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Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company 
Chas. A. Hazen, President 
W. G . Beecroft, Secretary. Charles L. Wise, Treasurer. 
22 Thames Street, New York. 
CORRESPONDENCE:—Forest and Stream is the re¬ 
cognized medium of entertainment, instruction and in¬ 
formation between American sportsmen. The editors 
invite communications on the subjects to which its pages 
are devoted, but, of course, are not responsible for the 
views of correspondents. Anonymous communications 
cannot be regarded. 
SUBSCRIPTIONS: $3 a year; $1.50 for six months; 
10 cets. a copy. Canadian, $4 a year; foreign, $4.50 a year. 
This paper may be obtained of newsdealers throughout 
the United States, Canada and Great Britain. Foreign 
Subscriptions and Sales Agents—London: Davies & Co., 
1 Finch Lane; Sampson, Low & Co. Paris: Brentano’s. 
Entered in New York Post Office as Second class matter. 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful interest 
in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate a refined 
taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873 
MILADY IN THE WOODS. 
The day when the woman in the woods was 
regarded as overstepping the prerogatives of her 
sex and having entered a domain sacred to man¬ 
kind has passed forever. More and more our 
wives, sisters and even our mothers are discov¬ 
ering, if not all the pleasures of the pathless 
woods, at least the joy of a sojourn in them, or 
along the shores of acessible rivers and the ex¬ 
quisite lakes of this country and Canada. It is 
well that this is so. 
Man alone in the wilderness is inclined fre- 
qently to favor the “rough neck” style of exist¬ 
ence, and if he be city bred, he often brings upon 
himself not only discomfort, but illness as well, 
by subjecting himself foolishly to exposure in 
order to prove his hardihood—something, by the 
way, that your old camper and woodsmen avoid 
as they do everything else disagreeable. 
We are glad to see, therefore, not only a grow¬ 
ing realization, but a growing interest in the sub¬ 
ject of camping life for women. We have an 
idea that woman herself cannot gain much knowl¬ 
edge of what to do or what to wear by reading 
her fashion magazines, but the great outdoor 
firms are coming bravely to her rescue in provid¬ 
ing for her use suitable apparel, and for her com¬ 
fort the multitudinous little accessories that add 
nothing to weight, but mightily to comfort. 
With the mysteries of feminine apparel, we are 
content to let the dealers deal. The lady who 
turns to them will not have to say, like Rosalind, 
“I could find it in my heart to disgrace my man’s 
apparel and to cry like a woman.” For, properly 
outfitted, the woman in the woods may be as 
comfortable, as happy, and healthier than in her 
city home. The woman in good health can go 
every place where a man may venture, but it is 
unnecessary to make her do so. A little short¬ 
FOREST AND STREAM 
ening of the trip, a little consideration on the 
portage, and a little intelligence in the making of 
camp are all that are needed in smoothing the 
path of one who deserves a vacation more than 
you, our man reader, and who ought not to be 
debarred from it. 
But maledictions upon the head of him who 
will take his women folk into the woods without 
thinking of these essentials. Who has not met 
the wandering wight, the flower of civilization, 
perhaps, in his city life, floundering at the head 
of an expedition made up partly of his female 
relatives, and suffering through ignorance or 
carelessness from all the discomforts that follow 
those who know little of woodcraft, and are de¬ 
pendent solely upon guide craft—-the latter too 
often a slovenly substitute, and the opposite of 
clean and comfortable existence. When we see 
this sort of thing we may well exclaim with 
Jacques, “I met a fool i’ the forest,” adding to 
the observation the good qualifying Anglo Saxon 
word that emphasizes the point. His punishment 
should be in proportion. May he be stretched, 
Procrustes like, on a bed too short for him and 
full of bumps; may the punkies and pingosh take 
their fill of him, and may he also be made to 
suffer in his city home for all he makes his 
women folk suffer in the woods. 
COMING OPENING OF THE TROUT 
SEASON. 
How many an old angler's heart will leap as 
he sees this heading! How visions of former 
seasons flit down the trail of memory of those 
who recall half or a third a century of trouting! 
