Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1904, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
TBRMS ^iJ^rZi r . s - ACoFV -\ NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JULY 23, 1904. { No . 84 ^ OA ™; nbw' y okk 
THE "DEVIL-WAGON." 
Without a doubt the automobile, as a means of trans- 
portation, is a permanency, for it has a special fitness in 
the transportation of freight or passengers in. the traffic 
of the great cities. 
The horse, in city traffic, suffers seriously in compari- 
son with it. It is swifter, more powerful and economical 
than horses are, and, from a sanitary point of view, it has 
the further advantage of being incomparably more 
desirable. 
The use of automobiles, for both business and pleasure, 
is multiplying with astonishing rapidity in the cities. The 
demand is constantly increasing. The world's manufac- 
turing resources in this relation are taxed to their utmost 
limit of production. In particular, France and Germany, 
as manufacturers and exporters of automobiles, find 
special favor in the eye of American purchasers, and are 
enriched accordingly by many thousands of American 
dollars. The domestic manufacturers vie with the for- 
eign in the competition to secure the profitable American 
patronage. 
When properly used, the automobile has all the essen- 
tials of a public benefaction. It has no inherent malevo- 
lent properties which are harmful to society. But, as 
commonly used in the city streets by reckless drivers, it 
is largely a public nuisance, and a public menace. 
The average chauffeur runs his machine with an utter 
disregard of the rights and safety of pedestrians, and 
with but little regard for vehicles drawn by horses. And 
yet oftentimes the chauffeur is blameless, inasmuch as, if 
he is a servant, he must obey the commands of his 
employer. 
The common appellation of "devil-wagon," as applied 
to the automobile, has a peculiar appropriateness. A 
demon and his wagon turned loose among a people would 
not display more heartless indifference to their peace of 
mind or safety of person than does the average chauffeur. 
Any day, in New York, one can witness the driving of 
heavy automobiles at high speed, and the consequent scat- 
tering of men, women, and children at the cross walks, 
with a most contemptuous disregard of their comfort or 
safety, not to say rights. 
The automobilist acts as if he had a proprietary right 
to the streets, and as if all others were on them by his 
tolerance. He habitually and contemptuously violates the 
municipal ordinance regulating the speed of vehicles. Of 
the many violators of the speed regulations, but few are 
arrested. 
When arrested, the average automobile owner is im- 
perturb'ably unconcerned as to what the judge thinks of 
the matter, calmly denies having violated the speed laws 
in the slightest degree, and by the hocus-pocus of delays 
and pettifogging, either succeeds in discrediting the testi- 
mony of the law officers, or in having the case dismissed. 
The automobile is the toy of the wealthy. In the eye 
of the law there seems to be a vast difference between the 
fast driving of a horse by an ordinary citizen and the fast 
driving of an automobile by a millionaire. If it so hap- 
pens that the offending automobilist is fined for violating 
the speed laws, he views the matter merely as an un- 
pleasant incident of his ride. The fine, at the most, does 
not disturb him in the least. It imposes no punishment. 
He presents the same contumacious deportment regard- 
less of the fine. He runs his machine to suit his own 
pleasure. 
The speed ordinances were designed mainly for the 
regulation of vehicles drawn by horses. The punishments 
which they imposed were quite sufficient as deterrents on 
the people at large. The automobilists are a wealthy class 
to whom those fines and penalties are nothing. They are 
representative of wealth, power, and "pull," therefore, 
they seem to have certain immunities not accorded to the 
humble law breaker. The hostility manifested in many 
sections of New York toward automobilists by the throw- 
ing of missiles, is a logical outcome of the law's 
inadequacy. 
On this point, Judge R. C. Cornell, of New York, is 
quoted in the Evening Telegram as follows : "In saying 
■in court the other day that a man who shot at a reckless 
■chauffeur would be perfectly justified, I do not consider 
I was making an intemperate statement." 
And on the inefficency of the law he is quoted as - 
saying : 
The present law is absolutely inadequate to cope with the evil. 
Fines are of no avail, because the majority of the automobilists 
are rich men. Of late the law has been taken out of the hands 
of the magistrates, so that now all we can do is to hold violators 
of the speed limit for the Court of General Sessions. 
I think the only remedy is to give the owners of machines a 
taste of punishment. The poor chauffeurs too often are made 
scapegoats for their masters. If the owners were sentenced to a 
few nights on a hard cot in a cell, with bread and water, I believe 
the evil would soon be remedied. 
The worst offenders, I think, are. the nouveaux riches — persons 
who have suddenly become wealthy. They have never owned fast 
horses, have no conception of speed, and are incapable of handling 
a fast automobile. It is these people, whose heads have been 
turned, that override the public rights. 
It is a strange situation, indeed, where the newly rich 
or the old rich have an immunity from punishment not 
vouchsafed to the new poor nor the old poor. 
TO STUDY THE GOLDEN TROUT. 
One of the most interesting of the American trout, and 
perhaps the most beautiful of them all, is the golden trout 
of Mount Whitney. The species, so far as known, is 
native only to a few mountain streams high up on the 
Sierras, and from some of these it has been transferred 
to other streams running into the Kern Valley. 
For a number of years we have heard of an increasing- 
scarcity of this beautiful fish, and reports have reached 
the Bureau of Fisheries that the golden trout is in danger 
of extermination. The matter has again been brought up 
recently, and Mr. Stewart Edward White, the author, has 
called attention to this danger. Still more lately the 
President has taken up the subject, and addressed a letter 
to the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, asking that 
inquiry be made to learn what should be done for the 
preservation of this species. 
In compliance with the President's request, Fish Com- 
missioner Bowers is sending out a party to the Mt. 
