OREST AND STREAM. 
Rod and 
Copyright, 1904, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
A Weekly Journal of the 
Gun. 
;rm8, $4 A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. ) 
Six Months, |3. ) 
NEW YGRK^ SATURDAY, MAY 13, 19 OB. 
( VOL. LXIV.— No. 19. 
1 No. 346 Broadway, New York. 
,The Forest and Stream is the recognized inediam of entertain- 
ent, instruction and information between American sportsmen, 
he editors invite communications on tlie subjects to wliich its 
iges are devoted. Anonymous communications will not be re- 
irded. While it is intended to give wide latitude in discussion 
f current topics, the editors are not responsible for the views of 
respondents. 
Subscriptions may begin at any time. Terms: For single 
jpies, $4 per year, $2 for six months. For club rates and full 
articulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iii. 
1 
THE PRESIDENT AND THE SHIRAS BILL. 
In another column is printed a communication from 
Ion. Geo. Shiras 3d, in further consideration of the 
uestion of Federal control of migratory wildfowl, as 
ontemplate^ in the bill which was introduced by him 
the late session of Congress. The discussion of the 
ubject by Judge Beaman on the one side and the author 
^f the measure on the other has been extremely instruc- 
ive, and one of the important results has been to famili- 
arize the public with the idea of a Federal system of 
>rotection for misrratory game. The proposition that 
:ongress should assume the control of, the wild geese 
nd wild ducks and snipe and shore birds is no longer 
lovel; and, Jhe subject being now familiar, the merits 
,i the scheme both as to its desirability and probable 
jfficiency and as to the constitutional points involved, 
nay be considered more intelligently. 
Mr. Shiras has explained that the introduction of ^ the 
neasure in the form in which he presented it was chiefly 
for the purpose of provoking discussion and testing pub- 
lic sentiment as to the substitution of Federal conirol for 
that of the State over migratory birds. Putting aside 
lere the constitutional aspect of the subject, it is to be 
said that the numerous letters printed in our columns 
coming from all over the country have developed be- 
yond question a practically universal approval of the 
measure as offering a solution of the vexed problem of 
wildfowl protection; and the value of these expressions 
of indorsement lies in the fact that the approving words' 
have been spoken by game officials and others, who by 
reason of their direct and intimate knowledge of the 
subject are those whose opinions should carry most 
weight. We shall in a not distant issue recur to the topic 
and review the correspondence in more detail. 
Meanwhile it is a pleasure to be permitted to repro- 
duce here a letter which has not before been printed from 
President "Roosevelt expressing his warm, approval of the 
Shiras Bill. Mr. Roosevelt's intense interest in game 
preservation being known, one might not have ques- 
tioned that he would look upon the measure as a step 
highly to be applauded : 
White House, Washington, 
February I, 1905. 
My dear Mr. Shiras: 
I am very much pleased with your bill, and am glad 
that we have in Congress a man taking so great an in- 
.terest in the preservation of our birds, and nature gen- 
erally.- I particularly wanted wildfowl to be protected. 
With hearty congratulations, sincerely yours, 
Theodore Roosevelt. 
Hon. George Shiras 3D, House of Representatives, 
Washington. 
NIAGARA. 
The measure which was before the New York Legis- 
ture to grant to a Lockport power concern water rights 
in the Niagara River, which would have destroyed the 
Niagara Falls, was finally defeated, having been fairly 
overwhelmed by the might of popular indignation which 
was called out against the project; but not before a num- 
ber of members of the Senate had by a subserviency 
which the public interpreted as venal, subjected them- 
selves to ■ infamy and the scorn of honest men. 
Twice — in the Legislatures of two successive years — 
Niagara has been saved from the grasp of corporations 
whose promoters, if their schemes had been carried out, 
would have worked its ruin. The end is not yet. It 
must not be imagined that the assaults will not be re- 
newed. 
