338 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Aug. 26, 1911. 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company, 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
George Bird Grinnell, President, 
Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary, 
Louis Dean Speir, Treasurer. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of 
entertainment, instruction and information between Amer¬ 
ican sportsmen. The editors invite communications on 
the subjects to which its pages are devoted. Anonymous 
communications will not be regarded. The editors are 
not responsible for the views of correspondents. 
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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 MONTCLAIR OUTRAGE. 
A disgraceful thing occurred in Montclair, 
N. J., one night last week. The Times of Aug. 
18 reported it as follows; 
The Crescent, one of Montclair’s best streets, is lined 
with high maple trees, in which birds nested by the 
thousands until the residents complained to the town 
authorities. An employee of the shade tree commission 
was ordered to the street to-night with a double-barreled 
shotgun. 
Soon after the first shot many residents poured out of 
their homes to aid the man in his work, supplying 
lanterns and baskets to pick up the birds. After two 
hours they had gathered hundreds of birds from the 
street, while many more fell wounded or dead in the 
underbrush along the roadside and on the lawns. After 
each shot a tree rained English starlings, blackbirds, 
robins and sparrows. 
The residents believed they would secure a good night’s 
sleep for the first time in many months. The work will 
be continued each night until the street and trees are 
rid of the pests. 
But these followers of Judge Lynch counted 
without their host. Before the day was done 
the written law was invoked and State Fish and 
Game Warden Hall was on the ground to en¬ 
force it. So far there has been no more shoot¬ 
ing of protected birds, and there will be none, 
for the whole nation has been aroused over the 
outrage brought about by the Montclair resi¬ 
dents, and the few who are responsible for it 
have not the courage to defend their actions. 
It is to be regretted that the arrest and punish¬ 
ment of every person involved did not speedily 
follow, but it is not too late for this, and no 
person involved, citizen or official, should be per¬ 
mitted to escape punishment. 
No one regrets the killing of English spar¬ 
rows ; starlings are not yet sufficiently numerous 
to be placed in the same class; probably no black¬ 
birds were killed. Robins are not only protected 
throughout the year, but every effort is put forth 
by law-abiding citizens to attract them to coun¬ 
try and village homes, and in such places they 
have come to fear nothing save cats and the 
occasional mischievous small boy. It would 
seem that the object lesson exhibited through 
the hordes of insects that have invaded New 
Jersey this summer has been ignored by Mont¬ 
clair's bird-hating minority. It should be brought 
to their attention in the justices’ courts in a way 
that will reach their hearts through their pocket 
books. 
The example set by the community in question 
would have had a bad effect a few years ago; 
but to-day there are very few people so be¬ 
nighted that they are likely to work against 
their own best interests and attempt to destroy 
the protectors of their shade trees, the birds. 
The wave of indignation that has swept the 
country since the Montclair outrage shows the 
trend of public sentiment, and while it is true 
that this sentiment alone is inadequate, it is not 
without influence on the game wardens. It is 
indicative of better things to come. 
The few finicky Montclair persons who were 
involved in the outrage have brought disgrace 
on themselves, their village, their State and the 
nation. But this odium may not sink into their 
callous inner consciousness. Punishment for 
them should be public and severe. 
DROUTH AND FOREST FIRES. 
The traditional carelessness of inexperienced 
campers is responsible for many serious woods 
fires. One of these spread from the embers of 
a deserted camp-fire on a tiny island in Big 
Tupper Lake, in the Adirondacks, on a recent 
night, and until the fire wardens arrived the 
lives and belongings of campers on the island 
were menaced; indeed, one of the young men 
who assisted in putting out the fire fell into a 
ditch and was suffocated by the smoke before 
he was found. Other serious fires have been 
fought with vigor by campers as well as 
wardens. The work of amateur fire fighters is 
seen everywhere in the woods, and their ener¬ 
getic efforts go a long way toward offsetting 
the ill effects created by the carelessness of a 
few of their fellows. There is hardly an experi¬ 
enced camper, young or old. who will not jump 
out of his blankets in the middle of the night, 
or respond as promptly at any other time, to a 
call for assistance in checking woods fires. Of 
course it is human nature to combat fires, and 
most of those who have grown enthusiastic 
over their hobby are called cranks because they 
like to rub elbows with professional fire fighters, 
see the spectacle and experience the excitement. 
The force that impels men to run blocks or 
miles to see a fire is the same old force that 
sent our forebears abroad, day or night, to 
protect their cabins and their tents from the 
woods or prairie fires. 
In the cities these enthusiasts must content 
themselves with viewing fires at a distance, but 
in the woods they at times find opportunities 
to exhaust their energies in hand-to-hand fights 
with great or little fires. And they go about 
it just as their forefathers did, with this differ¬ 
ence: that modern practice is less strenuous and 
more scientific. 
Give the campers credit for preventing and 
combatting many fires. Statistics show how 
large a percentage of the forest fires originate 
in abandoned camp-fires every year, but nothing 
is said of the number of fires reported or 
quenched by campers of the better class. And 
this number increases as the need for their 
assistance grows. There are hooligans in camp 
as well as in town, and to all of them a great 
fire proves a fascinating thing and one which 
they would help rather than hinder if safety for 
their own precious selves were assured. But 
they are a very small minority in the army of 
campers, and the propaganda of safe and sane 
camping is winning them away from the ranks 
of their kind. 
Throughout the country the third of a series 
of annual drouths holds sway. Autumn, the 
season of falling leaves, is approaching. The 
ground is dry, the watercourses are dwindling, 
springs have ceased to flow. For a still further 
time it will be almost futile to hope for soak¬ 
ing rains, and even with the improved facilities 
for preventing and fighting them, it is certain 
forest fires will occur. Every person, therefore, 
who contemplates a sojourn in the woods must 
exercise extraordinary vigilance, and assist in 
every way in his or her power to keep down the 
fire loss. 
The New York Conservation Commission has 
appointed John B. Burnham, of Essex county, 
deputy commissioner of forest, fish and game, 
with a salary of $3,500 per annum. Mr. Burn¬ 
ham was chief game protector under Commis¬ 
sioner Whipple, and was appointed deputy com¬ 
missioner by Commissioner Austen. In making 
the appointment the new commissioners com¬ 
mended Mr. Burnham’s work in inaugurating 
the division system now used by the department, 
and m organizing and increasing the efficiency 
of the protectors. George V. S. Williams, of 
Brooklyn, was appointed chief counsel at a saiary 
of $7,000. George P. Decker, of Rochester, was 
made first assistant counsel at a salary of $5,000. 
Mr. Decker was counsel to the Forest, Fish and 
Game Commission under Commissioner Osborpe. 
Richard W. Sherman, of Utica, is the new chief 
engineer of the commission. His salary is $7,000 
a year. He is a brother of the vice-president of 
the United States. He was mayor of Utica for 
four years, and city engineer of that city for 
seven years. Two more deputy commissioners, 
at the same salary as the chief deputy, are to be 
appointed. 
*» 
The business of domesticating and breeding 
the black fox in Prince Edward Island has 
developed so rapidly and the profits de¬ 
rived from this new industry are so consider¬ 
able that the Provincial Parliament has passed 
an amendment to the income tax law whereby 
the profits arising from breeding foxes in con¬ 
finement are made subject to an income tax of 
ip2 per cent., says Consul Frank Deedmever, of 
Charlottetown. It is claimed that some of the 
black fox farms found on this island yield an¬ 
nual profits exceeding $20,000. 
