I 
Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
CopvKiGHT, 1902, Bv Forest and Stream Pubusmng Co. 
Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $2. 
NEW YORK - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1902 
( VOL. LIX.— No. 16. 
I No. 846 Bkoadway, New York. 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized mediain of entertain- 
ment, instruct' ,'n and information between American sportsmen. 
The editors invite communications on the subjects to which its 
pages 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 BROWNING LEAF. 
For some States the shooting season has not yet opened, 
while in others it has half gone. From different localities 
come varying reports indicating that in parts of the West 
and the Northwest the shooting for pinnated and sharp- 
tail grouse — commonly called chickens — has been a great 
disappo:ntment, while in a few localities the birds are re- 
ported to have appeared in goodly numbers. In mariy por- 
tions of the East the ruffed grouse are said to be fairly 
plenty, while in southern New England, Long Island and 
New Jersey, quail promise greater abundance than for 
years. Woodcock, on the other hand, are almost un- 
known, and even from northern New England, where 
by this time the birds should be stirring about, reports of 
their numbers are very discouraging. 
However, it is as yet too early to express definite 
opinions as to the prospects for any birds except the 
prairie grouse. The shooting for these birds is over, for 
by this time they have become wild and well able to take 
care of themselves. Those species which are sought for in 
cover, however, have as yet hardly been pursued. The 
weather has been too warm to admit of much hard work 
being done. There have been no frosts to kill the leaves 
"and cut down the weeds and grasses, and as 3'et shooting 
is more or less of a labor. Men and dogs alike suffer 
from the heat, and though, in this autumn of 1902, there 
will be little complaint of dry weather to prevent the dogs 
from working on the birds, it is still true that even in the 
States where the season has already opened there has 
been little cover shooting. 
A month hence the story Avill be different. By that time 
cr^sp frosts will have nipped the ripened vegetation and 
the trees will be nearly bare. Cold blasts from the north 
i will sweep along the leaves in hurrying clouds, heaping 
them up in windrows in the corners of the fences or on 
the borders of the swamps. There will be tang in the air 
which renders each breath of it exhilarating, and man 
and dog, feeling the inspiration of the season, work earn- 
estly over fields, along hillsides, and through swamps, en- 
joying every step taken, keenly alert for scent or sound or 
sight that may betoken the presence of game. 
True, the landscape then will have lost much of its 
present beauty. No longer shall we see. on tree and 
shrub and vine the gorgeous patches of red and yellow 
and orange that meet our eyes to-day. The flaming colors 
will have disappeared, and in their place* there will be only 
the neutral tints of gray twig masses, or the somber brown 
of the fallen lea'f. But then we may see a long way 
through vistas of swamp or wood now hidden by foliage. 
The eye may detect the dog far beyond the distance at 
which his soft tread can be heard rustling among the dry 
leaves. If a bird gets up never so quietly, he is likely to 
be seen, though the cedars and pines which grow along 
the hillside, and often the thick masses of naked twigs of 
deciduous trees, call for that instant work which brings 
into play readiness, faith and judgment. But if all these 
work together for good, the shooter is likely to hear after 
his shot the light thump followed by the drumming sound 
among the fallen leaves which tells him that he has 
wrought well, and that the noble grouse is his. 
Then, for most of the land, the wanderings of ruffed 
grouse and quail are over, and these birds have found- 
their winter quarters and have settled down to them. 
Then, too, the last flight of the woodcock is likely to take 
place durmg some cold November storm, at the end of 
which the greater portion of the birds disappear for the 
winter, though sometimes a few stragglers may be found 
idling about the warm spring spots much later — even up 
to Christmas time. 
Is there anything more delightful than a journey afield 
during November? To be abroad in the open air, to see 
the good dogs work, to have the occasional excitement oi 
birds, of which we should all like to kill a few, to eat 
l-mcheon stretched out at ease beside some spring or 
brook — in the shade of a noble oak or chestnut, if the sun 
is too warm, or in the sun if the air is chill — to stop and 
gossip with the friendly farmer, to drink the cider or eat 
the apples which he kindly offers ; and then as the sun 
falls low in the western sky, to turn our faces homeward 
and trudge across fields, or along the pleasant roads, while 
we talk over the incidents of the day ! 
And then when the house is reached and gun? are put 
away and dogs attended to, the wolfish appetite is satisfied 
and a little time is spent at ease before the blazing logs, 
with a feeling of contentment hardly to be matched by 
anything in life. 
A day so spent is worth remembering. 
GOOD HEALTH AND GOOD TEMPER. 
The advocates of healthful recreation to be derived 
from the many kinds of approved sports of field and 
stream, dwell- in the main on the personal advantages 
accruing to the participants. The physical and mental 
benefits of it are treated as being within personal limita- 
tions. Individualism is accepted as compassing the sub- 
ject in full, and therefore as being distinct from any mat- 
ter of social significance. The doctrine of individualism 
is sound so far as it goes, but in relation to a man as a 
member of society and the duties which appertain to him 
as such member, it is but a small part of the whole. 
Beside tlie individual obligation to maintain a sound 
mind in a sound body which a man owes to himself, and 
further to respect the vested rights of society at large, 
there are also the moral obligations which he naturally 
assumes as Inusband, father, son, brother, friend and citi- 
zen. Statute and common law have very little to do with 
making the individual useful or beloved. And yet the 
gist of the whole matter is embodied in the Golden Rule. 
It does justice to one's self and all others. 
Any man, irritable and snarly from being out of sorts, 
is not an exemplar for his children, is not a good com- 
panion for his friends, nor is he a just master for his 
employees. Yet without recreation, the man who carries 
the burdens of business in the same narrow channel year 
after year, is sure to have impaired nerves sooner or later. 