The duty of New York is plain. The State is a trustee 
for the American people for the preservation of Niagara, 
wljich a-s onp of the natural wonders of the world may 
not of right be considered as belonging to any one State 
alone, nor to one age alone. It belongs to the country 
and to the people of the future as well as to us of to-day. 
It is the duty of the State to take such measures as shall 
forever place the Falls beyond peril of diminishing or 
ruin. at the hands of corporations. The constitution of 
the State might be so amended as to give to Niagara the 
inviolability now assured by constitutional guarantee to 
the State forests, or by cession to the National Govern- 
ment of such rights as the State possesses in the Falls, 
the way might be prepared for a treaty for the United 
States and Great Britain for the conserving of the catar- 
act by the two countries. To tliis proposition the objec- 
tion is urged that negotiations for a treaty are always 
dilatory, prolonged and tortuous, and that before a treaty 
could be effected the Falls would have been ruined by 
the Canadians. For, it is pointed out, there is manifested 
in Canada no sentiment of protest against the destruc- 
tion of the cataract ; and the argument of Canadian in- 
tention to utilize the Falls has been one of the strongest 
and most plausible reasons assigned by those who have 
urged that by hesitating to sanction the plans of the New 
York power concerns the Legislature has been simply 
playing into the hands of Canada. Whatever may be the 
truth of this contention, it is clear that those who are 
concerned for the protection and preservation of the Falls 
should not at this juncture— their concern allayed by the 
temporary defeat of the schemers — give over active efforts 
to make certain the preservation of Niagara. 
to be subscribed for on the instalment plan by small 
monthly payments, and the subscribers were to receive 
from the beginning generous dividends on their payments. 
To the publishers of Forest and Stream this all seemed 
too good to be true, yet inauiry showed that some of the 
most careful and respectable weeklies and monthlies of 
New York city and of the country had published this 
advertisement, and it seemed rather absurd that the 
Forest and Stream should be more squeamish than its 
contemporaries of such hi"-h standing. Nevertheless, the 
investigation was continued, and after careful inquiries 
extending over six weeks and covering a large territory, 
we were obliged to decline the advertisement. We did 
this on moral as well as on business grounds. Setting 
aside the morals of the thing, it seemed clear that any 
present gain would be too high a price to pay for the 
possible injury to even a few of our readers. In the light 
of the very recent development of the Government in- 
vestigation the Forest and Stream must congratulate 
itself on the decision reached. 
CONCERNING SOME ALLURING INVESTMENTS. 
Nine-tenths of all the people in the world are eas-er 
to get something for nothing, yet nine-tenths of the 
people who have had any experience know perfectly well, 
if they think about it, that it is a law of life that no good 
thing may he had without paying for it. The swindlers 
who so flourish in these latter days owe whatever meas- 
ure of success, they mav attain to the universal wish to 
get something for nothing. That is the foundation of 
the money makino: of the confidence man, of the green 
goods man, and of the man who plots one of those vast 
swindling schemes which we now call get-rich-quick 
concerns. There are enoiigh foolish peonle in the world 
to give these men a fat living, and the semi-criminals put 
it exnressively if coarsely when they say "a sucker is 
boi'n every second." 
Gold mines, stock soecubtion, and tips suuoosed to 
come from peonle in the confidence of lai-sre operators on 
the bu^ying and selling of vprious articles, are favorite 
devices for extractincr monev from the public pocket, and 
latelv there have " been exploited a variety of ao-ricul- 
tural schemes, of which the latest, has to do with the 
rais'"n<T of tropica] products in Mexico, and in Central 
and South 'Amerif^a. Verv recentlv one or two of these 
concerns have' failed, their promoters have disappeared, 
and with the promoters the money s'ibscribed for the 
stocks of the concerns. Investie^tion showed, that while 
considerable monev h^d been invested by the ever hope- 
ful public, no cultivatii^n of the supposed plantation had 
ever taken place, and there was no reason to believe that 
the promoters ever intended to do anything more than 
to rob the public. 
