16 
FOREST AND STREAM 
July 5, 1913 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company, 
Charles Otis, President. 
W. G. Beecroft, Secretary. W. J. Gallagher, Treasurer. 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
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recognized medium of entertainment, instruction and in¬ 
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are devoted, but, of course, are not responsible for the 
views of correspondents. Anonymous communications 
cannot be regarded. 
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THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful in¬ 
terest in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate 
a refined taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
TAX ON CARTRIDGES. 
Of course there is no reasonable chance that 
an intelligent body of gentlemen, such as com¬ 
prise the Ways and Means Committee in Wash¬ 
ington, will consider for a moment the bill now 
before it, asking for a tax on cartridges. 
It is only the fact that so ridiculous a propo¬ 
sition has been able to come before the Legisla¬ 
ture at all that makes it worthy of notice. Can 
any reasonable person imagine a price that could 
be charged high enough for cartridges to pre¬ 
vent their purchase by a man low enough to 
shoot song birds? A character that would en¬ 
able its owner to kill a song bird would supply 
him with cartridges regardless of their cost. 
Sportsmen do not kill birds other than those 
allowed them by law, and already they pay their 
share of revenue required to enforce the laws 
of protection. 
In these days, when game is so scarce, the 
field and big-game shooter devotes his killing 
energies to inanimate targets, so on him would 
fall an excise tax on cartridges. 
Of the billion cartridges sold annually, ap¬ 
proximately 85 per cent, are used for target 
shooting. And why, in the name of the great 
outdoors, should a tax be placed on cartridges 
used to smash a target or puncture a bullseye? 
Why not just as reasonably go up to the Polo 
grounds and tax the National League on the 
ammunition required to play the only game that 
shares the tremendous popularity of trapshoot¬ 
ing? 
Why not tax tennis balls, and why exempt 
the marbles that bring joy to the kids’ hearts? 
There is just as much reason in putting a price 
on the “mig” bag because some thoughtless lad 
has used a marble in a sling shot and killed a 
robin therewith. 
If the powers from up York State, who 
seem to be the impetus that shoves this joke 
legislation along, had been in Dayton a few days 
ago where, at the Grand American Handicap, 
100,000 cartridges were used, and not a bird 
slain, they surely would have felt ashamed of 
themselves for even thinking of putting an ad¬ 
ditional cost on cartridges. Here were five 
hundred fine, wholesome men, from all walks in 
life, enjoying a week’s outing—bankers, black¬ 
smiths, farmers, lawyers, merchants, rubbing 
elbows and getting acquainted. Such a gather¬ 
ing wouldn’t be probable were a tax added to 
the cost of the week’s outing, which already 
tugged pretty hard on the purse strings of many 
of the contestants. 
The tax idea must have germinated in an 
idle moment, and been incubated during a warm 
spell, when even the old family dog loses his 
head from the heat and does things he after¬ 
ward is sorry for; and so, of course, our busy 
legislators, already ‘‘billed” for all summer in 
Washington with important matters, will tuck 
the bill to tax cartridges away in a cool spot, 
where it will slumber undisturbed until forgot¬ 
ten—at least, that is what we hope may happen 
to Thomas W. Upp’s foundling. 
GOOD HEALTH AND GOOD TEMPER. 
The advocates of healthful rec eation to be 
derived from the many kinds of af iroved sports 
of field and stream dwell in the main on the per¬ 
sonal advantages accruing to the ' participants. 
The physical and mental benefits of it are treated 
as being within personal limitations. Individ¬ 
ualism is accepted as compassing the subject in 
full, and therefore as being distinct from any 
matter of social significance. The doctrine of 
individualism is sound so far as it goes, but in 
relation to a man as a member of society, and 
the duties which appertain to him as such mem¬ 
ber, it is but a small part of the whole. 
Beside the individual obligation to maintain 
a sound mind in a sound body, which a man 
owes to himself, and further to respect the 
vested rights of society at large, there are also 
the moral obligations which he naturally assumes 
as husband, father, son, brother, friend and 
citizen. Statute and common law have very little 
to do with making the individual useful or be¬ 
loved. And yet the gist of the whole matter is 
embodied in the golden rule. It does justice to 
one’s self and all others. 
