Forest AND Stream 
A W 
J 
EEKLY OURNAL OF THE 
R 
OD AND 
G 
UN. 
Copyright, 1908 btt Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
TbSms, $4 A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. I 
Six Months, $2. ) 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1903. 
( VOL. LXI.— No. 16. 
1 No. 846 Broadway, New« Y okk 
WOMAN IN THE FIELD. 
For many centuries the position even of civilized 
woman was that of an inferior. Unable, owing tO' lack 
of physical strength, to fight for the things she desired, 
she was obliged to take second place. Among the toilers 
of the world she toiled hardest. Happily this is now 
largely ended, and woman's position in civilization, and 
above all in America, is constantly improving. More and 
more she is coming to share rnan's pleasures, and if inci- 
dentally she is sharing his toils, in most of .the avocations 
of life taking a position of her own, she is doing this 
voluntarily, of her own free will doing her share in the 
work of the world. 
For many years Forest and Stream has believed that 
there is no reason why woman should not share with man 
those sports of the field which bring humanity more and 
more into contact with nature. And the result of the doc- 
trine that it has consistently preached is seen to-day in 
the constantly increased use by women of the fishing rod 
and the rifle, the shotgun and the golf club, the saddle 
horse and the eanoe. There are even women who sail 
their own yachts, and often do it quite as well as men 
sail theirs. Yet it is to be remembered that to most 
women all this outdoor life is new, and that, as all of us 
learn how to do things only by doing them, so that the 
woman who takes up any outdoor sport as an adult, 
learns its mysteries with more difficulty than her younger 
sister who begins to use the various tools of her chosen 
craft as a little girl. Just as a man who puts off learning to 
shoot or cast a fly until middle life is obliged to go 
through a course of education to become proficient in the 
chosen art, so a woman must take lessons in the one she 
may choose. This is especially important when the art 
is to be practiced with a dangerous weapon. No one is 
likely to be injured in using a fly-rod, but it is a different 
thing when a shotgun is in question. 
Nothing is more important, therefore, than that the 
woman undertaking this new pursuit should be taught by 
someone who is competent. This instructor is likely to 
be a brother, father, or husband, and he cannot devote too 
much care and effort to starting his charge just right. 
Habits — be they good or bad — are easily formed, and, 
once contracted, are hard to break. If, therefore, the 
pupil is taught to perform the various operations as they 
should be performed, if she is carefully watched and her at- 
tention called to each slightest infraction of the laws 
which the instructor has laid down, she will soon learn 
to do things precisely as he believes they ought to be 
done; and, by as much as she does them just in this way, 
by so much will she become constantly more and more a 
good comrade and reliable friend in the field or by the 
brook-side. 
Where one woman shoots, fishes or sails, a thousand 
ride on horseback, and these are exposed under present 
conditions to dangers which should be avoided. A woman 
should bestride a horse precisely as a man rides. 
We have often called attention to the danger of the or- 
dinarj' side-saddle — to the fact that the woman is wholly 
dependent upon her saddle girths, and in case of accident 
is absolutely without control over her own motions. She 
can cling firmly to her saddle, but that is all she can do. 
If anything goes wrong with the saddle, if a girth bursts, 
a strap breaks, a buckle tongue pulls out, and so the sad- 
dle becames loose, it is impossible for the woman either 
to remedy the mischief or to jump free and clear of the 
saddle, and take her chance of a fall. On the other 
hand, the man or the woman who rides astride is free. If 
the accident to the saddle is slight, the rider is still able 
to cling to the horse from thigh to ankle, or if the horse 
cannot be ridden, then the rider is free to roll off or jump 
off with an even chance of striking the ground feet first ; 
while the woman who falls from, or with, the side-saddic, 
is almost certain to strike the ground on her head. 
