Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1903 by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Tbrms, ^ A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. I 
Six Months, $2. ) 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JULY 18, 1903 
( VOL. LXL— No. S. 
I No. 846 Broadway, Nbw York 
THINGS AS THEY ARE. 
V/e print another communication upon the subject of 
preserves, in which the writer suggests that the owners 
of game parks should sell all that they have and give to 
the popr. To demand such a course of preserve owners 
only would manifestly be unfair. If those who have are 
voluntarily or on compulsion to divide up with those who 
have not, there are very many other classes of property 
which should be parceled out before the game preserves 
are broken up. The general multitude can do without 
the parks until after a division by the owners of stocks 
and bonds, bank accounts and cash, farms, horses, live 
itocks, merchandise, mines, mills and factories, food sup- 
plies, and all other possessions and substances and 
necessities. 
But the rule to sell all one has and give to the poor is 
nowhere recognized as a practical course of conduct of 
ife, unless it be by individuals whom their fellows re- 
gard as cranks. A Tolstoi may found a certain cult, but 
the brutality of a Tolstoi's deprivation of his family 
does not appeal to our sober sense as something to 
bmulate. If an individual, in the Adirondacks or out of 
:hem, were to attempt to give all he had to the poor, a 
:ommission would be appointed to inquire into his sanity,- 
md the courts would intervene to protect his wife and 
;hildren. The writers who advocate the giving all away 
plan are .lot themselves so foolish as to attempt to put 
t into practice. 
The communication printed is typical of much of the 
writing that finds if s way into print in these times in dis- 
:ussion of social conditions and economic problems. It 
llustrates a certain prevalent state of mind; but we are 
-onvinced that it is in the end altogether futile. Granted 
hat abuses exist in the acquirement and holding of game 
parks and fishing pi'eserves, is it reasonable to anticipate 
hat anything will ever come of railing at those who, 
laving the means to gratify their desires, indulge in parks 
md preserves? Will any owner of lands or waters be 
>ersuaded by newspaper exhortations to take down his 
ences and trespass signs? On the contrary, is it not 
rue that thus to preach a doctrine of share and share 
llike is only to fire in the air? 
This is not to say that there are no mistaken _ public 
jolicies in permitting the woods and the waters to be 
enced off ; it is not to deny the existence of grave abuses, 
lOr the possibility of devising a better way. We mean 
jnly to point out that the better way will never be found 
ly a wholesale indictment of human nature and the social 
lystem. Instead of advocating the immediate realization 
f the millennium, when everybody shall own everything 
n common, it would be more to the point to devise ways 
nd means to secure to the public a continued enjoyment 
i the rights and privileges now theirs as to the f^ame and 
he fish. 
We must approach this problem, as all others, with a 
ecognition of the conditions which actuallyprevail. Things 
re as they are. Human nature is human nature. We 
ay blame it for what it is, and write columns to prove 
hat it ought to be something else; but in any present 
'actical dealing with it we must take it as it is, and be 
overned accordingly. So with the existing system as to 
le holding of property and the recognition of property 
ights. We may picture an Utopia wherein delectable 
onditions will prevail, and no one may enrich himself 
t the expense of others or enjoy himself to their exclu- 
on. But the rule now is that the individual is free to 
cquire land without limit, to control it as he may see 
.t, and to enjoy the exclusive right of its occupation and 
se. There might be a better system, but this is the one 
hich is, and the one with which we must deal. 
In a word, we have to do with things as they are. 
There are under these conditions certain lines in which 
ort may reasonably be expended for the purpose 
olding public rights. For instance, in waters whic! 
e public only in so far as their owners concede publl' 
shing privileges in them. We have recently recorder ' 
lat in New York certain streams which had bee . 
ocked with the State fish at the instance of local anglers 
ad been acquired by new owners who posted them and 
Kcluded the public. There are doubtless many other 
reams as to which this same course of events may fol-. 
m, unless steps shall be taken to prevent them. A prac- 
tical expedient then in every such case would be for the 
community which is interested to secure from the land- 
owners, prior to any stocking by the Fish Commission, 
a ten years' lease of the fishing rights, the lease being 
in the name of a committee duly appointed to represent 
the local anglers. Such an instrument might well be 
made a condition precedent to the stocking of any waters 
at public expense. Other and better methods may be sug- 
gested; but whatever might be done in this way would 
be of vastly more account than limitless denunciation of 
the selfishness of those who grab the waters for them- 
selves. 
THE AMERICAN VICTORY. . 
The victory of the United States rifle team in the in- 
ternational rifle match at Bisley, England, on Saturday 
of last week, affords just grounds for a feeling of national 
pride and for an expression of general national gratifica- 
tion. 
To have possession of the Palma Trophy, emblematic 
of the world's championship in the highest forms of rifle 
competition, is an honor eagerly desired by all the leading 
nations of the earth. The number of aspirants for the 
honor is increasing. The recent contest was much 
broadened in cosmopolitan scope by the entries of nations 
never before represented in contests for the Palma Tro- 
phy. Already Great Britain has signified her intention to 
retake it in the international competition of 1904, if 
earnest British effort and talent can compass such under- 
taking. 
The victory of the United States team was decisive. 
Oppos-'-d to it were the best teams of Great Britain, 
Canada, Norway, Australia, France and Natal. The team 
of Great Britain was the only one to make a close com- 
petition. It led at 800 yards, the first range, by a margin 
of three points over the United States team. The race 
at that range was very close, when it is considered that 
at 800 yards the possible was 600 points per team. At 
the ofher two ranges, 900 and 1,000 yards, the United 
States team made a decisive gain. At 900 yards it gained 
II points; at 1,000 yards it gained 7 more points, thus 
scoring 18 points over Great Britain at the two longer 
ranges, and winnig by 15 points in the totals of all the 
ranges. The scores of the three leading teams are: 
United States, 1,570; Great Britain, 1,555; Canada, 1,518. 
