t April ^o, igoi. 
ih!t iconoclast. If it were not so, chaos would quickly supervene. 
The weakly sentimental, the' unscrupulous selk-seeker, and the 
ieg-otistically emotional would- take the place of the men who main- 
tain the reasonable and the necessary. Not that all sentiment ids 
badi but that much of it, visionary, intolerant and arrogant, repre- 
sents only the personal idiosyncrasy or idea and is unfit for th,e rule 
of actioin of all. 
The same daily press which bestawed' so many tearful words 
over the cruelty of pigeon shooting did not, and does not, liesitate 
to publish columns of matter giving the revolting details of prize 
fights. More yet, on large bulletin boards on the outer walls of 
the buildings of those papers were mai-ked, on occasion, tele- 
graphic reports of the fights during their progress from their be- 
.ginning in the evening till their end near the midnight hour, all 
to paiider to the morbid appetite of the thousands of their readers 
.and onlookers. And yet prize fighting in New York was stopped, 
mot for its cruelty, but for its dishonesty. 
It is a penitentiary offense to crop a dog's ears or to dock his 
tail; it is a penitentiary offense to dock a horse's tail; it is unlaw- 
ful to kill the song birds and the beautiful birds of the land, and 
it is accessory to their killing to wear their plumage; yet cropped 
dogs, docked horses and bird skins aie numerous. In fact, so 
great is the destruction of birds that they are in danger of ex- 
termination. 
Even the birds of the ocean had no immunity, till laws were 
passed for their protection. How much these laws protect may 
be learned by inspecting the stock of any fashionable millinery 
store. 
Concerning the docking of horses, the cropping of dogs, and 
the destruction of the song birds, all of which is done to .satisfy 
a vain taste, and all of which is unlawful, the professional humani- 
tarian observes an apathetic silent attitude. Concerning pigeon 
shooting, which is lawful, which adds to the food supply, but 
■which affords the reformers more opportimities for stagy, spec- 
tacular effects, there are accordingly more opportunities for noto- 
riety, and an increase of permanency of stipend. 
There is nothing in the foregoing wluch proves that pigeon 
shooting is right. There is no need to prove that it is right, for 
that is already proven — the law of the land sanctions it. 
The foregoing, however, is presented to show that its detractors 
indulge m a widespread straining at gnats and swallowing of 
camels. 
The Nafare of Mankind. 
By nature man is a hunter. Primitive man became a shepherd 
as game became scarcer, or his incumbrances checked his 
nomadic habits. As population increased he was forced to adapt 
bimself to the changed conditions therewith, so he added agri- 
culture to his means of livelihood. However, he reverts easily to 
his primitive instincts and pleasures. 
The man with the hoe has been on earth many centuries, but he 
drops the hoe easily and intelligently when he sallies forth to 
settle a new country, or to repel an invading army, or to squelch 
the Indian, or to take some wholesome recreation. He then takes 
•up the rifle and shotgun. 
Man has carnivorous instincts. To denounce him for them is to 
rebuke the omnipotence which created him. They are a part of 
his being and a necessity of it. The man of courage, of agres- 
siveness, of physical power and mental strength is he who best 
succeeds in the struggle for existence. But his powers of mind 
and body, offensive and defensive, must be developed- and schooled 
by practice. 
The play of carnivorous or herbi-carnivorous animals is a close 
imitation of battle, of attack and defense. The boy delights to 
wrestle, to box, and if need be to fight. The calf and the lamb 
delight to frolic about merely to exercise their muscles. They are 
not carnivorous. _ , 
The play of the dog is almost entirely made up of attaekj de- 
fense and strategic warfare. 
The bow and arrow or blow gun or pi.Hlol is the small boy's 
delight. Little birds, frogs, etc., are his prey. As he reaches the 
years of maturity, reason tempers his actions in respect to killing, 
but his instincts remain unchanged. However, the schooling of 
the boy serves to the full development of the man. 
The life of man is a contimiance of unceasing competitive strug- 
gle. Whether in social life or political life or business life inces- 
sant effort is a necessity. If a mail is weak in body or mind, or 
lacking in physical and mental schooling, his success is impaired 
accordingly. His best development is according to the needs of 
nature and nature's laws, and to this end he must engage in 
contests. 