Tliese arguments have been so frequently insisted on 
that they have become familiar, and it is well that they 
have become so, for they have appealed strongly to the 
hard common sense of many American women. In a cer- 
tain Western State, an editorial in Forest and Stream 
on this subject converted all the young women of a cgim- 
ty froni riders of side-saddles to riders of men's saddles 
Two or three young women, standing high in the social 
\ife of the '70inpilinjtv, grasped the fofce of tlie reasoning. 
adopted the cross saddle, and were followed in the 
fashion which they set by practically all the woman 
riders in the county. Riding in this fashion they used to 
chase coyotes with greyhounds, and had many fine races. 
Within the last few years the practice of riding a man's 
saddle has been extensively taken up in cities like Bos- 
ton, New York and Chicago. Some women had the 
courage to adopt this fashion long ago, and more and 
more of them are doing it. It is not making a rash pre- 
diction to say that their numbers will constantly increase. 
Practically all the little girls now seen riding in New 
York ride astride as their brothers do, and as they grow 
up many of them will still cling to this sensible fashion. 
One of the best woman cross country riders in the United 
States has adopted it wholly on the ground of its greater 
safety and greater comfort. The fashion is especially to 
be recommended to those who by necessity or by choice 
ride in rough countries, or fast. 
NATIVE SUFFERING- m ALASKA. 
Dispatches just received from Alaska speak of the piti- 
ful condition of the Indians and Eskimo who are said to 
be starving and for whom help is needed. In these dis- 
patches an attempt is made to put the blame for this 
human suffering on the new game law, passed by Con- 
gress last June, and to show that this law has produced 
great hardship by destroying the fur trade, and making it 
impossible for the Indians to kill food. 
The only definite statement that we have seen on the sub- 
ject is that of Lieut. Jarvis, collector of customs for 
Alaska, who declares that the enforcement of the new 
law means entire suppression of the fur trade, and seems 
to involve the very existence of the native Indians and 
Eskimo. "These people," he says, "are already in a 
most deplorable condition, reduced by restrictions 
gradually placed on their pursuits both by the law and by 
the presence of white men in the country. Their margin 
of existence was never narrower, and any unusual hap- 
pening invariably produces want and starvation. Inroads 
of white people have driven off their game, have taken 
their fish and food animals, and necessarily have changed 
their modes of living and clothing, reducing them to 
such a low condition that in the past few years they 
have in thousands fallen easy victims to starvation and 
epidemics of disease introduced among them. It is shown 
that their inability this year to secure black and polar 
bears, seals, walrus and whales, have reduced the natives 
to starvation. Several scores have already died." 
The new Alaska game law was enacted for the purpose 
of preserving from absolute extinction by the head and 
hide hunter several species of great game which were 
apparently on the point of being swept out of existence. 
One species of caribou already had been killed down to a 
point where it never can recover. The white sheep, the 
giant moose and other species of great game were con- 
tinually made merchandise of by white men who exported 
the heads and hides to the United States, and sold them 
for a large price, thus destroying the food on which the 
natives depended. Therefore Congress, in its wisdom, de- 
termined to forbid the wanton destruction of wild game 
animals or wild birds, and the destruction of nests and 
eggs of such birds, and did pass such a law. But, hav- 
ing regard to the conditions of Alaska and its inhabitants, 
it made in the first section of that law certain special ex- 
ceptions providing that nothing in the act should "prevent 
the killing of any game animal or bird for food or cloth- 
ing by natives, Indians or Eskimo, or by miners, ex- 
plorers or travelers on a journey when in need of food." 
Fur-bearing animals are not mentioned in the act, which 
has to do wholly with game animals, game birds, and 
wild birds that are not game. Game animals and game 
birds are defined, and while among the animals are in- 
cluded sea lions and walrus, the exception in favor of 
Indians, Eskimo, and white travelers makes mere non- 
sense of the reports which come from Nome, including 
Lieut. Jarvis' statement just quoted. 
their condition on the Alaska game law is to attempt to 
evade the responsibility which this government and 
civilization at large cannot escape shouldering. Greed for 
gold has brought into once desolate and game-filled 
Alaska a horde of white men, and they have brought to 
the natives here all the ills that civilization ■ ever brings 
to primitive man. The food provided by nature has been 
destroyed or driven away, and, in addition, these simple 
people have been infected by all the diseases of civiliza- 
tion. The United States has done nothing to provide for 
these changed conditions except to import a few reindeer 
from Siberia, and to distribute these among certain of 
the Eskimo. If any remnant of these suffering people is 
to survive, this work should be continued, and in the 
meantime the game law should be kept in force. 