This victory is peculiarly complimentary as a testi- 
monial to the energy and resourcefulness of the United 
States. In 1901 the Americans lost the Palma Trophy to 
the Canadian team by a score of 1,494 to 1,522. Last year 
he United States team contested for it at Ottawa, 
Canada, with Canadian and British teams as opponents, 
with results as follows: Great Britain, 1,459; United 
States, 1,447; Canada, 1,373. Since then our long-range 
riflemen have given the problem of the Palma Trophy 
nuch thought. Rifles, ammunition and technical manner 
of their use have all been given much study, with 
•-.he resultant splendid performance at Bisley. Thus the 
American man behind the gun, the gun, and the ammuni- 
tion were all equal to the exigencies of the situation. 
While the victory itself has in it much for national 
felicitation, the advance in a better understanding among 
the citizens of the earth and the consequent addition to 
cosmopolitan comity are of material value in maintain- 
ing the peace of the nations. The hearty friendliness 
manifested between victor and vanquished and toward 
them by the British people and their visitors, is a phase 
significant of international good will. With the just feel- 
of pleasure which flows from the knowledge that the 
Palma Trophy Avill return to the land of its origin, there 
is cause for a still greater feeling of pleasure in the 
knowledge that with it are associated peaceful 
victories and a constant broadening of friendship between 
the nations. . _ . ^ i 8 
DISCOURAGEMENTS OF PERSEVERANCE. 
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Keep ever- 
lastingly at it. There is no such word as fail. But what 
if you are hunting in Nevada? There it is permitted 
you to try, try, try again, but not another time. The 
new law takes care of that. "It shall be unlawful for any 
person to kill, catch, wound or pursue with an attempt to 
catch, capture, injure or destroy any number of deer or 
antelope exceeding three for any one season or year." 
The limitation, be it observed, is not confined to killing, 
but covers the pursuing. If the hunter shall have followed 
and lost two deer, he may try for one more, and losing that 
he may go back to camp, pull up tent pegs, and go home. 
In Idaho the discouragement of perseverance is yet 
more stringent. It is there "unlawful during the open 
season of each year for any person to hunt, kill or cap- 
ture more than one elk, two deer, one mountain sheep, 
one ibex and one mountain goat." Under these circum- 
stances it behooves the Idaho elk or goat or sheep hunter 
to be a good shot. One unsuccessful stalk to get within 
rifle range, the bullet sent a trifle out of true, and the 
hunting for that coveted head is ended for the year. 
It is a shooting game of miss and out. And sometimes 
the stakes run high. 
There are men possessed by an ambition to display a 
mountain sheep's head of their own winning; and who, 
under the stimulus of that ambition, lay out in railway 
fares, non-resident hunting license fee, guide hire, pack 
outfit and provender, hundreds of dollars, travel thous- 
ands of miles, undergo no small degree of fatigue and 
privation, and all for a shot at one single animal. 
Whether captured or lost, that one single specimen is all 
the law allows them to hunt. 
As human nature is constituted, there is some ground 
for the suspicion that the average man, made up of the 
average clay, will not count himself out on one unsuc- 
cessful shot, nor on many. He will reason with him- 
self that the Idaho law does not say precisely what the 
framers of it intended, and he will be likely to persuade 
himself to another stalk and another shot. 
AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO PERSEVERANCE. 
If the Idaho and Nevada big-game limitations discour- 
age perseverance, the Illinois law relating to wildfowl, on 
the contrary, is a noble stimulus to industry and a direct 
incentive to big bags of ducks. The law is fearfully and 
wonderfully made; to parse it would be beyond the aver- 
age Illinois high school pupil; but its author, though he 
did not know much about expressing himself in English, 
did have the courage of his convictions in making obliga- 
tory upon every duck shooter the killing of rnore than 
fifty ducks in a day. The law reads : 
"That it shall be unlawful to kill, entrap, ensnare, or 
otherwise destroy any of the ducks, geese or brant men- 
tioned in this section at any time for market or other 
commercial purposes, nor more than fifty by one person 
in one day." 
The "nor" is equivalent to "or not" and the construc- 
tion then is that it shall be unlawful to kill ducks for 
market, or not more than fifty by one person in one day. 
A person must kill more than fifty in a day; the smallest 
number he may kill in a day without violating the law is 
fifty-one. If he kills only fifty or any less number he has 
an unlawful bag, and is liable to a penalty , of from $15 
to $50 for each of the fowl. 
While some States are endeavoring to restrain the 
excessive killing of game birds, Illinois enacts that no 
wildfowl hunter may stop short of fifty-one to his score. 
It is possible, however, that in practical operation the 
nothing-less-than-fifty-one condition may prove to be a 
powerful discourager of duck shooting, for where fowl 
are few and the game warden alert, the shooter who is 
dubious about securing his fifty-one will not dare shoot 
any, fearful lest he shall not achieve the limit of safety. 
In his account of the strenuous and adventurous career 
of Raven Quiver, the Indian trader, Mr. Schultz has con- 
tributed an authentic chapter to the history of the old 
West. It is a graphic picture of the troubled ways of 
that regime; and the incidents described are highly sug- 
gestive of the large part the white man's baleful alcohol 
played in the decimation of the native. Raven Quiver 
and Fort Quiver were not unique; there were many 
traders and many forts of these types, each an active and 
far-reaching agency of Indian demoralization and »-«iin. 
