716 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Nov. ii, 1911. 
JTDOOR LT 
travel, yaiuri:. su;dy shooting, hshing.ya 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company, 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
Edward C. Locke, President, 
Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary, 
S. J. Gibson, 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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Remit by express money-order, registered letter, money- 
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The paper may be obtained of newsdealers throughout 
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Subscription and Sales Agents—London: Davies & Co., 
1 Finch Lane; Sampson, Low & Co. Paris: Brentaiao’s. 
ADVERTISEMENTS. 
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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. 
FIREARMS LAW DECISIONS. 
In the Supreme Court of New York county on 
Nov. 3, Justice Pendleton handed down a decis¬ 
ion which relates -to the firearms law, and tem¬ 
porarily at least, clears up a point on which vari¬ 
ous authorities have disagreed. He held that the 
Sullivan law does not apply to revolvers kept by 
citizens in their homes for self-protection. 
Justice Pendleton’s ruling was the result of a 
test case brought by Joseph F. Darling, an attor¬ 
ney. Mr. Darling notified the police that he had 
a revolver in his home, but he had difficulty in 
persuading the courts to hold him for trial after 
he had been arrested. Finally, however, he was 
tried, and in his defense he argued that the law 
was an unwarranted invasion of the constitu¬ 
tional rights of citizens, and that the taking out 
of public permits for the private possession of 
revolvers would advertise the lack of protection 
of other homes, and assist burglars in picking 
out such unprotected homes. 
Another opinion relating to the firearms law 
was made public by Corporation Counsel Watson 
last week. It was to the effect that under the 
city charter all licenses to carry revolvers must 
be issued by the Police Commissioner. He holds 
that the provision in the Sullivan law that such 
permits are to be issued by magistrates or jus¬ 
tices of the peace “in such manner as may be 
prescribed by ordinance” does not apply to New 
York city, whose charter and ordinances regu¬ 
late the issuance of such permits. “The general 
rule,” he says, “is that a statute which is appli¬ 
cable to a particular locality is not repealed by 
implication by a later statute in general terms 
unless the intention of the Legislature to repeal 
or alter the meal law is mamfect. * * * In no 
event may such permits be issued in the city 
of New York by other than the Police Commis¬ 
sioner. The city magistrates are without juris¬ 
diction.” The $10 fee is aiso illegal, he says, as 
the charter provides for a fee of $2.50 only, this 
to go to the police pension fund. 
RECKLESS SHOOTING IN THE WOODS. 
While the range of a charge of buckshot fired 
from a gun is insignificant in comparison with 
that a rifle bullet, at ordinary game-shooting dis¬ 
tances, it is very deadly, as a recent tragedy 
showed. And this tragedy has shaken the faith 
of the advocates of shotguns for deer hunting. 
Last week two men were instantly killed and two 
others injured by a charge of buckshot fired into 
bushes disturbed by them in hunting deer in 
Southern New Jersey, while the fifth victim, 
Charles Norcross, lies in a cell in jail a physical 
and mental wreck, charged with involuntary man¬ 
slaughter. 
There are a few deer in New Jersey, and as it 
is lawful to pursue bucks each Wednesday in 
November, there is overcrowding of the few 
places deer are known to frequent, and feverish 
anxiety to bag the one buck to which each license 
holder is entitled. Guns not smaller than twelve 
gauge are the only firearms and buckshot the 
only missiles permitted. 
Hunters have argued that in this way the 
danger of being shot accidentally or in mistake 
for deer has been reduced to the minimum, par¬ 
ticularly as experience in other States has shown 
that, where bucks only may be hunted, the old 
order of shooting first, then investigating, has 
been reversed. But no one could have foreseen 
the horrible exposure of the fallacy of even this 
carefully planned law. No one thought that men 
would hunt in squads, or that it would be possible 
that an excited gunner might bag an entire squad 
at one shot, yet this occurred last Wednesday. 
Thomas Yost and Constant Steelman were in¬ 
stantly killed, William Jarvis was so badly in¬ 
jured that surgeons amputated his right leg, and 
a fourth man, whose name is unknown, escaped 
with one buckshot wound that was not serious. 