All normal men are fond of sport, as it is their nature to be. 
It may have different forms of expression, according to personal 
inclination or the accident of environment. Some may hunt the 
grizzly, the tiger, the lion, the wolf; course rabbits, stick pigs, 
shcot quail, etc., while others delight in the sport of rod and reel. 
To deny man these things is to cramp his nature, and his best 
development. To find fault with his nature is to rebuke Him who 
gave man dominion over all the animals of the earth. The 
dominant nations are those whose men are sportsmen, 
Man is a social animal. He needs to be able to protect himself 
and to join forces with his fellows to protect his people. He must 
needs know how to defend as well as how to attack. A good 
soldier is not tlie product of an idle moment. He must te a good 
marksman to be valiant. 
To be proficient in the knowledge and use of guns a man must 
be accustomed to them, during a long time, preferably from boy- 
hood. A nation of marksmen is a most formidable people to 
attack. Witness the doings in the Revoltitionary War, our Civil 
War, or the war in South Africa. 
While individuals may differ greatly in their preference for sport, 
there is generally some one form of sport which predominates and 
which therefore may be termed national. England has its fox 
ihunters and pigeon shooters, and America has much the same. 
However, whatever may be the manner of its expression, the 
craving for something which is in accord with man's combative 
nature is a race characteristic. It may be replied that in civilized 
life the primitive instincts are unnecessary and harmful. This can- 
not be maintained in argument. The standing armies of the world; 
the passing away of the weaker and more defenseless nations, and 
the ascendency of the stronger ones; the necessity of courage and 
strength in the individual, and the permanency of the race _ in- 
stinct, even though not exercised for generations, are all against 
a mere idea of a bloodless world. 
In the older civilizations, where the eccentricities of Coxey 
armies, blue glass craze and sporadic moralists are not so much in 
evidence, pigeon shooting is and has been from time immemorial 
recognized as a gentleman's sport. It is therein on account of 
its cost chiefly confined to a class of wealth and refinement. In 
the United States most of the pigeon shooters "are also men of 
liberal means and refinement. It is an expensive sport, therefore 
a fair source or revenue is necessary to participate in it. 
In New York and other large cities the pressure of business and 
the matter of environment prohibit most men from the sport of 
field and stream. Much of the surrounding country is preserved,, 
and much more of it has been stripped of its game supply years 
ago. Yet, as becomes his nature, the man of proper instinct craves 
to test his skill against the birds of the air. Being in the highest 
degree human, he eschews bull fights, etc., and engages in a sport 
which has received the sanction of the most humane and con- 
servative peoples of the world, the English, German, French, and 
American, all of whom have an instinct for sport dating from the 
time of the creation. 
As a Recreation. 
There are thousands of business men in the^ great cities who 
need relaxation. Any recreation which is beneficial to a large class 
of people as a wholesome recreation is beneficial to a whole people. 
The good of the individual as a unit of society is a benefit to 
mankind. _ , 
There is a large and ever increasing class of brain workers who 
become worn and weary with office woi^k. The professional man 
may have neither the time nor the opportunity to hunt or fish. 
A day or a half day at the traps is much in its effects like an out- 
ing afield. It "brings a feeling of rest, of rejuvenation, of re- 
awakened interest and ability in the affairs of life, a reinvigorating 
of bodily and mental powers. • ^ _ _ - 
As a recreation and test of skill, pigeon shooting is a most 
merciful sport. Civilized man refines his methods so that the 
element of skill is dominant. The bean pole and clothes line of the 
small boy will jerk the fish out of the water with quickness and 
certainty, but the element of skill in such method is absent. The 
sportsman, however, uses the lightest of tackle, and his method of 
casting for the fish, and playing it when caught, is admirably 
scientific and artful. The fish has much freedom of playr for its 
life, and it may fight minutes or hours, according to its kind, size 
and endurance, for the pleasure of the sportsman. When it is at 
length brought to hand he kills it mercifully. 
