Forest and Stream. 
Rod and 
Copyright, 1904, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
A Weekly Journal of the 
Gun. 
Tbrms, 
[ A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. I 
Six Months, |3. j 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY 2 8, 1904 
[ VOL. LXII.— No. 22, 
! No. 346 Broadway, New York. 
COLORADO DEER HIDE DECISION. 
The opinion of Judge Maxwell of the Court of Appeals 
of the State of Colorado in the famous deer hide case, is 
one of great importance, and offers much encouragement 
to all friends of game protection. Owing to the fact that 
most game law cases are crimxinal in their nature, as well 
as to peculiar local conditions, convictions under these 
laws have been very unusual, and this is the first case of 
the kind in Colorado that has found its way into an Ap- 
pellate Court. Here it has been handled with that breadth 
of view which might have been expected. 
Judge Maxwell decides that the plaintiff in this case 
of replevin was in unlawful possession of 300 deer hides, 
and that the plaintiff was able to show by the testimony 
in the case no ownership or right of possession. The 
statute of Colorado prohibits traffic in the game of the 
Slate or any part thereof, no matter when killed, unless 
such traffic is expressly permitted by law. 
Judge Maxwell therefore reverses the decision of the 
lower court, and remands the case back to that court, 
with definite instructions to dismiss the action. The effect 
of this reversal and instruction is to uphold the statute 
and to make the possession of deer hides in quantity, and 
!rO presumably in contravention of law, very dangerous 
business. 
The case for the State was ably handled by Mr. S. G. 
McMnllin, the District Attorney, assisted by Hon. D. C. 
F.eaman, so well known for his efficient and unwearying 
work for game protection. Both these gentlemen deserve 
crcat credit for able work done. 
the citizens of his State. The act is an interesting one, 
and shows not only originality but foresight. It means 
far more to the State than any gift that could be made. 
Library or public building is not to be compared with 
it, for libraries can be had from many men and in the far 
future, but the time is coming when wild land and wild 
creatures to stock that land cannot be had. 
In an adjacent State the late Austin Corbin established 
his famous Blue Mountain Park as a hunting preserve, 
in which, however, so little hunting was done as hardly 
to interfere with the rapid increase of the wild animals 
there. Mount Ellen may become a lesser Blue Mountain 
Park. Let us hope that in many another State men will 
be found who will purchase for the benefit of their fel- 
lows large tracts of land to be used as parks or game 
refuges, free— under proper limitations— to the whole public- 
A PERPETUAL BENEFACTION. 
Tt is but a few weeks since we alluded to the im- 
portance of the establishment by the various State govern- 
ments of reservations set aside for the use of the people. 
l>;n where the native life occupying these reservations 
should be protected from harm or molestation. The idea 
is a natural sequence of the proposed government forest 
game refuges, first suggested in Forest and Stream 
some years ago. 
No argument is needed to prove the desirability, and 
tlie usefulness to the public, from the points of view of ■ 
pleasure and of health, of such reservations, parks, 
breathing places — we may call them what we will — where 
for a season the current of the busy man's thought may 
be changed, and he may rest and recreate. The idea is 
grasped by the public mind slowly, but if grasped slowly 
it is firmly held; more than that, an appreciation of its 
importance is constantly growing. 
It is many years since complaints first began to be 
made about the private game preserve. Americans had 
always been, free to hunt where they pleased, to fish in 
any waters that they could reach, and when farsighted 
people saw that the game and fish must go, and began 
to purchase fishing rights, or to lease shooting lands for 
their own private uses and to keep the public off, there 
was much bitter grumbling. There is complaint still, and 
we have lately heard much of it about the huge preserves 
of the Adirondacks; yet this establishment of private 
preserves is confined to no section of the land. Rivers, 
lakes, and square miles of territory by the hundred are 
leased in Canada, while in the South the marshes of the 
sea coast are taken up from Maryland to Florida ; further 
inland, quail grounds are leased in blocks of 20,000 or 
30,000 acres by single associations. What, then, is the 
American citizen to do, provided circumstances do not 
admit of his belonging to some club which owns a pre- 
serve? Obviously he must turn to free land for his game 
supply, and this free land must be controlled by State or 
Federal Government. This precise point was made by the 
President of the United States a year or two since, when 
he declared that in this democracy it was the part of 
the Government to set aside tracts where the game should 
be absolutely protected in order that it might overflow 
into unprotected territory, and so might furnish hunting 
and shooting to the people who otherwise could have none. 
