Forest and Stream, 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1899, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, $+ a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. ) 
Six Months, $2. ) 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1899. 
/ VOL. LIU.— No. 28. 
\No. 346 Broadway, New York 
SAM'S BOY. 
We begin to-day Aie publication of Mr. Rowland E. 
Robinson's new serial under this title. The story will run 
tlirough several weeks, and we need not assure our read- 
ers of the several Danvis series which have already been 
printed that in these new chapters they have a treat in 
store. 
"WHAT'S THAT." 
From far beyond the low banks of the Saskatchewan 
on the Northern plains, south to across the Rio Bravo del 
Norte, and out on to the dry cactus deserts of Mexico, 
the antelope had his range. To the east he dipped his 
slender muzzle into the Great River when he drank, and 
from the Missouri away westward the prairies and the 
little parks in the mountains and the high dry sage plains 
of the Central Plateau were dotted with his grazing 
herds, until at last he trotted or galloped over the arid 
valleys of the San Joaquin. 
This was in the olden times. Now the antelope's range 
is more circumscribed. In all directions where it used to 
live, people have come, guns have been fired, farms have 
sprung up, fences have been built. Now, only on the dry 
plains where, as yet, farms are impossible, can we see 
the white rump patch, or marvel at the twinkling feet. 
It was in the spring, just as the prairie was becoming 
green with its new growth, that the little kids were born 
in some shallow hollow or on a side hill— at all events, in 
the last place in the world that they would have been 
looked for. Here they lived for a time, following their 
mother for short distances on tottering legs, but most of 
the time carefully hidden by her by that means of conceal- 
ment which is of all methods the most artful, which 
consists not in hiding, but in the simulation of some 
common object of the plain. Often indeed the hungry 
coyote searched for these young ones and was driven 
away by the angry mother, and searched again, and again 
was driven away ; but he never found them ; and at length 
they grew strong, sturdy and nimble footed, and for a 
little way could run nearly as fast as their mother. When 
this time had come the mother joined some other family. 
Out on the yellowing grass of the far-stretching prairie 
were scattered the little families, making pleasing pictures. 
The old buck, short bodied, round and powerful, cropped 
the grass and paid little heed to his wives and children. 
He often looked out over the prairie, closely scanning it 
fo*r danger, as did the older does, which raised their heads 
between each mouthful of grass. The yearlings fed con- 
tentedly, trusting in the superior wisdom and sagacity of 
their elders. The little kids, well able now to travel, 
chased each other round and round, and then suddenly 
stopped, and as if frightened, threw up >the long hair of 
the white rump patch till it stood above their backs like 
a great brush. So they fed and played and lived their 
innocent, harml.ess lives, until, if undisturbed, the little 
group drew away to the top of some nearby bluff and 
there lay down to rest, until hunger again called them 
to their feet. 
With the frosts of autumn the family for a little while 
drew apart; the kids kept more and more by themselves, 
and the old bucks chased the does furiously over the 
prairie and made a long line, of dust in their headlong 
flight. Later still, as the weather grew colder, and the 
frost locked the infrequent pools and streams, and the last 
leaves let go their hold on the trees, and the first snows 
of winter came, the antelope gathered in great herds, 
sometimes numbering thousands, and fed close together.^ 
Rarely at this season dared the prowling coyote to inter- 
fere with them, though sometimes if one or two well- 
grown kids wandered off from the herd, he would chase 
them back to it; and again the great brown war eagle 
might swoop with swift flight and rustling feathers at a 
careless or wandering kid. 
So the winter sped and the kids had become ydarlings. 
Inquisitive, inexperienced and foolish, the bucks trotted 
about alone over the prairie, and whenever one saw some- 
thing that he did not comprehend, he came near to in- 
spect it. So, he often drew upon himself a shot or two 
from a traveling white man, or dodged the sorrow flight 
from tja. Indian bow, or walked up in the gf^y of the 
morning to a hunter's tent, and in tnan^ other ways put 
himself in. jpoi)ardy. ' 
I'll!, ;' .', ,; ., . . 
Many of them died that summer, but those which sur- 
vived became in a year or two later big, strong bucks 
with families of their own, and having always a keen eye 
for the dangers of the prairie. When to such a one some 
strange moving object showed itself over the distant hill, 
he was the first to -see it, and staring steadily at it for 
long, he at length made it out to be some innocent thing; 
or if it seemed dangerous, he swiftly led his family to 
the top of a distant hill and fronj the summit watched 
until all fear of harm had passed. 
THE PLANK IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
The meeting of the Massachusetts Commissioners and 
sportsmen the other day to discuss game protection 
interests is full of promise. The attention given to game 
by the Commission in the past has been slight; if with 
tlie reorganized board an intelligent endeavor shall be 
made to enforce the present laws and to supplement 
them wherever necessary, the officials will surely find 
themselves sustained and seconded by the support and 
co-operation of individuals and ckibs. The fact is that 
such united action as has been taken by Massachusetts 
sportsmen in the past has been for the most part inde- 
pendent of any whole-hearted and el?ective joining of 
hands by the Game Commission. Once the sportsmen of 
the Commonwealth are assured that their interests will 
be given attention, a decided improvement may be looked 
for. 
The step recommended at the conference — to stop the 
sale of Massachusetts game in Massachusetts markets — is 
a decided advance. That is precisely the expedient which 
common sense and long experience point to as an essen- 
tial measure of protection. The game marketing condi- 
tions in Massachusetts are scandalous. Not only do the 
Boston game stalls invite the sending of game legitimately 
killed, but they are ready at all times, in season and out, 
to encourage the snaring of game contrary to the statute. 
So long as the market is open to the game so long will 
game be killed for the market. This has come to be rec- 
ognized as an axiom by those who are most familiar with 
these things. 
