Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Terms, $i a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy, i 
Six Months, $2. ( 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 1898, 
VOL, L.-No. 16. 
No. 84C Broadway, New York^ 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
ment, instruction and infoimation 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. For club rates and full 
particulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iv, 
Migfratory birds in spring: showld be protected 
in every State, no matter where they are flyingf 
to, for they are the children of our common 
country, and are gfladdeningf every part of it in 
their migrations. No rule is so good as the rule 
that no gun is to be fired at birds or animals in 
spring or summer. Every reason of health to the 
eater, of abundance of supply of the article eaten, 
of justice to the animal when breeding or prepar- 
ing to breed, plead for the fullest and most com- 
prehensive and uniform laws in these matters. 
/ Charles Hallock, J 874. 
PRACTICAL ANGLING PAPERS. 
The series of chapters on fishing by Fred Mather 
are designed for the practical instruction of beginners. 
Their scope will include trout and bass, perch and pick- 
erel and other fishes in the angler's list. 
We have in hand for publication, to begin next week, 
a series of papers on Dry Fly-Fishing, by Mr. Geo. A. D. 
Dewar, author of the "Book of the Dry Fly." This is 
the acme of the art of fly-fishing, as practiced in Great 
Britain and beginning to attract attention in this coun- 
try. We anticipate for dry 'fly-fishing a vogue in cer- 
tain parts of America with followers not less devoted 
and enthusiastic than those of the English stream 
where the art had its rise. 
MAINE GUIDE INTERESTS. 
In another column is printed a communication from 
Commissioner L. T. Carleton, of Maine, commenting 
upon the suggestions contained in our remarks of last 
week respecting the guide law and guide interests. 
Mr. Carleton appears to have read into what was 
written a spirit which no unprejudiced construction could 
fairly find there of opposition to the guide law. We had 
not the remotest purpose of seeking to bring the statute 
system into disrepute, nor need it be said that we were , not 
writing in defense or encouragement of lawless guides 
or lawless sportsmen. The purport of the article briefly 
summed up was this: That among the guides licensed 
by the Commissioners last year were numerous incom- 
petents; that the possession of the official certificate or 
badge was therefore no evidence of the possession of 
proper equipment for the occupation of guiding; that by 
thus artificially putting incapable guides on a level before 
the world with those who were skilled an injustice was 
done to the experts of the craft; that as the operation 
of the law had failed to correct such an abuse, the guides 
themselves by voluntary association and discrimination 
could separate the real woodsmen from the pretenders, 
and protect their own interests. The plan proposed was 
in fact wholly in line with the guides law system, and 
suppleinentary of it, to accomplish one of the ostensible 
purposes which the law itself may have contemplated, 
but certainly has not secured. 
'Commissioner Carleton appears fully to recognize the 
existence of such conditions as we named, and he ac- 
knowledges them in his letter when he explains in miti- 
gation of them that the territory was large, the Com- 
missioners were unacquainted with many of the appli- 
cants for licenses, and that in many instances the Com- 
mission was imposed upon and granted licenses to those 
who should not have had them. He expresses a convtc- 
tioii that the system provided by the law contains within 
itself a practicable means of more stringently discrimi- 
nating between fit and unfit applicants for license; ar;d 
that by a more rigid examination the licenses may be 
confined to those whose skill and acquirements merit 
them. This is, in short, to say that the Commission 
are in the future to do precisely what we said should 
be done. If the ends can be accomplished by the opera- 
tion of the law the voluntary associations would not 
be needed; but it is probable that the work, if under- 
taken by voluntary associations, would be accomplished 
much more speedily and thoroughly than could be hoped 
for under the guide license law alone. 
The strongest criticism on the guide system, based 
upon this lack of discrimination of merit in granting 
applications for licenses, is found among those guides 
who are most zealous for game protection. In contend- 
ing for a higher standard of merit among the licensed 
guides of Maine we were speaking for the class of Maine 
guides who represent not only the highest skill in wood- 
craft, but the most advanced game protective sentiment 
of the State. The guides as a class are progressive 
in their appreciation of the merits of strict compliance 
with the game laws. They respect the statutes them- 
selves, and they are learning to compel a corresponding 
respect for the law on the part of the sportsmen they 
take into the woods. The average intelligent guide un- 
derstands on which side his bread is buttered, to use 
the homely phrase; and he is a game law observer out 
of principle. Great as are his opportunities individually, 
they would be larger and more generous were the guides 
of the several sections united in voluntary associations, 
the purpose of which should be co-operation for the 
enforcement of the law and for elevating and maintain- 
ing "the recognized standard of character and ability 
which should belong to a Maine guide." The Game 
and Fish Commissioners would advance the game and 
fish interests if they would promote and encourage jiist 
such voluntary guide associations as we suggested last 
week. 
READY, AIM, FIRE. 
The vast difference between firearm conditions in the 
60s and to-day is hinted in the loading commands then 
and now. This was the order in war times: "Handle 
cartridge, tear cartridge, charge cartridge, draw ram- 
mer, ram cartridge, return rammer, prime, ready, aim, 
fire." To-day the command is: "Load, ready, aim, fire." 
