A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Terms, $4 A Year. 10 Ore. a Copt. 
Six Months, $2. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 1896 
VOL. XLVL— No. 14 
No. 318 Broadway, New "Sorb. 
For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page v. 
The Forest and Stream will shortly re- 
move to new offices in the New York Life 
Building, No. 346 Broadway, entrance on 
Leonard Street. 
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. 
| Forest and StreamWater Colors | 
|p We have prepared as premiums a series of four artistic || 
M and beautiful reproductions of original water colors, ^ 
|| painted expressly for the Forest and Stream. The || 
^ subjects are outdoor scenes: * 
Jacksnipe Coming; In. 
Vigilant and Valkyrie. 
•He's Got Them" (Quail Shooting). % 
Bass Fishing at Block Island. 
known as "stretchers" — and hung the surviving combat- 
ant to a telegraph pole, a bridge trestle or a box car. 
The cow puncher of 1896 is different. He is just as 
faithful to his employer, rides just as hard and as long, 
and faces wind and weather, hunger and fatigue, with the 
same steadfast endurance, but he is less picturesque. He 
wears smaller spurs; his hat band, instead of being a strip 
of fur, a snake skin, or of silver, is a plain leather strap. 
His saddle is less highly ornamented. He does not wear 
such expensive shaps. Besides, he no longer regards 
himself as the most important being in the country. He 
remembers that others besides himself have rights and 
privileges which must be respected. He no longer takes 
towns, and the "stretchers" no longer suspend him in 
return. 
M The plates are for frames 14X 19 in. They are done in 
H twelve colors, and are rich in effect. They are furnished 
t£ to ola or new subscribers on the following terms: 
^ Forest and Stream one year and the set of four pictures, $5. 
H Forest and Stream 6 months and any two of the pictures, $3. ^ 
Price of the pictures alone, $1.50 each ; $5 for the set. 
M Remit by express money order or postal money order. M 
H Make orders payable to || 
J FOREST AND STREAM PUB. CO., New York, j 
THE COWBOY. 
A man who has punched cows himself becomes after a 
while a little tired of hearing and reading that all cow 
punchers are drunken villains, and feels like saying 
something in defense of this class of outdoor livers. They 
themselves are not much given to writing, for their hands 
are more accustomed to the rope and the latigo than to 
the pen; but even if they were practiced writers, it may 
be doubted if they would take up arms for the class to 
which they belong. 
To the plains of civilized days the cow puncher is just 
what the Indian and the old-time hunter were to the 
prairies of buffalo times. They hunted the brown wild 
cattle that dotted these rolling uplands; he follows their 
domestic successors. They spent their lives on horseback 
and were always moving from place to place; he too is 
most at home in the saddle and is a true nomad. They 
had their own country, beyond which they seldom trav- 
eled except on certain special occasions; he also has his 
own range. Like them, and for the same reason — because 
his life is spent in the open air and in close communion 
with nature — he is in many ways simple and childlike 
and true. Like them, and for the same reason — because 
his life is spent away from the confining influences of 
civilization — he often lacks self-control and easily falls 
into temptation. 
No life is harder than that of the cowboy, and men of 
no class do their work more faithfully than these. For 
poor pay they ride long and hard, conscientiously looking 
after the interests of their employers, and facing un- 
flinchingly the bitterest weather and the sternest hard- 
ships. Often in the saddle from daylight till dark, and in 
addition',to this standing night herd, they are hard worked 
beyond most men, and as a rule their service is not along 
one. Many are crippled by accident or exposure, but 
even if this does not happen, the work is too hard for 
men of mature years, and most cowboys are either boys 
indeed or very young men. 
By his lack of self-control and the liberty he allowed 
himself the cow puncher of old times gained for himself 
a bad name which still clings to the calling. He was a 
sort of land sailor, who got drunk whenever he came to 
town, just as his prototype of the sea got drunk when he 
reached port. When drunk he was hard to manage — a 
tough customer. The cow puncher of to-day is a mild- 
mannered man, well-intentioned and a good citizen. He 
is as full of strange oaths and odd turns of speech as his 
predecessor of twenty years ago, is quite as good-natured 
and as hospitable, but he is less selfish and more regardful 
of others. Civilization has had its effect on him. 
Yet, just as to-day you will sometimes in riding the 
range see an old broad-horned steer of the true old-fash- 
ioned Texas type, so sometimes you may come upon a 
cowboy of the old type — one who, being by nature a 
ruffian, models his conduct after that of the cowboys that 
he has read of, and strives to live up to the standard 
which he has set for himself. Happily such examples are 
seldom seen now, and the cow puncher of our day is a 
pleasant, light-hearted fellow, with whom anyone might 
be glad to camp. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
It is a decided pleasure to record that Utah has come 
to the front with a law forbidding entirely the export of 
game. As we have repeatedly pointed out, the United 
States Supreme Court decision in the Connecticut case is 
an indication of the nature of effective game protective 
legislation for which we should work in every State. 
Whatever question there may have been in the past re- 
specting the complete jurisdiction of Utah over its own 
game, this was fully settled for all time when the Su- 
preme Court handed down its determination of the Geer 
case. We trust that we may record similar action else- 
where until the game of the continent shall be confined 
within its own State limits. 
