Forest and 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and 
CoPYKiGHT, 1902, Bv Forest axd Stkkaii Pubushimg Co. 
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NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1902, 
( VOL. LIX.— No. 23. 
I No. 846 Broadway, New York 
NATIONAL MARKSMANSHIP. 
In our rifle columns we publish a communication from 
Mr. Charles Cristadoro in which he presents many 
cogent reasons in support of his contention that a high 
grade of rifle marksmanship should be acquired and 
maintained by American citizens at large, as a national 
policy with a bearing on possible wars of the future. But 
to interest the people at large in rifle shooting and to en- 
gage their material support of it, there must be offered 
an adequate incentive to induce action. No incentive, 
no action. 
In pioneer days the rifle was both an implement of in- 
dustry and a weapon of offense and defence. It was 
efficient in procuring a food supply, and in destroying 
savage enemies, beast or man. Under those conditions 
of life proficiency in its use was a vital necessity on the 
part of the early settlers. Self preservation, depending 
on one's ability as a marksman, is the greatest of all 
incentives to acquire marksmanship. The earlier settlers 
had it as a constant problem. 
When the pioneer days merged into the days of com- 
munities and industrial development, the rifle, as a neces- 
sary adjunct of domestic life, became obsolete. 
The cattle ranges superseded the wilderness as a source 
from which to • draw a meat supply, and were a distinct 
advance over it in certainty of supply, quantity and qual- 
ity. Also, the savages and wild beasts had been so near 
exterminated or driven so far into the wilderness that 
they ceased to be a factor in domestic life. The rifle, as 
a consequence, was not a necessity and it fell into disuse. 
There were left, here and there, some big game animals, 
the pursuit of which required the use of the rifle, but 
then their pursuit was a matter of sport, differing from 
that of the earlier days when their pursuit was a matter 
of necessity. 
The efficiency of the revolutionary soldiers was largely 
due to their skill as marksmen, acquired in the ordinary 
routine of life as it existed at that time. Had they, in 
marksmanship, been no better than the citizens of the 
present time, it is a fair presumption that the history of 
the Revolutionary war would be of defeat instead of vic- 
tory. It is clear that citizens now should be marksmen 
as the citizens were then, for wars are much the same in 
any age. 
What the rifle was to the individual in pioneer days, 
it is to the nation at all times. It is an essential either 
in defense or attack. It is a dominant factor in maintain- 
ing peace, since it can destroy the bodies which disturb 
the peace. To command respect, consideration, and to 
hold a proper place in controlling its own and the worlds' 
affairs, the citizens of a nation must be riflemen. 
To sustain general interest in rifle practice, however, 
after it has ceased to be a necessity to the individual, is a 
problem not easily solved on the first view, and yet easily 
solved if we keep in mind the essential condition that to 
promote the general use of the rifle there must be a 
general incentive. 
Mr. Cristadoro has struck the keynote in his suggestion 
that the Government authorize a national rifle com- 
petition and appropriate a large sum to be distributed as 
prizes to the successful contestants. If, say, $100,000 a 
year was appropriated for the purpose, and it should 
evoke general interest in rifle shooting and a conse- 
quent general improvement in the marksmanship of the 
citizens, it would be a wise governmental policy on the 
score of economy. When a war occurs, as was the case 
not long ago, the Government necessarily expends many 
hundreds of thousands of dollars for ammunition used 
solelj'' for practice. In addition, there are many months' 
time required to school new recruits in the use of the 
rifle. One battle lost from bad marksmanship might 
be a loss of millions. Marksmanship developed by gov- 
ernmental prizes might win battles. 
The average man never attains the highest degree of 
skill by virtue of the irksome routine that he experi- 
ences as he does when he has an incentive which appeals 
to his highest individual effort, therefore the prize in- 
centive would develop a higher class of riflernen than 
would the ordinary military drill. 