Any man, irritable and snarly from being 
out of sorts, is not an exemplar for his children, 
is not a good companion for his friends, nor is 
he a just master for his employes. Yet without 
recreation the man who carries the burdens of 
business in the -same narrow channel year after 
year is sure to have impaired nerves sooner or 
later. All kinds of petty ills follow as a con¬ 
sequence. Then the sufferer’s' disposition, 
though naturally amiable, changes in greater or 
lesser degree for the worse. He is conscious of 
his physical ill feeling, while unconscious of his 
changed social character. He does not see him¬ 
self as others see him. Ide may allude to the 
mental and physical disturbances as a “bad spell” 
or to a feeling of being “out of sorts.” He 
rarely ever considers that the disturbance of his 
being is the protest of overtaxed nerves and 
brain, or the protest of the general organism 
against physical neglect. If he is one of the few 
who rightfully considers the matter, it is long 
odds that he ignores the cause, and takes the 
chances that at least the effects will be no worse. 
I he bad spells may occur at wide intervals of 
time at first. Occurring more and more fre¬ 
quently, in time they become constant. Peevish¬ 
ness ij then sure to supervene, and it, at first 
an incident of physical or mental disturbance, 
by indulgence at length, develops into habitual 
ill temper. In the latter stage the victim gives 
little heed, and cares less for the social or 
domestic amenities. He values his friend chiefly 
as one who will listen to a minute rehearsal of 
all his bodily ills, all his infinity of business 
troubles, and all the vagaries of pessimistic views 
on matters in general. He is abnormal, but he 
does not know it. He has not a sound mind in 
a sound body. All who are associated with him 
at home or elsewhere are unwholesomely af¬ 
fected by the contact. His irritability begets re¬ 
sentment and enmity in his subordinates; it cools 
or detaches friendships, and if it does not wholly 
break up his home life, it engenders much un¬ 
necessary pain and sorrow in it. 
The overworked brain and body, with no 
hours or day devoted especially to their re¬ 
cuperation, is the source of nearly all the nerv¬ 
ous ills, and many of the physical ills of man. 
If the effects were confined to the individual, 
the responsibilities would have only an individ¬ 
ual scope, but being so wide-reaching, the moral 
obligations of the individual as a member of 
society cannot be justly ignored. 
In no other matter is prevention so superior 
to cure. Make the days good day by day so 
that no evil days will follow. Give the mind 
and body opportunities for relaxation and restor¬ 
ation by nature’s own methods, by living accord¬ 
ing to her methods. The woods, fields and 
waters contain the preventives and oftentimes 
the cures for overworked minds and stagnant 
bodies, free to all who will partake. 
DR. VAN DYKE TO NETHERLANDS. 
We congratulate President Wilson on the 
appointment of Dr. Henry Van Dyke as minister 
to Netherlands and Luxemburg. The selection 
is a happy one. To anglers Dr. Van Dyke is 
almost as well known as Izaak Walton ; in fact, 
the popular clergyman oft is referred to familiar¬ 
ly as the “American Walton.” His book, “Fish¬ 
ermen’s Luck,” will be found in almost every 
angler’s library alongside the “Compleat Angler.” 
We envy Nethcrland anglers their good fortune 
and Dr. Van Dyke his opportunity to fish new 
waters. 
MAKING IT EASY FOR THE FARMER. 
The movement on foot to make farm life 
more attractive to young people is most com¬ 
mendable, but why not include the old folks in 
the project? We must find some way to pro¬ 
duce the crops without labor, so that the youth 
may spend his time shooting and fishing, while 
the old man may have a stump on which to sit 
and a place to chat, although in offering the 
latter as a home attraction it rings the death 
knell of the corner “store of all goods.” 
The Voice of ihe Scoffer. 
BY LONG BOW. 
Tell me not, in mournful numbers, 
What the angler’s catch has been! 
Truth in him forever slumbers, 
And he lies and lies like sin. 
