268 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
[April 2, iSgg. 
latter sent peremptory orders from Washington to kill 
the bill. 
Almost before Babcock knew it the bill was ordered 
back to the committee, and the chairman, Senator Hig- 
bie remarked smilingly that he guessed the bill 
wouldn't be reported out again before the 4th of July. 
But it was. Babcock took off his coat and sailed in, with 
the result that he got a majority of one in the committee 
and had the bill reported out yesterday over the head 
of the chairman. 
This was the signal for the renewal of the battle. 
Hackett was sent to Albany to take charge of the fight 
in person, and the Senators were bombarded by tele- 
graphic orders and long-distance telephone messages. 
George W. Aldridge took off his coat and came up- 
stairs to help out his Rochester friend. Together they 
canvassed the Senate and fought the opposition to a 
standstill. Men who laughed yesterday at the way that 
Babcock's bill had been so unexpectedly killed were this 
morning out in their fighting clothes to help the Com- 
missioner. ' ' _ _ * 
Noses were counted, and it was found this morning 
that the bill was safe, and that the political-legal lobby 
was beaten. Not until late in the afternoon, however, 
did Hackett own up and turn tail. He consulted long 
over the 'phone, and finally there came the reluctant 
orders to quit, that further opposition seemed useless and 
might be dangerous. The bill will, therefore, go through 
the Senate in the morning as stated, and Babcock will 
take it to the Governor to-morrow with flying colors. 
It was a gallant fight, and Babcock is the recipient 
to-night of all sorts of congratulations. The old-timers 
are still holding their breaths at the temerity of the 
thing. ' . 
Sportsman's Pfotective Association of "WestemJ 
Massachusetts* 
Springfield, Mass., March 28. — There was an enthii- 
siastic meeting of the sportsmen of Springfield and vi- 
cinity this evening at the Board of Trade rooms in this 
city, for the purpose of forming a game protective as- 
■sociation, to include all that this implies. It was voted 
that the association be known as the Sportsmen's Game 
Protective Association of Western Massachusetts. Per- 
manent organization was effected by the election of 
officers as follows: President, Mr. W. W. Colburn, 
Springfield; Vice-President, Mr. Aaron Bagg, Jr., West 
Springfield; Secretary, Mr. C. S. Robeson, Springfield; 
Executive Committee, Mr. W. W. Colburn, Mr. Robert 
O. Morris. Dr. J. T. Herrick, Mr. Wm. M. Williams, 
and Mr. H. C. Puffer. The secretary was instructed to 
call an early meeting for the purpose of laying out the 
work and perfecting plans for a vigorous campaign 
' iagainst violators of the game laws in the western portion 
of this State. Shadow. 
The Wyoming: Elk. 
Elk p. O., Wye, March Editor Forest and Stream: 
Perhaps it may interest the readers of Forest and 
Stream that have their eye on this game section to learn 
that up to the present time we have had a very mild 
.winter and light snowfall. The elk are sleek and fat, 
and some have not yet gone south to their usual winter 
range. We saw three moose at close quarters a couple 
of days ago, and they were in fine condition. This,_ I 
take it, means a small loss in calves and old bulls for 
the coming spring, and if I am right in believing that 
when game winters well and keeps in good condition, 
the antlers will be large and more developed the next fall. 
The past winter was a severe one, and it was hard to 
find a bull elk with large, well-developed antlers. Am 
I right in thinking the severe weather and conditions 
of -elk regulate the growth of their antlers? Should 
like to hear from other observers on this question. 
Burton Harris. 
Pitmsh the Manslaughter 
Sheboygan, Wis.— Editor Forest and Stream: In 
Forest and Stream, Feb. S, Awahsoose is shooting 
pretty close, but has not quite cut the center. What 
we need is to have our State Legislatures pass laws, 
with a State's prison offense of ©ot less than from three 
to five years, for the shooting of a man in the woods 
by mistaking him for a deer or any other ammal. A few 
convictions under such a law, duly heralded by the 
papers, would do much toward lessening such criminal 
carelessness, and make it safer for a man to go into 
the woods for deer. With the penitentiary staring a 
man in the face by reason of law drawn explicitly to 
cover such cases he will be mighty careful to make sure 
it is not a man before pulling trigger. C. 
