Forest and Stream. 
> s 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. ;, 
Copyright, 1904, by Forest and Stream Pubushing Co. _. — 
T KR Ms,f4.Y^ T iog, A cop Y .| NEW YORK, SATURDAY, CfcTQBER IB, 1904. \ No . 8 JgtJSSlgt &«. 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
ment, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 
The editors invite communications on the subjects to which its 
pages are devoted. Anonymous communications will not be re- 
garded. While it is intended to give wide latitude in discussion 
of current topics, the editors are not responsible for the views of 
correspondents. * 
Subscriptions may begin at any time. Terms: For single 
copies, $4 per year, $3 for six months. For club rates and full 
particulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iii. 
THE WATER POLLUTION PROBLEM. 
The members of the Altoona Rod and Gun Club and 
Fish and Game Protective Association, in a letter printed 
elsewhere, announce their purpose of endeavoring to Sup- 
press the pollution which is filling their streams with dead 
fish. They have set out to accomplish this end by friendly 
Conference with the proprietors of the offending establish- 
ments. This is most commendable in spirit ; but the ex- 
perience of those who have had to do with attempts to 
abate such nuisances does not warrant a belief that 
substantial results are to be looked for from the friendly 
conference. A manufacturer finds it much cheaper to 
drain the factory waste into a stream which will Carry it 
away, than to provide for the disposition of the refuse on 
the premises. The destruction of the fish, the pollution 
of the water, the creation and maintenance of what is in 
fact, if not in law, a public nuisance, all these are second- 
ary and minor considerations which have no weight as 
against the one item of avoiding expense. This has been 
the history of stream pollution in Pennsylvania as else- 
where. 
For years the successive boards of fish commissioners 
of Pennsylvania have sought some practicable means of 
ending the destruction of fish by the waste from tanneries 
and other manufacturing establishments. Mr. Henry C. 
Jpora, well remembered for his long and public spirited 
service in a former commission, once wrote to the Forest 
and Stream, in response to complaints from afflicted dis- 
tricts on the Youghiogheiiy River : 
"I am in receipt* of many communications of similar 
import from other parts of the State, and regret to say 
that we have no law in Pennsylvania that will prevent 
such pollutions of our streams. This has not been the 
fault of the Commissioners of Fisheries, for at the last 
two sessions of our Legislature we introduced an act 
to prevent the discharge .of refuse of tanneries, wood 
acids, etc., into the waters of the commonwealth. It was 
defeated each time by the efforts of members of the 
Legislature from the very districts affected by such 
nuisances. It is the intention of the commission to intro- 
duce a similar act at the next session of the Legislature." 
The new measure referred to met the fate of the others. 
There is in Pennsylvania to-day no law which can he en- 
forced to remedy the evil of water pollution. 
Nor is there any probability that a perfect anti-pollution 
measure could ever pass the Legislature. The Supreme 
Court of Pennsylvania some years ago made a ruling on 
ex post facto laws, which presumably would defeat legis- 
lation designed to affect established industries. Moreover, 
a drastic measure would wipe out of existence several 
Small towns which are dependent upon industries involv- 
ing water pollution, as well as the industries themselves, 
which represent millions of invested capital. These con- 
ditions have prevailed against legislative action in the 
past, and would continue to prevail against any future 
efforts along this line. 
Cognizant of the perplexities of the problem, and of the 
apparently insuperable obstacles to a full remedy, the 
present Commissioner of Fisheries, Mr. W. E. Median, 
is preparing a bill which is a compromise measure. It 
aims to prevent any new pollution of the streams, and 
the gradual extinction of the pollution which now exists. 
Under the provisions of the rough draft now prepared, 
It is proposed to make it illegal for any person or cor- 
poration to build a new industry to empty any waste 
deleterious to fish life into any streams of the Common- 
wealth; and wherever the State Board of Health and the 
Department of Fisheries unite in declaring that any ex- 
isting pollution by establishments erected before the 
passage of the act is deleterious to both human health 
and fish life, the nuisance shall be abated at the expense 
of the State. The question as to whether it shall be at 
the joint expense of the State and the owners of thf 
establishment is yet under consideration and not: decided. 
