Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
brms, $4 a Yeah. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $2. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1898. 
j VOL. LI.— No. 19. 
| No. 846 JiROADWAY, New Ymi 
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 hi. 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. 
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Cbe forest mta Stream Platform PlanK. 
"The sale of game should be forbidden at all seasons." 
— Forest and Stream, Feb. 3, 1894. 
AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY. 
The Forest and Stream's announcement of prizes 
for amateur photography will be found in our issue of 
last week and that of next week. 
But because I speafce so much of fishing, if any 
take mee for such a devote fisher, as I dreame of 
nought else, they mistake mee. I know a ring: of 
golde from a graine of barley, as well as a gold- 
smith: and nothing is there to bee had which fish- 
ing doth hinder, but furder us to obtaine. 
Captain John Smith, i 6t 5. 
THE GOLDEN RULE. 
The notes of personal relation of experience con- 
tributed to our shooting columns by Mr. Means con- 
stitute an effective half-column homily on the beauty and 
rewards of the Golden Rule. We all know from infancy 
that it is the right thing to do unto others as we would 
have others do unto us; but as a matter of fact the rule 
does not hold first place among those which we pre- 
scribe for ourselves in the field. If consideration for others 
were uniformly the controlling principle in our shooting 
and fishing excursions, and if every gunner who entered 
upon the property of another for shooting would put 
himself in the place of the. landowner and treat that 
owner as he would himself wish to be treated, there would 
no longer exist a disagreeable friction between farmers 
and sportsmen. To. ask this of all gunners would, of 
course, be demanding too much of human nature; for it 
would be with respect to some men to look for a more 
exalted standing of conduct in their shooting trips than 
they observe at home amid daily surroundings. But 
it should be practicable for the person who usually con- 
siders the rights of others to carry that same spirit into 
his sport. For, at worst, the disregard of social ameni- 
ties so often manifested by the game shooter is due to 
sheer thoughtlessness, rather than to any deliberate or 
studied intention to act the part of a boor. 
There is some occult influence which frequently 
causes well-bred and well-intentioned people to forget 
their breeding and their manners directly they have a 
gun in hand and find themselves on another person's 
land looking for game. Yet there is surely nothing in- 
herent in a taste for field sports which involves such dis- 
regard of others. On the contrary, as is demonstrated 
by shining examples in great multitude, there are sports- 
men who show themselves in the field as at home and 
everywhere thoughtful of their fellow men, and whose 
pleasant fellowship is sought not only by the compan- 
ions with whom they go shooting, but by the residents 
among whom they shoot, and to whose courtesy they 
are indebted for their opportunities of sport. Every 
shooter who thus treats a landowner as he would be 
treated in turn by him will have no difficulty in finding 
in this country to-day an abundance of good shooting. 
Even if he shall at first be warned off and debarred by 
trespass notices, he has to thank for this, in all prob- 
ability, the gunners who have preceded him, and who 
have made their invasion of the fields so intolerable that 
they have put a brand and stigma upon all of the craft. 
But even the most hostile and bitter misanthrope of a 
Northern or Western fanner or Southern plantation own- 
er, will gradually relent and make himself agreeable if 
the sportsman who covets his game will but persevere 
in the pursuit of it according to the Golden Rule. 
THE SITUATION IN NEW JERSEY. 
A peculiar situation holds in New Jersey, where the 
machinery which the State has provided to enforce the 
fish and game laws finds itself balked in the accomplish- 
ment of this purpose by the hostile attitude of the chief 
executive toward the protectors and his sympathy for 
those who violate the laws. We recently commented 
upon the proclamation of Governor Voorhees, that he 
would promptly pardon all persons convicted of viola- 
tion of one of the game laws; and a recent case in which 
he interfered indicates that he is bent upon making 
good in practice his public declaration that he does not 
believe in punishing people who kill birds or other game 
or fish out of season, as he believes in more liberty for 
the people. The instance in point is that of a young 
fellow named Teeple, who was detected spearing fish 
with a pitchfork in a stream in Middlesex county, the 
outlet of Brooklyn Pond, which has recently been 
stocked by the fish commission. A man named George 
Newman warned him to desist, telling him that he was 
acting contrary to the law, to which Teeple made reply: 
"To with the law; I have always speared fish when- 
ever I wanted to, and I am now going home to get my 
spear to get more fish." Newman thereupon informed 
Warden Brown, who apprehended Teeple with the 
speared bass in his possession. He was promptly con- 
victed, but refusing to pay the fine was sent to jail; 
Governor Voorhees, although fully informed of the cir- 
cumstances of the case by the warden who made the ar- 
rest, at once pardoned the spearer and left the commis- 
sioners to pay the costs. Mr. Voorhees thus gives no- 
tice to every fish-spearing Teeple in New Jersey that 
he will stand between him and the penalty. He is 
by his official actions giving emphasis to his frequently 
expressed disapproval of all game and fish legislation; 
and making plain a deliberate intention on his part to 
keep open the door of assured immunity for those who 
have a mind to violate these statutes. 