- :^ The Cross Bow. 
New York, March 24.— Referring to your editorial 
of March 16 in regard to "bow-guns," can you inform 
me where I can obtain a serviceable bow-gun!; it not, 
can you furnish me with directions for making oner' 
Perhaps some one of your readers can supply this. 1 
•have been a reader of your paper for five years, and tor 
your remarks on the bow-guns versus modern rifles 
please accept my hearty thanks. G. H. 
fThere are we believe, specimens of such arms in 
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which might serve 
for models or suggestions for nineteenth century sport- 
ing weapons.] 
V New York Sportsmen's of J 899. 
'" •Hew York M arch 22— Editor Forest and Stream: We 
beg to advise you that at a meeting of the National 
Sportsmen's Association it was decided that the next 
Sportsmen's Show shall be held at the Madison Square 
Garden March 2 to March 11, both inclusive, 1899, and 
it shall 'be our endeavor to make this a strictly sports- 
men's show, eliminating anything that does not belong 
in this line. J. A. H. Dressel, Secy-lreas. 
T7ie Forest and Stream is put to press each week on 
Tuesday. Correspondence intended for publication 
should, reach us at the latest hy M.onday, and as mueJ 
garliQr as praoticable. 
Trouting^ in^ the Black Forest. 
BY FRED MATHER. 
The river Alb is a grand stream for trout, but a mis- 
erable old poacher was there using nets, set lines and 
perhaps poisons, for all we knew, to supply the hotel 
and other markets. He fished openly, and Capt. Mal- 
colm, of Pier Britannic Majesty's Navy, Retired, regained 
his long disused native tongue when .he saw hfs methods, 
and vented his opinions thereon, both to the man, the 
landlord and to me. When he warmed up to the sub- 
ject and got fairly hot under his collar his choler rose 
and fairly stood on end. The German language con- 
tains no good, strong swear words, for when a German 
is mad away down into his solar plexus the very utmost 
that he can say is "Donnerwetter," which literally trans- 
lated means "thunder weather." Th-e occasion demanded 
stronger language, and the British sailor brought it 
forth from his locker, where it^had remained quiescent 
for years, and interspersed his German with it so vigor- 
ously that all understood it. My genial, gentle friend 
proved to be a perfect arsenal of wrath, and that old 
poacher did not show up while we were there. 
And "this reminds me." On my return trip I fell in 
with an officer of the German Coast Survey, who had no 
trace of foreign accent when he spoke English. Said 
he: "There is one thing I admire the English language 
for, and that is for its vigorous cursing. There is not 
a language on the face of the earth in which a man can 
give such vent to his feelings when he is angry in earn- 
est as in English." 
"This is new to me," I replied, "but I know no other 
tongue than English, although I've studied German and 
Spanish, but I can readily understand that books would 
not educate a man in the line of which you speak." 
"French is the language of diplomacy," said my com- 
panion; "German is the language of science, but English 
is the tongue for business and for .cursing. Why, in 
your language you can wither a man's eyeballs, trace 
his lineage to all sorts of things and consign him and 
his progeny to everlasting perdition. All that is im- 
possible in any other spoken language, and I love the 
English because it enables me to let off steam when I 
am boiling over." 
Then 1 knew why an old British "sea dog" inter- 
spersed his German denunciations of a poacher with some 
English terms for which there seems to be no German 
equivalent. What he may have said in German I do 
not know, but his English expletives I think I under- 
stood. The old poacher was probably warned by the 
landlord not to be seen while we were there or he might 
find his occupation gone, for the Captain threatened 
legal proceedings. -■ 
"If the landlord were wise," remarked the Captain, 
as we enjoyed the cool evening air, "he would banish 
that poacher and protect the river for angling tourists 
from America or England, who would gladly pay for 
the fishing; but he gets trout at a low price from the old 
fellow and falsely imagines that the trade is profitable. 
There is no use to complain to the Burgermeister of 
St. Blasien, for he knows all about it, and may be a 
partner of the old man. You note how particularly our 
catch is measured if one nears the 7in. limit; the officials 
are particular about that, and would fine an angler who 
took a trout a trifle under that measurement. It makes 
me so mad that a cigar doesn't taste good." Some 
months afterward Capt. Malcolm wrote me that he had 
learned 'that the law allowed net fishing under certain 
conditions of ownership which prevailed then at St. 
