Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1903, by Forest and Stream Publishing Ca 
Terms, $4 a Year. io;CTS. a Copy. 
Six Months, 
( 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCH 21, 1903. 
I VQL. LX.— No. 12. 
I No. 846 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 
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. 
THE EAGLE, THE FROG AND THE EEL. 
As a public educator the daily press arrogates much 
praise to itself. It claims originality of thought and 
purity of truthful teaching. In the main, it does all it 
claim's. In exceptional instances it fosters the false and 
the absurd. Of the falsities none are more numerous than 
those which pertain to frogs, toads, snakes, lizards, eels 
and the human stomach. Of the daily papers which vie 
in this connection by publishing vulgar myths in a sen- 
sational way as facts, none is equal to the Brooklyn 
Eagle in its habitual consistency. The stately dignity and 
scholastic soundness of its editorial columns are as a con- 
sequence in violent contrast with' the silliness of its news 
columns. 
Some weeks ago, with much minuteness of detail, the 
Brooklyn Eagle recounted the case of a Mrs. Charles 
Burtis,"of Hopewell Junction, N. Y., who was discharged 
from St. Catherine's Hospital, Brooklyn, N.. Y., as cured. 
The Eagle incidentally commented on the case as "said to 
be the most remarkable in the history of that institution." 
It then proceeded gravely to a recountal of particulars. 
Briefly they were as follows: A live frog, four inches 
in length, was removed from Mrs. Burtis's stoniach; she 
believed it had been in her stomach at least five years ; it 
was supposed that she swallowed it in "egg form, or as 
a pollywog while drinking water at a public spring ;" she 
complained "constantly of feeling something tearing at 
her stomach;" the X rays disclosed a dark object in her 
stomach; the surgical operation resulted in the removal 
of the live frog and the cause of the ailment. The Eagle 
naively concludes its minute account with the follow- 
ing: "At the hospital a young physician, who requested 
that his name be withheld, said the frog was of medium 
size and that it had lived about an hour after it was taken 
from the patient's stomach. It was very fat." 
One would imagine that after such an impudent play 
upon the credulity of its readers, the Eagle would refrain 
from a repetition of it, or that it would buy its frog editor 
a prmiary work on natural history for his better informa- 
tion, if it was resigned to retain his peculiar talents for 
the public benefit. The same story, however, dished up 
in a new form, was served to the public as a matter of 
fact one day last week. In this case, however, an eel 
took the place of the frog, and the history of the case, as 
set forth by the Eagle, was substantially as follows: 
Neils Andersen, a 17-year-old Swede, landed in 
America from the Campania; he was ill on the voy- 
age, suffering from violent coughing spells and severe 
stomach pains. The surgeon was nonplussed, and his 
treatment proved futile. When he landed and was un- 
der inspection by the surgeons of the Marine Corps, 
he was seized with a fit of coughing, which doubled 
him up, and he had the appearance of choking to death; 
"a violent cough, and the eel popped out of his mouth; 
it was very much alive and wriggled around on the 
deck." The Eagle concludes the history of the case 
with the remark: "It is believed that Andersen swal- 
lowed the eel when it was a little thing while drinking 
water from a pool, and that it grew to its present size 
of six inches in length in the boy's stomach." 
It will be noted that in the main the stories are alike 
in their conclusions. In both cases the specifications 
of names and places give them an apparent ring of 
truth. 
But one would imagine that they had some origin 
in fact. One would hardly assume that, with names 
of persons and places, the frog and eel -stories, pub- 
lished in a great and dignified daily, the Brooklyn 
Eagle, were fictions pure and simple. As a matter of 
fact, they had no origin other than in the imagination 
of the Brooklyn Eagle's bright snake and eel editor. 
There was neither frog nor eel in material form. It 
was pure fiction served as news fit for the entertain- 
paent of the paper's readers, 
It is hardly necessary to add that frogs, snakes, 
lizards and eels are organic beings, to which air, food 
and water are as essential as they are to man, and 
that for any of them to live in the human stomach is 
in the realm of the impossible. 
GOOD LAW AND GOOD ENGLISH. 
An entirely new version of "English as She is Wrote" 
might be .compiled from the successive annual blunderings 
of the New York Legislature in its framing of Sec. 33 of 
the game law, being the section which has to do with the 
protection of birds other than game and vermin. As it 
stands now, no game birds may be killed in the open 
season except under the authority of a certificate issued 
by a natural history society. A bill to correct the error 
has been introduced by Senator Allds, reading as fol- 
lows : 
• Wild birds other than the English sparrow, crow, hawk, crow 
blackbird, snow owl and great horned owl shall not be taken or 
possessed at any time dead or alive except as expressly permitted 
by this act. No part of the plumage, skin or body of any bird 
protected by this section shall be sold or had in possession for 
sale. 
The act is nowhere permissive, it is prohibitive 
throughout. To adopt this amendment then would not 
remedy the existing defect of the' statute; it would 
siniply make it worse, for the law, as Mr. Allds would 
have it, would permit the taking of game birds not at: 
all, neither with a certificate nor without one. 
Secretary William Dutcher, of the A. O. U. Com- 
mittee on Bird Protection, is endeavoring to secure 
the adoption by New York of the law for the protec- 
tion of birds other than game and harmful species, 
which has already been incorporated in the laws of 
numerous States. If the Legislature will substitute 
Mr. Dutcher's bill for the old Section 33, and in place 
of any new blundering text of Section 33, like this of 
Senator Allds, New York will have taken its place 
with the States which have in their bird protective 
statutes at once good laws and good English. 
BIG GAME IN NEW HAMPSHIRE. 
