1048 
FOREST AND STREAM 
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jl The object of this Journal || 
will be to studiously promote 
a healthful interest in outdoor 
recreation, and to cultivate a 
|i refined taste for natural objects. 
If —Forest and Stream, Aug. k i873 ij 
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It is Up To the Sportsmen 
T HE Department of Agriculture has an¬ 
nounced the proposed changes in the regu¬ 
lations of the Migratory Bird Law. These 
changes are to be published for a period of three 
months, during which time those interested may 
submit suggestions, or offer amendments dealing 
with the zone classifications. 
Careful study of the new schedule as a whole 
indicates that criticism will not be lacking. To 
begin with, the season for wild fowl in the mid¬ 
dle western states has been extended to March, 
while in contiguous regions the old regulations 
are adhered to. The storm of protest which 
followed the shortening of the open season in 
certain sections of the country has not been 
forgotten. Whether it represented real senti¬ 
ment will not be argued here. The fact remains 
that it seems to have impressed Washington. 
Now, in all legislation, final readings and rul¬ 
ings are more or less a compromise. But inter¬ 
pretations of that character deal in the majority 
of cases with matters of finance. The usual test 
is how much or how little the burden of tax is 
going to be, or to what extent the restriction 
will affect the individual. 
In this migratory bird legislation, however, a 
different phase presents itself. We can tax 
Nature, and seemingly she submits without pro¬ 
test. Nevertheless she imposes the penalty on 
mankind, for in the end he pays the cost of his 
temerity, and assumption of superior wisdom. 
Man may violate the laws of Nature, but hav¬ 
ing done so, he cannot hope to escape the con¬ 
sequences. As well might a legislature hope by 
enactment to abolish bad weather, or prevent the 
recurrence of earthquake. 
And that, brother sportsmen, is the situation, 
the condition, you confront when dealing with 
the migratory law. You may persuade yourself 
that you have a just grievance because the fel¬ 
low in the next county has a few days more 
shooting than you are permitted to enjoy; you 
may even prevail on the lawmaking powers to 
let you kill a dozen or two extra ducks just to 
prove your supposed right to equal privileges. 
But in the light of what is bound to follow 
when outraged Nature exacts the penalty; when 
the migration of wild fowl ceases for the reason 
that there are no more wild fowl to migrate— 
this as the result of your own shortsightedness— 
will you be proud of the memory you will leave 
in the minds of those who are to follow you, and 
who are the owners of wild life, quite as much 
as you, though they have not yet entered into 
possession of it? 
If you are a real sportsman you must already 
have studied the question from this viewpoint. 
It is the only ground you can take. Unfortu¬ 
nately there are men so limited in their vision 
that the real intent of the migratory law is be¬ 
yond their ken. Their eyes are not lifted above 
the boundaries of the local duck marsh—their 
thoughts deal with to-morrow’s pleasure. After 
them, the Deluge! 
And it will be the Deluge for you and your 
children and your children’s children if you do 
not take some interest in this question, now that 
it is up for decision. 
The Fishing Number 
T HIS is the month of the angler. It is the 
season for which he has longed. His 
innings are due, and his brother of the 
chase will not begrudge him, for the nonce, all 
the space which we give him. 
Ahead stretch the summer fishing joys. The 
trout angler has long ago ventured abroad, to 
take advantage of opportunities offered by spring, 
but to the majority of people July and August, 
with some overlapping into September, are the 
vacation, and therefore the fishing months. 
May they bring to the army of clear-eyed, 
healthful and happy men and women who con¬ 
stitute the readers of this journal the best of 
good luck in their favorite sport. 
The lakes, the rivers, the ocean are ready; 
the water is right. Whether the destination be 
remote wilderness, or points nearer to home, is 
immaterial. The spirit of sportsmanship is the 
same. It means playing the game fair. There 
are no other rules. 
But as July drifts into August, and insensibly 
there come into the air and over the landscape 
evidences of approaching fall season, the gunner 
will step into his own. 
