Forest and Stream; 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1900, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co, 
Terms, J4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy, i 
Six Months, ^. I 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 1900. 
( VOL. LIV.-No. 11. 
1 No. 346 Broadway, New York 
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 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. 
When the weather begins to get warm anglers 
geaerally pass through two or three stages, the 
lirst of which is a oesire to meet old angling 
friends and talk over the success of the past and 
hopes for the future, J. S. Van Cleef. 
A MENACE TO THE GULLS-. 
L.AST week we referred to the extraordinary omission 
of the gulls and the terns from the protection given by 
the Hallock bill to wild birds, and said that this omission 
was one which should kill the measure. It is now ex- 
plained that but for the omission of protection for these 
birds the bill would never have been reported out of com- 
mittee. At a recent hearing this was the ultimatum given 
to Mr. Wm. Dutcher, who is the author and advocate of 
the Hallock. bill, by Assemblyman Doughty, one of the 
members of the game committee. Mr. Doughty comes 
from Nassau County, on Long Island. In his district is 
tlie bird skin factory of W. W. Wilson, notorious as a 
ljutcher of plume birds and as an organizer of bird de- 
stroying expeditions. Here Mr. Doughty stood for the 
defense of the bird feather industry, just as he did the 
otlier day for the fish netters in opposition to the anti- 
netting bill advocated by the Salt Water League. The 
demands of the plumage factory owner were acceded to 
and the bill as amended in his interest has passed the As- 
sembly. The sponsors of the original measure have ac- 
cepted it in its present form, we understand, holding that 
the increased protection it gives— -in language — to other 
species is sufficient to offset the fact that it leaves gulls and 
terns wholly unprotected. This opinion we do not share. 
Whatever good such a law might do would be at the 
expense of the gulLs and the terns, and would be dearly 
bought. The price paid would be entirely too great. That 
price would be nothing less than the licensed extermina- 
tion of the gulls. 
Under existing conditions in the bird plume industry 
no other species stand in such need of protection as do 
these. The gulls and the terns are the very birds the 
plumage factories are consuming. Why did Committee- 
man Doughty insist upon exempting these only from the 
-Jaw? Because they are the ones his feather factory con- 
stituents want license to destroy. Why, as represented 
through their Assemblyman, are these feather factory peo- 
ple willing to give up the handling of all other plumage 
so long as they shall be left free to skin gulls and terns? 
Simply because if they can kill the gulls and terns they 
ido not care about the rest. They are in the business of 
skinning gulls and terns. We repeat, then, to enact this 
]aw would be to give over to legalized and unrestrained 
■destruction the very species which of all our plume birds 
.are just now most desperately in need of protection. 
There is surely in this day no necessity of arguing 
the proposition that we should not permit the gulls and 
the terns to be killed off. That which demands their per- 
petuation is something more than idle sentiment. They 
should be preserved because the people want them pre- 
served. These birds give pleasure to multitudes of human 
beings. They contribute beyond compute to the attractive- 
ness of the shore. No year goes by but that tens of 
thousands of eyes watch the gulls, and are pleased and 
interested at sight of them. Often with the ospreys they 
are the only features of animated nature in the marine 
view. The dwellers. by the water, the visitors to the 
•shore, the travelers on sound and bay and harbor and 
sea, all alike get something from the sight of the white- 
winged gull. However slight may be the gratification 
afforded to any one individual — and sometim.es it may be 
hardly recognized or appreciated — in the aggregate, never- 
theless, when multiplied a thoueancl fold, it is a vast 
factor, so vast and so important that it is well worth 
caring for and preserving. Our plea, then, is not for 
the gulls; it is rather for the iiign .^t|(5 the women «n4 
the children who care for these birds and do not want 
them destroyed. It is for the people, the many against 
the few. The law on gulls should be made in the interest 
of the public at large, not in that of the individuals who 
profit by killing the birds. 
It would be a sorry day when New York should out- 
law the gulls and the terns and give them over as vermin 
to legalized destruction. It would ■ be an unworthy, a 
disgraceful, a shameful thing to say to the plume butcher, 
"You may pursue your slaughtering industry under legal 
sanction." 
The enactment of the Hallock bill in its present form 
would do all this ; and it Avould do more. For not only 
would it warrant the extermination of the gulls of New 
York, but by opening a lawful market for them it would 
promote the destruction of the birds all along the At- 
lantic coast. It cannot be forgotten how the activity of 
the women of Boston secured the protection in that State 
of the terns of Muskeget Island ; nor how in many other 
States, the agitation having been carried on by public 
spirited men and women, laws have been adopted to pre- 
serve the birds. In the face of all this, we cannot afford 
to take such a backward step in this State. 
The measure is one which should be, and we trust will 
be, defeated in the Senate. 
TRAPSHOOTING IS HONEST. 
In our trapshooting columns this week is published a 
communication received by us from an eminent sports- 
man, which recounts the sayings of a certain unnamed 
party who asseverates in substance that trapshooting 
is a dishonest sport, much on a par with the swindles 
which find favor with rogues' and tricksters; that it is 
"crooked," as the slang phrase expresses it, and that it 
can be and is manipulated to fleece the unwary. The as- 
severation is malicioiisly false, maliciously because th« 
utterer of'it has beein: in a position closely identified with 
trapshooting interests for some weeks, and therefore had 
full opportunity to learn the facts from personal observa- 
tion. To assume that the general corruption could exist 
undetected, until his advent in trapshooting interests, or 
that all the honest trapshooters of the country "would not 
discover the corruption, or that knowing it they would be- 
come accessory to it by concealing it, would be to assume 
an absurdity. 
