Januaey, 1919 
FOREST AND S T R E A ]\1 
25 
wastefulness. Peace cannot thrive among a people 
where there are hearts that are wanton in their 
waste, where the rights of the generations that are 
to come are unconsidered. 
The sportsman is as careful to observe all the 
unwritten as well as the written laws of sport as 
he would be careful to observe the code of honor 
between himself and his fellow-men. There is an 
unwritten code of honor that outranks that between 
man and man. It is the sense of Honor that a man 
demonstrates when he refuses to take an unfair 
advantage of even a wild animal. 
Many things can be done toward developing 
sports. Weapons can be improved, equipment de- 
veloped, and shooting practiced until marksman- 
ship is certain, thus eliminating the chance of 
wounding without killing the wild things. In some 
of the boys’ schools throughout the country the prac- 
tice of trap-shooting has been instituted and it is 
an excellent thing. It teaches a boy control of his 
muscles; steadies his nerves, make his aim sure; 
disciplines his tendencies to waste because it im- 
plants in his mind a sense of decision and directness 
which aids in preserving time and material. 
The debt we owe to Nature is almost beyond our 
power to repay. Nature has stored up fuel for 
our comfort; minerals for our use; even jewels for 
our adornment. She warms with her golden sun- 
light, and her fruits and grains furnish us with 
sustenance; her trees shelter us; her rivers and 
forests yield their bounty that we may be housed 
and fed. To despoil nature needlessly is the worst 
kind of vandalism. 
Nature teaches us love and faith and truth be- 
cause Nature is always reliable. Have we not seen 
year after year from frozen earth’s dark bosom the 
tall green grasses rise, the fairest flowers bloom? 
Nature proclaims the integrity of the universe 
through her laws of grovTh ; her recurring seasons ; 
her rhjThmic flow of time and tide. And Nature 
gives us beauty so great that neither poets’ words 
nor artists’ brush can depict it. 
The nature festivals that have come down to us 
through all the ages, and are reflected in modern life 
by days of rejoicing and of thanksgiving connect 
us with the Past through a common love — the love 
of Nature the Great Mother feeding her children 
from the fullness of her bosom. 
This is the ideal of life which Forest and Stream 
has always stood for. It is the policy of construc- 
tion which the New Order demands. The Old Order 
— symbolized by Hunism — has vanished. The New 
Order has come; it is parented by the larger vision 
which lives not for itself alone but for the race 
that is to be. 
Forest and Stream points to the fact that this 
ideal has always been our aim. As long as we have the 
commendation and the support of our readers as we 
have had in the past in our effort to preserve and 
protect the blessings and beauties of Nature, we will 
continue to voice the “call of the wild” — not as a 
vandal ground, but as a play-ground. For one thing 
is ceii;ain — the superman when he shall arrive will 
be a nature man, a lover of forest and stream. 
May the year be filled with healthy joy; with 
love and service to Life. 
THE SALE OF TROPHIES 
HE suggestion that laws be passed forbidding 
the sale of the heads of game animals has called 
forth considerable criticism from some readers. 
To those who sell such trophies and to some of 
those who wish to buy them, the passage of such laws 
appears a hardship. In a way it is, but in civilized 
society people are obliged to submit to many restric- 
tions of their liberty, because such restrictions make 
for the greater comfort of their fellowmen. Even 
today, throughout the United States multitudes of 
people regard it as a real hardship that they are not 
rtee to purchase game to eat; yet to a majority of 
those interested in game protection it has seemed 
imperative that the sale of game should be forbidden, 
to the end that its destruction may no longer be 
profitable to the market shooter and the market 
dealer. 
Mounted heads of big game make attractive orna- 
ments for the home and such heads are often pur- 
chased to hang on their walls by men who never 
saw the animals in life and who care nothing for 
hunting. If the demand for such heads was suf- 
ficient, no doubt men would go out to kill game 
animals for the sole purpose of selling their heads. 
For many years past men have made it a practice 
to kill elk for no better reason than that each elk 
furnishes canine teeth which are marketable. One 
autumn, a good many years ago, in British Columbia, 
we saw a pile of thirty-five magnificent sheep heads 
that had been killed the winter before by a local 
hunter to sell to taxidermists. He had not got around 
to skinning and cleaning the heads when warm 
weather came and the whole lot spoiled and he made 
no profit. The flesh, if we recollect aright, he said 
he had brought down to feed to the neighbors’ hogs. 
Still a good many years ago, the only herd of wild 
buffalo remaining in the United States was almost 
exterminated by a man who, it was generally be- 
lieved, had been hired by a taxidermist to kill these 
animals for their heads. At this time it was said 
that buffalo heads were worth $300 each. 
Only a few years since heads of the giant moose 
were killed in Alaska for shipment to taxidermists, 
and it became necessary for the United States Gov- 
ernment to forbid the export of such heads from the 
territory. 
One characteristic of a good sportsman is that 
he considers the rights and pleasures of his fellow- 
man as well as his own rights and pleasures. We 
believe that while it may cause some hardship and 
some waste of trophies to forbid the sale of game 
heads, nevertheless, such laws will be for the greatest 
good of the greatest number, and these are the peo- 
ple to be considered. 
AN AFTER-THE-WAR CASTING TOURNAMENT 
pr ROM British anglers comes the suggestion of a big 
International Fly and Bait Casting Tournament 
as one of the Peace celebrations. At that time there 
will be many anglers from America and in fact, the 
whole civilized world, in England and on the con- 
tinent, and a tournament somewhere in the neigh- 
borhood of London would attract many lovers of the 
sport of casting. Forest and Stream approves 
very heartily of the idea and we would be glad to 
hear the opinions of our readers. The preparation 
of an international tournament is a matter of sev- 
eral months, and if the idea is to materialize it is 
high time for something to be done. We should be 
happy to register the names of any who would like 
to support the movement. The contest would be open 
to all lovers of the sport. 
