Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1899, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. J 
Six Months, $2. ( 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 18 9 9. 
{no. 
VOL. LIIL— No. 21. 
346 Broadway, New York 
SAM'S BOY. 
One of the best things ever written by Rowland E. 
Robinsdti is the new serial "Sam's Boy," which will be 
begun in our issue of Dec. 2. It will take the readers of 
"Uncle Lisha's Shop" and "Sam Level's Camps" back 
among the D'anvis folk. 
THE NATIONAL HORSE SHOW. 
The meeting of the National Horse Show of America, 
which opened in this • city on Monday last, and is in 
progress v/hile we wcite, promises to be one of the most 
successful ever given. For a number of j'ears this show 
was obliged to depened for its financial success largely 
on the caprice of fashionable people and their followers, 
and to attract such people it was thought necessary to 
resort to more or less catchy devices, which partook in 
some degree of the character of the circus. 
Horse shows are given for the purpose of showing 
horses, not in order to show how speedily the firemen 
can hitch up a team nor to give exhibitions of polo rough 
riding or cavalry drills. It would seem as if this country 
were by this time large enough to furnish a sufficient 
number of spectators actually interested in horses to pay 
the expenses of such a show without the managers going 
into the circus business. 
This year such side shows are not needed to attract the 
public. In other words, there is a very large attendance 
of people who are anxious to see good horses, and who 
go there for that purpose, and no other. 
The increasing popularity of the horse — notwithstand- 
ing the various mechanical means of traction which are 
talcing his place — means a better understanding of him 
and an increasing appreciation of his good qualities. 
The tim.e is coming when — at least in cities and thickly 
populated districts — the horse will be used purely as a 
luxury. He will be the property only of the well to do, 
and when this is the case, all horse owners will be more 
or less horse iudges, 
It is in this' direction that the tide is tending now. A 
greater number of people than ever before attend the 
horse show because they are interested in horses and 
anxious to see good on^s, both for their pleasure and 
to cultivate their tastes. , A still greater number no doubt 
go there because it is regarded as the proper thing to 
know more or less about a horse, and they are anxious 
to do or to appear to do the proper thing. Nevertheless 
an intelligent knowledge of the horse is growing. 
SPARE THE PASSENGER PIGEON. 
Among the many notices of the occurrence of the pas- 
senger pigeon which appear in the columns of Forest and 
Stream, a considerable number are no doubt based on 
misinformation, and so are valueless. Individuals un- 
familiar with the wild pigeon imagine all the pigeons that 
they see to be the bird about whose rarity so much has 
been written, and perhaps a few report having seen the 
bird purely as a matter of vivid imagination. They are 
seized with a flight of fancy, and report a flight of pigeons. 
Yet there is no doubt that passenger pigeons are occa- 
sionally seen, and unfortunately there is no doubt also that 
the average man who carries a gun if he sees one of 
these birds will kill it. It may be hoped that to-day there 
-are fewer who would do this than there were a year ago, 
and that to-morrow there will be fewer than there are to- 
day; in other words, that consideration for the rights of 
others is increasing and that selfishness is growing less. 
The change is slow, to be sure, but there is a change. 
It is greatly to be desired that sportsmen who see what 
they take to. be wild pigeons will promptly report the oc- 
currence to the Forest and Stream, at the same time 
giving as full details as possible, so that, if practicable, 
the bird may be identified. It is but a few weeks since 
one of our most valued correspondents forwarded to us 
the supposed wing of a passenger pigeon, which on 
examination proved to be only the wmg 6'f a domestic 
pigeon somewhat resembling that of the wild feird in color. 
The passenger pigeon is one of those birds which is 
very, close to the border line of extinctlori. It ought to 
be protected by law in all States, and, what would be 
much more effective, a public sentiment ought: ' to be 
preated sgainst killing '> i indeecl any of jts kind, ' 
A SOUTHERN NATIONAL PARK. 
The latest national park project, following upon the 
Minnesota reserve scheme, is a timber and game preserve 
for the South. The territory suggested lies in western 
North Carolina, where there are vast stretches of un- 
broken wilderness along the line of the Great Smoky 
Mountains, on the Tennessee border. Much of the 
region remains to-day in its primitive condition, but 
the inroads of the lumberman promise rapidly to de- 
nude the forest areas and to destroy both its beauty and 
the rare advantages it now offers health arid rest seek- 
ers. The movement to establish a national park here is 
well under way. The Asheville Board of Trade is 
agitating the plan, and its special committee on parks 
and forestry has called a convention to be held in Ashe- 
ville on Nov. 22. Petitions are circulating, which will 
be presented to Congress, asking that a committee renre- 
senting that body may be provided to investigate the 
subject of a Southern National Park and to determine 
the feasibility of establishing such a preserve in the 
southern Alleghanies. 
All that has been said in behalf of setting aside the 
national parks we now possess, and all that has been 
urged in support of the Minnesota forest reserve, applies 
with force to this new proposition. The region is one 
v/hich should be preserved in its virgin wildness. The 
establishm.ent of such a reserve would mean the posses- 
sion of a priceless legacy for the generation of to-day to 
bequeath to those which are to follow. 
The wide-reaching benefits of such a mountain re- 
serve may not be overestimated. The immediate district 
surrotinding the park would be^ benefited in a degree 
much less than the advantage secured for the entire 
Southern country; for this North Carolina region is 
easily and quickly accessible from the entire 'Atlantic 
seaboard, and from the South and Southwest to New 
Orleans. The support of the park project should be 
equally widespread. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
Ambitious deer hunters who, a week or two since, 
visited this office in search of advice as to where to go on 
Long Island to kill deer, \yere warned that hunters were 
more numerous there than deer, and that, as at present 
carried on, deer hunting on Long Island is a sport rather 
more dangerous than grizzly bear hunting in the Rockies. 