A 4-bore or an 8-bore would kill a bird more surely than a 28- 
bore, yet the sportsman of refinement Btanchly advocates the use 
of the smaller arms for the field, and the shooting of birds only 
whe^i on the wing. He who shoots birds on the ground or with a 
weapon which is unseemly as to size is denounced as a pot-hunter. 
\ et as a mere question of painless and ceitain. capture the net 
would catch the bird or fish quickly and certainly. It is, how- 
ever, an incongruity in sport. Therein it has no place. The law 
prohibits it and all true sportsmen denounce it. Yet pigeon 
shooting, while a test of skill, provides a painless and instan- 
taneous death to all but the most insignificant percentage of its 
victims. The welfare and needs of mankind far outweigh the in- 
significant ideas of inhumanity. 
Pigeon shoots are held in retired places. They are for those 
who wish to attend them. Those whq dp not wish to see them 
need not do so. 
Its Benelicencc to Mankind. 
Anything which adds to the material comfort and prosperity of 
a people is a material beneficence. Pigeon shooting adds to the 
food supply, one of the most essential sources of the comfort and 
prosperity of a people. It stimulates the production of pigeons 
and enlarges immeasurably the market for pigeon growers. It 
increases the profit of the grower and cheapens the price to the 
consumer. How? Let us assume, by way of illustration, that the 
grower is paid 10 cents for a pigeon. The profits of middlemen, 
cost of transportation, etc., have raised the price to 25 or 30 cents 
when it is finally trapped for the sportsman to shoot at. It is next 
sold to the marketman for 5 or 10 cents, all tlie intermediate 
charges having been paid by the sportsman who used it as«a test 
of skill. 
All the thousands of dollars distributed to the farmer and the 
farmer's boy throughout the broad land contribute materially to 
the general welfare . It therefore enables more people to buy and 
to sell. All the pigeons which are killed add just so much more 
to' the supply of good and wholesome food. 
In relation to the pigeon's progress from the egg to the dinner 
pot the intervention of the sportsman is a most beneficent incident 
to all concerned, and hai-mless to society at large. The factories 
which rnake guns, and powder, and shot, and sportsmen's goods 
and their thousands of workmen are also dependent upon the 
money of the sportsman. The improvements in firearms and gun- 
powders owe much to the practical trapshooter. 
As to the Slaughter. 
There Were 17,500 pigeons killed during the week of the Grand 
American Handicap. The term selected to designate the killing 
is immaterial. What of it? Call it slaughter, killing or anything 
else; it is all one. The true significance is that 17,500 meals were 
added to the food supply of the market, and that the growers and 
middlemen were paid accordingly by sportsmen. 
The mawkish sentiment promulgated in favor of the pigeon 
many times displays an ignorance of the fact that the pigeon is 
foredoomed to death for the benefit of man. It is an article of food, 
as are chickens, ducks, geese, hogs, sheep, cattle, game, etc. 
Shooting it at the traps is a mere Incident of the general purpose. 
The pigeons are raised for the market, and have their value as 
a commodity, as have the other animals hereinbefore enumerated. 
The fact that they have beautiful coloring, beautiful forms, and 
that they are considered as typifj'ing emblems of peace in no wise 
disturbs this statement- Beauty of form and color is possessed 
by all animals, but the necessities of man permit of no distinctions 
concerning them in his obtaining of a food supply. Therefore, we 
repeat, the kUHng of the 17,500 pigeons as a test of skill was a 
mere incident in their journey toward potpie. Their death as a 
whole was merciful and instantaneous. 
Similarly, all the pigeons killed at the traps throughput the 
country are a public benefit, for money and an abundance of food 
are essential to the hapijiness and prosperity of a people. 
As to the Cruelty. 
As aforementioned, the pigeon is foredoomed to death. It is 
raised for food. The manner in which it is killed is of no conse- 
quence, as it concerns the ultimate purpose, so that death occurs 
as quickly and painlessly as possible. If it offends the sensibili- 
ties of any one to see a pigeon's neck wrung by the cook, such 
an one need not be present at the wringing. Similarly in respect 
to shooting the bird or killing the innoceiit sheep or the fatted 
calf, etc. If slaughter is offensive, one need not visit a slaughter 
house, nor a trap shoot; yet that is no reason why great packing 
houses and trap shoots should be abolished. 
