mo 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
XFeB, 22, 1902. 
circle at least that the matter be put to a vote, and if the 
volume of expression had come out against the system 
that I hear every day on the streets, it would have been 
overwhelmingly voted down. But there is an aristocracy, 
and it is to be found in the Megantic Club as well as 
elsewhere ; an aristocracy that would be willing to pay for 
a license to hunt, in order to keep the common people 
back; to save the game for the aristocracy. But this 
aristocracy cannot accomplish its purpose through a non- 
resident license svstem in Maine. It may rest assured that 
the residents of Maine, among whom there are more rifles 
and experts with them, to the number of inhabitants, than 
in any other part of the country, will see to it that there 
is no great increase of game for the visitors to_ shoot. 
Almost every boy, and most of the men, in Maine are 
interested in shooting. Rifle makers have sold more 
rifles to go into Maine during the past eight or ten years, 
particularly the last four or five, than ever before 
recorded. The matter of a non-resident license to hunt in 
Maine was not put to a vote at that meeting. 
Speaker Myers congratulated the club on its excellent 
showing, and added that Massachusetts, though having no 
great expanse of lake and forest, is doing good work in 
protecting and propagating fish and game. He added that 
he was sorry that Massachusetts has not already taken 
steps to prevent the sale of big game in her markets dur- 
ing the closed season on the game in the States from 
which it is shipped. Special. 
That Queer New York Law. 
Teere Haute/ Ind., Feb. 11.— Editor Forest ami 
Stream: In your issue of Feb. 1. you discuss Section 33 
of the New York Game Law, as amended in 1901, which 
section is given as follo'ws: 
"Wild birds (other than the English sparrow, crow, 
hawk, crane, raven, crow-blackbird, common blackbird, 
kingfisher and birds for which there is no open season), 
shall not be taken or possessed at any time, dead or alive, 
except under the authority of a certificate issued under 
this act. No part of the plumage, skin or body of any 
bird protected by this section shall be sold or had in pos- 
session for sale." 
Your conclusion is that only game birds are protected 
by the section, and. consequently, that insectivorous or 
song birds have now no protection whatever in the State 
of New York. In this construction of the section Amicus 
Curiae, in your issue of the 8th, concurs, although he 
seems to hold the opinion that song birds are protected by 
other sections of the statute. 
Amicus Curiae also declares that "the question is purely 
one on the construction of the English language." 
It seems to the writer that the construction of the sec- 
tion under discussion involves much more than the ap- 
plication of the rules of grammar, and that the intention " 
of the lawmakers should control, if a reasonable inten-' 
tion can be discovered. A careful analysis of the section 
will show that the section was not enacted for protection 
of game birds, but for the protection of wild birds other 
than game birds and those non-game birds specifically 
mentioned. The legislative intent is so apparent that it 
cannot be defeated nor obscured by the erroneous tran- 
scribing of a single word. The word "no" before the 
words "open season" has evidently, by some error, been 
written into the text of the law in the place of the word 
"an." The word "no" makes good grammatical sense, 
but a logical and legal absurdity of the entire section. 
But assuming that your construction of the section is 
correct, and substituting the words "game birds" for their 
equivalent in the section, it reads: 
"Game birds shall not be taken or possessed at any 
time, dead or alive, except under the authority of a certi- 
ficate issued under this act. No part of the plumage, skin 
or body of any game bird shall be sold or had in posses- 
sion for sale." 
It is a little remarkable that an idea so simple and so 
easily expressed should have been expressed by such an 
obscure circumlocution as is used in the section. , But 
let that pass; the New York Legislature may not have 
known how to express itself in good English. 
The section defines two distinct offenses. The first 
offense defined, on the theory of the Forest and Stream, 
consists in taking or having in possession any game bird. 
In defining this offense it should be noted: 
1. That the section recognizes an open season in which 
one may lawfully kill game birds. 
2. Thai: it does not require one who kills a game 
bird, to have a permit to kill it. 
3. That it does require one who kills a game bird to 
have a permit before he takes it into his possession. 
Thus, on the theory assumed, the evil to be cured, so 
far as the sportsman is concerned, is the picking up of 
his dead birds without a permit. 
The second offense defined consists in selling or having 
for sate any "part of the plumage, skin or body of any" 
game bird. 
The section forbids the sale of certain specified parts of 
the bird of the class sold and used for personal adorn- 
ment, and other parts not specifically named, but of the 
same class as those specified. 
It is a rule of statutory construction that a general 
term connected with and following a specific term em- 
braces only things of the class indicated by the specific 
term. Hence, the section does not forbid the sale of 
whole birds nor any part of the bird, except such as 
are sold and used for personal adornment. The crime 
defined consists not in selling game birds whole, but in 
selling and keeping for sale the feathers, heads, feet and 
skins, instead of sending them to the garbage heap. 