Inquiries about these aericultiiral projects recently be- 
came so numerous that the Government determined to 
dispatch tO' tropical America an agricltural expert, 
who should investigate the s"biect from which these com- 
panies professed to be making money. The expert has 
reported that the projects are apparently in all cases 
theoretical, and that success has been attained by none. 
In some cases good men have been induced to lend their 
names to the scheme, but agriculture — and especially 
tropical ag-ridlture — is something about which a busi- 
ness, man mip-ht well he deceived. 
These concerns sret money from the public by adver- 
tisine broadcast, and in many cases their advertisements 
appear in pubh'cations of the utmost respectability. 
Periodicals w^ant business, and the line between an ad- 
vertisement that may properly be published and one that 
must be refused is often hard to draw, and in the last 
analysis must depend on the judgment of the publisher. 
A few months ago the Forest and Stream was offered 
an attractive and profitable advertisement of one of these 
tropical plantation concerns, to occupy larsre space, and 
to run for a considerable length qI time. The stock wa§ 
THE PENNSYLVANIA SHOOT. 
The Pennsylvania State Shoot, held under the auspices 
of the Herron Hill Gun Club, Pittsburg, last week, at- 
tained the dignified importance of classing with the great- 
est tournament events of America. Yet it has a signifi- 
cance greater than its State limitations. It is an object 
lesson well worthy of the attention and emulation of 
other State associations whose mission is' the furtherance 
of State trapshooting interests, yet whose mission halts 
and languishes for no good reasons. ■ 
The full report of'the Pennsylvania Shoot, published, 
in our trap columns this week, presents in detail ocular 
evidence of its sportsmanlike quality and magnitude. In 
it much is revealed of the tournament conditions which 
commend the support of the shooters, and make the com- 
petition a success. 
A brief analysis of the factors which insured this 
superlative success may be of interest and value. The 
preparatory arrangements were in charge of skillful and 
diligent workers, gentlemen who had the confidence of 
the shooters, who had an extensive acquaintance among 
the shooters, who knew how to construct every detail : 
of a tournament programme, and who had the ability to 
give their shoot the widest publicity. In proper time, 
weeks before the shoot took place, earnest work was 
begun, though this is contrary to some honored practice 
and precedent which scrupulously obtain elsewhere. 
It was run as a dignified self-supporting institution. 
It posed neither as a candidate importunately ready for 
the bestowal of charity, nor as a smiling aggressor ask- 
ing for contributions under the shadow of the sandbag, 
euphemistically known as a boycott. The programme 
does not contain an advertisement, and the added moneys 
and merchandise prizes ($2,041) were donated by the 
club members. All this is radically different from ordi- 
nary tournament procedure, as practiced by the average 
tournament promoter. The local dealer was not told 
that it would be a great business stroke to give a prize 
of a ton of coal or a barrel of flour, for some stranger 
to win, probably a man whom he never saw, or never 
would see. Nor could said local dealer ever note any 
local gain in trade from such donation. 
Another notable feature of the Pennsylvania State 
Shoot programme was the trophy inducements offered 
year by year. There were eight trophy events, one for the 
individual State target championship, one two-man team, 
one three-man team, one four-man team at targets, a 
'trophy event open to State shooters, individual cham- 
pionship at live birds, team championship, and trophy 
events at live birds. 
Briefly, there was something to shoot for, the shoot 
was exploited in ^ skillful, proper manner, and the same 
dignified, self-respecting, able methods were observed in 
conducting it that are observed in legitimate. business 
affairs. 
Among the fifty-six game and fish bills, good, bad and 
indifferent, which failed to win approval in the New York 
Legislature just adjourned, was the one to restore spring 
duck shooting on Long Island waters. In its final form 
the proposition was to permit ducks to be shot on Thurs- 
days, Fridays and Saturdays from March i to April 