That the Grand American Handicap was solely a test of skill is 
borne out by every word in the programme and the manner in 
which the great contest was conducted. In it there was nothing 
mentioned as a sport, but there were conditions and prizes for the 
contestants. Those who at any stage of it had missed 5 birds were 
subject to withdrawal from it. Had the purpose been sport as 
commonly understood — that is to say, killing in mere wantonness — 
there then would not have been any rea.son to retire any one.' 
Of the 200 contestants in the Grand American Plandicap, 148 shot 
at 25 birds, the full number of the event. The remainder of the 
contestants either withdrew voluntarily or were retired by the 
• manager. Therefore the 148 contestants shot at 3,700 pigeons, 
They missed 268, about 7 per cent., and of these a large part w'ere 
only teclvnically missed — that is to say, they were killed, but died 
outside of the 50yd. boundary. 
Why were the contestants who missed 2, 3, 4 artd 5 barred from 
further competition? Simply because they had not shown sufficient 
skill to win in tliat competition. 
The term "sport" has a technical meaning and a common 
meaning. As it relates to irapshooting, the unfortunate misunder- 
standing of the term on the part of the general public, no doubt, is 
largely responsible for a false belief as to the purposes of trap- 
shooting competition and its cruelty. In respect to this term 
Webster presents seven different meanings. The fifth is as follows: 
Diversions of the field, as fowling, himting, fishing, racing, games 
and the like, especially when money is staked." 
As used at the traps, sport signifies a contest of skill, and there- 
fore has an entirely different signific-ance from that given to it by 
the public at large. 
There cannot be any cruelty where there is good intention, iJseftil' 
training, and the absence of torment and pain. Instead of weak 
birds which can be easily killed, the pigeon shooter wants only 
the best. His abhorrence is birds which cannot fly fast and strong, 
for the weak birds furnish no standards of skill. Therefore the 
birds, to be up to requirements, need to be extra well fed, watered 
and cared for. If the shooter had a craving for mere slaughter the 
matter of skill would not then enter into the question, and any 
bird would do, 
A reputation for fast, strong birds adds to the good fame of a 
shooting ground; on the contrary, poor birds detract from its fame 
and its patronage. If the mere killing constituted the pleasure and 
purpose much greater degrees of killing could be witnessed at any 
of the great abattoirs of the country, and at an incomparably 
cheaper rate. 
Trapshooting and Field Shooting. 
In the essentials of the sport, trapshooting does not differ from 
field shooting. But, says the humanitarian, pigeon shooting is 
distinctly unlike field shooting, since m the former instance the 
bird is domesticated and already in possession, while in the latter 
instance it is not; and therefore to shoot the pigeon for sport is 
inhuman, as it is not essential that they be so killed for food. 
The position abounds with fallacy. Why is it inhuman to .shoot 
the pigeon for sport, and not inhuman to shoot the quail, the 
duck, the rufled grouse, the deer, etc., for sport? 
Wherein lies the nice distinction? The humanitarian answei'S 
that the pigeon is already in possession, and that, though it is to 
be killed for food, he objects to all useful advantages being derived 
from the killing. It must be killed in the family kitchen or cellar, 
and thereby imbrue more hands in its blood in the aggregate than 
could possibly be at a trap shoot. Un the other hand, he declares 
that to get possession of the game birds it is necessary to shoot 
them with a gun, and that tlie wounding of a few, more or less, is 
an unavoidable incident, to be excused accordingly. What gross 
fallacy! What unprejudiced man will have patience with such- 
argument? It tlien is a question of stomach. The- gun is not at 
all essential to the getting possession of the wild game, though 
it is essential to man's best sport. By common consent, it is the 
approved means. The net will catch quail, a whole bevy at a time, 
without wounding a single one or alarming them much. The 
snare will strangle the partridge so surely and quickly that, after 
it is caught, death is but a matter of a few moments. The net 
again will make , a clean sweep of all the fish within its area of 
action. But such and similar . methods are justly and necessarily 
prohibited by law, and are the detestation of all true sportsmen. 