This dismal warning was confirmed on the first day of 
the season, when a hunter had his head blown to pieces by 
a charge of buckshot at short range from a gun in the 
hands of his hunting companion and friend. As the story 
is told, the two men were concealed near one another 
when a deer came by, at which one of them fired, and 
then sprang into view to watch the deer. His companion 
seeing the movement and taking it for a deer, fired and 
killed his friend. So long as people continue to fire at 
moving objects which they imagine to be" game, these 
accidents will continue to occur, and it is difficult to write 
about them in a strain of justice, because the remorse of 
the unintentional homicide is likely to be so great as in 
some degree to claim our sympathy. It may be assumed 
that in the course of time laws will be enacted which 
shall make such careles.sness a felony and provide a proper 
punishment for it. In the meantime, persons of good 
sense will be likely to avoid those places where such 
accidents may be expected to occur, which means, of 
course, places crowded with hunters — so miscalled. 
Measured by the annually exacted price of human lives 
Long Island deer hunting is a costly institution which 
ought speedily to be abolished. Stop the deer huntins: for 
good and all; make a State deer park of the territory 
available for that purpose and use the permanent Long 
Island deer ?.uoply thus assured for stockin,ar the Adi- 
rondacks, the Catskills and other districts, where there is 
still rootn to hunt game without killing human beings. 
A lot of prize fighters have got themselves incor- 
porated as the "Sportsman's Fund of America," the pur- 
pose of the organization being to "provide for the 
-destitute, the sick and the dead of the sporting: fraternity 
throughout the LTnited States," and ultimately "to pro- 
vide a home for retired and destitute sportsmen." The 
term sportsman is a broad one, and there is no law to 
prevent the bruisers and rib-smashers from appropriating 
It if they chqpae t-O do so; but what is wanted in New 
York to-day is not a home for the destitute "sports," 
but a law and its execution to drive them out of busi- 
ness. Meanwhile if these gentry would undertake to 
build a "home" in which to immure their whole tribe 
beyond peradventure of ever being heard from again 
we would all of us contribute' with alacrity and gener- 
osity. 
The opinions of those who are most directly concerned 
with' the preservation of our game supply are coming 
more and more to acceptance of the principle that the 
marketing of birds is a chief factor in the problem. The 
New Hampshire Fi.sh and Game Commissioners recog- 
nize in the open market of Boston a grave hindrance -to 
protection in their own State. 
Our vSt. Augustine contributor, Didymus, who recently 
discussed so effectively the exterminatory peregrinations 
of a bird butcher in his State, may now profitably give 
his attention and enlist the attention of others to head 
off another Florida bird-destroying enterprise,, of which 
Ave have report from Long Island, N. Y. The party con- 
sists of O. H. Tuthill, Robert Willmouth, Benjamin 
Molliter and Coles Powell. They sailed last week in the 
sloop Inner Beach bound for Florida by the inland 
passage. Their mission is to kill birds; it is to be a 
bird skinning and stuffing expedition. The Brooklyn 
Eagle savs that "the men go to shoot all kinds of water 
birds, for which there is an unprecedented demand this 
season by millinery manufacturers. After being killed 
most of the birds will be skinned and stuffed roughly 
with cotton, and every week shipments will be made to 
New York." As this is contrary to the Florida law 
which Is intended to preserve the birds, the Long Island- 
ers should be summarily turned back. 
The agitation as to the preservation of deer in the 
Adirondacks is certainly worth keeping up. Last week 
Ave printed the report of an intervicAV with Col. Wm. 
F. Fox, Superintendent of the Forests, on this subject. 
Col. Fox's Intimate familiarity with the North Woods 
and the game conditions there prevailin.g entitles his 
views to great Aveight. We gave also in this connection 
a statement on the part of Protector Beede in reply to 
criticisms we recently published on his way of conduct- 
in.a: his office. It has been represented to us that hound- 
ing is practiced in all districts of the Adirondacks; that 
it cannot be effectually suppressed with the force of 
protectors and specials noAv aArailable; and that the Essex 
county district is therefore no Avorse than some others. 
In the face of all this, however. Protector iPond is re- 
ported as repeating this season the optimistic statement 
made hy him la.st.year under like conditions, that as a rule 
t^e hounding law has been Avell observed in the North 
Woods. 
The orogress of the case made to test the constitution- 
ality of the Illinois non-resident shooting license law is 
reported in our game columns, to-day: and as will be 
seen the result of the case bids fair to establish anew the 
complete control" of its game by a State. The oower to 
exercise such control lies in the State's ownership of the 
soil and the resultin.sr exclusive right to the frame on the 
soil. The contention of those who uphold the constitu- 
tionalitv of non-resident hunting: laws is that just as a 
farmer bv virtue of OAvning his farm may exclude others 
from entering "uoon it for shooting, so a State bv virtue 
of OAvning the entire territory within its boundaries may 
exch.ide non-residents from shooting or fishing within 
its domain. 
We print elseAvhere a note from the New York Fish 
and Game League, inviting- into its membership all who 
pre Interested in the attainment of its special purposes. 
The Leamie offers an onnortunity for practical work, 
under the s:iiidaP''e of those Avho have had long ex- 
perience in this, field: and it deserves the support and 
co-operation of all p-rotectiA'e clubs and societies through- 
out the State. 
The Minnesota Supreme Court has decided that it in 
le.sal for the Indians to himt on their OAvn reservationsi 
regardless of the game laws, provided they do not store! 
their game to be sold to traders contrary to the law. 
This, ruling appears to be in direct conflict with th^ 
findings In similar cases brought in other State^^, 