• At the last session at Trenton a number of amend- 
ments of the game laws were enacted, but of these the 
Governor vetoed everything which did not extend an open 
season or give greater license to fish netters. In this he 
was, of course, acting wholly within his prerogative, and 
did only what rightly belonged to his official activ- 
ities. A Governor might veto legislative acts which he 
disapproves, and yet escape censure. But when it 
comes to a question of leaguing himself with law 
breakers and to openly encouraging contempt and viola- 
tion of the statutes, an executive who does this is recreant 
to his duty, violates his oath of office and menaces the 
very foundation of the social system. It matters not 
what the particular statutes may be, whether game law 
or what-not, the principle involved is the same; the 
executive who refuses to execute the law, and'gives no- 
tice in advance that he will not permit it to be enforced, 
gives direct incitement to crime and anarchy. Some 
people do not regard the game laws, as of great moment 
one way or the other; but when a Governor takes the 
oath of office he binds himself with a sworn obligation 
to execute the laws, all the laws; and he is no more at 
liberty to proclaim that the fish and game laws are to be 
ignored because he personally does not approve them 
than he would have because believing in polygamy to 
give free rein to bigamists; or because believing in a 
readjustment of wealth and a general divide-up to pardon 
the thief who takes his share now. 
The situation in New Jersey is one that may well com- 
mand attention, and excite the concern of all who appre- 
ciate its real aspect and the principles involved. The 
outlook for the immediate future of fish and game pro- 
tection in the State is not promising if Governor Voor- 
hees shall continue to put in practice his peculiar views. 
On the other hand, we believe that it is the sober con- 
viction of the thoughtful portion of the community that 
the natural resources of New Jersey's fields and streams 
should be preserved from extermination; we believe that 
intelligent public opinion in New Jersey demands pro- 
tection for the birds, both the game birds and -the song 
and insectivorous birds of village, farm and garden. We 
believe that the statutes embodying this public opinion 
and providing this protection are so firmly established 
in right and reason and justice, and in the approval and 
respect of the people at large, that they will withstand 
the assault, even of an executive who because he does not 
personally approve of them uses his official position to 
stimulate contempt and defiance of them among the 
ignorant and criminally inclined. Game laws will prevail 
in New Jersey long after it shall have passed from the 
minds of men that there ever was a Governor at Trenton 
who did not believe in fish and game protection, but 
was solicitous for "more liberty for the people." Governor 
Voorhees' game law policy is reactionary; but the whole 
trend of legislation in this field in the United States to- 
day is progressive. We are as a people adjusting our- 
selves to the new conditions; and in the movement New 
Jersey will keep in line; he who believes to the con- 
trary does not read aright the signs of the times. 
There is a special reason why at this juncture the 
friends of protection in New Jersey should exert all their 
influence in support of the cause. That reason is found 
in the attack on the system inspired by the recent kill- 
ing of an Italian gunner by a game warden. As we have 
already recorded, the incident has been made the occa- 
sion of a newspaper demand for the repeal of all the 
game laws, on the ground that "a man's life is worth 
more than a robin's." Writers who should and do know 
better have echoed this sentiment simply because of its 
sensational value. They understand perfectly well, as 
every one who reflects must, that a person who resists 
arrest and threatens with deadly weapons the officer 
seeking to arrest him thereby invites active self-defense 
on the part of the officer; and that if as a result death fol- 
lows it is not to be charged to the original offense for 
which the arrest was attempted, but to the resistance and 
murderous assault on the officer. If, however, the sen- 
sational newspaper writers will insist on going back of 
this immediate cause to those which were more remote 
in the chain of circumstances leading to the final result, 
they might logically determine that the lawlessness and 
resistance on the part of this Italian shooter and his as- 
sault on the warden were all remotely, if not directly, 
provoked by the published statements of Governor Voor- 
hees, that he did not believe in the game laws, but did 
believe in more liberty for the people. That is just the 
kind of talk, to encourage Italian gunners to disregard 
the game law, and to shoot, as they have repeatedly shot, 
at the game wardens who interfere with them. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
When we shall come to build monuments to those who 
have been instrumental in preserving the game resources 
in this country, let us not forget the moonshiner of the 
West Virginia mountains and contiguous regions round- 
about, who because of a well-known proclivity to bush 
unsuspecting invaders of his wilderness realm has exerted 
a decidedly deterrent influence N on hunting excursions. 
To bush means to shoot at from ambush, and the reason 
for bushing is found in the suspicion commonly enter- 
tained by the natives that a stranger in the country may 
be an agent of the internal revenue bent on seizing 
moonshine whisky stills and distillers. Bushing is a 
mode of battle in which the busher manifestly holds de- 
cided advantage over the bushee; and no matter how 
brave one may be in the face of peril which he can see 
and defend himself against, it is quite a different thing 
to be shot at from behind by a foe concealed in the 
woods; and the deer hunter who cares enough for veni- 
son and antlers to quest them in the bushing districts is 
not likely, if he comes out alive, to repeat the adventure. 
In other days the Indian had a wide influence in dis- 
couragement of hunting expeditions in the West; and 
even just now he has made a brief re-entry on the scene 
in the Minnesota deer country; but the part was not 
played in a way deeply to impress the spectators, and it 
was probably his last final farewell appearance in the 
character. The hostile red m«m as a sportsman's bogie 
has passed from the stage. But the moonshiner is still 
alert and active and in full possession of his ancestral 
strongholds. In his peculiar office of game protector he 
will continue to be a factor in maintaining the venison 
supply of the mountain ranges. 
We publish to-day communications from Messrs, 
Owen and Langford respecting the claim of each to the 
credit of having been the first to achieve the ascent of 
the Grand Teton. The public has here both sides of the 
controversy set forth in conjunction, and with such ful- 
ness that the statement of each party may be considered 
an authoritative and fina 1 presentation of his case. 