All kinds of petty ills follow as a consequence. Then the 
sufferer's disposition, though naturally amiable, changes in 
greater or lesser degree for the worse. He is conscious 
of his physical ill feeling, while unconscious of his changed 
social character. He does not see himself as others see 
him. He may allude to the mental and physical disturb- 
ances as a "bad spell," or to a feeling of being "out of 
sorts." He rarely ever considers that the disturbance of 
his being is the protest of overtaxed nerves and brain, or 
, the protest of the general organism against physical 
neglect. If he is one of the few who rightfully considers 
the matter, it is long odds that he ignores the cause, and 
takes the chances that at least the effects will be no worse. 
The bad spells may occur at wide intervals of time at 
first. Occurring more and more frequently, in time they 
become constant. Peevishness is then sure to supervene, 
and it, at first an incident of physical or mental disturb- 
ance, by indulgence at length, develops, into habitual ill 
teiiiper. In the latter stage, the victim gives little heed 
and cares less for the social or domestic amenities. He 
values his friend chiefly as one who will listen to a minute 
rehearsal of all his bodily ills, all his infinity of business 
troubles, and all the vagaries of pessimistic views on mat- 
ters in general. He is abnormal, but he does not know 
it. He has not a sound mind in a sound body. All who 
are associated with him, at home or elsewhere, are un- 
wholesomely affected by the contact. His irritability be- 
gets resentment and enmity in his subordinates; it cools 
or detaches friendships, and if it does not wholly break up 
his home life, it engenders much unnecessary pain and 
sorrow in it. 
The overworked brain and body, with no hours or days 
devoted specially to their recuperation, is the source of 
nearly all the nervous ills, and many of the physical ills 
of man. If the effects were confined to the individual, the 
responsibilities would have -only an individual scope; 
but, being so wide-reaching, the moral obligations of the 
individual as a member of society, cannot be justly 
ignored. 
In no other matter is prevention so superior to cure. 
Make the days good day by day so that no evil days will 
follow. Give the mind and body opportunities for re- 
laxation and restoration by nature's own methods, by 
living according to her methods. The woods, fields and 
waters contain the preventives and oftentimes the cures 
for overworked minds and stagnant bodies, free to all 
who will partake. 
NON-EXPORT GAME LAWS. 
The correspondent, whose querulous questionings about 
the non-resident and non-export laws of Virginia and 
North Carolina are signed "Non-Resident," lives in New 
Jersey, and such complaint as he makes come with ex- 
tremely poor taste from that State. No Jerseyman may 
expect sympathy for his woes at the hands of the Vir- 
ginians or the North Carolinians, because he h mself 
treats them in the same way, only "more so." New Jersey 
demands of the non-resident that he shall pay a $10 
license fee for the privilege of shooting a quail, and then 
he is not allowed to take it home with him. Before New 
jersey may with grace, not to say decency, complain of 
Virginia, it must change its own system, and do as it 
would be done by. 
There are in this country two systems of non-export 
game laws. One permits the taking out of a limited 
amount of game, accompanied by the owner. The other 
prohibits exportation altogether. In the practice of those 
States where the first system prevails, experience has 
demonstrated that the modified restriction is quite suffi- 
cient to accomplish the purpose of the statute, which is to 
cut off the marketing of game. This being insured, the 
game carried home by the visiting sportsman is not in 
such quantity as to be a factor in the problem of protec- 
tion. This is only another way of saying that absolute 
prohibition is not essential. Game may be and is pro- 
tected without it. The deprivation it imposes upon the 
non-resident sportsman has no good reason. The law 
would accomplish the purpose without it. This is the con- 
sideration which renders the law so obnoxious. If ab- 
solute prohibition of export were essential to game preser- 
vation, the sportsman who is deprived of the satisfaction 
of carrying his birds home to his family could not com- 
plain. But the condition is not an essential one; and 
it is this which provokes a rebellious spirit in the victim 
of the New Jersey law. He reflects that he might be per- 
mitted to take his game home with him, and the New 
Jersey game fields would be not a whit the poorer ; and he 
is human enough to resent the law as an imposition. 
Since this absolute prohibition of export is not neces- 
sary, and since it works hardship by the deprivation of 
privileges which might reasonably be accorded to the 
visiting sportsman, the New Jersey law should be 
amended. So should the law of Pennsylvania and those 
of Virginia and North Carolina and other States which 
sportsmen visit for shooting. These laws as they stand 
now are in conflict with the interests not only of the visit- 
ing sportsman, but of the transportation companies which 
get revenue from sportsmen's travel and of hotels and 
canips which entertain sportsmen. Their repeal would be 
"good business." 
The New Jersey game law was designed to protect 
the flicker at all times, but the birds are shot by 
thousands this season just as they Avere last year ; and 
the shooters go free because of the ambiguity of the 
statute. No one but a lawyer, or one who has made a 
special study of the idiosyncracies of legislatures when 
dealing with game, could reasonably be expected to know 
what the law really intended with respect to these birds. 
In one section it is said that no birds other than game 
birds may ever be killed, and a list is given of the birds 
which are game, the flicker not being included among 
them. According to the section then, the flicker is pro- 
tected at all times. But another section says that the 
flicker may not he killed "excepting during the months of 
September and October." This provision is interpreted as 
permissive of flicker shooting in the months named; but 
such an implication of a permission to shoot cannot nullify 
the direct prohibition contained in the other section. 
Nevertheless, because of the innocent intent of shooters 
who may honestly be misled by the September and 
October clause, certain of the New Jersey justices refuse 
to hold the flicker shooters who are brought before thems 
