130 
FO REST AND STREAM 
Jan. 31, 1914. 
The Finest Resort Hotel in the World has been built at Sunset Mountain, 
Asheville, N. C. Open all the year, Absolutely Fireproof. 
Mr. E. W. Grove, of St. Louis, Mo., has built at Asheville, N. C., the finest resort 
hotel in the world—Grove Park Inn. Built by hand of the great boulders of Sunset 
Mountain, it is full of rest and comfort and wholesomeness. The front lawn is the 
hundred-acre eighteen hole golf links of the Asheville Country Club, and with it sixty 
acres belonging to the hotel. 
The purest water obtainable is piped seventeen miles from the slopes of Mount 
Mitchell, over 6,000 feet altitude. 
Biltmore milk and cream exclusively, supplied from 200 registered Jerseys on the 
estate of Mr. Geo. W. Vanderbilt. It is doubtful if this famous dairy is equaled in the 
world. 
Four hundred one-piece rugs were made at Aubusson, France. Seven hundred 
pieces of furniture and over 600 lighting fixtures of solid copper were made by hand 
by the Roycrofters. 
The plumbing material is the finest that has ever been placed in any hotel in the 
world. The bath tubs and fixtures are all solid porcelain. No pipes visible anywhere. 
No radiators to be seen—all placed in recesses under windows. No electric bulbs visible. 
For the golfers there are lockers and shower bath rooms, with a forty-foot swim¬ 
ming pool that is not excelled by the finest clubs in existence, and the players are less 
than 100 yards distant when on the links. 
Especially available for northern guests in the Spring, Fall and Winter, going and returning 
from farther southern resorts, or for an all Winter resort. Persons with any form of tubercular 
trouble will not be received at the Inn. 
Rates—American Plan—$5.00 a day upward. Reached by the Southern Railway. 
GROVE PARK INN : Sunset Mountain, Asheville, N. C. 
New York Booking Office, 1180 Broadway 
Fair Weather Causes Blackbirds to Stay 
Drake, N. D., Jan. 16. — Some blackbirds, who 
hastened toward the gulf last fall, have remained 
in this vicinity all winter and appear to be en¬ 
joying life as much as in midsummer. The great 
quantities of feeds seem to have decided them 
to remain in this locality, instead of making the 
long southern flight. 
Defects of Proposed Virgina Law 
Falls Church, Va., Jan. 22, 1914 
Editor Forest and Stream-. 
On page 91, of your issue of January 17, you 
were good enough to print a letter concerning 
the proposed Hart-White Game Bill that is to be 
introduced during the present session of the Vir¬ 
ginia Legislature. Now as a native of Virginia 
and an ornithologist with quite a number of 
years’ training, I would like to criticize the pro¬ 
posed bill. 
1. The Game Commissioner is to be appointed by 
the Governor. As the sportsmen of the state are 
to pay his salary, should not they have a voice 
in his selection, by the ballot? Therefore should 
not the office be made an elective one as in Ala¬ 
bama, the model? 
2. The fee of five dollars per annum for a cer¬ 
tificate to collect birds, etc., for scientific pur¬ 
poses is excessive. It should not be over one 
dollar, as in nearly all states with this provision 
in the law, even in Alabama, and recommended 
in the Audubon Model Law. 
3. Make the gunner’s license-tfniform through¬ 
out the state, not have a county and state 
license. 
4. Owners, landlords, and tenants should not 
be allowed to hunt even on their own lands with¬ 
out a license. To permit them to do so would 
be in violation of Art. I, Sec. 4, of the State 
Constitution. 
5. Shorten the open season on upland game 
and make it uniform and not allow counties the 
power to change it at will. I would suggest No¬ 
vember 15, to January 1, as the open season on 
this class of game. 
6. Prohibit the use of automatic and repeating 
shot guns. 
7. Shooting wild-fowl from a sail or power 
boat should be prohibited. 
8. In the proposed bill, hunting upon the lands 
of another without written permission is made a 
misdemeanor for which the offender can be ar¬ 
rested and prosecuted by the game warden. It 
seems that this is not necessary as the trespass 
laws in force now cover the case sufficiently. 
Even in the more populous parts of the state 
there are usually considerable wild lands, not 
posted, that' have always been free hunting 
grounds to the citizens of the vicinity. In my 
locality some of this class of property is owned 
by non-residents of the state who have never 
taken the trouble to post their lands and pre¬ 
sumably do not care about the shooting privi¬ 
leges as long as their property is not damaged. 
It would be a physical impossibility to obtain 
written permission and the game warden would 
know it and could act accordingly, even without 
the owner's knowledge. It would be a source of 
revenue to him as he would receive a fee equal 
to half the fine collected. Where is the 
poor man to hunt that only gets off for a few 
days during the season? He cannot afford to 
purchase shooting rights or belong to, a club for 
only a few days’ hunting, and unless he is ac¬ 
quainted with a large land owner he will have 
to abandon this form of recreation or become a 
law-breaker. This provision will be fine for large 
land-owners or clubs, I will admit, as it makes 
the game warden a trespass officer whose salary 
is paid by the sportsmen. I cannot see the jus¬ 
tice of protecting game from one class of citi¬ 
zens to be shot by a more fortunate class. No, 
let the game warden look after the game and its 
protection and not make trespass officers of them. 
9. Nothing is said about the depredations of 
the domestic cat, though it does almost as much 
to keep down the increase of game as shooting. 
My advice is for every sportsman in the state 
to get a copy of this “Proposed Bill from M. D. 
Hart, Times-Dispatch Building, Richmond, Va.,” 
read it carefully and if it meets with his approval 
well and good, but if not write to his state Sena¬ 
tor, or see him personally. 
J. H. RILEY. 
Absorption of Canadian Indians 
Canada’s reputation for enlightened treatment 
of the Indians will be enhanced by the latest de¬ 
partmental report. This shows that they are in¬ 
creasing by 2,000 a year, the total now being 106,- 
490. Nearly all of them live in good dwellings; 
they have 326 schools, enrolling 11,144 pupils; 
while in spite of their supposed susceptibility to 
disease, the death-rate has been cut to 21 per 
thousand in the most populous communities. 
They earn wages amounting to $6,000,000 year¬ 
ly, and cultivate 60,000 acres. All this means that 
the Indians are being prosperously absorbed into 
civilization. The American system always was 
to confine the Indians strictly to the reservations. 
This no doubt protected them, but at the same 
time it prevented the growth of the spirit of en¬ 
terprise and responsibility, and thus could not be 
said to be successful. Canada exercises certain 
protective measures in dealing with the Indians, 
but allows them to shift freely for themselves in 
actual contact with civilization. The wisdom of 
this course is being abundantly justified.—Mont¬ 
real Gazette. 