The Alaska Indians and the Eskimo ai'e undoubtedly 
in a most pitiable condition. They are weakened by dis- 
easie and by hunger, and starving and dying. They need 
the SATupathy, and, far more, the material aid of the 
United States Government, and of every man who can 
(each pi-.lt 9 hancj to help thein, but to put ^he bl^me fof 
OCTOBER. 
All months of the yeai', whether of spring, summer, 
autumn or winter, bear something seasonable, beneficial 
and beautiful for the use and enjoyment of mankind. Yet 
each season possesses peculiar benefits which appeal to 
quite distinct classes of people. 
As a matter of sentiment, the springtime, with its mellow 
sunshine, home-building song birds, opening buds, and 
floral color, appeals broadly and happily to all mankind; 
and dull, indeed, is he who, in adolescent years, has not 
struggled to frame the strong poetic spring feeling of his 
being in the weak vocabulary of words due to acquisition. 
Poets are born; words are made. Many a masterpiece of 
springtime poesy, flowing from the purest fountain of 
the youthful, and, betimes, aged heart, has miscarried 
because the words would not rhyme properly, or fit the 
idea properly if they were true in rhyme, if, indeed, the 
notes of the sweet spring song could be presented in 
words which would express it at all. The spring is not 
without its place of firm esteem in the hearts of the 
angler, him of the gentle art which has held its place 
unbroken as a gentlemanly sport from time immemorial. 
The summertime, to the sportsman, is a period of rest 
in the main, while making notes of the signs concerning 
the fall game supply, and quietly making trifling prepara- 
tions for the fall sport. The exigencies of the times 
now require that a sportsman, who is earnest in his sport, 
must post himself thoroughly jn advance concerning a 
locality with a game supply. The modern sportsman, 
after diligent seeking, or otherwise obtaining good infor- 
mation and privileges, does not consider it incumbent on 
himself to inform the world of all he knows concerning 
his favorite shooting ground which he ajiticipates en- 
joying himself, which may reasonably be considered as 
the elementary manifestation of the principle on which 
rests the institution known as the private game preserve. 
The fall season brings with it the months highest in the 
esteem of the sportsman. Of these, October is laden 
with varieties of the sportsman's enjoyment. The ruffed 
grouse, swift of wing, alert and strategic, taxing man, 
dog and gun to the utmost, may be pursued in all the 
States in which he has a habitat, and the reports con- 
cerning this bird's abundance are almost uniformly favor- 
able from every section. The heavy foliage which still 
obtains in many sections, is at present the greatest im- 
pediment to good sport. 
The reports of the season's quail supply are also favor- 
able as concerns the general situation, and they, too, 
add greatly to the sum total of October offerings in the 
way of sport. 
Woodcock shooting, in a number of sections in which 
that bird makes its haunts, has been better this year than 
in recent years, although the recent heavy storms have 
sadly upset all plans and knowledge concerning the 
flights. The local hatchings and supply has been excep- 
tionally good in many sections of New York State. 
The big-game reports concerning deer and moose have 
been pleasingly favorable, although regrettable, if true, 
there were rumors of much big-game killing before the 
season opened, and of these rumors Maine was not free. 
The principle of discrimination against non-resident 
sportsmen seems- to gain ground steadily everywhere, 
and the game preserve interest is extending, the lesson of 
which seems to be that he who desires to enjoy the Octo- 
ber days in the free and full style of years past, will 
need to identify himself with some landowner in a game 
seetiop Of Ije^otne oiyji^t P| ft preserve himself. 
