48 
FOREST AND STREAM 
July 13, 1912 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company, 
Charles Otis, President. 
W . G. Beecroft, Secretary. S. J. Gibson, Treasurer. 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
CORRESPONDENCE — 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. 
THE AVIATRIX. 
How useful in other walks of life would be 
the woman with sufficient courage to become an 
aviatrix! The death of Miss Harriet Quimby 
leads us to ask if it were not better to leave the 
struggle for mastery of the air to men of cour¬ 
age, who outnumber courageous women many to 
one. The game of air flying requires not only 
skill, courage and a cool head, but strength as 
well. Women often excel in all but the latter, 
in which they are so far inferior as to preclude 
any chance of their ever being of any value in 
the struggle against her, whose toll will num¬ 
ber thousands before she will allow her paths 
to be navigated to any degree of safety. Grant¬ 
ing of aviators’ licenses by the body at present 
in control of flyers places a tremendous respon¬ 
sibility upon that body. Have they not the right 
to discriminate against women flyers? We think 
that under the existing circumstances they have 
such a right and should exercise it. 
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT. 
Never was the adage “practice makes per¬ 
fect” exemplified more emphatically than in the 
winning of the clay target team and individual 
championship by the Americans at the Olympic 
games. In America clay target shooters indulge 
in trapshooting almost to the exclusion of all 
other sports. Such experts as went to Stock¬ 
holm, to represent America, shoot at the traps 
at least once a week during the season, while 
some of them average two or three times every 
week. In Europe trapshooting is not practiced 
to any such extent. Clay-bird shooting abroad 
is taken up as a substitute for and an adjunct to 
field shooting; “to get the hand in before the 
week end on the moors.” 
Clay target clubs are the exception rather 
than the rule abroad, and the man who shoots 
at the traps is found more or less prominently 
among those interested in cricket, golf,' tennis, 
riding, driving and sports of like nature. This 
incidental interest in the clay-bird game shows 
clearly in the fact that America took all clay 
target shoots. We are not belittling the excel¬ 
lent work of Mr. Billings and his team mates, 
nor that of Individual Champion J. R. Graham, 
for they have done well, and deserve all credit. 
Beyond doubt, however, practice made them 
more perfect than their foreign competitors, who 
were more or less without practice. 
To those who know trapshooting, no word 
is necessary. To those who do not know this 
great sport, which is almost as much the national 
game as is baseball, we say, try it and you will 
learn why Americans practice and become per¬ 
fect. 
THE COMMON CAT. 
If city parks came within the jurisdiction of 
the Conservation Commission, how useful they 
would be as breeding places for game birds. As 
an instance take Pelham Bay Park, New York 
city. In this park at the present time are ring- 
neck and Chinese pheasants, quail, woodcock and 
a few partridge. These birds nest, lay and hatch 
each year, but then what happens? The common 
or garden cat comes along and takes its toll 
from among the progeny as well as the pro¬ 
genitors. The result is that instead of thousands 
of game birds in this great park, we have thou¬ 
sands of cats and few game birds. Park Com¬ 
missioner Higgins, than whom there is no more 
conscientious and active commissioner, knows 
little about conservation of game birds, conse¬ 
quently a great opportunity is lost. A law should be 
passed by all city governments, and if city govern¬ 
ments will not take care of it, the Conservation 
Commission should take it in charge, forbidding- 
all residents on park property from owning or 
housing cats. City authorities should order all 
cats in city parks destroyed. If this is not done, 
all unhoused game birds in city parks soon will 
be wiped out. Why not a bounty on the scalp 
of the ex-house cat? When it was a house cat 
it had a mission; now that it has ceased to be 
a house cat, it should have a dismission. 
THE PLATFORM. 
In Chicago a President was nominated. In 
Baltimore ditto. We all know that either the 
Chicago or the Baltimore nominee must be 
elected, reports a la “progressive party” notwith¬ 
standing. In the platform of neither party do 
we find anything referring to conservation of 
natural resources. Political planks are imaginary, 
hence easily conserved. What we all want is a 
President who will see to it that the forests are 
conserved so that real planks will be available 
upon demand. There are many thousand votes 
awaiting the nominee announcing a desire to 
give the sportsman a chance. 
THE CALL OF THE WILD. 
The call of the wild again has played its 
magnetic tattoo upon the ear drums of Paul 
Rainey, Harry Whitney and some other big-game 
hunters. The call must have been auricular, or 
how poor are acoustics at Sagamore Hill. 
STOVER. 
Most of us have read “Stover at Yale” and 
been amused at his idiosyncrasies. Many of us 
have been through much the same humorous feel¬ 
ing about Stover at Central Park. In one case 
we pay fifteen cents a copy for our entertain¬ 
ment; in the other case we pay $5,000, and the 
destruction of one of the finest parks in this 
country. We all admire Mayor Gaynor for his 
policy of giving each of his subordinates an 
opportunity to make good—or bad. Isn’t it true 
though that he listened to such men as Gutzon 
Borglum, who has made a study of the park 
situation and knows whereof he speaks when he 
condemns the present administration of Central 
Park, New York city? Hasn’t Mayor Gaynor 
sufficient evidence that Mr. Stover has made 
bad ? 
VACATION. 
When you begin to slow up in your work, 
get irritable and want to find fault, where ordi¬ 
narily you smiled, get out your fishing tackle. 
You need a vacation. When the office boy 
peeves you by lagging a bit, don’t try to figure 
why. Get out your charts and lay out a two 
weeks’ cruise. If your mind refuses to con¬ 
centrate on a business proposition, it is time you 
let it wander on a pleasure trip. Get out your 
canoe and take to the stream. If you have none 
of these symptoms, take a vacation, anyhow. 
PRAIRIE CHICKEN EGGS. 
J. F. McCool, a farmer of Macon county, 
Ill., while mowing hay this week, discovered a 
nest of prairie chicken eggs. Knowing that the 
hen would never return, the eggs were trans¬ 
ferred to the nest of a hen in the poultry house 
where a few days later ten chicks were hatched. 
Owing to the great scarcity of these game birds 
the ten were sent to the State game farm at 
Auburn, where they will be raised to maturity 
if possible, and used to propagate their kind. 
Despite the efforts of the game department, it is 
feared that the prairie chicken is doomed to ex¬ 
tinction. 
At Break of Day. 
BY SADIE ELIZABETH MYERS. 
Day danceth through the eastern skies, 
So fair to see. 
So glad to be; 
Traileth rare colors as she flies 
Both eagerly 
And happily; 
Stretched afar her arms of light, 
Lifteth from earth the gloom of night, 
Biddeth all life, with laughter bright. 
To joy awake 
And music make. 
Hope trippeth with her friend, the morn, 
Blithe as you find, 
And on the wind, 
Lo, at their coming there is borne 
To every mind 
This message kind: 
“The past is dead—ail things are new 
Naught is to fear, for skies are blue, 
Hope lives again, some hearts are true, 
And God is love, 
In His heaven above.” 