Blasien. The legal size for trout was 15 centimeters 
from the eye to beginning of the tail fin, or S?4hL 
From the Biirgermeister we obtained a ticket for half 
a mark — about 12 cents — which permitted us to fish, as- 
we thought from its wording; but we had to arrange with 
a fisherman, who demanded ten marks for the privilege 
of fishing in his water. Here the honest indignation of 
the Briton again broke loose and he showed his permit 
from the Biirgermeister, but in vain — that permit was 
a general one, etc., and under protest the fee was paid. 
"I've not been here in ten years," said the Captain, "and 
these are new swindles, invented since my last visit; they 
are petty ones, but as detestable as if they were greater, 
and I believe in kicking with both feet on all swindles, 
great or small." 
The bridge over the Alb at the hotel divided the fish- 
ing into what was called the upper and lower water, and 
a special per-mit was demanded for each. We chose the 
upper because the Captain was famihar with it and be- 
lieved it to be the best because the low'er portion was 
weedy and in parts inaccessible. There had been some 
good rains and we were fortunate in getting there 
before the river had got low. 
The fisherman who controlled the upper water was not 
the old poacher, who for some occult reason did as he 
pleased in snaring and netting trout when out of range of 
the heavily charged, rapid fire vocal guns of Capt. Geo. 
John Malcolm, of Her Britannic Majesty's Navy, Re- 
tired. I have heard vivid descriptions from eye and 
ear witnesses of the bellowing of the mortars when 
Farragut's fleet passed Forts Jackson and St. Philip, 
and steamed up to New Oreleans; of how fishes with 
bursted air bladders were afterward washed ashore, and 
men's ear drums were bursted, and I've heard the in- 
dignant wrath of Capt. Malcolm descend in an amal- 
gamated mass of German and English that would have 
paralyzed a stenographer or wrecked a type-writing 
machine, and his every word would be fully understood 
by any listener who might know only one of the tongues 
he used. 
I came to know him thoroughly in two days after we 
reached St. Blasien. He had thrown off the mask, 
which all men of the world wear, and which is worn by 
knaves as well, and stood out in the strong, 
rugged character that he was. He was far past 
the age when men kick up a row for the 
pleasure there may be in a row^, and was a 
quiet gentleman, who was content to live peacefully, 
but this trip brought out traits in his character that 
would never have appeared if I had dwelt with him a 
year in the quiet of his own home, where he seemed 
to have passed into the fifth of Shakespeare's seven 
ages. I would never have considered Capt. Malcolm 
as a man to command a fighting ship, for he was so 
suave, so quiet and attentive to matters of form, but when 
I saw him roused to fury by what he considered an im^ : 
position— that was another side to his character, afld* 
every man has just such sides. You never know a man 
thoroughly unless you have seen him under circum- 
stances where his character is developed in time of 
danger, and then you may be surprised by some quiet 
fellow who develops qualities which you never mistrusted 
him of possessing. After I heard him bestow the butt 
end of a navy blessing on the old poacher, the fish- 
erman, the Biirgermeister and the landlord, I could then 
imagine him on the quarter deck of a ship of the line 
and fighting her to her limit. 
The old fisherman who leased the upper water to us 
was a character that I would like to sketch at length J 
if my knowledge of his language would permit. He 
was tall and rawboned, and wore a sort of military cap 
with a high front, sloping back, and a straight visor, of 
that peculiar green color only seen in caps of Swiss or 
German make, while the rest of his costume was a 
woolen shirt, well patched trousers and heavy shoes . 
slashed to let the water out as he waded. His rod 
was of ash, and at least 20ft. long, some 6ft. of line tied 
to the end of it, 4ft. of twisted gut and a fly big enough 
for a_ salmon. I looked the fly over carefully, but it 
was like nothing on earth, nor in the waters beneath, 
and therefore might have been worshipped, and yet 
we did not fall down. I was dependent on my friend 
for tackle, and had a 12ft. greenheart rod, while his was 
of the same wood and 15ft. long. He gave me my choice, 
and as I had never handled a rod as long as his shortest 
I chose the latter. In those days, and to-day, some trout 
fishers in England prefer such long rods under the im- 
pression that they will cast a fly further, but shorter rods 
are coming into faA'or. 