The evil to be cured is the habit of using as millinery 
the heads, skins and other parts of the body of wild geese, 
ducks and other game birds. 
The theory that Section 33 protects only game birds 
depends upon keeping the word "no" in the text before 
the words "open season." But the presence of the word 
in that position refutes the theory. With it in the text, 
the section recognizes that there is a class of birds for 
which there is "no" open season — that is, a class of birds 
which it is not lawful to kill at any time in the year. 
But, if the only class of birds protected by the section 
is game birds, it follows that the class of birds which it 
is unlawful to kill, at any time of the year, may, at any 
time of the year, be lawfully taken, dead or alive", divided 
into parts and sold to the ladies to trim their hats. 
On the theory that the purpose of the section was to 
protect game birds only, that purpose would seem not to 
be economic, but purely aesthetic ; and the title of the 
law should have been "An act to prevent the female popu- 
lation from decorating themselves with geese and ducks 
instead of orioles and hummingbirds." 
Robert B. Stimson. 
Jacob Wier. 
Princes Bay, Staten Island, N. Y., Feb. 10.— Jacob 
Wier was born in the first quarter of the last century, and 
died Feb. 8, 1902. He was well past the allotted age of 
three score and ten, and it is fitting that his death should 
be noted in Forest and Stream, as he was a follower of 
Forest and Stream's Platform regarding game laws. 
Uncle Jake, as he has been called for a great many years, 
was the last of the old hunters in this vicinity; all his old 
hunting friends in the days of his youth have passed the 
Great Divide. He could well remember when Staten 
Island was the paradise of the wing shot. I often took 
advantage of my close personal acquaintance with Uncle 
Jake to lead him into conversation about the good old 
times he used to have with his dogs and gun, as well as 
his fiddle, for he was a great fiddler in his day. Even 
twenty years ago he was in demand by the young people 
to play at their little parties held around at private resi- 
dences; they seemed to think that no one could do the 
Fisher's Hornpipe as Uncle Jake. 
Jacob Wier in his younger days was a close friend of 
swamp back of his farm that, I think, was the last par- 
tridge ever shot on Staten Island. He could remember 
when foxes and raccoons were numerous on the island, 
when houses were few and far, between, and the large 
farms were tilled and their products taken to market 
on the sloops in the bay ; when quail were so plentiful that 
, they mingled with the barnyard fowls for their break- 
fast, and good-sized trout could be caught in a near- 
by stream ; but he said, "I never bothered with those 
little trout. I had more fun with sheepshead and sturgeon 
down in the bay." One night, as I sat by his bedside in 
the long hours toward morning, he opened his eyes and 
told me of his younger days, and as he went on telling 
of the sport he had with rod and gun, I felt as if ,1 
would go and hide my gun where I could never see it 
as soon as I went home. As he lay there his mind was 
perfectly clear, and he told me he would be up and around 
again. I thought not, as one side of his body was per- 
fectly helpless; but his prophecy was correct. He was 
able in a short time to get up and be around for a little 
while in pleasant weather, but he had a second stroke 
week before last, which was the cause, of his death. 
Jacob Wier was a good citizen, an honest neighbor and 
a faithful friend. *** 
JACOB WIER. 
William H. Vanderbilt. when Mr. Vanderbilt conducted 
his large farm at New Dorp, Staten Island, many years 
ago. When Mr. Vanderbilt came down to this end of 
the island to some of the social functions, he would always 
insist on having Mr. Wier there with his violin. One 
evening, as Mr. Wier was wending his way down the 
road to the old Bennet mansion, where he was expectedto 
play for Mr. Vanderbilt' s party, he came in contact with 
a "pole cat," and Uncle Jake told me, "I did not smell 
anything else but skunk for three months." "Well," said 
I, "how did you make out to play that night?" "Now. 
see, it was just like this. I kept right on and went to 
the front gate and hallooed to William H. to come out, 
and he did, and I told him what was the matter. He 
prentended to me that he could not smell anything, but 
he said, 'Wait a minute, Jacob, I will go in the house 
and bring you out something.' Well, he went in the 
house and brought out another young fellow, I don't 
know who he was, but he was a mighty powerful young 
man. Any way, Mr. Vanderbilt and this young fellow 
grabbed me by the nape of the neck and hustled me into 
the house. I kicked and clawed, but it was of no use; 
they were too much for me, and I went right among all 
those fine people. Mr. Vanderbilt started to introduce 
me — they took one breath ; that was enough. The women 
shrieked and the dog barked, and out went all hands 
helter skelter, and William H. stood there laughing ; but 
there was no dance in the house that night." 