It is interesting to observe the slow advance that is be- 
fng made in these latter days toward restocking certain^ 
portions of our country with game great and small. We 
take little note of the individual steps as they happen, yet 
each such event is full of significance. 
After a century or two of riotous and wasteful slaughter 
of game there has come to many thoughtful people a 
realization that the wild things of our land have a value 
and are worth preserving, and while this value is in part 
sentimental, it is also in part economic; it may be 
measured in those dollars and cents which appeal so^ 
strongly to the American mind. 
The vast majority of Americans as yet know or care 
little about these things. Yet there is a small and more 
or less forceful minority which feels very deeply about 
them, and which by sheer force of persistence has im- 
pressed its belief on others, so that this minority is con- 
tinually increasing, and is now not without its weight ini 
legislative and governmental circles. 
A few years ago the preaching of those persons who' 
were interested in forestry seemed to have no more effect; 
on the public mind than the winds that blow over the: 
prairies or sigh among the boughs of the mountain pine.. 
Yet within a dozen years a mighty change has come over 
the views of the American people with regard to forestry,, 
and the results of this change are seen all oyer the 
western country in the monuments established by Presi- 
dents Cleveland, Harrison, McKinley and Roosevelt — the 
forest reserves. 
A few years ago anyone who had suggested an appro- 
priation by Congress for the purchase of buffalo to start 
a domesticated herd in the Yellowstone Park would have 
been laughed at as an impractical enthusiast; yet to-day 
we have in the Park under fence a herd of twenty do- 
mesticated animals, which pretty nearly doubles the num- 
ber of buffalo found in that reservation. 
Within a year or two, through the generosity of owners 
of game preserves in the Adirondacks, a number of speci- 
mens of our larger Cervida have been set free in the 
Adirondacks, and although a few have been killed by that 
lawless elenient vfhich exists city ^yiA coun1;ry alike, 
yet it is reported that on the whole these animals are do- 
ing well and are likely to increase. 
A like service has recently been performed for the State 
of New Hampshire by the Blue Mountain Forest Park 
Asscoiation, which was founded by the late Austin Corbin, 
and was fully described in Forest and Stream not many 
weeks ago. 
The game laws of New Hampshire prohibit the killing 
in the State of elk, moose and caribou, and in view of this 
law, which promises protection to the animals set free, the 
Blue Mountain Forest Association on March 13 turned 
out a herd of twelve elk, ten cows and two bulls, on 
Ragged Mountain, at Andover, N. H. The animals have 
been formally presented to the State, and are thus beyond 
any question its property, so that it should not be difficult 
to protect them. 
The elk turned loose by the late Mr. Corbin in Blue 
Mountain Forest Reserve have done exceedingly well, and 
have increased much faster than might have been ex- 
pected by those not familiar with the habits of the ani- 
mals. There seems to be no reason why those now turned 
loose, provided they are reasonably well looked after, 
should not so increase as to become very numerous. 
PROTECTION OF SIMIANS. 
It is a far cry from the simian inhabited jungles of 
Africa to the United States, yet it is not too far for a 
message to be brought to America, which may well 
be heeded and acted upon. Professor Garner told the 
Massachusetts Association the other night that under 
existing conditions the apes, chimpanzees ' and gorillas 
of West Africa are surely approaching extinction be- 
cause of the relentless and unflagging pursuit of them 
for export. The native hunters are stimulated by the 
traders chiefly by rewards of rum, and of the creatures 
taken a large proportion perishes before leaving Africa. 
If the traffic shall be continued as it is now conducted, 
early extermination of the species will follow. It is 
within the province of the French Government to regu- 
late the trade in apes, and citizens of other countries 
might at least give expression of their reluctance to 
see an interesting form of animal life obliterated, and 
by doing so might prompt France to take action in 
the matter. Under existing conditions it is clear that 
in his efforts to acquire the speech of the simian, Pro- 
fessor Garner is studying what must soon be put in 
the category of the dead languages. 
ANTI-SALE LAWS. 
A notable feature of the banquet of the Massa- 
chusetts Fish and Game Protective Association the 
other evening was the enthusiastic approval expressed 
hy the speakers of the anti-sale law. President Reed 
•characterized it as the most important measure ever 
enacted for the protection of Massachusetts game; 
and Rev. Mr. Jaynes declared that its repeal would 
arouse a storm of protest from the Berkshires to Cape 
God. Public opinion is all for the law. It is recog- 
aiized as a measure which saves Massachusetts game 
for Massachusetts sportsmen. 
This experience in the Bay State demonstrates in the 
strongest and most convincing manner the precise truth of 
all that has ever been claimed for a non-sale of game 
system. To stop the sale of game means to stock the 
.■game covers ; to cut off the market means that the grouse- 
snarer has lost his job. It has been said here, and may 
be said again, that what has proved so advantageous and 
profitable for Massachusetts would prove equally effective 
for New York. The bill now in the Legislature at Al- 
bany to prohibit the sale of quail, ruffed grouse and wood- 
cock killed in the State, is not all that could be desired — 
it should prohibit absolutely the sale of these species wher- 
ever taken — ^but it is a thousand times better than the 
present law, which permits their sale' in the open season, 
and it ought to have the indorsement and earnest, active 
support of every citizen who wants to see repeated in 
New York the game restoration which has been wrought 
in Massachusetts. 
The advocates of the h}\\ to reorganize the Massa- 
chusetts Fish and Game Commission were given a 
hearing on Thursday of this week. If popular senti- 
ment shall control, this measure is otfe" which will never 
emerg^ \XQ,W-^ the cornmittee rooms, " ^ 
