Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1904, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, |4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. { 
Six Months, |2. j 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 1906. 
- j VOL. LXIV.— No. 8. 
j No. -346 Broadway, New York. 
jThe Forest and Stream is the recognized mediuin of entertain- 
ment, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 
The editors invite communications on the subjects to -wiiich 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, $2 for six months. For club rates and full 
particulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iii, 
THE LEWIS AND CLARK CLUB. , 
There has recently been organized, under the above 
name, at Pittsburg, Pa.,, a sportsman's club from which 
■ itiuch good may be hoped for. As yet only its foundations 
have been laid, but it is organized on right lines, and may 
confidently be expected to do good work. Its establish- 
ment is gratifying evidence of the continually widening 
public interest in the preservation of the natural resources 
< f this country. 
The club is modeled after the Boone and Crockett Club, 
which was organized in 1887, whose goocLwork has been 
evidenced for many years. The objects of the Lewis and 
Clark Club are (i) geographical research and explora- 
tion, (2) protection and preservation of game for pur- 
poses of legitimate sport, (3)- enfoTcement of the game 
laws, (4) encouragement of outdoor life and the study 
of natural history, (5) collection of such information 
relative to the haunts of the big game of North America 
as may be useful to sportsmen. Only big-game hunters 
who by fair stalking or still-hunting have killed with a 
rifle two or more head of big game are eligible to mem- 
bership. 
The organizers are the following : Hon. Wm. M. Ken- 
nedy, Hon. George Shiras 3d, John M. Phillips, James 
M. Jarvis, Frank M. Turner, H. Wilfred DuPuy, J. Bis- 
sell Speer, Edward J. House, Dr. Cecil C. Jarvis, Fred. 
B. Hussey, Emil Winter, Frank W. Kennedy, James W. 
Grove, W. Harry Brown, E. J. Taylor, Philip A. Moore, 
David P. Black, J. N. Hussey, Dr. C. H. Voigt, S. H. 
McKee, Francis L. Robbins, Robert F. Phillips, A. W. 
Pollock, J. T. M. Stonerod, W. K. Shiras, Robert W. 
Bissell, George E. Painter, J. L. Walsh, George S. Gar- 
ritt, Ralph Theophilus, Frank T. Brooks, J. Ernest Roth, 
George N. Monro, Jr.; D. McK. Lloyd, S. W. Childs, 
Frederick S. Webster. The officers are : President, Wm. 
M. Kennedy; Vice-Presidents, George S. Garritt, John 
M. Phillips and W. K. Shiras ; Secretary and Treasurer, 
Mr. J. Bissell Speer. The membership of the club is to 
be limited to 100, of whom 75 shall be Pennsylvanians ■ 
and 25 non-residents of that State. 
Hon. George Shiras 3d is perhaps the most prominent 
member of the club. Fie has distinguished himself as a 
naturalist, but especially as a photographer of wild ani- 
mals, and during his career as member of Congress has 
introduced a number of bills whose purpose is the pro- 
tection of game and generally the preservation of our 
natural resources. His efforts in the protection of wild- 
fowl and migratory birds, by placing them in the custody 
and under the protection of the Federal Government as 
embodied in what is known as the Shiras Bill, are fresh in 
the public mind, and he has also brought forward other 
measures whose purpose is the preservation of the large 
game in the Yellowstone Park and in the forest reserves. 
It is a good sign for this country when men, of what- 
ever walk in life, associate themselves together with the 
honest purpose of protecting those natural objects which 
since the settlement of America have been regarded as 
belonging to whoever should take them without regard 
to the time or the method of taking. As the years pass 
we are seeing more and more examples of the growth of 
a feeling that this action is necessary to the public wel- 
fare. . Of such associations the Boone and Crockett Club 
is perhaps the most notable, but the organization recently 
of the National Audubon Society and of the Lewis and 
Clark Club on January 14, show how this feeling is 
growing. We may imagine that while the newest of these 
associations is organized nominally for purposes of sport, 
it will, like its older brother just mentioned, find out be- 
fore long that the protection of big game is a more in- 
teresting, as it is a more important, matter than its 
destruction. 
