and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, QCTOBER 22, 1898. |, 
erms, $4 a Ye >r. 10 Cts. a Copy. ) 
Six Months, $'2. ) 
VOL. LI. -No. 17. 
So. 846 'iRoADttrtY, Sett Vckjc 
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 bt re- 
garded. While it is intended to give wide, latitude in discussion 
of current topics, the editors arc 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. 
tbe forest ana Stream Platform PlanK. 
"The sale of game should be forbidden at all seasons." 
-Forest and Stream, Feb. 3, 1894. 
And what sport doth yeeld a more pleasing 
content, and lesse hurt and charge than angling 
with a hooke, and crossing the sweet aire from 
lie to He, over the silent streames of a calme Sea; 
wherein the most curious may finde proft, pleasure 
and content. Captain John Smith, 
IN OCTOBER. 
The days of the year dear to the sportsman's heart are 
these' — October days, full of soft, hazy light, mellow sun- 
shine and change in the great transformation time of 
nature, when the earth has completed its labors for a 
season and lies by in rest. There are days which are 
gratefully warm, others which are bracingly cool, as the 
struggle between the sun god and the frost king for 
the time being favors the one or the other. The full 
sway of the latter is presaged,, for his few magic touches 
have already wrought wonders on the garbs of field and 
forest, making them resplendent in bright colorings of 
browns, yellows, scarlets, purples, dull greens, with an 
infinity of tintings and shadings, all in the most exqui- 
site harmony whether in mass or in detail, pleasing to 
the beholder beyond the power of words. 
To the sportsman, these days bring the realization of 
many expectant weeks. He has in mind a lovely nook 
where the alder or other favoring cover grows, wherein 
the ground is damp and slightly wet in part and shaded. 
Therein are a few woodcock to be taken — birds of 
beauty and mystery, any one of which to the thorough 
devotee is worth more than precious jewels or fine gold. 
No small skill is his who can bring this bird of dark- 
ness to bag, a trophy of sure eye and quick and cunning 
hand, and a morsel to delight the palate of the epicure 
of epicures. 
Or the fancy of the sportsman may take him into 
wooded swamps, or into the densest thickets of hill and 
vale, valley and mountain, where the fallen timber and 
rugged ledges are spread in never ending profusion, in 
the home of the prince of birds, the ruffed grouse. In 
haunts secluded from man, this being of supernatural 
cunning and swiftness of wing can defy man and dog 
and gun, if all do not work together as one machine 
which is controlled and guided by a master mind. The 
dog must be alert and careful, yet without hesitation or 
over-forwardness, if he would cope with the beautiful 
and bold bird of the forest; while the man must be 
equally alert, silent and self-possessed, qualities attained 
by but few, to say nothing of the matter of skill. 
Or mayhap the choice of the sportsman is the 
beautiful bird of the fields and woods, which brings 
so much of good shooting to all the lovers of the dog 
and gun. He is the bird of all the sportsmen, is 
this pretty, gamy quail; with his beautiful colors and 
swift flight. The gunner of moderate* expertness has 
more or less pursuit of him, for many times he will 
deign to make his play against the sportsman in the 
open. The sportsman of the highest skill will in him 
find a worthy object, for at other times he seeks the 
cover, and when filled with the strength, beauty and 
daring of the autumn he is a good second to the prince 
of birds. 
The ducks, in burnished garb, strong and big and 
swift, have begun their southward home-coming, and in 
due time, according to place and season, they bring joy 
to him whose sport is best taken in a boat, or over 
decovs, or on the pass where only the highest skill can 
cope with the swiftness of the birds. 
There is beauty everywhere in nature. For the wheel- 
men in the leaf-besprinkled roads through richly-colored 
fields and forests. For the knight of the camera, every- 
thing is dressed and composed for his special edification 
and use. For all people who love nature there are 
beauties of wood and field spread in lavish profusion 
everywhere. 
THE NEW ORDER IN MARYLAND. 
It is a decided satisfaction to have warrant for the 
record that the Maryland State Game and Fish Protec- 
tive Association is steadily making progress toward the 
attainment of its purposes. President Geo. Dobbin 
Penniman reports that the operation of the game war- 
den system provided by the last Legislature is proving 
extremely successful. During the first year after the ap- 
pointment of the game warden and his deputies a great 
many arrests were made, because the people could 
hardly appreciate the fact that the game laws in Mary- 
land were at last to be taken seriously and rigorously 
enforced. This year there have been comparatively few 
arrests, and very few complaints of Violations of the 
law. The violations which have occurred have been 
more through ignorance of the sweeping provisions of 
the general game law, passed by the Legislature in 1898, 
than from the desire as a rule to violate the law. 
Governor Lowndes has been extremely active in sup- 
porting the Association, and his assistance has counted 
for much. With an efficient game warden, Mr. Robert 
H. Gilbert, and with the aid of over 200 deputy game 
wardens, scattered throughout the State, Maryland. has 
been changed from a State where the game laws were 
honored rather in the breach than in the observance to 
one of -the best protected States in the Union. 
One serious defect in the Maryland game- protective 
system is found in the local jealousy which has prevailed 
for years in the Legislature, which gives a different 
game law for nearly every county. The general game 
law includes at present only a few counties, but it is 
drawn on a broad basis, and from the increasing senti- 
ment through the State toward a uniform season there 
is no doubt that at the next session of the Legislature 
the Association can bring in a great majority of the 
counties which are at this time under their local laws. 
THE DEATH PENALTY AND ROBINS. 