There is no test of skill in the capture of game under such cir- 
cumstances. Furthermore, if such . methods were allowed the ex-, 
termipatioa of game fish and. game birds would soon follow. But 
to shoot wild game properly, one must havp had a fair preliminary 
trammg; otherwise much of it will be wounded and crippled. 
In held shooting the test of skill is between the man and the 
game bird. In trapshooting the test of skill is among the com- 
petitive contestants. Much the same ability with the shotgun, 
however, is essential in either instance. The ethics of each branch 
are appropriate to it. As applied to trapshooting the reader Will 
agam note that the term sport designates a competitive test ol 
skill, 
But, further says the humanitarian, the pigeons are domestic 
birds, and therefore do not aft'ord a test of skill. A man stands 
with a gun, heavily loaded and trained from his shoulder on the 
traps, and then when the trap is sprung there is no chance for the 
bird to get away. Indeed 1 The purpose of the contest is not to 
determine how many birds can get away, but to determine how 
many the shooter can kill. Likewise so in the field. The shooter 
does not go about to determine how many birds can escape from 
his aim. 
In the field many birds rise 2 or 3 yards froni the shooter, and 
oftentimes he finds it necessary to root them out" of the grass 
with his foot. What chance has a quail or prairie chicken at such 
a rise? With a skillful shooter a wild bird in the open has but 
an extremely remote chance for its life. But with the gun, the 
shooter's killing is limited. Many birds will reach cover or safety 
where he cannot find them or reach them, and enough are left to 
bleed. The trapshooter alwas^s gives a stated rise to the birds, 
generally from 25 to 33yds., a much better chance than prairie 
chickens have. If the trapshooter kills the entire lot there is no 
question as to leaving enovigh to breed. They are domestic birds, 
and there will be enough left to insure a further supply as certainly 
as there are enough chickens or sheep left to breed for the 
ensuing year. 
Though it is the purpose of the shooter to kill the bird, it some- 
times escapes nevertheless, in spite of gun, heavy load and all, 
as the scores in the Grand American Handicap or any other pigeon 
shoot will show. 
Novice vs. Expert. 
PIoweveTi let a novice Stand at the score and attempt to shoot 
birds liberated from the traps, and he will soon learn that it has 
its special difficulties, as has any other specialty which requires 
training and skill. The killing of a pigeon may look like an easy 
feat when done by a skillful shooter at the traps, but it looks 
quite as easy for a skilled violinist to draw music from a violin. 
Nevertheless, either one requires knowledge and skill. 
It has also been objected that the pigeon shooter fires his second 
barrel into the bird as it lies on the ground, and further thereby 
detracts from the event as a test of skill. The field shooter fires at 
the bird again in the air, if he wounds it with his first barrel. The 
pigeon shooter often fires the second barrel to kill the wounded 
bird instantly. Pigeon shooters do not enter a contest to inflict 
pain or kill for fun. Being quite as humane as other classes of 
the best men, they guard against inflicting pain which can be 
avoided. 
As an abstract proposition it Tirobably is all one to the pigeon 
whether it is shot as a test of skill or has its neck wrung as a pre- 
lude to a potjiie, if die it must. 
Gunshot Wounds. 
The scientific investigation of the effect of gunshot wounds has 
a bearing on this question. The average man or woman knows of 
the commonplace injuries and of the pain they cause. The sight 
of blood is hence associated with suffering. Greater injuries, if 
blood flows therewith, are supposed lo have correspondingly 
greater painfulncss. As a matter of fact, the records concerning the 
wounded in battles go to show that oftentimes the man is en- 
tirely unconscious that he is hit at all. The wound causes no 
pain till inflammation sets in several hours after its infliction. 
Pigeons not infrequently, after being hit, walk about picking up 
food from the ground, without any show of pain or knowledge of 
being injured. There is a shock to the part which so bentimbs it 
that no pain is possible. When the bird is hit squarely death is 
instantaneous. 
Target and Pigeon Shooting, 
Target shooting does not afford the tesit of skill that pigeon 
shooting does. More yet, it does not test the ■ shooter's nerve as 
does the latter, Many a trapshooter and rifleman can perform 
well at targets, and yet lose their nerve when it comes to a test 
of shooting at live animals. 
