Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun, 
Terms, $4 a Yeae. 10 Cts. a Copt. 
Six Months, $2. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER SO. 1897. 
VOL. 2LIX.— No. 18. 
No. 346 Broad-way, New Yoke. 
Read&rs are imitecl to send us the tumes of f riends xoho 
m ight be interested in a current eo-py of the Foi'est and Si/ream. 
We shall he glad to forward a specimen mimher to any 
'person wlwse address may be furnished us for tlinf purpose. 
THE PENNSTLVANTA FISH COMMISSION. 
Fish protective associations and citizens are coming 
promptly to tlie aid of the Pennsylvania Fish Commission 
with money, now that the full significance of the Legis- 
lature's neglect to make the regular biennial appropria- 
I'on to enable it to carry on its work is plainly understood. 
J adoubtedly a strong factor in arousing and sustaining 
the interest in the movement to raise funds by private 
nbscription is the lively interest that Governor Hastings 
kes in the matter. It was he who urged the different 
sh protective associations to back the call of the Fish 
f jommission and the Pennsylvania Fish Protective Associ- 
ation for a convention, which was held at Harrisburg on 
t]iel5th of last month. It was he who headed the subscrip- 
on list with $500, He has since, by his own personal 
: -1 icitation, raised nearly $2,000, in addition to his own 
nd the State Attorney-General's subscription, and he is 
ill laboring. To date nearly $15,000 have been subscribed 
or pledged, enough to insure the continued existence of 
the Fish Commission, but not enough to enable it to carry 
on to the full capacity the work of the four large hatch- 
eries. 
The appropriation usually made the Pennsylvania Fish 
; jmmission by the Legislature is $45,000 for two years. 
ith this comparatively small sum, from 100,000,000 to 
ifiO,000,000 fish were hatched and distributed annually, 
'iir hatching stations maintained, and the warden 
J -rvice sustained. The magnitude of this work may be 
better appreciated by the statement that from the money • 
appropriated, a heavy rental must be paid for the Allen- 
town and Bristol hatching stations — these not being owned 
by the State— and that all the white-fish eggs, the pike- 
perch eggp, the shad eggs, the black, rock and calico bass, 
and the yellow perch for distribution have to be purchased. 
For the shad eggs alone 110 a million have to be paid, and 
the black bass average 5 cents each. 
"When it was found that the Legislature had overlooked 
the usual appropriation to the Commission, the latter at 
once in connection with the Pennsylvania Fish Protective 
Association, with the advice . of Governor Hastings, made 
a public statement of the situation, and the thousands of 
dollars which the State stood to lose by the destruction of 
the brood fish alone in the trout ponds, and announced 
the smallest sum with which the Erie, Corry, Allentown 
and Bristol hatcheries could be maintained in a reason- 
ible condition of eflSciency. This sum was fixed at from 
120,000 to $25,000. Of this sum fish protective associations 
lave pledged themselves to raise $11,000, and some $5,000 
lave besides been subscribed to date by individual 
jitizens. 
Through some misunderstanding, an impression has got 
ibroad that subscriptions of less than $500 are not desired. 
Ehe error of this cannot be too promptly corrected. Sub- 
icriptions of any amount are gratefully received. Every 
friend of fishculture and fish protection is earnestly begged 
}0 contribute according to his means, even though the sum 
36 but |1. It might be explained that the nest Legisla- 
ture is to be asked to reimburse those who contribute the 
noney now to the maintenance of the Fish Commission, 
md that the Governor, several State officials, and the 
nost influential members of the Legislature and promi- 
lent politicians in both factions of the majority party, are 
jledged to use their influence to have this deficiency bill 
passed. Under these circumstances, while no pledge can 
)e given that subscriptions will be returned by the State, 
;here seems to be little doubt that they will be. 
Large or small sums can be sent to Hon. Henry C. 