Near Paterson, N. J., last Saturday, an Italian en- 
gaged in robin shooting in violation of the law was 
apprehended by a game warden, .who commanded him 
to surrender his gun. Instead of doing this, as the 
warden relates, the gunner made a quick move and 
covered the warden with his gun, and the warden 
thereupon drew a revolver and killed him. The affair 
has provoked just the newspaper comment that was to 
be expected. Shooting robins, it is said, is at worst a 
trivial offense; to inflict the death penalty for viola- 
tion of the game laws is a dreadful thing. It is dreadful 
indeed, or would be if ever done. But by no process of 
reasoning can the act of this New - Jersey warden be 
described as an infliction of the death penalty for robin 
shooting. The warden shot the man in self-defense, 
either actual or mistakenly so supposed. If his own 
personal peril was real, his act was justifiable; if he was 
mistaken as to the Italian's intent — and it may be said 
as to this that even the calmest and coolest of us all 
might draw a wrong conclusion when looking into the 
muzzle of a shotgun in hostile hands — the impelling mo- 
tive of the deed was none the less that of self-defense. 
The relative importance or unimportance of the game 
laws has nothing whatever to do with the case. 
In fact, the nature of the original offense itself was 
not involved and has no place in determining the justifi- 
able or unjustifiable character of the warden's course. 
Precisely the same principles would govern had the of- 
fense been horse-stealing in the country, or the block- 
ing of city traffic with a peanut stand. The circum- 
stance which led to the killing was the menacing re- 
sistance to arrest, the pointing of the gun, which action 
the threatened officer affirms he understood to mean for 
himself that he must shoot or be shot. The simple and , 
only fact to be decided is as to the reasonableness of the 
plea of self-defense; and it must be judged here just as it 
would be had there been no robin shooting whatever, or 
had the warden been a private citizen and not an officer. 
But the game warden was an agent of the law, en- 
gaged in performing his duty. When he apprehended a 
gunner violating the law it was his business to arrest 
him. Had the. lawbreaker submitted to arrest, he would 
have been taken before a justice and ttpou conviction 
would have been fined $20 and costs, or in default of 
payment would have been jailed for a stated time. This 
IS the New Jersey penalty for robin shooting. It is the 
only punishment provided by the law or imposed by 
the courts. The death penalty has never been inflicted 
in New Jersey for the offense of robin shooting. It is 
not likely ever to be. But in New Jersey, under the 
existing regime, it is recognized that the game laws are 
intended to be enforced; they will be enforced; and 
human nature is such that wardens engaged in arresting 
law violators will, when confronted by the muzzles of 
shotguns, be very prone to shoot in self-defense. When 
this may happen their course is not to be prejudged by 
newspaper talk of the dreadful ness of the death penalty 
for shooting robins. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
Commissioner Wentworth, of New Hampshire, wrote 
in these columns last week that it was the intention of 
Mr. Austin Corbin to organize a club of sportsmen, to 
whom would be extended the hunting privileges of the 
Blue Mountain Forest. Mr. Corbin tells us that such a 
club has already been formed. The plan has grown 
naturally out of the conditions which prevail. The 
owners have had very little time since the death of the 
late Mr. Corbin to enjoy the resources of the forest, and 
as the game is increasing uniformly and with great 
rapidity, it has become absolutely necessary to take some 
steps to keep down their numbers, and this is now to be 
done by enlarging the number of persons entitled to the 
privilege of hunting or fishing. The project contemplates 
a five-year membership, with the privilege of shooting 
at least one deer and two wapiti a year, and such other 
game as may be decided by the governors, who will 
consist of an equal number of the proprietors and the 
new members. There will probably be no limit to the 
shooting of small game, and the privileges as to large 
game will depend upon its supply and condition. The 
initiation fee and annual dues are to be devoted to the 
maintenance of the preserve, the increase of small game, 
and possibly the erection of a substantial addition to the 
central station, where are located kennels, stables, etc., 
and which will be the site of the club house. ' In addition 
to this place, the various camps throughout the forest 
will be available for the use of members — the main pur- 
pose, we are told, being to offer to congenial friends 
simple but comfortable quarters, and as much liberty in 
the forest as is consistent with its future development. 
Virginia too has the disadvantage of local county 
jealousies in the game law; as a correspondent writing 
from that State well puts it, in some counties a man 
would have to carry a memorandum in his hat to remem- 
ber when he could and when he could not "shoot certain 
game." Our correspondent endeavored last winter to 
introduce the non-shipping provision; and realizing 
that it would be impossible to secure the passage of 
such a measure for the entire Commonwealth, drew a 
law for his own county only, had it printed, got a 
petition seven and a half feet long signed by influential 
citizens, asking for its enactment, and took it to Rich- 
mond himself. "But I could not get it introduced," he 
writes, "because our member of the Legislature thought 
it might be a bad political move; in other words, that it 
might offend a certain class of voters who shot and sold 
game." This is not the last of such effort, we may be 
sure. The time is coming in Virginia, as it has come 
already in many other States, when members of the 
Legislature will be governed by the interests of the pub- 
lic, and not by a "certain class of voters who sell 
game." 
The Vermont Commissioners, in a paragraph quoted 
in another column, give their opinion that the game in- 
terests of - that Stater require the abolition of market 
shooting. The recommendation is based upon a recog- 
nition of the fact that the traffic in game is the agency 
which is promoting destruction out of all proportion 
to the public interest. This is only another way of 
saying that with unrestricted sale of game the common 
advantage of the citizens of the State at large is sacri- 
ficed to that of a class. To prohibit the sale of game 
is to promote the greatest good of the greatest number. 
We hope to see the Forest and Stream Plank in- 
corporated in the Vermont game law in the current ses- 
sion of the Legislature. 
