Sept. 15, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
415 
gentleman assumed proprietorship over the ad¬ 
jacent river, and had the gall to warn off some 
local men who trespassed on his preserves. A 
local angler who knew the law very well, and 
resented the impudence of this kind of sports¬ 
man, started up the river one day last season 
with two guides to tell this gentleman what the 
law was; but, unfortunately, his train came along 
too soon, and the sportsman with the German 
notion of preserves did not get the needed 
lesson. It is asserted since that he sold his 
camp with his “rights” to the adjacent pools. 
This kind of thing disgusts local anglers, and 
it knocks the ground from under the feet of 
those who advocate the greatest liberty for 
visiting sportsmen. There is a disposition 
among this latter class to urge legislation that 
will effectually bar both fish-hogs and squireens. 
Sportsmen of this kind make it necessary, in de¬ 
fense of our own interests and those of decent 
sportsmen, that laws be made limiting the catch 
and punishing fellows whose sole object seems 
to be the destruction of noble fish that would 
now and in the future supply kingly sport to 
large numbers of legitimate anglers. 
It is likely that advocates of the rod tax and 
other restrictions will have their way the com¬ 
ing season. The writer and others opposed it 
last year, and succeeded in having it postponed; 
but what can be urged in face of the facts 
quoted above? 
Any person who would oppose laws regulating 
“sportsmen” like these, would deserve to be 
ranked in the same class. The fact that a tax 
may be levied, while it will encourage many to 
come, will act as a deterrent to many other 
decent sportsmen. The law has not yet been 
enacted, but a large number of local sportsmen, 
backed by one of our leading local papers, are 
advocating it, and the advocates of free fishing 
are left with very little to say in face of the 
disgraceful conduct of some of our visitors. 
W. J. Carroll. 
Bloodless Sport. 
There has developed in recent years a senti¬ 
ment which has declared itself strongly in op¬ 
position to taking animal life for the sake of 
sport. The camera has been recommended as a 
substitute for the death dealing firearm. A great 
many people have discussed this subject without 
possessiong a clear idea of what constitutes real 
sport. In order to obtain a bettter understand¬ 
ing of the subject, we may classify those who 
hunt for the purpose of destroying wild life, 
under three divisions: sportsmen, market hun¬ 
ters and butchers. The last expression I have 
employed in a peculiar sense as indicating a very 
objectionable class in itself. By a process of 
elimination one may arrive at the true concep¬ 
tion of a sportsman after first grasping the mean¬ 
ing of the term market hunter and butcher, and 
then disabusing the mind of both of those con¬ 
ceptions. The term butcher is applicable to 
whoever engages in the wanton and wasteful des¬ 
truction of animal life with no idea of utilizing 
the remains. To the mind of such persons a 
sportsman’s goal is a slaughter pen. The game 
butcher recognizes no rules, but prides himself on 
the amount of havoc he can produce in a flock 
of birds or- a herd of wild animals, and speaks 
with glee of the quantity of game he has des¬ 
troyed. The market hunter, as the name im¬ 
plies, is out for business. The rules of sport do 
not interest him; it is merely a question of 
dollars and cents; he kills when it pays to kill, 
and tries to make certain every shot regarding 
any advantage he can take as perfectly legitimate. 
The worst qualities of the butcher and the mar¬ 
ket hunter combine in the person who hunts elk 
for the purpose of securing the teeth, allowing 
the antlers and carcass to remain unused. The 
sins of these two classes are indiscriminately 
laid on' the shoulders of the sportsman by people 
who have a misty idea about real sport. The 
desire to kill is instinctive; this desire refined 
under civilizing influences produces the sports¬ 
man. The mere love of killing for the sake of 
doing so, soon palled on people who had any 
conception of sport. The true theory of sport, 
whether in playing games or in hunting, neces¬ 
sarily involves the idea of a contest or trial of 
skill wherein there is a certain element of chance. 
The rapid destruction of game, consequent upon 
the easy mastery of nature by man, led in quite 
early times to the establishment of game pre¬ 
serves and the enactment of laws for the preser¬ 
vation of game. The killing of game developed 
into a pastime, and rules regulating its enjoy¬ 
ment readily grew out of this method of recrea¬ 
tion. In other words, it came to be regarded as 
a sport or game wherein the hunted had rights 
or privileges which had to be respected the same 
as those of a contestant in any other game; the 
huntsman must exercise his ingenuity and some¬ 
times his daring and endurance against the cun¬ 
ning and desperation of the wild beast. It is 
obvious from the foregoing explanation that no 
sportsman countenances killing, except for a pur¬ 
pose, and prefers to give the game a chance to 
exercise its cleverness and adroitness in making 
good its escape; if it fails, it has been outwitted. 
The observance of game laws for the preserva¬ 
tion of game, find no stronger advocates any¬ 
where than among sportsmen, and it is to their 
interest to prevent the extermination of wild 
life, because if that should take place, their 
pastime would be gone. 
There are a number of enlightened people, 
however, who distinctly disapprove of a sports¬ 
man’s favorite amusement and regard hunting 
and killing game for recreation altogether wrong. 