If he believes that we have neglected him in 
this number we can assure him that we have 
many good things in store for him at the proper 
time. New series of articles dealing with up¬ 
land shooting, big game hunting, and last but 
not least, instructive advice by experts on hunt¬ 
ing subjects, are in course of preparation and 
will follow soon. 
Between A Saturday and Monday 
C RUSTY old croakers and vinegar-spirited 
wiseacres solemnly assure us that summer 
half-holidays are a device of the devil, and 
that working men and women would be far bet¬ 
ter off if they stuck to their work six full days 
in the week all the year around. 
This proposition has just enough truth in it to 
give it at first blush a tinge of plausibility, for it 
is not to be gainsaid that multitudes do make a 
miserable failure of their half-holiday, and 
would be better in spirit, body and purse if they 
worked all day Saturday instead of going off into 
foolish dissipation. 
Nevertheless the fault is not in the holiday, but 
in the ignorance, or folly based on ignorance, of 
those who mis-use the holiday. 
What the busy world needs is not fewer holi¬ 
days, but more sensible ways of spending those 
it has. 
They who can truly help the holiday seeking 
man are not the croakers, who would wall him 
in the more securely for the good of his soul, 
but the men and women of large heart and ready 
sympathy and thoughtful concern and inventive 
genius, who will point out the ways and provide 
the means for a more profitable enjoyment of his 
play time. 
If in his unwonted freedom from the drudgery 
and grind of his accustomed round, he mis-spends 
his opportunities and fails to pluck the golden 
fruit of a summer’s day in the open air, the rem¬ 
edy is to be sought not in repression, but in in¬ 
struction, encouragement and enlargement of op¬ 
portunities. 
The problems—and they are important prob¬ 
lems—of rational holidays for the great masses 
who do the world’s work, will never be solved by 
the croakers. Let these Knights of the Sorrow¬ 
ful Visage go to the rear. The voices the half¬ 
holiday world wants to hear are of those cheery 
souls who will show it how to get the most good 
out of its play hours. 
And what a world of suggestion, what an offer¬ 
ing of expert advice, the columns of a paper like 
Forest and Stream contain! The man to whom 
falls the good fortune of a whole summer’s play¬ 
time can find much that will make his long holi¬ 
day brighter and better, while he to whom is 
vouchsafed but the brief interval between a Sat¬ 
urday and a Monday may discover that a new 
world is open to him in the great outdoors that 
lies not so far away, but creeps unnoticed, soft- 
footed and gentle, as do all wild things, to the 
very gates of populous cities. 
Shakespeare makes Prince Hal say: 
If all the year were playing holidays, 
To sport would be as tedious as to work. 
That is the case exactly. The little holiday is 
frequently the most enjoyable. 
The season of the day-off is here. Take advan¬ 
tage of it. Every field is an open book of natural 
history; the song of the brook is a symphony in 
minor chord, while the deep diaphason of the 
ocean is music such as man never made. It is all 
yours for the asking. 
A Summer Sport 
T HE growing popularity of trapshooting is 
an encouraging evidence of the outdoor 
spirit in America. Not so many years ago 
:rapshooting could not be called a recreation, 
for it centered around experts, a few specialists 
f n Q hiiln ell 
ing class. 
Trapshooting now bids fair to become as 
popular as golf. It is being taken up by people 
who never point a gun at the flying live bird, 
or over a dog, but to whom the fascination of a 
test of skill and accuracy is not lost. 
The swelling ranks of the trapshooting clubs 
everywhere are an encouraging sign. After all 
what better method of practising preparedness 
could be devised? The modern soldier, barring 
the sharpshooter and the “sniper,” is a snap¬ 
shot artist—in action at least. Familiarity with 
the shotgun and the flying target makes better 
men in the military field, just as much as it 
makes better men in the business or professional 
ranks. The future of trapshooting involves more 
than the promotion of an interesting sport. It 
should have the serious attention of the State. 
