Forest and Stream, 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
TERnis, $4 A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $2. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 1898. 
VOL. L. -No. 15. 
No. 840 I3ROADWAV, New Vobk. 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
ment, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 
The editors invite communications on the subjects to which its 
pages are devoted. Anonymous communications will not be re- 
garded. While it is intended to give wide latitude in discussion 
of current topics, the editors are not responsible for the views of 
correspondents. 
Subscriptions may begin at any time. Terms: For single 
copies, $4 per year, §2 for six months. FoT club rates and full 
particulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on piage iv, 
A SUGGESTION TO MAINE GUIDES. 
The Maine sj-^steni of licensed guides requires that 
before a person may engage in the business of guiding 
he shall register his name, age and residence with the 
Fish Commissioners, and procure from them a certifi- 
cate "setting forth in substance that he is deemed suit- 
able to act as a guide either for inland fishing or forest 
hunting, or both, as the case may be." The fee for regis- 
tration and the certificate is one dollar. 
No examination is required to determine whether the 
applicant possesses any of the qualifications which might 
be deemed essential to his fitness for the work of guid- 
ing. The veriest greenhorn, if he send in his applica- 
tion and the dollar with it, receives a license which on 
the face of it puts him on an equality with the most 
skilled and competent guide in the State. This is recog- 
nized as a serious defect in the operation of the law. It 
creates a number of ready-made guides who have no 
fitness for the work. ■ ■ 
When the sportsman comes to Maine for the first time, 
having had no acquaintance with the guides of the sec- 
tion visited, he assumes tliat every man wearing the 
official badge issued by the State authorities is a good 
guide, and thus the ignorant and incompetent stand on a 
level with one who is a real guide. The injustice in- 
volved here is not only to the sportsman who is de- 
ceived into employing an unfit man, but extends also 
to the capable guide who is in this way deprived of em- 
plo3'ment by his licensed competitor. Merit is obliged 
to contend against artificial conditions. 
Almost everywhere throughout Maine this criticism 
of the guide license sj'^stem is heard; and a general sen- 
timent prevails that the licensing of a'guide should mean 
something more than the mere fact that he has paid a 
dollar for a badge. The possession of the license certifi- 
cate should carry with it a guarantee that the person 
holding it is a good canoeman, a good woodsman, an 
experienced hunter or fisherman, a capable guide. 
The Maine guides hold in their own hands, however, 
the power to put in operation just such a system as that 
of the State would be if it were modified to insure the 
desired results. They may by association and combina- 
tion weed out the unfit individuals and practically con- 
fine the employment of guides bv sportsmen to such men 
" as are of known ability and character. The guides 
themselves can do this, and do it much more effectually 
than it could be accomplished by any machinery likely 
to be devised by the State. 
There are alread}- in Maine several associations of 
guides, as the one at Rangeley and another at Moose- 
head. Let these several associations prescribe as condi- 
tions of membership that an applicant shall possess such 
guide qualifications as may be agreed upon. Let each 
association determine that no member shall be received 
into its rolls who is not in every respect equipped to 
maintain the recognized standard of character and abil- 
ity which should belong to a Maine guide. Let each 
association appoint a special committee on membership, 
the committee to consist of three or five members, so that 
no one individual need bear the responsibility of reject- 
ing an applicant; and make sure that those on the com- 
mittee shall be experienced men, themselves among the 
best guides and those most fitted to determine the char- 
acter of a candidate. It would rarely happen that a per- 
son seeking admission to such an association would not 
be thoroughly well known to the members; they would 
be familiar with his record; their determination of his 
merits would be something more than the mere accept- 
ance of a dollar. 
When once such a system was in. working order the 
desired result would be attained. The mere fact that 
an individual had been admitted to rtlembership in a 
guides' association would carry with it the assurance that ' 
he was a good guide, of recOf nized ability, of deserving 
merit, and worthy of confidence, The badge of the 
association would have a meaning very different from 
that which now attaches to the State badge. 
