208 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Aug. i7, 1912 
Published Weekly by flhe 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company, 
Charles Otis, President. 
W. G. Beecroet, 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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Subscription and Sales Agents—London: Davies & Co., 
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ADVERTISEMENTS: Display and classified, 20 cts. 
per agate line ($2.80 per inch). There are 14 agate lines to 
the inch. Covers and special positions extra. Five, 
ten and twenty per cent, discount for 13, 26 and 52 inser¬ 
tions, respectively, within one year. Forms close Monday 
in advance of publication date. 
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, 1S73. 
OUR BIRTHDAY. 
On Aug. 14 , 1873, Forest and Stream was 
born into a tremendous field of. usefulness. 
Every week since that day we have endeavored 
to live up to everything we promised. How well 
we have succeeded, readers of Forest and 
Stream can judge. Personally we have no hesi¬ 
tation in saying: We have done our best, and 
that others agree with us is evidenced by the 
fact that many of those who sought our society 
when they and we were young have remained 
loyal friends to this day. We have made some 
enemies through our persistence in enactment 
of game protective measures'and enforcement of 
righteous game and conservation laws, but it is 
safe to say that no member of the class of 
sportsmen to whom we cater or whose co-opera¬ 
tion we seek is among the disgruntled. It is 
hard for some of the older hunters who lived 
actively in the days of game abundance to re¬ 
alize the necessity for curtailment in bag limit 
and shortening open seasons, but they have 
taken our educational work good naturedly, al¬ 
beit not willingly, and almost to an individual 
have come to see the light. The game hog we 
have handled without gloves, with the result 
that legislators in most States have made him 
a negligible item. Our support of game refuge 
measures is too well known to need further defi¬ 
nition, as is the case with other legislation we 
deem wise. Our rigid adherence to fact, together 
with our erudition, has given us the place in 
authority on matters of interest to sportsmen, 
by whom daily we are consulted. Growing 
older to us is a pleasure because we know that 
every year adds wisdom and stature and makes 
us more and more needful to the outdoor man 
and woman. Our aim was and is set forth in 
the leader in black face type at the top of this 
page—as it was in the beginning, is now. 
THE SISSON BILL. 
Representative Sisson, of Mississippi, has 
introduced a bill to tax the manufacture and sale 
of deadly weapons, which provides that there 
shall be paid a tax of $2.50 on each pistol, dirk, 
bowie knife, sword cane, stiletto and brass or 
metallic knuckles, and in addition to such tax 
an ad valorem duty of 25 per cent, shall be col¬ 
lected on the price at which the manufacturer 
sells the weapon to the trade. The bill, which is 
to take effect July 1, 1913, provides a fine of 
$1,000 and six months imprisonment for viola¬ 
tions of its provisions. The measure was re¬ 
ferred to the House Committee on Ways and 
Means which has to do with all bills which levy 
taxes and was extended hearings in order that 
Mr. Sisson might explain the purpose and provis¬ 
ions of his measure. Mr. Sisson declared that the 
purpose of his bill was primarily to raise revenue 
but would also operate to regulate the sale and 
carrying of deadly weapons in violation of State 
and municipal laws, and would, therefore, oper¬ 
ate for the welfare of society. The bill is not 
intended to cover any weapons except those men¬ 
tioned, and would not therefore include rifles or 
shotguns as was supposed by many when the 
bill was first introduced. It was shown during 
the hearings that there were manufactured in 
this country in the year 1910 the enormous num¬ 
ber of 1,638,560 revolvers, rifles and shotguns. 
There were ten manufacturers who reported 580,- 
042 revolvers, 391,875 shotguns and 666.643 rifles 
as having been made during the year mentioned. 
Sixty-six establishments are engaged in the 
manufacture of firearms and ammunition with a 
combined capital of $39,377,000, with 15,000 em¬ 
ployees. It was natural, therefore, that many 
protests were filed by the manufacturers with 
the committee, though none appeared in person 
at the hearings to oppose the bill. It is esti¬ 
mated that with the enactment of the bill into 
law, the proposed duty would realize at least 
$2,500,000 in revenue to the Federal Treasury, 
as well as serve to identify and regulate the 
sale and use of the deadly weapons mentioned. 