Jacob Wier advocated the Forest and Stream Plat- 
form many years before the paper was printed. He) 
would put his gun, away on New Year's Day, and it was 
not used on game until the next fall; but it stood in 
the corner ever ready for the hen hawk or any . other 
enemy of the farm yard. I have often heard him speak 
in emphatic condemnation of shooting birds in the spring, 
and he had no use for a man who shot a rabbit sitting. 
He claimed that a map who tracked a rabbit on the snow 
and shot it sitting did not know what sport was; and 
that is sound logic. His idea of honest sport was correct. 
For the last six or seven years Mr. Wier had been 
troubled badly with rheumatism, but before that I was 
always invited to go out with him every fall — in fact, he 
thought it was my duty to go out with him once a year 
anyway. He killed a partridge in the fall of 1880 "in a 
Ontario Deer. 
The Grand Trunk Railway system has just announced 
that the deer hunting season in the woods of Ontario was 
most satisfactory to the hunters who went there during 
the open season of 1901. Complete information is not 
yet at hand, but the officers of the road estimate that at 
least 5,000 licenses to shoot deer were issued. They also 
estimate the number of deer killed to be about 8,000. They 
say that it is marvelous how the stock of deer keeps up 
in that Province, and that it is partly accounted for by 
the shortness of the open season, from Nov. 1 to the 15th, 
and by the strict prosecution by the Ontario Government 
of any one transgressing the laws. This year the Cana- 
dian Express Company has conveyed, by actual number- 
ing, 2,372 deer, which is an increase over the preceding 
year of 878 deer. The largest number were taken from 
the Magnetaway River region, the Muskoka Lakes dis- 
trict, and points on the Northern Division of the Grand 
Trunk, north of Huntsville. The number of deer trans 
ported by the express company can scarcely be considered 
a criterion of the whole number killed, since settlers. 
Indians, half-breeds and hunters who do not have to 
express their deer to their homes, have doubtless killed 
a great many more than were transported by that com 
pany. Neither is the number eaten by the hunters while 
they are in the woods taken into this account, and careful 
estimates suggest that at least 8,000 to 9,000 deer must 
have been killed in the woods of Ontario during the sea- 
son of 1901. Special. 
American Duck Shooting. 
Chicago, 111., Feb. 10. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
1 am in receipt of your valuable work entitled "American 
Duck Shooting." I have looked it over carefully, and 
can say truthfully, after upward of forty years' experi- 
ence as a duck shooter, that in my opinion, it is the most 
valuable work on that subject that it has ever been my 
good fortune to read. I think the book invaluable to ail 
duck shooters, and especially so to new beginners, as 
there are instructions therein which required many years 
of experimenting for me to learn — particularly the article 
entitled "The Art of Duck Shooting." "Guns and Load- 
ing," which, in my estimation, is the best advice that I 
have ever seen in print to any shooter, either veteran or 
novice. I can cheerfully recommend this book to all 
classes of sportsmen as the best that I have ever read. 
W. W. McFarland, 
President Hennepin Shooting Club. 
itver 
Proprietors of fishing: resorts will find it profitable to adverts 
them in Forest and Stream. 
The North American Association. 
Scranton, Pa., Feb. 12. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Could all small and narrow minded lovers of out-of-door 
sports read and read again the clear, concise report of 
Mr. J. B. Burnham, as he has so worthily and beautifully 
outlined the doings and defined the wishes of those grand 
representative men who, on Jan. 22 and 23, gathered at 
Burlington, Vt, under the name of the North American 
Fish and Game Protective Association, it is my opinion 
that these would even be willing to listen to the call for 
the better enforcement of law, in so far as regards protec- 
tion of fish and game. Seldom, if ever, has it been my 
good fortune to see in print a worthier band of genuine 
sportsmen; and when one takes into consideration the 
good feeling and good fellowship pervading this grand 
gathering, he who has cast his flies and used his. rifle 
on either side of the border, can appreciate the fact that 
we should be brother fishers and shooters in reality. It 
is quite apparent to very many that the inhabitants of 
Quebec, New Brunswick. Ontario and even Nova . Scotia 
are in sympathy with their brother anglers and hunters of 
the Republic. 
We of the States, year after year, visit the waters of 
Champlain, the islands of the St. Lawrence, the Lauren- 
tian Hills, Lake Edward, the feeders of Lake St. John 
and the Grand Discharge, looking for and finding, great 
pleasure on or along the higher waters of the north ; and 
while I for one have had occasion at times, to protest 
against the actions of poachers, it is a fact that for the 
most part distance has added to the enchantment, when 
one realized that a wagon road could only be found at a 
distance of forty miles. 
So long as my brothers shall continue to agitate the 
question of fair legislative protection, so long shall I 
be found with them in the field, in the deep forest and 
beside the stream, A. B. Blair. 