A number of newspapers in the State have discussed the 
proposed bill approvingly without exception, and many 
of the established industries declare they will not oppose 
its passage. 
The compromise measure here outlined is the most 
promising movement we have yet recorded for Pennsyl- 
vania public water reform. Commissioner Meehan should 
have the hearty support and cordial, active co-operation 
of all associations like the Altoona Rod and Gun Club. 
By uniting forces and working in unison for the common 
Cause, individuals and clubs may find in this law proposed 
by Mr. Meehan the best attainable solution of what has 
so long been a vexatious problem. 
The evil, and the poweriessness of the representatives 
of the people to remedy it, are by no means peculiar to 
Pennsylvania. There is perhaps no single State where 
in greater or less degree the small streams and the rivers 
are not in an abominable condition because made sewers for 
factory waste. If the most we can hope for is, as in Penn- 
sylvania, a compromise and a partial remedy of the evil, 
let us have at least that. The outcome of the campaign 
projected for Harrisburg next winter will be looked for 
with much interest. 
GREECE AND ITALY, 
Our Boston correspondent records another personal en- 
counter between a game warden and a foreign shooter. 
The warden came upon two Greeks killing song birds, 
and when he undertook to arrest them, received into his 
body a charge of bird shot, and was removed to the hos- 
pital. These Greek and Italian and other foreign-born 
shooters have become an unmitigated nuisance, a peril to 
life and a very considerable factor in the destruction of 
song and insectivorous and game birds. They are found 
all over the country. New England is full of them. New 
York has an arnly of them. New York city is the fourth 
city of the world in its Italian population, only Rome, 
Naples and Milan are larger. All about the city, in out- 
lying districts of Westchester county and on Long Island, 
the roads and fields and woodlands are infested with 
Italian bird shooters, both week days and Sundays. New 
Jersey has its quota. In Pennsylvania they have given so 
much trouble that the Legislature has sought to check the 
evil by requiring the unnaturalized gunner to take out a 
gun license, for which he must pay a fee of $10. But in 
Pennsylvania, as elsewhere, because of inadequate execu- 
tion of the law, the evil has been but partially checked. 
Secretary Kalbfus, of the Game Commission, relates a 
characteristic incident illustrating the lawless, wanton, 
and murderous nature of this class ; 
We have in this office information showing the shooting of five 
citizens during the past fall by these people, and for no other 
reason— all of them deliberate and willful. One gentleman living 
hear, if not quite, inside the city limits of Pittsburg, saw three 
Italians shooting song and insectivorous birds in his orchard and 
ordered them off his land. One of the. foreigners said: "This is 
a free country; we don't have to go." To this the owner replied: 
"Yes, you do," and thereupon received two loads of shot in his 
stomach atid legs; fofturiately, not killing hint, although he was 
compelled to stay ill the hospital for many weeks. 
In another Pennsylvania case a deputy game warden of 
Pittston, who undertook to arrest three Italians found 
killing birds on a Sunday afternoon, was fired upon by 
them, and saved his life only because he was quicker than 
his antagonists, and "got the drop" on them. The story 
might be repeated again and again. The Italian immigra- 
tion is bringing to us hordes of people who dream that 
America is a free country, which means to them in this 
particular respect a country where every' mother's son 
of them is free to carry a gun anywhere and at any time, 
and to shoot anything that flies, without let or hindrance. 
It would be a great mistake to> imagine that these 
foreign-born shooters and bird snarers are confined to> the 
neighborhoods of the large towns. On the contrary, they 
are scattered over the country, and their destructive work 
is not confined to any one climatic zone. The South as 
well as the North has its Italians; and the killing of small 
birds there in the winter is on a greater scale than in 
the North, because certain birds which in the North are 
separated, in the South are congregated in flocks, and are 
more easily killed because in multitudes. 