It is just the difference between the perfected cartridge 
as in use now and the primitive paper cartridge, to 
"tear" which meant to bite off the end of it. We live 
in an age of such improvements and perfections of all 
the appliances of industry, social life and sports, and 
are so given to accepting improvements and simplifica- 
tions as matters of course, that we hardly realize what 
an admirable triumph of art the modern rifle or the 
shotgun is. In lightness and strength, simplicity and 
ease of manipulation, safety and effectiveness, it is a me- 
chanical produce worthy of the age which has simplified 
the locomotive and the sewing machine. Mr. Fred 
Mather's advice, that the angler should equip himself 
with a good rod, in which he may have lasting satisfac- 
tion and pride, applies with equal force to the choice 
of a gun. A handsome, symmetrical, high-grade shot- 
gun is an object which grows in the appreeiation of its 
possessor as the years pass and the successive seasons 
invest it with associations of days in the field. 
BRUTE AND HUMAN. 
A WELL-KNOWN New York woman was recently in- 
jured in a hunting excursion in the vicinity of Aiken, 
S. C. As related in the newspapers, the accident oc- 
curred in this wise: The huntswoman was on this oc- 
casion riding a horse which was considerably taller than 
the one to which she had been accustomed in previous 
hunts; the chase led across a covered bridge, through 
which on the smaller horse she had ridden without bend- 
ing her head; and now, forgetting that she was on the 
larger horse, she rode erect, struck the bridge and frac- 
tured her skull. At this writing the result is still in 
doubt. The chase, it is related, was in pursuit of a 
tame deer which had been let out, like the carted 
stags used for the Queen's Buckhounds, to be followed by 
horse and hound. 
Commenting upon the accident and the circumstances 
attending it, the Boston humane journal, "Our Dumb 
Animals," gives if as its deliberate opinion that the un- 
fortunate woman "got no more than she deserved" for 
having participated in such a pursuit. This is interesting 
as an expression of that witch-burning ferocity which 
never hesitates ta fitvthe punishment to its own measure 
of the enormity of the crime. It is another example of 
the smug complacence which contemplates with satisfac- 
tion the direst human calamities as special providences 
upon the unrighteotts. Opinions may differ as to the 
merits of chasing a freed tame deer; but iii its darkest 
aspects the action cannot be painted so black as is the 
brutal utterance in a public print, that a woman lying 
at death's door "got no. tnore than she deserved." That 
is fanaticism hardly to be looked for in America to- 
day, and in Boston at that. Its most charitable excuse 
may be found, perhaps, in the fact that people who are 
constantly brooding over the inhitmanity of mankind to 
the lower animals come in time to a cranky condition 
of mind which is equivalent to mental irresponsibility. 
Unmitigated by suclj an explanation, this comment- by 
President Angell, of the Humane Society, takes rank 
with the most bigoted and brutal treatment of woman 
to be found in the history of American journalism. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
The Wcekes bill to repeal Section 249 of the New 
York game law was signed by Governor Black bn April 
6. This makes good the legislative triumph of those 
who have been contending for game interests. Under 
the new order we may confidently look for more effi- 
chanical product worthy of the age which has simplified 
a game protector; there is no other point on the conti- 
nent so important as this vast market center; and it 
should be amply and adequately policed. We have fre- 
quently pointed out that the system of game traffic per- 
mitted by the law which ha? just been repealed in- 
volved injustice and wrong to many other States. It is 
no less true that in enforcing the law under the new con- 
ditions New York will insure not only its own benefit, but 
that of all other States concerned. The good effects of 
this year's work at Albany will be felt throughout the 
West. In the operation of the market laws regulating 
game we have an illustration of the interdependence of 
the States. If you strike one you strike all; all for one, 
and one for all. Of the many forces which were work- 
ing for the repeal of Section 249, that of the New York 
League should not be overlooked. President Gavitt and 
his associates on the Law Committee were untiring in 
their eft'orts, and to them is due credit for influencing 
many members of the Legislature. 
To slur and ridicule the possessor of information and 
ability as being "scientific" is the common re- 
course of ignorance and fraud. The newly installed Su- 
perintendent of the New York Aquarium, appointed to 
his place by a transparent and dishonest trick, gave his 
own measure in a talk to the reporters the other day 
in which he derided his predecessor as having been 
unduly "scientific." The fact is that an aspirant for 
the place now held by Col. Jones was formerly subject 
to a civil service examination, by which he must dem- 
onstrate his equipment of practical information about 
aquarium management fitting him to manage the insti- 
tution. Dr. Bean was possessed of such qualifications. 
Under the new law no such test of fitness is required; 
and we have the spectacle of an important public pos- 
session, which requires for its successful administration 
peculiar qualifications, turned over to a spoils ap- 
pointee who declares that the former superintendent was 
"too darned scientific," and sounds the depths of vul- 
garity in his characterization of certain of the Aquarium 
employees. The situation is not calculated to inspire 
civic pi-ide in the breasts of the people of Greater New 
York. 
The Massachusetts law of 1897 against wearing bird 
feathers as articles of dress was pronounced inoperative 
because held to apply only to birds killed in the Com- 
manwealth. A new measure has been prepared this year 
which is so broad in application as to cover all bird 
feathers, whatever the source of supply. This, if it shall 
become a law, will give the feather dealers an oppor- 
tunity to test their contention that the statute would 
be thrown out by the courts as sumptuary and unconsti- 
tutional. The New York bill for a similar purpose did 
not become a law. 
Writing of a Connecticut country doctor, a- corre- 
spondent relates that it was his custom to take his fish- 
ing rod with him, or in the autumn dog and gun, .on the 
way to mak& professional calls; and many a patient was 
made happy by the gift of grouse or trout, A Uttle thing, 
but in it is the key to a life? 