The rest would quicldy and naturally follow. Mem- 
bership in the g:uide association would come to be rec- 
ognized by visiting sportsmen as ah essential qualifica- 
tion by any guide lie proposed to engage, Association 
members would be given precedence. The sportsman 
would look for the guide association badge. The State 
badge unaccampanied by that of the association would 
count for little or nothing. The very fact that a guide 
did not wear the association badge would be presump- 
tively against him. 
It might be feared that the system here outlined would 
under -certalti 'circumstances be developed into machin- 
ery of injustice, that individuals might be discriminated 
against unjustly; but any such tendency would, we be- 
lieve, correct iself. The success of the association would 
depend upon the honesty of its management in enroll- 
ing only good-men, and on the other hand it could not 
afford to have; any considerable number of good men 
outside of its membership.- The greatest usefulness to 
all concerned would be assured by making the asso.cia- 
tion truly representative of all the competent guiding 
ability of the country covered by it. 
We submit these suggestions to the persons interested 
for their consideration. Are the purposes sought to be 
attained desirable ones? And may they be secured in the 
way here outlined? 
We would be glad to have the subject considered by 
the guides of Maine. They constitute a class which 
is to-day larger and more important than ever before in 
the history of the State, and which will grow in conse- 
quence as the game interests develop. The Maine guides 
even now have game and fish protection very largely in 
their control; and they are exercising that control in an 
enlightened and intelligent manner; more enlightened 
and more intelligent to-day than ever before. Whatever 
adds to the esprit de corps of the men of the Maine 
woods will make for the advantage of her wilderness re- 
sources. 
SNAP SHO TS. 
It was recorded, in these columns last week that, act- 
, ing under orders from jjis political boss, and in oppo- 
sition to his own expressed convictions as to the merits 
of the case, President Clausen, of the New York Park 
Board, had demanded the resignation of Dr. Tarleton 
H. Bean, the Superintendent of the Battery Park Aquar- 
ium. Dr. Bean refused to resign; and under the law 
which forbids the removal without cause of a veteran of 
the war, he could not be put out of the office. The next 
step taken by the Department of Parks in their purpose 
to get rid of an efficient man was to abolish the office; 
and by a detail of Park police forcibly to take posses- 
sion. . Dr. Bean is quoted as saying: 
"Attorney-General Hancock wrote to Albert D. Shaw, Depart- 
ment Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic," he said, 
"that 'a veteran may not be removed by the abolition of his office 
unless the position is abolished in good faith and not for the 
purpose of removing the incumbent. The courts have decided that 
no sophistries or technicalities can be invoked to evade the law.' 
"Now I know," he continued, "that the office of Superintendent 
of the Aquarium is not to be abolished. Its name may be changed, 
but not the duties to any great extent. As a matter of fact, my 
successor has already been appointed, although he has not taken 
the oath of office yet; I knew even before Mr. Clausen wrote 
complaining of the Aquarium and asking my resignation that my 
place had been promised to Mr. Croker's friend Col. James K. 
Tones." 
This is from the nature of the case an outrageous as- 
sault upon public interests. Here is a great institution 
belonging to the people, involving in its maintenance 
an annual expenditure of $40,000, ministering to the 
entertainment and instruction of more than a million 
visitors a year, and requiring for successful conduct and 
highest usefulness that its management shall be the most 
competent attainable. AVhen the Aquarium was put into 
Dr. Bean's control those conditions were met How ad- 
mirably fitted he was to manage the institution his rec- 
ord has demonstrated. Under his control the collec- 
tions have grown to be the most extensive and most 
admirable in the world. The Aquarium was justly a 
subject of pride to all intelHgent persons who were cog- 
nizant of its development and successful management. 
That under these conditions the institution should be 
made pojitical spoil, is, an unspeakable public disgrace. 