Plow shall we control this pernicious element in its re- 
lation to the life of the field? Manifestly the remedy may 
be found in abridging the privileges of the . man with the 
gun. The time will shortly come — if it is not already 
here — when the old-time freedom of carrying a gun must 
give place to such a system of licensing, regulation, and 
control as will first keep out of the fields the irresponsible 
and lawless ; and second, secure to the responsible and the 
law-abiding the fullest privilege compatible with public 
interest. In short, we are reaching a point where shooting 
and the carrying of guns must be classed as privileges 
accorded under restriction, and not as rights exercised 
without leave asked of anyone. 
The Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks 
is doing a good work in distributing the report of H. M. 
Suter, agent of the Bureau of Forestry, on the "Forest 
Fires of 1903 in the Adirondacks." As will be remem- 
bered, the fires of that year were of the most serious 
nature, entailing a loss exceeding $1,000,000. They were 
far beyond the power of the fire warden service, as then 
constituted, to cope with. And the serious aspect of the 
subject, which makes worth while this distribution of the 
report of the Association, is that under like conditions of 
a protracted drouth, the State would now be no better 
fitted to cope with Adirondack forest fires than it was in 
1903. New York suffered its loss then; but it has not 
profited by the lesson. The Legislature of last winter was 
not equal to the demand upon it to provide for a compe- 
tent study of Adirondack conditions, which might furnish 
a basis for an adequate scheme of fire protection. The 
Legislature, for session after session, is content to intrust 
its forestry affairs to junketing commissions who are not 
fitted by technical education and training to investigate the 
Adirondacks intelligently and to report upon them in a 
way to merit public confidence. So long as the penny 
wise and pound foolish policy of Governor Odell shall 
prevail, with respect to the forests of the North Woods, 
we may not look for any radical betterment. The only 
hope for a change is in an enlightened and aroused public 
sentiment ; and this must be created by such associations 
as that for the protection of the Adirondacks. 
at 
The winter feeding trough for quail, described by Mr. 
Taft as employed by Massachusetts sportsmen, is a prac- 
ticable and profitable device, which, for the amount, of 
time and money expended, yields good returns. It should 
be copied generally, where a food supply in the hard 
winters means so much in carrying the birds through. 
Effort directed to saving the native game is much more 
profitable than attempts to introduce foreign species. 
Although the imported pheasants have been extensively 
cultivated, they have not, except in the Northwest, be- 
come an appreciable factor of the game supply. New 
Jersey, New 7 York and Ohio have abandoned the breeding 
of them. Massachusetts still carries on the work, but 
the results are not commensurate with the effort put 
forth, nor is there promise that it will be. On various 
private estates the birds have been established, at no little 
cost, and in some instances the country immediately ad- 
jacent has shared in the stocking; but here the conditions 
are local, and probably not permanent. 
* 
After a service of nine years as president of the 
Cuvier Club, of Cincinnati, Mr. Alex. Starbuck has re- 
tired on the eve of his eightieth birthday. The term of 
Mr. Starbuck's office has been a notable period of its his- 
tory. Under his administration the membership has in- 
creased from 180 to 500, and the activities of the organiza- 
tion have been broadened. Vitalized by his energy, the 
club has become a most important and efficient factor in 
all good works looking to the protection of birds and 
game and fish in Ohio. In the Cuvier service President 
Starbuck was untiring; in furthering its interests he spent 
more than $5,000 from his own purse ; and it is owing to 
his enthusiastic, devoted, and untiring labors that the club 
has won its wide popularity and achieved its enviable 
position. Mr. Starbuck will be succeeded by Judge P. S. 
Swing. 
The most characteristic up-to-date hunting expedition 
is reported from the vicinity of Boston, whence a party of 
three men and two bird dogs have set out in an automo- 
bile for a shooting trip through New Hampshire and into 
Maine. The touring machine is fitted with beds; the ex- 
pedition will camp by the roadside where night may fall 
or fancy dictate ; and the dependence upon hotels will be 
for meals only. ( * A 