It is claimed that the party was walking along 
a road in Southern New Jersey when the shot 
was fired through thick undergrowth, and imme¬ 
diately afterward Norcross, who fired the charge, 
stepped into the road. Two of his victims were 
dead, the third was crippled for life, while the 
fourth escaped with a slight injury only. Pos¬ 
sibly he was behind the other men in his party, 
and their bodies shielded him. 
So long as shooting licenses are issued to all 
adults who, under the mild restrictions imposed 
by the law, are entitled to them, such unfortunate 
shootings may occur. The very laws which are 
made to protect game and men are indirectly re¬ 
sponsible for them. Since there have been closed 
and open seasons, there has been overcrowding 
of game districts on opening day, and this con¬ 
centrating of hunters has increased with the 
shortening of seasons and the posting of lands. 
Long Island has in the past provided an abuni- 
ance of object lessons on the result of permitting 
the public to shoot deer on four or more separate 
days each year, and New Jersey is now overrun 
with just such another crowd of eager hunters, 
although in justice to them it must be said that 
they have, as a general thing, shown more re¬ 
gard for human life and the rights of landowners 
and fellow hunters than was the case when the 
disorganized mob took possession of Long Island. 
In the Western States where the deer season 
lasts but a few days, the danger to hunters has 
increased. The restriction to bucks only has had 
some effect on the reckless class, though it has 
not served as a backstop for stray bullets. In 
the five Massachusetts counties where deer were 
shot last year there was a singular scarcity of 
tragedies from the use of solid balls in shotguns, 
due to a technical blunder in the law. On the 
other hand, there were a great many deer crip¬ 
pled with shot. 
Some States, notably New York, have placed 
an age-limit on license holders. They do not 
permit youths to hunt. That is an argument in 
favor of experience in the handling of firearms, 
but a very lame argument, since many boys of 
ten years are more to be trusted than the ammu¬ 
nition wasters of voting age. Many a boy of 
ten or twelve years has been carefully trained 
in rifle handling and practice. 
The time has passed when opening day can be 
safely made a jubilee occasion, a day on which 
every one who can boast the possession of a fire¬ 
arm can take it out and shoot at every living 
thing seen. But the restrictions are too few, and 
they offer no direct safeguards to human beings. 
It would be no hardship if every person applying 
for a shooting license were required to prove 
himself capable of handling firearms and suffi¬ 
ciently skilled in shooting them to be trusted 
The closed season is long, and in it every per¬ 
son who is not a skilled shot has many oppor¬ 
tunities to practice at target or trap. There are 
rifle ranges and trap grounds everywhere, and 
the men who frequent them are ever ready and 
willing to assist beginners who desire to master 
the rudiments of shooting. 
State associations should take this matter up 
and insist that the Legislatures so amend the 
game laws that every person who applies for 
a shooting license must first prove sobriety and 
a moderate degree of skiil in the handling of 
firearms. 
The Colorado School of Forestry offers a 
course of ten weeks to begin Wednesday, Dec. 
13, for rangers, guards and others employed in 
forest work who desire to increase their effi¬ 
ciency, and others who wish to acquire a knowl¬ 
edge of the general principles of forestry. In¬ 
struction will be given by lectures, laboratory 
practice and field demonstration and practice, 
under the direction of the faculty of the Colo¬ 
rado School of Forestry, the faculty of Colorado 
College, of which the school is a department, and 
the United States Forest Service. During the 
first three weeks the classes will meet in Palmer 
Hall at Colorado College in Colorado Springs; 
the remainder of the period will be spent at 
Manitou Park, the School Forest. 
»» 
From A. Thayer, of Roxbury, Mass., we have 
received a metal band taken from the leg of a 
pigeon that was found dead on the pilot of a 
New Haven railway locomotive on Oct. 31. It 
bears the legend “A. B. 40344” and the letter 
“J” in a keystone. 
It has been reported that a large number of 
breeding trout were recently stolen from the 
State hatchery at Saranac Lake, N. Y. 