The benefits of governmental interest in permanently 
establishing a high grade of national marksmanship is 
eminently illustrated by the situation which obtains in the 
Swiss Republic in this relation. Although a small na- 
tion, it has hundreds of shooting societies with enor- 
jnous membersJ^P?. It is eminently respected by neigh- 
boring powers. Successful contestants at the periodical 
tournaments, beside the monetary prizes, receive dis- 
tinguished attention and honors. Thus there is an in- 
centive to strive for the highest skill, to gain sums which 
are of use in every-day life, and to secure honors which 
are gratifying to the just pride of every one who is am- 
bitious to excel his fellows. Thus, while appealing to 
the self-interest of the individual, the power of the 
nation is trained up to the highest point of modern effi- 
ciency, offensively and defensively. In this manner, the 
judicious expenditure of a few thousands of dollars in 
peace may be the saving of millions in war. 
METROPOLITAN GAME GROUNDS. 
We recorded the other day the occurrence of quail in 
the upper part of New York city. The problem of their 
origin now appears to be solved. Rev. L. H. Schwab 
informs us that a j-^ear ago this winter In the woods of 
Van Cortlandt Park, he started a bevy of quail, esti- 
mated to number twenty birds. These quail would prob- 
ably not be greatly disturbed, since shooting and trap- 
ping is forbidden by city ordinance, and prevented by 
the city police. There would thus probably be left over 
a considerable portion of this bevy to breed, and it 
seems fair enough to conclude that the quail seen at 
Audubon Park were wanderers from the Van Cortlandt 
Park stock. Since the first quail was seen two more have 
been observed in the same vicinitv. 
Thus it may be perceived that New York is not with- 
out its game resources. More than this, we printed last 
week the story of a gunner's luck in getting a wild goose 
on Staten Island, which is within the city limits on the 
south, while in the northern part, in the Zoological 
Park, wild geese have been allured to the Bronx waters 
and trapped. There is still snipe shooting on the beach 
of Coney Island and at Rockaway, where centuries ago 
the Rockaway tribe of Indians hunted. No mean shots, 
by the way, were the New York Indians if we may credit 
the Reverend Charles Woolley, who was here in 1678- 
80, and who recorded of them that they lived principally 
by "Hunting, Fishing and Fowling. Before the Chris- 
tians, especially the Dutch, came amongst them they 
were very dexterous Artists at their Bows, inasmuch I 
have heard it affirm'd that a Boy of seven years old 
would shoot a Bird flying: and since they have learn'd 
the use of Guns, they prove better marksmen than 
others." 
BITS OF TALK. 
THE MAN AND HIS CONSCIENCE. 
"Take me with you,'.' said his Conscience. 
"Not by a long shot," said the Man. 
"But I've been working hard, and need a rest; and 
there's no place on earth like the woods for a conscience 
to rest up," said his Conscience. 
"I won't have a bit of use for you," said the Man. 
"You'll only be a nuisance." 
"I'll be as still as a mouse," said his Conscience. 
"But you don't know how to behave in the woods," said 
the Man. "You troubled me a whole lot the last time." 
"Well, I wasn't used to the woods then," said his Con- 
science, "and I acted just as I would at home. But I 
know better now. I have been educated, and you won't 
hear me — not a peep." 
"It is not the fashion for a man to take his conscience 
into the woods," said the Man. 
"Nobody will know I am there," said his Conscience. 
So the Man _took his Conscience. 
And his Conscience, being conscientious, kept the prom- 
ise it had made not to jog the Man with any unseasonable 
hems and haws, nor to spoil sport with qualms, nor to 
stand between the Man and whatever the jacklight might 
show in the lily pads. 