Demuth, treasurer of the Fish Commission, Lancaster, 
^a.; Alfred Hand, treasurer of the Pennsylvania Fish 
Protective Association, 204 Walnut place, Philadelphia; 
,he treasurer of the Norristown Fish and Game Associa- 
ion, Norristown, Pa.; the treasurer of the Kenovo Rod 
md Gun Club, Benovo, Pa.; the treasurer of the Delaware 
Dounty Fish and Game Association, Chester, Pa.; the 
reasurer of the Pottstown Fish and Game Association, 
?ott8town; the treasurer of the Lehigh County Fish and 
Same Association, Allentown, or in fact, the treasurer of 
my fish and game protective association in the State. 
These associations and the Commission have a regular 
form of receipt which insures the return of the money in 
jvent of the Legislature passing a deficiency bill. 
Persons who would like to subscribe should bear in 
mind that it is not necessary to give all they would wish 
at one payment. They may forward amounts from time 
to time in such amounts as they feel they can conveniently 
afford. It will be two years before the Legislature meets 
again, and expenses will be going on all the time. 
MAN8LA UOHTEB 
In its general application to the mishaps of life, such as 
the maiming and killing of people and the injury to prop- 
erty and the loss of it, if undesigned, there is no term more 
abused than is the term accident. Nor is there any other 
which has more constant demands for its use. So many 
misfortunes, which are beyond human foresight, daily 
befall people, that the term and its implication are a neces- 
sity in expressing the nature of such happenings; but 
there are many other evil happenings, having their origin 
in the acts of men who are inexcusably ignorant, crimin- 
ally careless, or recklessly disregardful of consequences to 
others, acts which are charitably cloaked with the excuse 
of accident. In any mishaps to the life, limb or property 
of the people, resulting from the careless acts of individ- 
uals, public opinion is prone to leniency of judgment in 
respect to the offenders, so long as no malicious or direct 
intent by them to perpetrate a wrong is apparent. 
Of the calamities, miscalled accidents, the misuse of 
firearms is responsible for a large part. There is no other 
mechanism so dangerous when improperly used and so 
readily within the reach of all, permitted to be freely in 
the possession and use of the unskilled, ignorant and in- 
competent. No man is permitted by law to have charge 
of an engine unless he is properly educated and qualified 
in its use, and so with many other mechanisms which 
endanger life when exercised by the untrained. Legal or 
other restraints in respect to them are imposed, those 
which protect the public from incompetency or unfitness. 
But any man, be he wise or foolish, careful or reckless, 
competent or incompetent, may take a gun the first time 
he chooses to do so and go forth to exercise his pleasure 
in his own way in the use of it. 
If he were dangerous to himself only, it would not be so 
serious, for then the calamity would fall on the cause of it; 
but the property and life of others are menaced by him, 
and others are generally the sufferers. 
Thus, in the hunting season, it is not an uncommon 
event that a man is shot in the woods, and the offender 
makes the excuse that he thought the man was a deer. 
This is commonly accepted by the public as a good plea 
by way of relief to the offender from all legal responsi- 
bility. 
No man can possibly mistake another man for a deer, 
for there are no two beings more dissimilar than they are. 
When a man is deer hunting in a country known to con- 
tain other hunters, to shoot at something moving in the 
woods, without knowing absolutely what the object is, is 
nothing short of criminal carelessness and recklessness. 
An accident is something which cannot be foreseen by 
careful, ordinary foresight, and is generally extraneous in 
its interference, but anything harmful happening which 
can be avoided or prevented by reasonable care or fore- 
sight is not an accident. 
The majority of the accidents with firearms are from 
criminal carelessness, recklessness or ignorance of their 
use. The death rate from such causes is becoming so great 
that it is a serious matter, and a check is necessary on the 
abuse of firearms which causes such deplorable "accidents." 
Public opinion should be more censorious, and legal re- 
straint should be imposed if necessary. 
Ignorance in the use of firearms is quite as offensive and 
inexcusable a plea as any other when misfortune is caused, 
for a man ignorant in their use has no justification to use 
them till he has the requisite knowledge. No man can 
plead ignorance as a just defense for killing, maiming or 
causing loss to others. 
