350 
FOREST AND STREAM 
August, 1921 
FORESTandSTREAM 
FORTY-NINTH YEAR 
FOUNDERS OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETY 
ADVISORY BOARD 
GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL, NEW YORK, N. Y. 
CARL E. AKELEY. American Museum of Natural History, New York. 
EDMUND HELLER, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. 
WILFRED H. OSGOOD, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, 111. 
JOHN M, PHILLIPS. Pennsylvania Game Commission, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
CHARLES SHELDON. Washington, D. C. 
GEORGE SHIRAS, 3d, Washington, D. C. 
JOHN T. NICHOLS, American Museum of Natural History, New York. 
WILLIAM BRUETTE, Editor 
JOHN P. HOLMAN, Managing Editor 
TOM WOOD, Business Manager 
Nine East Fortieth Street, New York City 
Member of Audit Bureau of Circulation 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL WILL BE TO 
studiously promote a healthful interest in outdoor rec- 
reation, and a refined taste for natural' objects. 
August 14, 1873. 
WIDGEON DEAD 
n ORNELIUS ACKERSON, better known to our 
readers by his pen name of Widgeon, died at 
his home in Keyport, New Jersey, on June 23d, 
1921, in his 
sixty - ninth 
year. 
His passing 
has left a void 
that will b e 
hard to fill as 
the type of 
gentleman 
sportsman he 
so truly repre- 
sented is get- 
t i n g a 1 1 t o o 
scarce in these 
days of forgot- 
ten virtue. No 
spirit was so 
closely attuned 
to the strong, 
vigorous and 
refreshing at- 
tributes of 
sportsmanship 
or so richly en- 
dowed with the 
kindly senti- 
ments of fel- 
lowship and 
good cheer. 
Inheriting a deep love for field shooting from a 
father who had always found his keenest recrea- 
tion in the pursuit of game, and who in his eighty- 
third year shot ducks with the zest and accuracy 
of his son, Widgeon was a life-long devotee of the 
shotgun and was equally at home on the wide 
marshes or the rolling uplands of his native State. 
During his later years he contributed many arti- 
cles to Forest and Stream and the charm and 
ease of his writing have earned him an enviable 
place among the bright galaxy of famous contrib- 
utors to this magazine, whose writings have done 
so much to keep alive the ethics of true sportsman- 
ship and clean living. 
May his spirit rest in the land where it is always 
early morning and the silken rustle of wildfowl 
wings heralds the approach of a brighter day. 
WRITE TO YOUR CONGRESSMAN 
JIT VERY man who has a home and family to pro- 
tect, every man who believes in training his 
sons in the ways of his ancestors, is vitally inter- 
ested in a hysterical bill that has been recently in- 
troduced into Congress and passed in Committee, 
which, stripped of its verbage, means taking the 
revolver away from American citizens. 
If this bill is allowed to become a law, and it 
stands a fair chance of so doing, it means that the 
old home line of defense that has served this coun- 
try so quietly and so effectively in so many import- 
ant crises is to be disarmed. 
The American Republic was founded on the prin- 
ciple of well ordered freedom. It is the most con- 
spicuous example of individualism in the history of 
nations and it has commanded the world’s admira- 
tion by the masterly manner in which it has estab- 
lished law and order over far-reaching frontiers 
and received within its borders millions upon mil- 
lions of aliens, many of them smarting from the in- 
justices of older regimes and whose ranks are per- 
meated with virulent agitators recruiting the 
armies of discontent by appealing to the passion 
and jealousy of men. 
If there is order and safety through all of the 
sparsely settled sections of this country, if bank 
robbing, train holdups, horse stealing and general 
brigandage have become unprofitable professions, 
it is not because the frontiers have been policed 
and patroled and guarded by thousands of officers 
of the law, but rather because the average Ameri- 
can is accustomed to the possession and use of those 
two typical American weapons, the rifle and the 
revolver and lawless outbreaks are promptly met 
by a rapid gathering of law subscribing Americans 
capable of handling unusual situations pending the 
arrival of the officers of the law, and ready to sup- 
port them in every emergency. 
The spread of commerce, the accumulation of 
wealth, the invention of labor-saving devices have 
resulted in changes in our economic regime that 
necessitates changes in our political administra- 
tion. How the changes are to be effected is the 
most vital problem confronting our people. Shall 
they be made without disturbing the principles on 
which this government is founded or shall encour- 
agement and credence be given to the various so- 
cialistic theories of foreign birth, many of them 
little brothers of anarchy opposed on every side 
and angle to the principles on which this country 
rests and which the men who are the descendents 
of those who created this nation propose to have it 
continue to rest. Until the alien hordes that are 
now upon our shores and whose ranks are being 
constantly augmented, have a clearer conception of 
what they can expect from this country and what 
this country expects from them, and until some- 
thing is done to check the insidious permeation that 
Cornelius Ackerson 