At targets there are in a general way only three angles — to the 
right, to the left, and straightaway. At any of these angles the 
target may fly- high or low. At pigeons the flight may be anything 
which the mind may imagine. There are live traps, which very 
nearly fill the full angle of vision, and out of any one of them a 
bird may be sprung which will tax the skill . of the most accom- 
plished shooter on earth. If a shooter succeeds in killing them 
all it does not follow as a consequence that his task was easy, but 
rather that he was a man of phenomenal skill and nerve, who ae- 
complished a feat that but few of his fellows could. 
To shoot pigeons well requires a degree of skill, alertness and 
quick execution that few men possess, yet the skill and discipline 
of nerve are those which serve well to the people as a whole 
when they join issue at such places as Santiago, Manila, Pekin, 
etc., and which will be equally serviceable when occasion arises 
for it in the future. 
Some Precedents. 
The following will give some of the judicial light which is con- 
sidered good precedent and good law on the matter in question. 
It will be noted, however, that the trial was under a general law 
in respect to cruelty, and that in respect to it there was no special 
law legalizing trapshooting, such as now exists in the State of 
New York. We quote: 
"There has been, more or less agitation in the matter of cruelty 
in pigeon shooting, chiefly by members of prevention of cruelty 
societies, and in view of this the following decisions, rendered 
by able jurists, may be of interest and value to those who suffer 
from the mistaken zeal of such men as imagine that their personal 
whims and vagaries are true standards of what is cruel and what 
is not. . . 
"The first case is from the records of the Quarter Sessions Court 
of Allegheny county. Pa., 1892, and was quite an important one, 
being the Commonwealth vs. Denny et al. The defendants were 
acquitted. The judge's charge was as follows: 
" 'Gentlemen: Each of these defendants is separately indicted 
for cruelty to animals, in that he did unlawfully and wantonly 
shoot, wound, abuse, and ill-treat one pigeon each, belonging to 
said J, O'H, Denny and E, H, McWhorter. This was on the 
21st day of April last. The pigeon shooting was out in the 
Eighteenth or Nineteenth Ward of this city, in the rural part of 
the city. The case is founded on the Act of Assembly passed in 
1869, which I do not Uiink very greatly differs from the one of 
1860, that "Any person who shall within this commonwealth 
wantonly or cruelly ill-treat, overload, beat or otherwise abtise any 
animal, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor." It is a statvite law 
providing against evils tliat are supposed to exist. A rule in the 
interpretation of statutes, and an old one, well established, is that 
in order to determine what a statute means you must know what 
the law was prior to the passage of the statute, and then see what 
evil was to be cured. Our common law is modified by the statute 
law very largely. There is a common law in regard to animals 
and their treatment by man that is very old, and it is of record 
in one of the oldest books that we have, and one of the best law 
books that we have. It was promulgated at the Garden of Eden to 
Adam and Eve. 
" ' "God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and 
multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion 
over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, and over every 
living thing that moves upon the earth." 
" 'There are passages of the same general import that have been 
governing mankind ever since. The fish of the sea and the fowl 
of the air and the beasts of the earth are for man, rather than 
man for the beasts. They are to be used for his sustenance, to 
aid him, for his comfort and his pleasure. Now in using them 
he must not unnecessarily cruelly treat them. The Act of As- 
sembly is intended to prevent brutal men and women from un- 
necessarily and wantonly causing pain where it is not necessary, in 
the using of animals for legitimate purposes. 
" 'These defendants are sportsmen, belonging, as I understand, 
to an association; and at this particular time tliey were shooting, 
as a test of skill, to see who could kill the most birds, each 
having 50 shots at 50 birds. That was a legitimate, lawful use 
of the birds. The pigeons were put in a trap one at a time, and le( 
out, and they would shoot them on the wing. If there were need 
of an authority — and I do not think it ought even to have-required 
one — the Supreme Court has decided that that is a legitimate use 
of pigeons; that it is not cruel: to shoot them fpr -sport or as a 
test of skill. The Commonwealth concedes that the defendants 