An extermination into this state of feeling with 
a view of ascertaining whether it is based upon 
a clearly defined reason, or merely a capricious 
sentiment, may be instructive. All animal life 
in one way or another exists or is sacrificed for 
the benefit of humanity. No one can reasonably 
combat this assertion. By the very instinct of 
his being, man assumes to have an unquestioned 
right to subject the lower order of created life 
to his use. This assertion of his authority dates 
from the beginning when the fiat was delivered— 
“Let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, 
and over the fowl of the air, and over every 
living thing that moveth upon the face of the 
earth!” In what way shall this authority be ex¬ 
ercised? Human necessity or*convenience alone 
has determined that question without the brute 
creation being considered. The beast that is re¬ 
duced to servitude, and compelled to work the 
balance of his existence, finds no advocate for 
his emancipation; no protest is made against the 
wholesale slaughter of cattle to supply the meat 
market. But when the sportsman goes forth to 
exercise his skill, allowing the hunted prey a 
chance for its life and freedom, the sentimental¬ 
ist, who is generally someone who never took 
pleasure in that form of amusement, throws up 
his hands and exclaims, How brutal! It is easy 
to discriminate against a practice in which one 
does not participate. Self denial, when you 
deny yourself nothing, is an easy and convenient 
morality. The brute creation is sacrificed for 
man’s enjoyment, and it is useless to offer capri¬ 
cious objections to a form of sacrifice which 
pleases another and which does not happen to 
appeal to one’s own idea of pleasure. 
There is a great deal of inconsistency displayed 
by many who deprecate hunting with a rifle or 
shotgun as the case may be. Cruelty to animals 
seems to include birds and quadrupeds but not 
fish. I have heard people, who are fond of ang¬ 
ling, expatiate upon the wickedness of destroy¬ 
ing animal life and yet see no harm in catching 
fish with a light rod and play their quarry for 
a long time. 
The huntsman endeavors to kill his game as 
soon as possible; he does not prolong its agony 
for his amusement. No protest is made against 
fishing as a sport so far as I have observed. The 
reason for this is not hard to discover. The fish 
is a cold-blooded creature to whom the heart 
does not seem to go out in sympathy to any 
extent; the slimy scales do not invite the con¬ 
tact of the fingers like the warm fur of a deer 
or the soft down of a duck; there is nothing 
in its “yellow orbs” to excite sentimental regard; 
it is not an object one would pet or fondle like 
a spotted fawn, wanting in qualities which appeal 
to the fancy; no plea is set up in its behalf. In 
further evidence of the inconsistency in question, 
I have heard ladies almost melt with emotion 
while deprecating the destruction of animal life 
by the sportsman, and yet seem little affected by 
'the recital of the lingering death agony of the 
poor creatures caught in traps to furnish the furs 
which minister to female vanity. 
The universal custom of sacrificing animal life 
in some form or another makes it impossible for 
one to condemn the sportsman’s method of des¬ 
troying it without the charge of inconsistency. 
Once concede that the right to take the life of 
dumb creatures exists, and the individual must 
decide in what way that right shall be exercised, 
with the limitations which civilization places upon 
the exercise of all natural rights. 
Edgar F. Randolph. 
Massachusetts Game. 
Boston, Sept. 1 .—Editor Forest and Stream- 
I he number of quail hatched at the Sutton 
aviary, connected with the trout hatchery there 
has been increased since my last writing from 
2 3 to S 3 , and the birds are said to be in fine 
condition. It goes without saying that the re~ 
suit of the efforts of the commissioners in their 
attempt to rear quail in captivity will be watched 
with much interest by our sportsmen 
Many encouraging reports on the quail and 
ruffed grouse in Massachusetts covers continue 
to come in. While there were not the usual 
number of quail at the end of the shooting sea¬ 
son last December, on account of the two severe 
winters of 1904 and 1905, is is believed that very 
tew if any succumbed to cold or starvation last 
winter, and that the large number liberated last 
spring, together with the natives which sur- 
vived made the breeding stock last spring de¬ 
cidedly more numerous than it was in the spring 
of 1905. Since the sad destruction of bird life 
in the two winters above mentioned, not a few 
of the gunners have refrained from the killing 
ot any quail, while others have practiced praise¬ 
worthy self-denial by returning from a hunt with 
but two or three birds. . 
In an interview yesterday with President 
Brewster, he expressed a deep interest in the 
efforts being made to save the remnant of heath- 
hens on Martha’s Vineyard. 
I he law on ducks is off to-day, and prepara¬ 
tions have been completed at the various gun- 
ning stands for shooting them. Wood ducks 
must be spared, a five years’ close time having 
been put on them last winter. 
It is known that some of the stands figure on 
making them a source of profit. In the Boston 
market ducks may be sold at from $1 to $1.25 a 
pair almost any time. I he person buying of. the 
dealer has to pay a large per cent, profit above 
those prices. 
Shore and marsh birds have not been plenti¬ 
ful in the Boston market at any time since the 
season opened on July 15. 
Another month must be allowed to pass before 
the opening of the season on quail, grouse and 
woodcock. • 
Foxes are plentiful everywhere, and some of 
the foxhunters’ clubs will "be out very soon for 
their first fall shoot, among them the’ Plymouth 
and the Assawampsett clubs. Both clubs have 
been breaking new dogs for the hunt. Farmers 
with growing chickens are hoping they will 
have good success in clearing up some of the 
hungry prowlers that rob their hen-yards. 
A raccoon hunt will be in order now at any 
time, but rabbits, hares and gray squirrels are 
immune till Oct. 1. 
The opening of the duck season is of special 
interest to the gunners of the eastern section of 
the> State, where on the fresh-water ponds are 
located scores of gunning stands equipped, some 
of them at least, with the most elaborate outfit 
for wholesale slaughter ’ imaginable. To the 
gunners o'f the central and western sections of 
the State duck shooting is not a prominent fea¬ 
ture of sport. 
During this month our friends of the inland 
cities and towns must wait patiently for the 
opening on upland birds the first of October. 
While the season for quail shooting lasts it will 
be lawful this year to shoot male pheasants. 
I hear some of the gunners declare they will do 
their best to get one cock pheasant at least. 
The man who is fortunate enough to get one of 
