G 28 
FOREST AND STREAM 
May 17, 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. 
CORRKSPOjVDFUVrR— Forest and Stream is the 
recognized 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. 
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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. 
A TAX ON CARTRIDGES. 
We have received a letter from a gentleman 
at Tompkins Corners, N. Y., in which the 
writer sets forth that there should be “a Fed¬ 
eral tax on cartridges.’’ His argument is laid 
on unique lines. He says: “It is entirely pos¬ 
sible and practicable, by a moderate tax, to 
lessen the wanton, purposeless shooting of small 
birds by village idlers and the conscienceless 
class of hunters generally.” Apparently local 
observation has led our correspondent to his 
conclusion. However, taxes collected from the 
corner grocery bird destroyer would not pay 
the postage on Senator McLean’s personal mail, 
much less help in paying expenses of enforcing 
the Weeks-McLean law. 
The tax on cartridges would affect thou¬ 
sands of men who shoot at the traps—and to 
whom clay bird breaking is the principal recrea¬ 
tion. To tax cartridges would mean the cur¬ 
tailing of one of the pleasantest recreations of¬ 
fered the 3'oung man of to-day—and he would 
be taxed to no purpose. He breaks clay targets 
at a cost of from one to three cents for each 
disc, harms no living thing any more than does 
the man who drives a golf ball about the golf 
links. Shall we tax the ball or the club? Just 
as reasonable to do this as to tax a man 
for cartridges with which to break clay targets. 
The shooter pays for a license to carry a gun, 
he pays for his shells, targets and club member¬ 
ship, after which he has arrived at a stage in his 
expense account when his shooting is almost 
prohibitive. 
Add to this a tax to increase the cost of 
cartridges and he must give up a recreation that 
to him has become a tonic to brace him up after 
his week’s work, a medicine his system de¬ 
mands as well as a most pleasurable sport. Our 
friend from up York State deserves a full meas¬ 
ure of credit for protecting the birds, but he 
had better work along other lines. The village 
idler who can btiy cartridges at their present 
price would find, perhaps, a little more trouble 
in raising the increase, but he would raise it 
at a cost to some of the neighbors, not to him¬ 
self; whereas, the trapshooter, who uses from 
100 to 300 shells a week, would pay the penalty 
for the village idler’s depredation which, to say 
the least, is a burden in the wrong place. We 
would suggest calling attention of the local game 
warden, rather than the Federal Government, to 
the village loafer and his unlawful killings. 
THE POINT OF VIEW. 
An article in this issue, “The IMany Phases 
of Fox Hunting,” dwells on the social degrees 
found among those who pursue the brush. The 
writer avers, and perhaps not without cause, 
that one class looks down upon or up to the 
other as lacking in the qualities of sportsmen, 
which shows clearly how entirely modern views 
of sport are founded on sentiment and custom 
than the widely differing ideas held about it 
in different parts of the world. Even the sig¬ 
nification of the word is unfixed. Originally it 
seems to have meant to take pleasure in some 
active way. In America in the early days of 
the last century a sportsman was a professional 
gambler. Then a competition of some kind, 
especially one on which money was staked. 
Even to-day the New York tough, speaking of 
himself as a “dead game sport,” means that he 
drinks, gambles, is ready—if necessary from his 
point of view—to commit murder. People who 
bet on horse races, -play poker and sometimes 
drink to excess are apt rather proudly to call 
themselves “sporty.” 
But in these modern days sport, sportsman 
and sportsmanship have a somewhat different 
meaning from any of these, and refer chiefly 
to outdoor recreations, such as shooting, fishing, 
yachting, mountain climbing and canoeing, con¬ 
ducted in the best and most approved fashion, 
and after methods which call forth the more 
manly and higher qualities of the men and 
women who indulge in them. 
With the primitive man, .sport, as we use 
the term, did not exist. He killed game or fish 
in order to support life. The killing was his 
business, not his pleasure. It was work, not 
play. If he journeyed from one point to an¬ 
other, he wished to cover the ground between 
them as speedily as possible. Sport is an out¬ 
growth of civilization—even of modern civiliza¬ 
tion—though the lust for blood, and the killing 
merely for the sake of killing, has always existed 
and still exists. 
In this country the sports of the field at 
first were practiced chiefly in the Southern 
States, partly because the settlers there were 
more pleasure loving than the stern Puritans 
who settled in New England, and partly because 
the mild climate during the season when agricul¬ 
tural pursuits could not be carried on fostered the 
indulgence in shooting, fox hunting and fishing. 
On the continent in Britain and in the 
United States, how different the definitions of 
this word. The Belgian or the Frenchman 
shoots larks and other birds, and proudly terms 
this “le sport”; the British wildfowler shoots 
at night, and in wild weather sculls his punt 
up close to the raft of sleeping ducks, and then 
turns loose his cannon on them and proudly 
gathers the slain and shoots over such cripples 
as he can find; the New England fox hunter 
lying in wait behind a stone wall or in a fence 
corner shoots with a shotgun the fox which 
plays before his hounds; the Southern sports¬ 
man in headlong pursuit follows on horseback 
the pack that presses closely on reynard’s heels. 
Are all these forms of recreation sport? Is any 
one of them? This must largely be a matter 
of custom, education, opinion. The Briton 
sneers as he speaks of the Frenchman's game; 
the American thinks the British punt shooter a 
murderer; contempt too deep for words is felt 
by the Southern fox hunter for him of the 
North. 
NESSMUK. 
Herewith we present the last instalment of 
the last article ever written, so far as we know, 
by George W. Sears. It has been an interest¬ 
ing narrative, and though there may be some 
resentful of the anti-slavery sentiment, it will 
not be fostered by those who knew Nessmuk 
or his work. The acquainted host never will 
question this great writer’s spirit of fairness, 
for they know at least one of his predominant 
principles to have been “malice toward none, 
charity to all.” In all his writings, particu¬ 
larly his best verse, which appears in book 
form under the title of “Forest Runes,” flows a 
current of protection of birds, animals and 
natural resources and helpfulness to fellow-man. 
W’e illustrated the story with drawings taken 
from that great camper’s manual, “Woodcraft,” 
as this seemed to us to be something of Ness- 
muk’s own ; for while he didn’t make the draw¬ 
ings, he personally saw to it that each was 
accurate and properly descriptive. We have 
tried to present his last work as he would have 
had it done, and we hope we have succeeded.' 
ANTI-CIGARETTE LAW. 
It isn’t reasonable to suppose that sons of 
sportsmen smoke cigarettes, nor do we presume 
that so long as there was a good gad on a 
nearby tree, a sportsman would allow his boy 
to suck on the paper-covered weed; nevertheless, 
for the boy’s sake and for the sake of his less 
fortunate brother whose father is not a sports¬ 
man, it is better that temptation be not put into 
his way, Pennsylvania legislators have seen to 
it that sonny shall not puff the iniquitous, se¬ 
ductive lung destroyer by passing a law pro¬ 
hibiting the sale of cigarettes to minors. We 
congratulate the people of the Keystone State 
in their selection of legislators—at least in this 
instance. 
COLONEL AC KLIN RETIRES. 
After ten years’ efficient service as a State 
game warden of Tennessee, Hon. Joseph H. 
.Acklin retires in favor of Hon. W. D. Houser. 
Tennessee has had many good things done in 
the way of game protective measures during 
Colonel Acklin’s administration, for which his 
State owes him much thanks. We hope the new 
incumbent of this important office may have the 
sportsmen’s support in carrying out the work 
of the Department of Game, Fish and Forestry 
of the State of Tenessee. Our best wishes to 
the new and the old .game protector. 
