Forest and Stream 
A w 
EEKLY Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1902, btt Forest and Stream Pububhing Co. 
Terms, $4 A Year. 10 Cts. a Copv 
Six Months, $2. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1902 
J 
VOL. LIX.— No. 11. 
No. 346 Broadway, New York. 
THE NATIONAL GUN CLUB. 
Elsewhere in our columns we publish the recently 
issued constitution and suggestions of the National Gun 
Club. Having formally announced, by that instrument, 
its official existence and purposes, it may be considered as 
being actively launched on its mission. 
At the outset we wish it understood that we are in 
sympathy with the idea of a central "governing body in the 
trapshooting world. Indeed, we have advocated it in 
many years past. The friendly criticism which we are 
about to offer is therefore not against the idea or the 
body itself, but against what we deem to be radical faults 
of organization, defective purpose and inadequate powers. 
One of the chief faults of organization is that it is a 
self-constituted body, and therefore has not been vested 
with any powers by those whom it purposes to- govern. 
It has made the government first, and then follows the 
suggestion to shooters to come in and be governed. This 
in a way somewhat rcA^erses the ordinary procedure where 
the governed declare the purposes of the government, and 
tlien vest men with governmental powers. Moreover, as to 
membership, the units of organization should be clubs 
instead'of individuals. The latter will be passive if there 
is nothing to appeal to their self-interest. If the -mem- 
bers are passive, the association is inoperative. Clubs, in- 
stead of individuals, are the units in other national 
organizations which have shown the greatest stability and 
usefulness. As an instance, which will serve as an ex- 
ample of many similar organizations, the American Ken- 
nel Club has a membership of regularly organized clubs. 
It derives its powers exclusively from its members, who 
are'represented respectively hy delegates. Thus the gov- 
erning body is the creature of the governed, instead of 
vice versa. Each club settles upon its policy and pur- 
pose, the delegates are instructed as to the wishes of the 
clubs, and there is thus an effective and satisfactory legis- 
lative machinery provided which would be impossible if 
the units were individuals. Individual zeal cannot be 
long maintained without something of material advantage 
which appeals directly to the self-interest of the individual. 
Let us now examine the purposes as set forth in the 
constitution, and consider whether they have sufficient 
importance to engage public support. These purposes 
number six, and are, substantially as follows: To protect 
fish and game; to establish game preserves; to promote 
trap and wing shooting; to promote acquaintance and 
friendship of trapshooters throughout the United States ; 
to establish local associations; to familiarize the youth of 
the country with firearms. 
The protection of fish and game, the first purpose men- 
tioned, has a place in the constitution of many trap- 
shooting associations, but it is a notorious fact that, in 
the majority of cases, it is a dead letter. Trapshooting 
organizations make trapshooting paramount to all else. 
At all events, at this stage of game protection, the pro- 
tection which is a fact and not, a meaningless term is that 
instituted by the States' legislatures, backed up by the 
personal vigilance of the game wardens who are paid for 
their services. A national protective organization, self- 
constituted, has no powers within the States or elsewhere 
other than the time-honored "Whereas, and therefore be 
it resolved." It is a fair estimate of the value of this 
game protection clause that it is a dead letter. This 
may be said also of the establishment of national and 
State game preserves. 
In regard to fostering trap and wing shooting, there is 
no more effective means than the local gun club to foster 
trapshooting, and as for wing shooting, there are more 
wing shooters now than there are birds to supply their 
demands. Stringent restrictions of means and seasons 
are necessary to conserve the supply. In any event, the 
wing shots are not the product of national associations. 
They are local products entirely. Acquaintance and 
friendship are at a high tide now. There is every facility 
for extending both without any official body to further 
them, and in any event, they are largely a matter of the 
personal equation. How can a national club familiarize the 
youth of the country with firearms? The local shooters 
and the local clubs are the real educators. All the fore- 
going seem to be too trivial or top impracticable for bring- 
ing into existence a national body. They are the pur- 
poses often used to give a sonorous roundness to con- 
stitutions of trapshooting and game protective associa- 
tions whicl; h^Yf % Vit^l main purpose. 
The National Gun Club also states that "beginning with 
the j'ear 1904 there will be held in different parts of the 
country, under the immediate control of the National 
Gun Club, two tournaments annually, in the spring and 
autumn, details of -which will be furnished later." The 
National Gun Club could not hope to do much of national 
import in the way of holding a tournament. The Inter- 
state Association, and the Peters Cartridge Co., with 
their trained, skillful managers, are already in the field 
doing work of great scope and' merit. 
Strange to remark, the real purpose of a national 
club, the regulation of professional and amateur, is en- 
tirely ignored by the National Gun Club. 
GAME AND THE LANDOWNER. 
Most of the States have fairly good game laws, but in 
a very large number of localities these laws — owing to in- 
efficiency of wardens or lack of interest by the public — are 
very imperfectly enforced. Complaint of this is ex- 
tremely common, and in a majority of cases is un- 
dcatbtedly well founded. The enforcement of laws which 
have not the support of public sentiment is rather hope- 
less, and one of the remedies to be applied in a section 
where the laws are not regarded is education. There is 
hardly any quarter of the land where there does not exist 
seme little game protective leaven, even if the few in any 
county Avho possess the right spirit are no more numer- 
ous than the righteous men of Sodom. Each man who 
wishes to see law respected and game protected can in-- 
fluence some other man or men, and by tactful discus- 
sion of the subject can win over converts to his way of 
thinking. 