The bill does not include any weapon enumerated 
therein, and does not disturb the sale of car¬ 
tridges or ammunition of any kind. A great 
deal of misapprehension was felt over this meas¬ 
ure by sportsmen and others when the bill was 
first introduced owing to a misconception of the 
terms of the bill and inadequate treatment of its 
terms by the press. Mr. Sisson has received 
many letters of commendation from State and 
municipal officers who ardently support the bill. 
It is understood that the committee will report 
the bill favorably, and that it will finally pass 
the House during the next session of Congress. 
THE STARLING. 
Reports received at the Department of Agri¬ 
culture state that the English starling, whose 
progress in this country has been watched with 
some uneasiness, has gotten as far south as 
Newport News, Va. This is one of the imported 
birds that it feared will rank with the English 
sparrow as a pest. It does no particular harm 
in England, but it was introduced into Australia 
some years ago and there it has proved to be 
a serious menace to the wheat crops. The birds 
were started in this country in New England 
and have worked South slowly, remaining almost 
stationary for several seasons around Philadel¬ 
phia, Pa. 
BIRDLESS MONTCLAIR. 
These days everything seems to run to the 
suffix less, excepting possibly the cost of living. 
We have wireless telegraphy, seedless oranges, 
beardless youth, thoughtless legislation, speech- 
le’ss fright and lesses ad lib., but can it be now 
that we are to have birdless Montclair? The 
present desire is to rechristen the moneyed thor¬ 
oughfare of this ultra New Jersey village, Bird¬ 
way. The trees fairly droop with their feathered 
freight, residents along the songed highway woo 
sleep in vain, phonographs are put away to rest 
because the oriole and robin sing away, regard¬ 
less of the efforts of Mary Garden and Caruso 
to promote musical art in condensed form. Ail 
that stands in the way of Montclair’s peace of 
mind is the law that says: “Thou shalt not 
kill.” It is good for Montclair’s hot-headed citi¬ 
zens that the commissioners won’t let them kill 
song and insectivorous birds. Good because 
should Montclair have her way, she not only 
would be birdless, but treeless as well. 
It is probable the birds have not selected 
Montclair because of its climate and roosting 
facilities, but because insect life there offers 
superior feeding, a decrease in the labor of liv¬ 
ing made so high in Paris-greened sections. 
Treeless Montclair is not destined to be, 
because a wise legislation has willed against 
birdless Montclair, and later, when the birds have 
gone to warmer climes, though not those to 
which we understand the residents on Birdway 
oft have consigned them, the bird killers of the 
Jersey suburb will be glad 'wiser heads made 
laws that will enable Montclair to continue as 
one of the show villages of the State of New 
Jersey and not birdless and treeless Montclair. 
ALASKA GAME LAWS. 
In another column we print the revision in 
Alaska game laws superseding those of July 21, 
1910. It seems unfortunate that the Department 
of Agriculture should have delayed issuing these 
revisions until Aug. 1, as under the old laws the 
season on' caribou on the Kenai Peninsula opened 
Aug. 20, 1912, after having been closed four 
years, while in other parts of Alaska the law 
was off on Aug. 1. Many sportsmen had their 
trips planned before Aug. 1, while others already 
were on their way to the Alaska hunting ground ; 
before the new regulation was issued. It seem; 
as though those in authority could have made 
the new ruling in January instead 1 of at the 
opening of the season, under the then existing 
laws. _ 
THE ADVERTISING RECORD. 
In June, Forest and Stream, according to 
Printers’ Ink, carried 2,215 agate lines more ad¬ 
vertising than any other sportsman s publication. 
In July it did still better, according to the same 
authority, carrying 2,920 lines more than its 
nearest competitor as the following tabulation 
will show: 
agate lines of advertising. 
(Compiled by Printers’ Ink.) 
Publication July, 1912. 
Forest and Stream . 15.601 
Outing . 12,684 
Field and Stream . 11816 
Outer’s Book . 9632 
Recreation . 7 . 5 10 
Well! Well!! Well!!! 