For the sake of Massachusetts game, the projected 
statute might be made broader still — so broad, in fact, as 
to forbid the sale of game entirely without regard to where 
it may have been killed. Not until such a' measure shall 
be enforced will the problem be solved and solved right 
and once for all. Of course, we all know perfectly well 
what the reply to such a proposition is: "The lobby," it 
is said, "is too powerful to permit any such thing." But 
is it" Would it be so powerful as'to prevail if the sports- 
men of Massachusetts were a unit in support of the For- 
est AND Stream's Platform Plank? 
SNAP SHOTS. 
A case which has excited much interest among shooters 
was tried in the Supreme Court at Albany and decided 
last week. The plaintiff, an Italian named Petro Favio, 
sued to recover $5,148 damages for a thumb blown off and 
hand otherwise maimed by the bursting of a gun. The 
gun was a high grade arm of standard American make. 
The defense was that the gun had been improperly loaded. 
It was shown by test of some of the unused cartridges in 
court that the arm had been loaded with a charge of 52 
grains of a nitro powder of which, according to the testi- 
mony of experts, 45 grains was the highest charge allow- 
able, while less than one-half of the 52 grains was the 
proper load. It was also shown by the defense that this 
over-charge of powder had been improperly loaded. The 
jury found for the plaintiff in the sum of $2,648, and the 
defendants have very properly appealed the case. From 
such evidence as was brought at the trial the presumption 
appears to have been entirely that the fault was with 
the ammunition and the careless way in which it was 
loaded. The case well illustrates the change which has 
come about with the development and perfection of am- 
munition. As is pointed out in another column, the im- 
provement in this direction has been rapid and radical, 
but the new equipments and agencies are quite as safe as 
the old ones, provided only that they are used intelligently 
and as they are meant to be used and made to.be used. If 
the user ignores the directions for loading a nitro powder 
shell, the casualty which may result is of his own bring- 
ing; he may reasonably not charge upon powder maker 
or gun maker the responsibility for his own fatuous con- 
duct. ' ' ' ' ■ • ' ■ ' ' ^ ' • 
It niust constantly be borne in mind that with the am- 
munition of to-day the old happy-go-lucky mode of pour- 
ing a handful of black powder into the muzzle and 
blazing away has passed. The new explosives must be 
used by rule. So used, they are safe and effective. Used 
in another way they may be destructive and disastrous, 
but for the disaster he alone is responsible who brings it 
upon himself. 
We have recently received several communications in- 
closing money for articles ordered, but neglecting to give 
the names of the remitters. This is extremely annoying 
to us, and may be assumed to be more or less distressing 
to the correspondents, who, not receiving what they 
ordered, probably think hard things and say hard things 
about the Forest and Stream Publishing Company. It 
is always a good rule, when sending money by mail, to 
give one's address along with it. A word to the wise is 
sufficient, but all the cautionary words in the dictionary 
would not suffice to insure in every case the name of the 
careless letter writer. 
Podgers sends us a report, printed in our game col- 
uiinns, of a test case made by the Hunters' Union of 
Merced coitnty to test the constitutionality of a county 
ordinance forbidding the shipment of game for purpose 
of sale. In the lower courts the law has been upheld, but 
the Union will carry it up. We advise the Merced market- 
hunters to keep their money. The higher they carry the 
case the greater its fall when it topples over. 
Reference was recently made in the Forest and Stream 
to a party of bird skinners which had left Long Island, 
sent out by a factory there, to visit Florida and other 
waters and to get a cargo of plume birds. The vessel is 
to be absent all winter, all sorts of birds are to be killed 
and at frequent intervals shipments of skins are to be 
made to New York. 
On Nov. 22 the factory occupied by the concern which 
sent out this boat load of bird skinners was destroyed by 
fire, and its whole contents, including many thousand bird 
skins, were burned up. It is said that in the factory there 
were 10,000 sea gulls, 20,000 wings of various birds, and 
10,000 heads of birds. The factory was a building 100 by 
50 feet, one story high, and employed 50 hands; and we 
are told that the concern had gunners shooting for it all 
along the Long Island coast, as well as in Massachusetts, 
on the islands off the coast of Maine, and at various points 
along the shores of the Southern States. The record for 
numbers killed by any one man employed by the factory 
is said to have been 141,000 birds killed in a single season 
in Florida. 
During the last year the demand for feathers has been 
practically limited to the long so-called eagle feathers, 
which are taken from eagles, hawks, herons, swans, geese, 
turkeys and turkey buzzards, and to the long wings of 
gulls and some other sea fowl. It is hoped, however, 
by the manufacturers that the coming season will show 
a more general demand for birds of all descriptions. 
The New York law says "wild birds shall not be killed 
or caught at any time, or possessed, living or dead. This 
provision does not affect any birds the killing of which is 
prohibited between certain dates by the provision of this 
act, nor does it protect the English sparrow, crow, hawk, 
crane, raven, crow-blackbird, common blackbird and king- 
fisher." 
We do not know that in this State the game protectors 
have ever made any attempt to enforce this law. It is a 
fact that at various times in the past, wild birds trapped 
in violation of the law have been openly sold in many 
places in this city. It is certain also that the trade of 
furnishing bird skins to milliners was carried on here un- 
til birds became so very scarce that it was no longer 
profitable to continue it. Oh Long Island, however, where 
rents are low and labor is cheap, the wicked operation of 
turning fresh bird skins into hat ornaments still con- 
tinues. 
There is here an opportunity for the Audubon societies, 
in which great interest continues to be felt, to do some- 
thing which shall be more than mere speech-making and! 
the passage of resolutions. The societies of the diflFerenti 
States should join forces,, and should make an organized! 
effort to discover what factories of this sort arc ^pgaged iv^ 
violating the law,' ' > , . 
