Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1902, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
^rm S ,$4ayear. t ioct S . a copy.j NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 1902. \ No . s % o ko\™^ 0 J Vo«k 
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 
Dages are devoted. Anonymous communications will not be 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 iii. 
ILLUSTRATION SUPPLEMENT. 
Our illustration supplement this week is a reproduction 
of the famous painting "The Forester's Home," by 
Knaus, from the original in the Corcoran Gallery of Art 
in Washington. With the issue of July 5 will be given a 
half-tone of a photograph of a buffalo herd — a' picture 
which will be a reminder to some of our older readers 
of a West which has long since disappeared. 
AUTOMOBILING LAWLESSNESS. 
In this country, the introduction of the automobile and 
the locomobile as a means of transportation has been 
marked by a deplorably long list of maimings, killings 
and damages to property. Experience in managing the 
new machines, the disapproval of the public, and the 
rare and meagre penalties imposed by the courts in the 
way of fines, seem to have no mitigating effect whatever 
in abating the evil. Rather, it grows steadily. In the 
great cities where there is a congestion of humanity and 
a consequent congestion of traffic over vast areas, the evil 
is unceasingly active and pregnant with danger of some 
kind to life, limb or property. Hardly a day passes 
without some serious accident from the misuse of the 
motor carriage. 
New York city is specially prolific in the "accidents" 
which occur, and are inseparable from the reckless use 
of the automobile. Owing to its dense population, in its 
long and narrow streets long since inadequate to accom- 
modate the ordinary slow, everyday traffic, high speed, 
whether of horse or motor carriage, is a challenge to 
disaster. 
The peculiarities of the motor carriage — its beauty, 
great power, speed, novelty and exclusiveness — appeal 
favorably to the patronage of the wealthy classes. It 
specially appeals to that part of them which finds its 
greatest activity and enthusiasm in the realm of sport. 
Thus in ordinary road work there are many racing ma- 
chines in use, machines which are quite in keeping with 
the conditions of racing when used on the racing track, 
but which are entirely out of place when used at a 
high and illegal rate of speed on the highways of the 
people. 
Notwithstanding the disasters incident to such reckless 
auto machine speed, there seems to be no prospect of a 
diminution of the evil: Rather it grows greater in di- 
rect ratio as the machines increase in number, and their 
uses at illegal speed are directly upheld or countenanced 
by great social prestige and millions of wealth, position 
and power, which should be exercised for the mainte- 
nance of all laws rather than for their infraction. Being 
wealthy constitutes no offense per se, but it is a great 
aid in maintaining petty carelessness when its possessor 
is so inclined. 
The court proceedings in this connection have fairly 
well demonstrated that the old laws, which were made 
with a view to punish offenders in respect to the fast 
driving of horses in the public streets, are utterly in- 
adequate to abate the over-speeding of motor machines 
In the streets. The fine of $5 or $10 was of sufficient se- 
riousness to the average horse driver to make him ob- 
servant of the laws of the road thereafter, or to deter him 
from violating them. How changed is all this in re- 
spect to the auto-machine owner who has offended. He 
appears leisurely in court, carries himself in a high and 
haughty manner, shows only a languid interest in the 
charge, pays his fine or that of his chauffeur with quiet 
contemptuous disdain, and walks forth with superla- 
tive indifference. There is no manifestation by him that 
any penalty has been felt or that any lesson has been 
inculcated which will tend to his better behavior there- 
after. In view of this nothing in the way of a fine for 
such offenders proves adequate. Imprisonment is the 
pnly penalty which would be dreaded and heeded. 
An auto machine has some features other than speed, 
which also make the old laws, which had the over-speed- 
ing of horses in view, inapplicable. If a horse driver 
violated the speed ordinance, he could be caught almost 
to a certainty. The horse, or horses could not main- 
tain a maximum of exertion more than a few minutes of 
time. The auto machine can go for many minutes, its 
reserve power and mechanism placing it in speed capa- 
bilities almost on an equality with the fastest railroad 
trains and fully on an equality as a destroyer of life when 
misused. The fact that it may carry various devices, 
horns, gongs, etc., with which to give warning and with 
which warning is given, adds but little to the safety of 
a man afoot who may happen to be in the way. They 
advance so noiselessly, so swiftly and so regardless of 
life or limb in many cases, that the pedestrian is caught 
before he can discern whence the danger threatens, or 
discerning it, he has to scurry actively to escape, though 
under the law he has the right of way himself. As for 
a dog or other animal which might get in the way, such 
is no manner of consequence unless it were in some way 
a menace to the chauffeur, his employer or the automo- 
bile. 
CONEY ISLAND. 