Whitney region to learn as much as possible about the 
golden trout. Dr. B. W. Everman will have charge of 
the party, and will be accompanied by a number of other 
scientific men who are interested in some aspects of the 
trout's life. It is believed that if a few specimens of this 
fish can be transferred to a Government hatchery and 
there artificially propagated, the danger to the species 
will cease to exist. 
A NEW JERSEY GAME PRESERVE. 
After reviewing the unsatisfactory results of stocking- 
water with fishes brought from the Great Lakes, the New 
Jersey commissioners express a conviction that instead 
of expending more funds in this direction, they might 
more profitably undertake the establishment of a State 
game preserve where native and imported species might 
have a secure refuge, and whence the covers of the State 
at large might be stocked. 
This proposition, whether or not put into effect at the 
expense of any other work of the commission, is most- 
sensible. The State game preserve, if only it be as well 
taken care of as are private preserves, will in large 
measure solve the problem of a perpetuated game supply. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
Dr. Jos. Kalbfus, secretary of the Pennsylvania Board 
of Game Commissioners, has created something of a sen- 
sation by charging that agents of the Carnegie Institute, 
under cover of collecting birds for the museum of that 
institution, were conducting an extensive traffic in song 
bird skins, of which there were said to be in the museum 
40,000 of those of Pennsylvania birds and 20,000 of those 
of birds from other States. The existence of the skins 
and the bird traffic itself, so far as the Carnegie Institute 
is concerned, was denied by Dr. W. J. Holland of the 
museum. The charge is now under investigation, and 
pending the result of the inquiry, comment may be with- 
held. 
There is a broad tendency to guard and restrict very 
rigorously the killing of birds "for scientific purposes." 
The conditions are much harder than they were, for the 
ambitious young scientist. In New York, for instance, 
the last Legislature enacted that applicants for license to 
collect birds for scientific purposes should qualify in a 
bond of $200 for faithful observance of the law. This is 
only one manifestation of the growth of the idea of bird 
protection, which is one of the conspicuous popular move- 
ments of the day. The sentiment has reached Mexico. 
Consul W. W. Canada writes from Vera Cruz that an 
agitation has been on foot looking to the passage of a law 
to prevent the wanton destruction of birds throughout 
this country; a proposed law has already been presented 
to the Government by the Association for the Protection 
of Birds, and it is confidently expected that it will meet 
the approval of the Executive. This law is intended to 
prevent the killing of certain classes of birds useful to the 
agriculturist. Other kinds, such as, for instance, game 
birds, may be killed only at stated periods of the year. 
All birds of prey, and others destructive to the interests 
of the farmer, may be killed at any time and by anybody. 
Such a law, if rigidly enforced, adds Consul Canada, 
cannot fail to be of great benefit to the people of the 
United States, as, for instance, in the case of migratory 
birds that winter in Mexico, or even further south, and 
that return to the north in the proper season if not killed 
off in the meantime. 
H 
It is reported that San Francisco is to have a beautiful 
aquarium — perhaps the finest in the world. The news 
comes from a San Francisco dispatch, which states that 
Mr. Lloyd Tevis purposes to build for the public use in 
San Francisco, as a memorial of his father, an aqnarium 
which shall cost between $3,000,000 and $4,000,000. It is 
to be built in the Golden Gate Park, to whese attractions 
it will very greatly add. 
We shall leave it to Mr. Kelly and Rifleman to deter- 
mine for themselves the burning question cf whether, in 
writing of Daniel Boone and the squirrels lie did or did 
not bark, they should use their own names, pen-names, 
or no names. In a general way, however, i; may be said 
that in writing for Forest and Stream oi"re may do so 
over his own name or over a pseudonym with perfect 
propriety ; and he is not to be criticised i i he prefers 
anonymity. No one thinks the less of a writer, or gives 
less consideration to what he writes, because his signa- 
ture is a pseudonym. In support of this we might cite 
a hundred pen-names, past and present, which, have be- 
come as household words in the homes to which this 
journal finds its way. 
Old John Esquemeling, whose racy history of the 
"Buccaneers" was as calculated to.make pirate asrWalton's 
"Angler" is to make fishermen, thought it incumbent 
upon him in his preface to warn his readers, lest they 
should be enticed by his chapters into taking up the pro- 
fession of piracy, that it was dangerous business, and that 
most of those who were engaged in it found themselves 
of a sudden precipitated into another world. We recur 
from time to time to the perils of angling, not to deter 
from participation in this most delightful of pastimes, but 
that the sagacious reader of such examples may be warned 
by the. fate of others to avoid the hazards, mishaps, and 
casualties which have been their undoing. For as a rule 
the perils are not inherent in the art of angling, but are 
attendant upon it only as a result of the frailty of human 
nature. Of this class, for instance,, were the cases of 
the two salt-water fishermen cited last week who stood 
up in their boats to play a fish, one of them being 
drowned, and the other with difficulty rescued and resus- 
citated. Fishing from a small boat is perfectly safe, as 
the experience of millions testifies, provided only that 
ordinary prudence be exercised, and that the fisherman 
does not do some "fool thing." 
A distressing case of fishing fatality is reported from 
Tortugas, Fla., and the pity of it is that it was all so 
avoidable if only the ordinary rules of conduct in a small 
boat at sea had been observed. The captain of a collier 
at the United States coaling station at .Tortugas, his wife 
and daughter and two marines were in a dinghy off the 
reef fishing. In a lull in the sport, the captain, "a very 
jolly man" and "a very large man," reached over and 
playfully tickled his wife, "a very large woman." The 
wife jumped, the boat went over, and wife, husband and 
daughter were drowned. What makes the melancholy in- 
cident the more worthy of note is that the captain, "a 
man over six feet tall, weighing over 200 pounds, and a 
magnificent specimen of the American sailor," could not 
swim, _ . _ . .. .. _ . _ 