Scarce a mocassin track is to be observed close 
at hand, say for ten years or so, but with a 
raised eye the veteran glances past these and ob¬ 
serves the trail broadening into a path which is 
well defined at a distance of three to five de¬ 
cades, and then slowly fades into the prairie 
grass of oblivion. The last figure is of a bare¬ 
footed country boy who has thrown away his 
alder sapling and triumphantly brings home a 
string of trout on a piece of his fish-line. The 
boy looks as wholesome as the trout and his flush 
of health is not dimmed by the contrast as he 
lifts his prize to the height of his shoulder to 
show it to his mother, who has brought her knit¬ 
ting to the door in answer to his triumphant 
whoop. Blessings on his happy heart; that in¬ 
nocent face under the ragged straw hat does not 
look like the face which the old banker sees in 
the glass; is it possible that one had grown into 
the other? The boy is gone; he died when he 
first went to the city to dabble in other pools 
than those where the trout lives. He did not feel 
the change, but as he now sits in his easy chair 
with a copy of Forest and Stream in his hand 
announcing the coming trout opening, he feels 
that he was the boy who died and his heart beats 
as it has not beaten in months, and forgetting his 
gout, he opens a drawer and looks over his tackle 
with loving care, and mayhap, eye dimmed remi¬ 
niscence. 
A MIGRATORY FISH LAW. 
The more the current report of the Federal 
Bureau of Fisheries is studied, the more apparent 
does it become that a migratory fish law is a 
necessity. The Government is spending money 
lavishly to restock our coastal and inland waters 
with fish, but the results aimed at are neutralized 
for the most part by conflicting state laws, lack 
of such laws, or their utter non-observance. The 
day was when shad, for instance, reached these 
shores in unnumbered millions. Thanks to the 
prodigality of nature, they still come in large 
numbers, but with nets stretched mile after mile 
across their spawning grounds or placed in 
phalanx fashion for miles before these grounds 
can be reached, the wonder grows that the shad 
is able to perpetuate itself at all. Similarly the 
white fish and the valuable food fishes of other 
varieties of our great lakes play an unequal game 
against the rapacity of man. We are not accusing 
the state departments of failure through planned 
intent to hasten the day of fishless waters, but 
the strong arm of the Federal Government is 
necessary if the people are not to be deprived of 
a valuable and necessary food product. The 
migratory bird law is the admiration of all who 
contemplate its purposes or dwell on its coming 
influence. Why not a migratory fish law to bring 
about a similar result, although in a different line? 
FEED THE GAME BIRDS. 
We are glad to say that from all sections are 
coming cheering reports of the feeding of game 
birds during the present inclement season. Not 
only are sportsmen’s organizations taking up this 
beneficent and humane work, but the younger 
generation is also at it with equal enthusiasm, 
though perhaps not with equal knowledge of what 
should be done. Preaching conservation is well 
enough; practicing it is better, and we know of 
no way that offers results equal to taking care of 
the game we have, now that the unusual storms 
of this winter have placed this feathered game in 
danger. It does not require expert knowledge of 
natural history to save the quail, or for that mat¬ 
ter to furnish sustenance to any form of bird 
life. The main thing is to put the food where it 
will be found and in such shape that it may be 
eaten when discovered. On another page we 
print some instructions easily followed in both 
particulars, and we hope that these will be not 
only read and studied, but put to good use. 
THE SPORTSMEN’S SHOW SEASON. 
The season of the sportsmen’s show is on. 
Madison Square Garden this week is the scene of 
the first, and the thousands of people who have 
flocked to see the various exhibits of outdoor 
accessories, or watch with keen attention the trap¬ 
shooting contests reveal the interest which the 
work-a-day world is showing in healthful sport 
and recreation. The smell of the pine indoors 
may be a poor substitute for the pine laden air 
that comes stealing round the bend of a lake or 
over the top of a mountain of a summer evening, 
but it is something to revel in anticipation, and 
anticipation, some sedentary philosophers tell us, 
is better than realization. It isn’t—at least in 
the case of the outdoor man or woman, but it is 
better than nothing. Sportsmen’s shows are to 
be encouraged. Forest and Stream’s own exhi¬ 
bition at the Grand Central Palace is next on the 
list, and we would like to have all who read this 
paper come and visit us at the camp we will have 
there. The latch string will be out, but somebody 
will be in from morning until closing hour at 
night to welcome you, for you are a valued and 
appreciated member of our family. 