Moreover, it was as his Conscience had said, not a soul 
suspected that it was along. The guide supposed, of 
course, that the Man's Conscience was not with him. And 
this did not in the least surprise him, for guides are used 
to '^sports" who either had no conscience, or if they have 
one, always leave it behind them in storage when they 
go into the woods. The Man had a rattling good time, 
and got what he went after. The trip had cost him a 
lot of rooney, and be had to have something to show fof 
it. The State owed it to him, he said. His Conscience 
did not bother him a bit when, with the aid of a jacklight 
and a load of buckshot, he "got all that was coming to 
him," the all being, in this case, a fine set of antlers. In 
fact, his Conscience did its quietest to give him a good 
time. The Man appreciated this, and when they got back 
to town he said as much. 
"Yes," said his Conscience, "I told you I was going to 
take a rest in the woods and I did I had a good long 
vacation and I feel better for it. I am healthier and 
stronger and weigh more than I ever did before. I am 
braced up for work. You can depend on me now, and 
if necessary, I can work overtime. By the way, how 
about that deer that you brought back?" 
"See here," said the Man, "you were not to say any- 
thing about that." 
"I wasn't? Well, I guess yes." 
"You gave me your word you'd be still," said the Man. 
"In the woods, yes," said his Conscience. "I did agree 
not to say anything about it in camp ; but we are home 
now; and as I was saying, I am rested up and in good 
order. I want to know just what you think of that little 
jacking business? I mean, what do you think of your- 
self?" 
"Oh, let's don't talk about that." said the Man. 
"But let's do," said his Conscience. "What do you 
think of yourself as a man? Honest, now, was that an 
honorable thing for you to do? Between you and me, 
now that we are alone together, don't you know that it 
was a low down trick to break the law and kill that deer 
the way you did? If you didn't think it was, why did 
you give the folks that yarn about pulling him down on 
the jump? That's what you told your wife, and you lied 
to her, didn't you ? The guide could tell a very different 
story. By the way, w^hat do you suppose your guide 
thinks of you, not as a shot, but as a man?" 
"See here," said the Man, "didn't you hear me say that 
I don't want to talk' about that?" 
"But I do," said his Conscience, "and I am going to." 
SNAP SHOTS. 
We are all of us likely to think, as we read each day of 
the multitude of shooting accidents— so called — which 
occur at the present time, that such mischances are some- 
thing new, and arise from the use of high-power arms 
and from the great number of persons who now crowd 
the forests. Undoubtedly both these causes contribute to 
the frequency of such occurrences, but instances of shoot- 
ing men by mistake for game are probably as old as the 
bow and arrow. Certainly the case of the English King 
who lost his life by a quarrel sent from a crossbow at 
a deer is familiar enough. Not so well known perhaps 
is the fact that in the year tSo6 Capt. Merriweather Lewis, 
while descending the Missouri River on the return from 
the Pacific Ocean, was mistaken for an elk by Cruzatte, 
one of the men in whose company he was hunting, and 
was shot in the thigh, receiving a wound from which his 
recovery was long and painful. Cruzatte, who appears 
to have done the shooting, never actually acknowledged 
the deed, and Capt. Lewis at first thought that he had 
been shot by an Indian. But as no signs of Indian were 
found in the neighborhood, and as Cruzatte admitted that 
shortly after leaving Capt. Lewis he had fired at an elk. 
and as Capt. Lewis was clad in leather, which was about 
the color of an elk's hide, there seems little doubt as to 
what happened. 
The four days which constituted the deer hunting sea- 
son on Long Island gave opportunity for the killing of 
nearly 200. The number of grown bucks was compara- 
tively small; does and fawns predominated. More than 
half of the entire number killed were killed on the first 
day; after the opening fusillade the deer took to the 
preserves and private grounds, where the army of hunt- 
ers could not get at them. The number of deer killed in 
the Adirondacks, Protector Pond estimates, has not ex- 
ceeded 4,000, as compared with 6,000 last year. 
it 
We print elsewhere the call for the annual meeting of 
the New York State Fish, Game and Forest League, 
which will be held in Syracuse on Thursday of next 
^eek. The organization is one in which every locality 
of thf State should have representatiojj, • ' ' - 