There is a form. of game protection, which, old in the 
old countr}', is comparatively new here and is especially 
so in newly settled regions. This consists in inducing each 
land holder to become a game protector for his own 
acres, by the proper posting of his land, and the en- 
forcement of the trespass laws. At first, this results only 
in the protection of isolated farms, but it has been found 
that the landholders are quick to follow a lead of this 
kmd, and that in any country such a movement rapidly 
spreads. In some parts of the South this posting of the 
land has become very general, and where practiced, does 
much to reduce the number of birds killed. 
Even in a region so newly settled as Oklahoma, por- 
tions of which have been opened for about ten years, 
while other portions have been open for only one or two, 
this posting of the land is practiced. It does not seem 
to be directed against sportsmen generally, but has been 
adopted as a protection agamst the market-shooter, who 
has been accustomed to visit Oklahoma and the Indian 
Territory, and to systematically sweep the prairies bare 
of birds, which he shipped to some great city to the 
north and east. 
For some reason or other the market-hunter is not gen- 
erally popular, and he is perhaps less popular in the 
South than elsewhere. It is said that the individual 
sportsman, shooting for pleasure and satisfied with a 
moderate nitmber'of birds each day, has little difficulty 
in procuring from the Southern landholders generally the 
privilege of shooting over his fields. On the other hand 
there are many regions where associations of sportsmen 
have leased all the farms lying together over a consider- 
able area. 
As time goes on interest in game protection and respect 
for game laws is certain to grow, and the time is not 
far distant when game protection by the State will become 
generally efficient. In the meantime the individual far- 
n>er is perfectly able to protect his own land and should 
do so, and may very properly make the birds which are 
bred and fed on his farm yield him some small income 
either in money or in satisfaction. . 
It may fairly enough be inferred that if the general 
public realized how rapidly lands and waters are being 
taken up by associations of well to do men and women 
for outdoor purposes, the general indifference as to the 
game laws would cease to exist. As urged so often by- 
President Roosevelt in written and spoken word, good 
game laws are far more important to the man of modest 
means, or the poor man, than they are to any one elsg. 
The average man must depend for his outdoor sport ori 
the game which is free to all, and which is near by. He 
cannot afford to travel 500 or ?.,ooo miles for a few days' 
shooting, but he can enjoy his legal holiday or his Satur- 
day afternoon by going abroad to shoot or fish over the 
country near his home. It is the poor man then who is 
most interested in the game laws, and as those of us who 
are poor far outnumber those who are rich, and as each 
one of us has some influence we ought to be able to ar- 
range matters so as to have good laws, and a proper en- 
forcement of them. That has not yet come. In the 
meantime let each landholder do what he can for ths 
protection of the game on his own property. 
A NEW PROFESSION. 
A RATHER alluring article is going the rounds of the 
press expatiating upon t^ie attractions of scientific forestry 
as a new profession opened to young men. It is held up 
as an ideal pursuit, which offers unequalled opportunity 
for living a free and healthful outdoor life. "It deals 
with nature's greatest beauties. It is a profession that 
is not crowded. It offers chances for wealth', since the 
trained eye of a forester can see chances in the wilderness 
which the untrained man, and even the trained but un- 
scientific woodsman, would not guess. It is a business 
that promises ample salary, for the forester can show 
his employers where they can save or earn thousands 
of dollars that without him would be lost." 
All of which is pleasing to read and enticing to con- 
template when regarded through the rosy spectacles of 
simple and trustful youth. The cold, hard fact, how- 
ever, is that in its present development in America, for- 
estry as a profession is one which offers extremely 
meager emoluments to those who engage in it. There 
are, of course, numerous individual and corporate holders 
of woodlands who are ready to undertake the practical 
scientific administration of their estates, but for all such 
the United States Government stands ready to supply the 
services of the experts of the Bureau of Forestry. The 
Government will not only prepare plans for treatment 
for a forest tract, but will give such explicit and precise 
instructions for the carrying out of the plan that there 
remains only work for the unskilled and untaught day 
laborer at so much per day. Thus it happens that the 
trained forester, who seeks a commission from such a 
landowner and who must have pay for his services, finds 
himself in direct competition with the Government, which 
performs precisely the same service for nothing. There 
remains for him employment with the Bureau of Forestry ; 
and here, if his taste for outdoor life and the beauties of 
nature be so predominant that their gratification will com- 
pensate for low wages and exile from home, he may do 
something for his day and generation. 
It is true indeed that in this country forestry is as yet 
in its infancy, and the future will surely see vastly 
changed conditions. There will come a time without 
doubt when the profession of scientific forester will have 
remunerative recognition ; but as conditions now exist it 
is much simpler to pen an alluring and delusive article 
on the charms of the forester's profession than it is to 
find work for a professional forester at living pay. In the 
year 1902 in the United States forestry as a profession 
may safely be recommended only to young men whose 
means will permit them to engage in it as a dignified 
diversion. 
The opening weeks of the Adirondack deer hunting 
season have been signalized by the killing of two human 
beings mistaken for deer. One of the victims was walk- 
ing on the railroad track; the other, if the newspaper 
reports are correct, was oiit with a jacking party on a 
pond tributary to Blue Mountain Lake, and when the 
jacklight was flashed on him the hunter in the other boat 
thought he saw a deer and shot before he made sure. 
One circumstance of this case, which adds to its deplor- 
able nature, is that hunting deer at night is forbidden 
by law. In view of this human sacrifice, it is manifest 
that the game protectors should exercise extraordinary 
vigilance to suppress Illicit deer jacking in the Adiron- 
dacks, not so much for the sake of the deer supply as for 
the preyention of such casualties as this. 
*6 ■ 
The interesting paper <xa Labrador, on another p^ge, 
will be supplerrifented next weejc with an account of a 
summer excursion to the country by one of Forest anij 
Stream's contributors. 
I 