I started in with a red-ibis as a leader, and a yellow 
fly as a dropper, a combination fairly good to begin 
Avith on strange waters, and soon hooked and creeled a 
fair trout. 
If "basketed" and "boated" are good words to ex- 
press the receptacles in which trout repose after being 
caught why is not "creeled" better than "landed" when 
the fish never strikes land, nor gets nearer to it thati 
to be scooped into what is called a "landing net?" The 
latter name is more euphonious than would be "creeling 
net" or "boating net;" I dislike "basketed" or "brought 
to basket," because I dislike to hear a creel called a 
fish basket, just as I dislike to hear a fine rod called a 
"pole." 
The Captain was on the other side of the river, and 
was fighting a fish now and then, but the fisherman 
was close behind me watching my every motion. He 
was evidently surprised that I could cast further than he 
when his rod was fully 8ft. longer than mine. He had 
evidently chosen my side because I had the short rod, 
and that any man could cast better or take more trout 
than he was a new proposition to him. When he got 
a rise he jerked, and if the trout swung out over his head 
he had him, but the trout did not always meet his expec- 
tations, because of his jaw was torn out before his body 
felt the impetus, only the jaw responded to the yank, 
and even that portion of the trout's anatomy did not 
always reach the fisherman. 
The River Alb is a difficult one to fish where we fished 
it. In places one can wade and have a fair field; in 
others he meets submerged bushes, if the river at St. 
Blasien is full enough to be fished, and these necessitate 
a long detour, and so one skips much of the stream in 
wading, and there were no boats to be had. 
A bunch of willows brought me to a halt, and while 
reeling up for flanking them the fisherman ran in on 
me, and I saw his rig; he had a worm as big as a lead 
pencil and a shot on his fly hook, and then I got red 
hot and pulled a knife and cut off his "fly" and called 
to Capt. Malcolm to come over. The river was too 
deep to w^ade, and he had to go about half a mile down, 
where we met him at the bridge. The man was expostu- 
lating and gesticulating in a way that seemed to threaten 
my present and future existence, but as I did not under- 
stand a word of it the danger did not seem imminent, 
and I ask j^ou to believe that I survived. 
Capt. Malcolm looked over the arrangement — the 
combination of fly, shot and worm — and from his extra 
vigorous remarks a bystander would infer that he held 
decided opinions on such an aggregation. The man de- 
manded his "fly" and the Captain tossed it into the river 
and then looked the man squarely in the eye without 
verbal answer, but an}' nerson at all familiar with the 
varied expressions of the human face could read in his 
eye: "There's your fly in the river, and now what do you 
proriose to do about it?" The man was angry also, 
and returned the defiant gaze for an instant, thought 
better of it and moved off without another word. 
After watching the retreating figure until the willows 
hid it, my friend turned to me and said: ."It was stipu- 
lated that we should restrict our fishing to the fly, a 
thing that we were only prepared to use; and only 
wished to use, and we understood that no other kind of 
fishing was allowed here, and yet the man who sold us 
permits to fish uses what he calls a fly. When I saw 
his rig I was sure that he was not a fly-fisher; didn't it 
look so to you?" 
"I knew that if he was an expert fly-fisher 1 had much 
to learn, for I never saw one of the craft tie a 6ft. line 
to the end of a 20ft. pole and cast a fly for trout, but yon 
must remember that I am a stranger in a strange land, 
fishing for a strange trout, and ,1 keep my eyes open, 
observe methods and think. I see things in a foreign 
land that may seem queer, but hope that I am too much 
of a man of the world to express surprise or ridicule. If 
while trouting on an American stream such an outfit 
bobbed up in the hands of a rustic I might remark on 
it, but not in this place, as your guest." 
"That's all very well, but I mistrusted the fellow, and 
intended to catch him with bait and sinker, but you 
caught him first. I wonder now how you dared to cut 
his line; he is a big, powerful fellow." 
"Captain," said I, "he is big and powerful and could 
probably handle us both if it came to a physical contest, 
but I did not stop to consider that, I was mad, and 
when in that condition I weigh a ton; but vou rose to 