The acts of the reckless, ignorant and careless cast 
odium on the skillful sportsman, and deter many others 
from engaging in a sport so laden with unnecessary dan- 
gers. It is brought further into just disrepute with the 
property owners where the game abounds and where the 
hunting takes place. When men are roaming about who 
cannot distinguish between a man, cow, horse or deer till 
they have fired and killed one or the other, it is the part 
of good sense, of landowner and hunter, to object to the 
presence of such men. It is the part of all to insist on 
their responsibility for their acts. 
It is high time that the accidents from the use of fire- 
arms by the careless, the ignorant and the malicious were 
called by their right names, and meted the punishments 
which are visited upon such harmful acts in other fields 
of society. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
It is a familiar complaint which comes to us from a cor- 
respondent in central New York, who sets forth that as 
practically operative ip his neighborhood the game laws 
serve to put a restraint upon good citizens while exercising 
no deterrent effect upon the "sooner." The result is that 
the law-abiding sportsman must sit helplessly by and see 
his chances of shooting when the season shall open ruined 
by his less conscientious fellow, who pots the game before 
the law is off. This, we repeat, is a familiar complaint; to 
state the case in one section is to picture a condition which 
prevails not only in central New York, but in most of the 
States of the Union. 
It is not without a remedy. In New York, for instance , 
there is a large force of game protectors, who are charged 
with the special duty of bringing to book the out-of-season 
shooters. It they are derelict and conspicuous by their 
absence from the field of lawlessness, it is the province of 
the individual citizen, or rather of a number of individuals 
united for the purpose, to prompt the protectors to do their 
duty, by communicating directly with the chief protector. 
If the information is given anonymously, it will most 
probably accomplish nothing. If made by one who has the 
personal interest and courage to state facts and make him- 
self responsible for the statements, the chief protector will 
be found eager and earnest in his effort to secure enforce- 
ment of the law. True, to make one's self an informer is 
not a pleasant duty; the average man rightly shrinks from 
it; he is not a detective, is reluctant to assume the 
responsibility of the affair, and loath to incur the 
enmity of those upon whom he could inform. But it is 
a condition which is practically inseparable from game 
protection that even the most vigilant and energetic 
and astute officials, and those who are most honest 
in intention and able in performance of their duty, must 
depend in a very considerable degree upon the co-opera- 
tion of private citizens to give the information upon which 
to act. The very nature of their work is ^uch— involving 
the policing of wide territories, and dealing with occur- 
rences which cannot come within their jpersonal purview 
—that they must have the co-operation of others. Under 
these circumstances it becomes the duty of every sports- 
man who may be cognizant of violations of the game laws 
to give information to the authorities; not in the way of 
vague complaints of the laxity of protection, but in specific 
reports of specific offenses, with name, place and date; and 
not in the form of anonymous letters, of which the protec- 
tors always and everywhere have a sufficient stock already 
on hand, but over the real signature of a real person. The 
sooner we all realize that by doing each one his pai-t a new 
order will prevail, the sooner shall we have the shooting 
preserved for the people, to be the common privilege of all 
lawfully and in season. 
In their campaign for a tariff provision to restrict im- 
portation of personal wearing apparel by passengers on 
the trans-Atlantic steamships, the tailors and dressmakers 
and clothing manufacturers presented an impressive array 
of statistics to prove the magnitude of such imports. Not 
less impressive and convincing would be the figures, if they 
could be obtained, showing the consumption of American 
game by the hundreds of thousands of passengers on these 
transportation lines. On all the ships of the first rank 
American game birds have place on the menus year in and 
year out, in season and out of season. The amounts of 
yenison, quail, partridge, woodcock, snipe and plover thus 
consumed in the course of a year is enormous. New York 
is, of course, the great storehouse of supply, with Boston 
and other centers furnishing their quotos; but in reality the 
game comes from many quarters East and West, whence 
the steady stream flows into the cold-storage warehouses 
as the rivers to the sea which yet is never full. The 
expedient by which this ocean trade in game may be dis-. 
couraged does not present itself. New York and Boston 
are, in all practical respects, wide-open igame depots; and 
nothing stands in the way to prevent an unlimited traffic. 
This consumption of game on trans- Atlantic steamships 
must have a place in making up the count against the 
market as the.most tremendous agency in the depletion of 
our covers; it accounts for the disposition of a considerable 
proportion of the stock. 