Some States have offered fine examples of what might 
be done in setting aside these refuges, but there are 
many where the drive and rush of business have been too 
great for them as yet to give attention to this matter. 
An interesting example of how the importance of such 
reservations is coming to be understood has been recently 
given by Mr. Jos. Battell, of Middlebury, Vt. Mr. Battell 
has lately purchased Ellen Mountain, which rises 4,000 
feet above the town of Warren, Vt., with the purpose of 
converting this mountain into a park for the benefit of 
"THE GOOD OLD TIMES." 
With the ceaseless struggle for existence enjoined on 
all mankind, there are associated many discomforts which 
evoke innumerable plaints. Many of them refer to real 
or imaginary physical ills; many more are the results 
merely of unhappy states of mind. 
It is a peculiar phenomenon of the average human in- 
tellect that a pet idea— existing in idea only— is likely to 
be accepted by its possessor as sound knowledge of uni- 
versal application. Of these, none is more fallacious than 
the cherished plaint of many elderly or provincial people 
declaring how much happier and better life was in the past 
than is life in the sordid present. The past is referred to 
tenderly and regretfully as "the good old times." 
Few men realize that the human nature of to-day is 
precisely the same human nature which existed in "the 
good old times;" that manners of living have been, con- 
stantly and comprehensively progressing toward the bet- 
terment of all classes; that the common comforts of to- 
day were the limited luxuries of "the good old times," 
and that many comforts at present enjoyed by all classes 
were unobtainable in "the good old times," for the suffi- 
cient reason that they did not then exist. 
The deteriorating changes which the elderly individual 
iittributes to the world at large, are changes chiefly 
within himself. As a man advances in mature years, his 
ideas of enjoyment become changed from those of his 
youth. In youth the sham and real, if pleasurable, are 
alike accepted as being good and true; in mature years, 
the sham is easily discerned and rejected. 
The "good old times" of boyhood were simply the days 
of juvenile happiness, and did not represent the feelings 
of a community. People to-day have better homes, better 
food, better means of travel by land and water, and better 
standards of living in general than obtained in "the good 
old times." 
In no particular has the American people developed 
more beneficially than in matters which concern rest and 
lecreation. Statistics show that men are becoming bet- 
ter developed physically, and the world's progress is a 
testimonial concerning mentality. 
The time is not beyond the memory of that' ubiquitous 
individual and highest authority— "the oldest inhabitant" 
— when the man who went a-fishing or camping, or, in 
short, who took an outing for pleasure on land or water, 
w^as viewed very much askance in a financial way by his 
business confreres, besides being the subject of much 
unpleasant gossip socially. 
From the viewpoint of "the good old times," such man 
was negligent in business, and, as a loafer, was a bad 
example to the youth of the land. And the gospel of 
ceaseless toil in "the good old times" applied alike to 
employer and employee impartially. Contrast the customs 
of to-day with those of "the good old times." It is, in- 
deed, an exceptional business institution which does not 
give its employes a two-weeks' vacation with salary. It 
is an exceptional institution which has not on its execu- 
tive staff men who fish or shoot or canoe or yacht. 