A shot ffom a foreign warship landed in the ancient 
itnd histeric structure which is now the Aquarium would 
be less of a calamity and less of an outrage than the act 
of plunderers who have thus confiscated the Aquarium. 
The cannon shot would be among the fortunes of war, 
and in due time retaliation would be had; but for this 
plundering by public enemies in times of peace we shall 
wait long for redress or any serious thought of redress 
by any considerable portion of the community. The 
American people are so used to being robbed by poli- 
ticians that they accept each new outrage with com- 
placency, and submit to it as a matter of course. 
Is the hare, or cottontail rabbit, properly to be consid- 
' ered a game animal, and as such to have the benefit of 
protection? If we look through the record as given in 
the Game Laws in Brief, the answer is decidedly in the 
negative. Of all the States, only seven give the rabbit 
a^dasf season; and in three' others protection which 
formerly prevailed has this year been removed. Ohio 
has just legislated the rabbit out of the game law; New 
York has followed suit, save as to Long Island; and a 
bill now in the Governor's hands does as much for New 
Jersey. The drift of opinion then is toward rejecting 
the rabbit's claim to be accounted a game species. Molly 
Cottontail is an outlaw. 
Naturally there are dififerences of opinion. The 
youngster counts the rabbit game, whether it be the prize 
of his figure -4 trap, or fall before his gun; and the man 
who hunts hares with beagles will stoutly contend that 
his favorite should have recognition in the statute. On 
the other hand, the average bird shooter considers the 
hare a nuisance, and the gardener and fruit grower de- 
test the creature for its forays on vegetables and its 
girdling of fruit trees. One plausible argument for 
classing the rabbits as vermin is -found in the fact that 
when so regarded they make out to shift for themseh^es 
and to survive in the land with that tenacity which is 
so characteristic of all species ranked as vermin. Weeds, 
both vegetable and animal, persist and thrive and make 
head against the ineffective opposition of human devices. 
To-day the hare is as abundant as formerly in sections 
where no laws have intervened save those of nature for 
its protection. 
Dr. B. Harry "Warren has resigned his position as 
State Zoologist of Pennsylvania for this reason, as set 
forth in his letter of resignation to the Secretary of Ag- 
riculture: "As my attitude seems to be at variance with 
what Gov. Hastings desires, and as I believe he should 
be surrounded with officials who will be in full accord 
with his political views, I to-day sever my official con- 
nection with your department." 
It appears further that the State Zoologist's attitude 
at variance with the desires of the Governor 
has to do with the support of certain political county 
factions. What bearing the broils of contending local 
politicians have on the scientific investigations of birds' 
stomachs and the study of field mice and other vermin 
does not appear at first blush; but the two are in actual 
practice closely linked together. Politics rule in this 
case, as they do in the United States Fish Commission, 
in the New York Aquarium control, and in the appoint- 
ment of game wardens and fish protectors generally 
throughout the country. 
The project of imposing a license fee on non-resident 
sportsmen was considered by the New Jersey Legislature 
this year, but the bill failed to meet approval. The sys- 
tem proposed called for the payment of $2 for the privi- 
lege of shooting. The measure was put into shape by 
State Game Protector Charles A. Shrincr; but Mr. 
Shriner's personal convictions were, we understand, 
against the plan. It will be remembered that New Jer- 
sey fonnerly had a license system under which private 
citizens when leagued as gun clubs had authority to 
exact such a tax as they might see fit from non-residents. 
The system was an unwarrantable and vicious delegation 
of the lawmaking power to individuals, contrary to all 
constitutional principles; and in operation it developed 
sundry ingenious schemes of blackmail by which certain 
New Jersey rascals profited. 
The Boston exposition has already made its intiuence 
felt in determining the character of the New York show 
to be given next March. The managers tell us that 
while it is yet too early to go into details, the show in 
Madison Square Garden in 1899 will be strictly a sports- 
men's show, in which trade interests will be given a 
s<?condary position. , ^ 