The cow puncher of to-day differs in many ways from 
his brother of twenty years ago and this difference is the 
natural sequence of the spread of the settlements west- 
ward and of the restraining influences of an increased 
population. When the old-time cowboy came into town 
with a drive he was likely to promptly fill himself with 
whisky and then to seek diversion by taking the town 
and holding it until he fell asleep or was himself taken 
by a deputy sheriff. This law officer the cowboy looked 
on as his natural enemy, and if the two types came to 
blows — or shots — a funeral often followed. If occasion 
arose for such a gathering it was sometimes preceded by 
another assemblage when the friends of the dead man 
constituted themselves a vigilance committee— locally 
A non-export bill was not approved by the New Jersey 
Legislature. One law enacted, however, which was in 
itself of sufficient merit to counterbalance many failures 
of legislation in other respects, was the one to abolish the 
charter of the West Jersey Game Protective Society. 
This peculiar institution has been described by us more 
than once. It was a private corporation to which the 
State delegated authority to make public laws binding 
upon non-residents shooting or fishing in the lower coun- 
ties. Such delegation of legislative power was an extra- 
ordinary instance of how not to do it, and we have fre- 
quently stated our belief that if tested in the higher 
courts the statute would be thrown out as unconstitutional. 
The purpose of the society was ostensibly to protect the 
game of New Jersey against the inroads of shooters from 
abroad, but as a matter of fact the membership of 640 
was composed almost entirely of residents of other States. 
Thus we had the spectacle of the game and fish of New 
Jersey controlled not only by private individuals, but by 
individuals who were not even citizens of the State. 
The New Jersey Legislature also passed the Stokes bill 
providing for the appointment of county game commis- 
sioners and the imposition of a license upon non-resident 
shooters. At the time of going to press this bill is in the 
Governor's hands; we can hardly believe that it will be 
permitted to become a law. 
The appointment of Col. Henry H. Lyman to be the 
Excise Commissioner of New York removes from the 
Fisheries Commission one of its most active and efficient 
members. Col. Lyman has made a good record on the 
Commission and has contributed much to its efficiency, 
The most important subject of consideration at the 
meeting of the Pennsylvania Fish Protective Association 
in Philadelphia last week was the scheme of organizing a 
federation of fish protective clubs throughout the State., 
The Pennsylvania Association itself has been widely in- 
fluential in the past, and to its watchfulness and activity 
the citizens of the State to-day owe a debt of gratitude 
for the conservation of their fish supply; but at the best 
an individual association must fail of exerting influence 
against all the contending and conflicting agencies which 
conspire at Harrisburg to defeat right legislation and to 
further the private and selfish interests of those who are 
intent upon getting all the fish they can now without re- 
gard to the future or to those who are co come after. 
There is abundant material in Pennsylvania, if combined 
and directed with the momentum of a single body, to 
have weight with the Legislature and to mould public 
opinion. Secretary M. G. Sellers, of the Association, has 
long been interested in the federation project, and he 
tells us that the plan will now be taken up in earnest and 
pushed to a successful conclusion. 
Bear Chief and his party left .New York on Tuesday 
night of last week, and by this time they are home again 
on the Blackf oot Reservation in Montana. The coming 
to New York was an eventful excursion, and if we could 
write down Bear Chief's impressions of what he saw from 
the time he left the reservation until his return, what a 
volume it would make. It is needless to say that every 
moment of the time in New York was improved in seeing 
the strange and wonderful sights of this "place of many 
houses." It will be an abiding satisfaction that our rep- 
resentative Native American Hunter was a man of such 
worth and bore himself with such never-failing dignity 
and good breeding throughout the trying ordeal of his 
visit to this city. 
The Forest and Stream will very shortly remove to 
new and handsome offices in the New York Life Building, 
No. 346 Broadway, corner of Leonard street. This is two 
blocks north of the present location. The offices will be 
on the eighth floor, reached by the elevator at the Leonard 
street entrance. 
We invite the careful attention of our readers in Mis- 
souri to the paper in another column describing the con- 
dition of fishing in their waters to-day. The state of 
affairs may be summed up in the one word, ruin. The 
contributing agencies are such that no one class of fisher- 
men, professional or amateur, may point the finger of 
blame at the other. All alike, whether they fish for 
market or for the sake of fishing, have done and are 
doing their share to ruin the supply once so plentiful. 
The dynamiter and the fingerling netter for market 
contest in the indecent scrimmage with the braggart 
who fishes for count, and between the two desolation en- 
sues. What Missouri stands in need of is education in 
fishery economies; it would require only a comprehension 
of the very simplest rudiments of the subject to make 
sure an end of the market fishing and the score fishing. 
If the present rate of destruction shall hold good much 
longer there will be left no fish supply worth worrying 
about. 
Note also that Utah forbids for three years the sale of 
trout. Thus the youngest State in the Union is giving 
points to the older commonwealths. 
A tragedy was enacted in the National Zoological Park 
in Washington last Saturday, when the veteran of the 
buffalo bulls herded there provoked a younger rival to 
conflict and was done to death, not ignominiously, but 
after a battle-royal well worthy the survivors of a noble 
race. Rosa Bonheur has just painted a picture of the 
famous duel between the great Godolphin Arabian and 
Hobgoblin in 1734; and it is pronounced to be her master- 
piece. Where is the American artist to paint for us as it de- 
serves to be depicted this memorable duel between the last 
of the American buffalo? Rosa Bonheur's picture com- 
memorates the victory of a progenitor who was to gain 
growing renown from his progeny for a century to come, 
but the American artist's brush would preserve an inci- 
dent in the extinction of a race; and if the French- 
woman's canvas glows with color, his well might be 
somber and filled with gloom, 