When any individual has been found guilty of known 
fraud in trapshooting matters, the trapshooters have been 
first to vigorously denounce him. More than once have 
shooters been expelled from the grounds when found 
guilty of dishonest acts at tournaments. 
The rules are framed with a special view to the sup- 
pression of all dishonesty, and there is the most earnest 
popular opinion to support and enforce them. The good 
character of a shooting ground is dear to its managers. 
Its good character is vital to its existence. Let it once 
be known that any "crooked work" is practiced on a 
grounds, and it is dooined. 
The trapshooters at large know each other and know 
trapshooting in its ethical features. To them, the defama- 
tion under consideration is but so much idle vaporing. 
Its falsity is a matter of their personal knowledge. Its 
malignancy, however, would not be so manifest to others, 
without some brief statement of fact which exposes it. 
Nevertheless, the defamation is regrettable. Coming as it 
does from one whose vocation and business connections 
are professedly in the interests of trapshooting, by the 
uninitiated the aspersions might be taken for just 
criticism, and therefore it is grievously wrong that they 
ever were uttered. The guild of trapshooters is num- 
bered by thousands, and their good name is as dear to 
them as it is to all reputable people. 
The amateur trapshooter is a gentleman seeking recrea- 
tion or relaxation, or seeking to emulate the skillful per- 
formance of one more skillful, or engaged in legitimate 
competition at the traps. The man of moderate income 
and the millionaire not infrequently compete or shoot thus 
together. The majority, however, are professional or 
business gentlemen, who rate with the best in their social, 
religious, intellectual and financial worlds. They are of 
the best people. 
If we consider the paid professional in his relation to 
trapshooting, we again find men of well known good repu- 
tation, selected with great care by the companies who 
emplc^ thttii, _ , , ^. -..^,^* 
Is it to be entertained seriously for a moment that- such 
men, honest of purpose and honest in their acts, are dis- 
honest in their moments of diversion at the traps, or 
would countenance it in others, or would be accessory to 
it by their silence?. No; there would be a multitude of 
voices raised in denunciation of it. It cannot be assumed 
that trickery could flourish without their knowledge if it 
existed in fact. It is absurd to assume that such an in- 
telligent body of men could be swindled by any lasting 
trickery at the traps, however shrewdly devised and exe- 
cuted. It is absurd to assume that trapshooting would 
exist if it was a dishonest sport. 
In the abstract, no sport is inherently dishonest. In the 
concrete, it is what its followers make it. If the sport is 
conducted dishonestly, it is an exponent of a dishonest 
following. If the following is honest, the sport, perforce, 
must be honestly conducted. The trapshooters of Amer- 
ica are professional and business men. A large percentage 
of them belong to gun clubs. The members, as an 
organization, give shoots. Being honest themselves, the 
shoot necessarily must be conducted on lines accordingly. 
No sport, other than trapshooting, is conducted with so 
liberal a policy. At many of the large tournaments, those 
who wish may shoot "for targets only." Or they may 
shoot in any part of the programme which they choose. 
The rules are framed with a most earnest purpose to 
guard against dishonesty. Oftentimes the most exacting 
precautions are observed to avoid even the suspicion of 
dishonesty. No sport has been purified and uplifted to a 
higher plane than has trapshooting in the past few years. 
Its personnel and its policy are of the best. 
Of trapshooting as a sport, it can truly be said that no 
sport is more national. In the great cities and small 
hamlets, from ocean to ocean, it has its devotees. Of trap- 
shooting as a useful accomplishment, viewed from the 
.standpoint of what a nation needs in times of trouble, the 
late war affords a useful lesson of its value. The man 
behind the gtm was; the determining factor in it. It is a 
pity that such a grand sport, with such a grand following, 
has a traducer. 
PUBLIC OPINION AND THE JURY. 
We invite special attention to the communication from 
Mr. J. S. Van Cleef, of Poughkeepsie, in which he pre- 
sents in a convincing way the argument against excessive 
penalties as punishments for violation of the fish and game 
laws. Briefly put, the case is this : A law will not be sus- 
tained by juries which has not back of it the support of 
public opinion. People as a rule do not regard infrac- 
tions of fish, and game laws as offenses of very serious 
nature. If the penalties attaching to convictions for such 
offenses are excessive they will not be sustained by public 
opinion, and juries, which are compelled either to find 
guilty and subject to what is considered an excessive 
punishment or to acquit, will adopt the latter course and 
let the accused go free. This is a well established rule 
not only with respect to fish and game interests, but in 
various other fields. Under such circumstances the law 
is brought into disrepute. The wiser course would be to 
provide such penalties as comport with public estimation 
of the gravity of the offense. For a statute which is en- 
forced, even though the punishment be light, is worth a 
whole volume of laws which because unsustained by pub- 
lic opinion are dead-letters. 
THE LABORER IS WORTHY OF HIS HIRE. 
We took occasion not long ago to commend the action 
of the supervisors of Onondaga County, N. Y., making 
an appropriation for the use of the Onondaga Anglers' 
Association, whose special warden was doing good service 
in protecting the waters against illicit netting. It is a 
pleasure to record that the supervisors of Columbia Coun- 
ty have just appropriated the sum of $500 to pay for 
special wardens in that county. This was done at the 
instance of public spirited citizens and sportsmen of the 
city of Hudson, under whose direction we may be sure 
that the money will be wisely expended for the public 
good. 
One crying necessity in our warden system everywhere 
13 for a larger force of game wardens and for more ade- 
quate pay for them. Under the present system of small 
salaries it is impracticable to secure competent men 
who can afford to give all the time required to the duties 
Ol the office, 
