days of every month in the performance of their 
duties. "All of the members," says the brief, "have 
been and must be working members, and no one will 
claim that one has done or must do more than another. 
In view of the foregoing facts, we think it both just and 
proper — especially as it can be done without extra expense 
to the State — that a readjustment of salaries be made 
which shall fairly and equitably recognize and compen- 
sate for services rendered by each and all of the Com- 
missioners, and at the same time add to the efficiency of 
the service." 
These claims appear to be reasonable. The readjust- 
ment would not increase but would decrease the total 
expense, and it would provide a fairer scale of recom- 
pense. The present scale of salaries, by which the presi- 
dent of the Commission receives $5,000 a year, has always 
savored of a job; it is to the credit of the present incum. 
bent of the office if he does his best to earn his salary, but 
it may be questioned whether he actually does or even 
could possibly earn five times as much as any other 
member. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
The so-called National Game, Bird and Fish Protective 
Association held its annual "convention" in Chicago last 
week. A report of the affair is given in another column. 
There were ten persons present; whether all of them were 
members does not appear. There was as usual some 
wrangling over petty affairs, while nothing whatever was 
done of national scope; and as usual the two or three en- 
thusiasts who have banded themselves together as a 
"national" body improved the occasion to scold at every- 
body else who would not take hold and boost their enter- 
prise. The reason for their being left so severely alone^ 
they ascribe to game protective apathy. That is humbug.. 
The true reason is that no sane man has any confidence 
in their mode of effort, in their wrangling and inconse- 
quent "proceedings," in their Alaska duck-egg fakes, hi 
their pretensions, powers, practicabilities or possibilities. 
The scheme is not one that appeals to common sense; 
there is nothing in it to deserve the serious attention of 
men who really want to protect game and fish. 
Under the present law New York has a Board of Fish- 
And now comes a man from Michigan who asks us to 
tell him whether it is truly sportsmanlike to go moose 
hunting when one employs a guide to lead him to tbe 
fateful spot and to call up the game to its doom. There 
is more than one way of ^looking at it. If the moose 
hunter sets out alone, selects his own calling station, 
lures his own moose, shoots it and brings it out, he per- 
forms a feat which is more skillful than it would be 
merely to shoot when the guide nudges "now." And if 
one secures his game by still-hunting without having re- 
course to the deceptive call, so much the higher must we 
reckon his grade in the degrees of woodcraft. 
But to know the moose country, to acquire the art of 
calling, to go into the wilderness alone and unattended, 
and to gain the trophy of the hunt unaided, all these re- 
quire long practice, and practice means time. The art 
of hunting is not to be picked up in a day. The masters 
of the craft are not those whose life work lies in other 
fields, and whose hunting days are few, brief and f ar be- 
tween. For most of us moose hunting is only one of the 
incidentals of life, not a steady business. If, when the 
long looked for opportunity does offer, we must do it all 
by ourselves, without the assistance of those who make 
hunting their occupation, most of us would necessarily 
despair of ever seeing a wild moose, and by no possibility 
save that of pure chance could we ever get within rifle 
shot of it. If we win our moose at all we must have pro- 
fessional help, andif to employ help is, as some claim, to put 
us outside of the ranks of sportsmanship, we shall be 
obliged to make choice of the empty credit of being a 
true sportsman, or on the other hand of the more sub- 
stantial and on the whole more satisfactory gratification 
of having a moose head to show our friends and tell tall 
yarns about. 