Even as recently as ten years ago, while the American 
people at large indulged in sport, there were no formal 
indications of national sanction. At the Columbian 
Exposition at Chicago there was but an insignificant 
recognition of practical sports. However, the Louisiana 
I'urchase Exposition is in gratifying, magnificent con- 
trast in this point. So-called Olympic games will be a 
feature during the Exposition and in connection there- 
with, on ample and specially prepared grounds. The 
Stadium, with its generqus allotment of space, has a 320- 
yard straightaway track, 25 yards wide, jumping paths, 
a baseball field, etc., for the thorough competition of 
athletes. A special feature will be intercollegiate compe- 
titions. In "the good old times" such competitions in an 
important way did not exist, and, indeed, such a mam- 
moth exposition could not exist. 
The latter-day doctrine of recreation is incomparably 
superior to the doctrine of ceaseless toil which obtained 
in "the good old ti mes." 
TRAPSHOOTING STANDARDS OF SKILL. . 
During many years past the 16-yard mark, in target 
tournaments, has been generally accepted as the standard 
of shooting distance. Coincidentally shotguns have been 
improved in many practical qualities, ammunition has 
been perfected to an excellent degree of uniformity and 
effectiveness, and expert trapshooters have multiplied 
till they are numbered by hundreds. Every section of the 
United States has its experts. Yet the 16-yard standard 
remains unaltered. 
From the 16-yard mark straight runs of 100, by differ- 
ent shooters everywhere, are so common and have been 
so common for many years past, that they excite no more 
than passing comment. Indeed, some years ago a run of 
several hundred was made at Interstate Park, L. I., by 
a professional expert. 
It has been demonstrated also that the modern shot- 
gun and ammunition are effective at 30 yards in target 
shooting. The recent tournament at Wilmington, Del., 
on May 12 and 13, furnished a demonstration that at' 20 
yards an almost perfect score can be made by a skillful 
shooter. Why, then, shoot at 16 yards? 
There are so many shooters now who are capable of 
breaking 100 targets straight, or who have records of 
100 targets straight, that there is no special distinctiveness 
—one expert compared with another — in respect to the 
matter of superiority. 
The standard distance — 16 yards — is so well within the 
skill of the shooters and the capabilities of gun and 
ammunition, that it is really an unworthy test when 
compared with the possibilities of trapshooting. 
It is true that in some tournaments the distances are 
from 1.4 to 20 or 25 yards, but these are special temporary 
handicap distances which apply only to those tournaments, 
and they in nowise disturb the established standard. 
At least 18 yards should be established as the standard 
distance at target trapshooting. It is not good argument 
to maintain that some shooters cannot even now shoot 
well at 16 yards. There again- is a class of shooters which 
cannot shoot well at 14 or 12 yards. 
The real issue is that there is such a multitude who 
can shoot well at 18, 20, 22 and 24 yards, that the standard 
of excellence should be raised. The raising from easy 
to difficult standards has been done extensively in rifle 
and pistol shooting. In trapshooting at targets, however, 
the 16-yard standard of its infant days seems to be satis- 
factory likewise as the standard of its manhood days. 
The suggestion made recently that the States gen- 
erally should prevent the killing of female deer, while 
not new, and already acted on by a number of the States, 
should receive attention by all legislatures. Maine for- 
bids the -kiUing of cow moose, and Ontario the killing of 
female moose, caribou or elk, while in a number of 
States the killing of deer without horns, and of antelope 
without horns, is forbidden. 
As Mr. Carney says, anything that makes for greater 
deliberation on the part of the hunter tends to help the 
game, to make it safer to travel in the forest, and to 
prevent the unnecessary wounding of animals. 
The best sportsman — as shown by their individual writ-: 
ings and by the' constitutions of their clubs — are agreed 
that only males should be killed. Thus the constitution' 
of the Boone and Crockett Club, Article V., says: "The 
term 'fair chase' shall not be held to include * * * 
the killing of the female or young of any ruminant ex- 
cept the female of white goats or muskox." The reason 
for the exceptions is not because the females of the ex- 
cepted species ought to be killed, but because it is often 
impossible in these species to distinguish females from 
males. 
The constantly lessening numbers of big game make it 
important to use every means to preserve and assist in 
the propagation of that game. Of these means, one of 
the most effective is the protedioa of the feinales. 