THE OPTIMISM OF SPORTSMEN. 
The felicitous trait of hoping ever that the future will 
abound with good times, and in memory cherishing only 
the happy events of the past, is a characteristic of true 
sportsmen. So enthusiastic is he in his ideals that be- 
times the imaginary to him becomes the reality. 
Practicarl sportsmanship, besides conferring innumerable 
physical benefits, is a powerful stimulus to the energies of 
the mind. By virtue of it men of. dormant intellects be- 
come pleasingly bright, and men of bright intellects attain 
the heights of genius. It clears the reasoning faculties 
of their fogginess, quickens the imagination and beautifies 
the manner of expression; and all this independently of 
whether or not there are any apparent physical benefits 
conferred by it. 
And yet this benign phase of sportsmanship is rarely 
treated seriously, and never treated in the liberal extent 
which its importance merits. This neglect is a grievous 
loss. All other of sportsmanship interests have been 
generally elaborated. Of the pleasures of sportsmanship 
as they are associated with its practices, speculations and 
guild sympathies, many hundreds of praiseworthy pages 
have been published, much to the permanent advantage of 
the myriad of readers who derived useful instruction and 
entertainment from them, 
Excepting this omission in reference to the mental 
benefits, the literature of sport is of the highest order. 
The genius of its authors is second to none. And yet, 
because of this omission, it may feelingly be said that it 
fails as a properly balanced literature. The objective ever 
dominates or overwhelms the subjective. Copious writ- 
ings are devoted to the pleasures of pursuit, of capture, 
and of good companionship, while its mental phenomena 
are ignored or flippantly considered. Indeed, scoffers be- 
times greedily seize upon the manifestations of the sports- 
man's mind as lawful subjects for their gibes and jeers. 
Harm beyond computation is the result of such doings. 
By way of illustrating the rapid evolution conseciuent 
to practical sportsmanship, let us take, by Way of exam- 
ple, an instance which is of Common knowledge. Let us 
take an average man, one who follows methodically his 
business vocation day after day, in manner as stolid ap- 
parently as an old ox, Fle follows the routine in certain 
set forms, mind and body conforming to a fixed habit of 
bfe. Could a chart of the man's mind, portraying its lines 
of effort, be constructed for one business day, it would 
serve as a daily history of his business life. 
But let us assume that this narrow, impassive business 
man goes a-fishing, and that, after a time, he hooks a fish 
and plays it with skill, more or less. The fish rushes, 
furiously to and fro, its vague form and color blending 
with the changing lights and shadows of the water. The 
rod jerkily bends to the fierce struggle of the fish. Other 
than the lengthening shadows which play about the fish's 
struggles and the bend of the rod's tip, there are no 
objects which will serve as a standart by which to de- 
termine the fish's length and weight. The revivified mind 
of the angler comes to the rescue. The fish breaks away. 
According to the lights and shadows and bend of the rod, 
he was a perfect giant of his kind, be he trout or bass or 
bullhead. The sluggish mind of the business man is 
gone, and in its stead is the broader, higher, and more 
nimble wit of the angler. In place of the former taci- 
turnity there is a pleasing long flow of elegant language. 
Descriptive powers of the highest orders are developed. 
The intellectual faculties have had a salutary stimulus 
which age, misfortune or business never more can dull. 
The big fish which broke away is not an imaginary fish, 
nor is the number caught an imaginary number. To him 
who has fished and lost it is a reality. The mental wings 
have been found good, and are thus encouraged to longer 
flights. Warmth is infused into the wealth of imagery, 
the inventive faculties are matured, the vocabulary is 
enlarged to correspond to the larger mentality, and thus 
is the mind permanently benefited. 