Among the rarest and most beneficent possessions of 
the city of New York is the stretch of sea beach of 
Coney Island. Lying within the city limits and reached 
by an hour's trolley ride from the Brooklyn Bridge or 
an hour's sail down the harbor, the resort attracts hun- 
dreds of thousands of visitors every year; and of these 
the vastly preponderating majority is made up of the 
working people of the city, old and young, most of whom 
have no other outing than this. The men and women 
who visit Coney Island are, as a rule, decent and clean 
in their home surroundings, and are entitled to decent 
and clean surroundings when they go out to take their 
pleasure. These they have not been afforded at Coney 
Island. The Grand Jury of Kings County has just 
made a presentment in which the condition of the island 
is characterized as "a stench in the nostrils of honest 
people." The grand jury found there continued open 
and flagrant violation of the law, with vice and inde- 
cency rampant and unrestrained by the authorities. This 
is no new thing. It has been true of Coney Island for 
years. The city's seaside resort has been exploited by 
the vicious and the criminal so openly and confidently 
and securely that there has been no room for question 
that the police of the island were in league with the 
thieves and thugs and panderers who have done busi- 
ness there. The viciousness of Coney Island has* been 
a standing disgrace to the authorities of the city from 
the mayor and the police commissioner down to the man 
on post. The peculiar outrage of the situation is, as we 
have said, that the people who actually need Coney 
Island and are most benefited by it in their outings are 
entitled to a seashore playground as clean and healthful 
and pure as the sea breeze from the ocean. The grand 
jury's presentment is not without a touch of humor, for 
the jurors say that they have furnished to the police 
captain in charge a list of the disorderly resorts on the 
island. Either the captain knew of every such resort 
before the jury told him or he did not know of it. If 
he did know he should be put on trial for neglect of duty; 
if he did not know he should be removed as incompe- 
tent for his place. We do not want blind and deaf men 
for police captains. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
We most heartily second Dr. Ambler's request that 
every reader who is interested in the plan of establishing 
the Appalachian National Forest Reserve shall communi- 
cate with his Senator and Representative and urge sup- 
port of the measure to create the reserve. It is extremely 
important that Congress should take action now, for the 
work of clearing the forests is steadily progressing, and 
every year of delay will mean so much more irreparable 
ruin. The fact is significant that the Appalachian project 
has the indorsement not only of such bodies as the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science, 
the American Forestry Association, and the National 
Board of Trade, but of lumber associations and the 
leading journals which represent the 'interests of the 
lumbermen, Th$ National Hardwood Lumber Associa- 
tion, at its annual meeting in St. Louis, in May, indorsed 
the Appalachian Park in these words : 
Whereas, The numerous forest reserves established by the 
National Government are all located in the West, and not one of 
them embraces any portion of the great hardwood forests of the 
country: 
Resolved, That the National Hardwood Lumber Association 
respectfully urges upon Congress the importance of establishing 
the proposed National Forest Reserve in the hardwood region of 
the Southern Appalachian Mountains, both as a means of pre- 
serving these mountains and preventing disastrous floods, and also 
as a means of demonstrating to the people of this country what 
can be done in the way of using hardwood forests, and at the 
same time perpetuating them for the benefit of future generations. 
i( 
Game protective clubs are of two kinds; one protects 
game, the other does not. It is always a gratification 
and an incitement to record actual accomplishment by 
a club whose' practice comports with its profession as a 
working organization. There lies before us the annual 
report of the Rensselaer County Rod and Gun Club, with 
headquarters at West Sandlake, N. Y. President J. R. 
McLaren makes an exhibit for the year of which many an 
older association might well be proud. Through the 
club's legislative committee a modification of the wood- 
cock and squirrel seasons for the county was secured 
at Albany; the committee on stocking and planting has 
received from the State more than 500,000 fry of game 
fish, with more than 9,000 fingerlings and 9000 year- 
lings, and all of these have been planted in the public 
waters. A supply of Mongolian pheasants has been put 
out. The club has secured the appointment of a special 
deputy protector and has commanded respect for the 
law by securing the arrest and punishment of grouse 
snarers and takers of trout out of season. The admission 
fee of one dollar and annual dues of fifty cents are so low 
that the membership is large and growing, and the in- 
fluence of the organization in corresponding degree 
powerful and effective. 
The Ways and Means Committee of the House of 
Representatives has reported favorably the bill to reopen 
with Great Britain negotiations looking to a modification 
of the existing agreement relative to the protection of the 
Behring Sea seals. The purpose of the bill is to secure 
the permanent protection of the 'seals from the pelagic 
fishermen, or failing that, the destruction of the herd by 
the United States. Under present conditions this country 
is foolishly preserving the seals for the pelagic fisher- 
men; and this will go on just so long as the Govern- 
ment shall be willing to spend an immense amount of 
money for the benefit of alien pirates. The situation is 
intolerable ; better the extermination of the herd than 
that pelagic sealing should continue. 
James A. Conlin, who died in this city last week at 
the age of sixty-seven years, was well known to rifle and 
pistol shooters by reason of his long connection with the 
sport. For more than a quarter of a century the iron 
figure of a marksman, which stood for a sign in front of 
Conlin's gallery, was a landmark on Broadway, and a 
respectable company of skilled shots might be muste**ed 
from the scores of shooters who received their first 
lessons there. Mr. Conlin took an active part in pro- 
moting the international long range rifle shooting of 
the 70's. 
The contention of Mr. Lewis Hopkins, that the gun 
play of the cheap theatrical show encourages the pistol 
carrying habit, will have added force if we remember 
that the patronage of the shows is drawn largely 
from the young and the uneducated. To such the show 
is a school ; they learn from it in a measure their morals 
and rules of life. If gun play is employed on the stage, 
the effect is very much what it would be if the principle 
of resort to the pistol were inculcated in a school. 
a? 
The Virginia deer imported into Nova Scotia have 
become so well established that according to the current 
report of the Game Protection Society they are to be 
found in small numbers in almost every county in th,§ 
province. j 