The sport of shooting afield confers like benefits. The 
stolid business man who in the daily routine could dis- 
cover nothing more exciting than the most wearisome 
of commonplaces, also has his intellect quickened. He 
will observe that the royally bred blue blood setter, 
Rameses III., pointed a quail accurately at a distance of 
500 yards, which demonstrates the marvelous functional 
powers of the dog's tiQse, not to say th§ rnarveloug 
fragrance of the quail. 
To bring into notice the benign evolution of the mind 
consequent to practical sportsmanship, only the mere sug- 
gestion is necessary. Each sportsman of his own knowl- 
edge will readily contribute numerous specifications of 
the mind's improvement from practical sportsmanship. 
Thus the sportsman acquires a sunny disposition, and 
always looks hopefully on the bright side of things. 
Where he once was pessimistic as an average man, he is ' 
fragrance of the quail. 
This mental phenomenon should be treated with' the 
respect and attention which its importance deserves. It 
is a matter for profound felici-tation inasmuch as it indi- 
cates an enlarged mentality and therewith a larger size of 
hat. But, like the poor, the scoffers we have always 
with us. 
MICHIGAN DUCKS. 
At the meeting of Michigan sportsmen at Detroit last 
week, the majority of representatives favored the aboli- 
tion of spring duck shooting, though the members who 
came from interior counties protested that without spring 
shooting they would have no ducks whatever. They are 
entitled to^ sympathy, but consideration of them must end 
there. No possible ducking law would suit everybody or 
give everybody shooting. The rule here as in other in- 
terests is that the greatest good to the greatest number 
must prevail, and if this imposes hardships and depriva-' 
tions on the minority, the minority must make the best of ■ 
it. This is the situation in Michigan. 
One thing is beyond question: the duck supply of this 
country is now so disproportionate when compared with 
the tax upon it by the immense army of shooters, that 
spring shooting must everywhere be forbidden. We must 
accept the rule with respect to migratory wildfowl that , 
holds with respect to migratory woodcock. The birds 
about to nest must be given the immunity we give the 
birds that are nesting. This is not sentiment. It is hard 
common sense. 
- The outlook for the abolition of spring duck shooting 
by the agency of uniform State laws is an accomplishment 
extremely remote. The end, however, might be attained 
speedily and permanently through the agency of the 
Shiras Bill. It behooves provident shooters everywhere 
to work for the proposed Federal law on wildfowl. 
ROBERT S WAYNE GIFFORD. 
Good sportsm.anship in this country has met with a sad 
loss in the death, on Sunday last, of Robert Swayne Gif- 
ford, the artist. 
He was born in Naushon, Mass,, December 23, 1840; 
studied painting in Europe, and afterward opened a 
studio in Boston; but had lived in New York for nearly 
forty years. He was eminent as a landscape painter, and 
has left behind him many canvasses, all of them note- 
worthy. In 1899 Mr. Gifford accompanied the Harriman 
Expedition to Alaska, and on that memorable trip made 
many sketches from which, later, he did many beautiful 
paintings in oil. He was an untiring worker, and his 
industry and his determination enabled him to secure 
many beautiful views, which might have escaped a man 
who was less earnest. 
Standing in the first rank in his profession, Mr. Gifford 
was also a keen sportsman, and was especially devoted 
to yachting, ITe was a good sailorman and enjoyed noth- 
ing better than managing- a boat or talking on yachting 
subjects, 
Mr, Gifford was a most delightful man, possessing a 
charm of manner and a kindness of heart which greatly 
endeared hirii tO' all who knew him well, Flis death 
carries grief to many a heart. ' 
What an old-time and far-away flavor pervades those 
buffalo hunting reminiscences of Cabia Blanco, Fie is 
writing of a big game animal which is no longer known 
to the prairies, and of a hunting race which has long 
since given over its hunting as a means of subsistence, 
and is slowly learning to live like the white man. We 
count the story a valuable contribution to the history of 
the last years of Indian roaming in the Southwest, This 
account of a buffalo hunt is in reality an intimate study 
of the Indians and their ways; it is one of those narra- 
tives of personal experience Avhich will be consulted by 
the historian of the time,s who would write more than 
dry-as-dust records, 
