536 
FOREST AND STREAM 
April 27, 1912 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company, 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
Chari.es Otis, President, 
C. I>. Keynolds, Secretary, 
S. J. Gibson, Treasurer. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
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, but are not 
responsible for the views of correspondents. Anonymous 
communications will not be regarded. 
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Publishing Company. 
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; Brentano’s. 
ADVERTISEMENTS. 
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Special rates for back cover in two or more colors. 
A discount of 5 per cent, is allowed on an advertise¬ 
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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 TITANIC DISASTER. 
In these days, when the horror of the Titanic 
disaster still lies like a heavy hand on the heart 
of every person—when the conviction is grow¬ 
ing that the people who went down in the icy 
North Atlantic were sacrificed on the altar of 
commercialism — there is still one thought that 
brings comfort to those who lost near and dear 
ones and to others as well who knew no one 
aboard the great ship. This is the heroism of 
the men and women who calmly faced certain 
death in one of its most trying forms, and whose 
last energies were directed toward succoring the 
pitiably small number that rowed away in the 
small boats. For them all avenues of escape 
were closed, and they knew it. Still they faced 
the inevitable with fortitude and cheerfulness. 
Among them were a great many who were strong 
physically and mentally through their love of the 
outdoors and their practice of favorite healthful 
sports. The self-reliance that they had attained 
in this way was of material assistance to them in 
their hour of need, and carried them as far as 
it is possible for human beings to go. Beyond 
that point there was no hope. 
Several communications received recently are 
withheld from publication for the reason that 
they were sent in bj' persons who did not sign 
their names. Will these correspondents kindly 
supply the,necessary endorsements? We do not 
print anonymous contributions. 
TROUT FISHING. 
On Wednesday morning next the season for 
trout fishing in New York State will open under 
the new law signed by Governor Dix on April 
15. The change from April 16 to May i is re¬ 
garded by the majority of persons interested in 
such matters as a wise one, while as for those 
in the minority, they will exercise a little patience 
or be liable to punishment. Combined with the 
efforts put forth to provide better trout fishing, 
the postponing of opening day until May i is 
worthy of the approval of every good citizen. 
April fishing in an average year is more harm¬ 
ful than it should be, for the streams are high, 
discolored and cold, the trout do not rise, but 
seek their food on the bottom, where insect life 
is abundant, and therefore worm fishing is at 
its best. At that time, too, the small trout are 
readily taken, and those that are too small to 
be kept legally are more likely to die after they 
have been returned to the water than would be 
the case if taken with artificial flies. Trout that 
take flies from the surface are usually hooked 
lightly in the tough cartilage of the mouth, where¬ 
as those that gorge worms on the bottom are 
hooked too far back to be removed without in¬ 
jury from the hook, hence they die. 
These conditions apply at present. The sea¬ 
son is backward, there is little to be seen in the 
woods that tells of the vernal season, and the 
streams are very cold, so that it will be well 
along in May before satisfactory trout fishing 
may be had in the hill country. 
While the protectors were ready to enforce 
the new law on short notice, it is known that 
in many places trout fishing was done on April 
16. In the majority of cases the violators were 
innocent of wrong intentions, as they were out 
of touch with news, but in others there was a 
tendency to break a law that, through the Gover¬ 
nor’s waiting until the last moment, did not give 
intending anglers a day’s notice of the change. 
In one instance a daily paper that has consider¬ 
able influence advised its readers to fish on the 
sixteenth despite the new law, and no doubt its 
benighted advice was taken by a few persons 
who are wont to be led astray by the yellow 
journals. 
Through the turmoil of uncertainty that 
marked April 15 and 16 as days to be remem¬ 
bered by anglers, the rumor that the new law 
would not become effective until next year was 
circulated with a persistency worthy of a better 
cause. Forest and Stream was swamped with 
inquiries, and although the replies left no room 
for doubt, it was not until the end of that week 
that inquirers ceased to insist that the mistake 
was ours and not their own. Some of them be¬ 
lieved that the new law would not go into effect 
until May i, others twenty days, still others thirty 
days, and although it was not a pleasant task to 
state the facts, there was nothing else to do, and 
many a tired business or professional man put 
away his tackle and went back to his desk with 
a sad heart, for a few days more meant a great 
deal to those who were told at the eleventh hour 
that they could not go to the trout streams next 
day, as they had so long intended to do. 
In New Jersey, where the season had been open 
since the first, there was little to cheer the ang- , 
ler, for the woods and meadows were bleak and 
cold, with only the skunk cabbage, the leaves of 
the earliest spring flowers, the recT maple blos¬ 
soms and a few early birds to prove that April 
was here. Among the hills whose altitude ranges 
from 500 to 1,200 or more feet above sea level 
there was no rise of trout in the cold streams on 
the twentieth. Caddis flies were emerging from 
the water in the warm sunlight, but there was 
no evidence then that the trout were watching 
for them, and even the worm fishers said that 
there was nothing to be taken save the baby trout 
which could not be legally kept. 
In some of the streams that flow through 
mcadowlands near tide level, where the sun 
warmed the water slightly on the few bright 
days, there was fair fishing, but even there May 
day will be early enough for anglers who fish 
for pleasure and not for heavy baskets of trout. 
Henry J. Willingham, superintendent of edu¬ 
cation of the State of Alabama, has named May 
4th, the anniversary of the birth of Audubon, as 
Bird Day in Alabama. As usual, John H. Wal¬ 
lace, State commissioner of fish and game, has 
issued the “Alabama Bird Day Book,” for the 
occasion. This excellent little publication is 
being sent to all the school children, the bird 
societies and individuals who are identified with 
the work of song bird protection. Beautiful 
colored plates of birds, accompanied by brief 
descriptions of the birds and their economic and 
esthetic value, and verses on the subject make 
the book an especially attractive one to children, 
and for use in the schools. Mr. Wallace is doing 
excellent work, work that is bearing abundant 
fruit, in a State that is more or less popularly 
believed to be free foraging ground for all-the- 
year-round market shooters. 
The supreme court of Illinois has refused to 
grant a rehearing in the celebrated Spring Lake 
case. The court in a recent decision found 
against the drainage commissioners of the Spring 
Lake district, perpetually enjoining them from 
interfering with the lower end of Spring Lake, 
maintaining that this section was navigable and 
therefore not under the control of the commis¬ 
sioners. Judge T. Harris, in the Tazewell county 
court, decided against the sportsmen and others 
who opposed the commissioners, but the upper 
court set aside this finding. It may be that the 
drainage board will not attempt to carry the case 
further, but will accede to the wishes of the 
hunters and fishermen. 
K 
A fire swept through a large section of woods 
near Millville. N. J., recently, and for a time 
it was beyond control of the wardens and citi¬ 
zens who assisted them. Some of the railways 
in that State require their employes to exert 
every effort to prevent fires along their rights 
of way, and to put out fires that have been 
started by locomotives. The rural mail carriers 
have also been instructed by the postoffice depart¬ 
ment at Washington to watch for and report 
fires along their routes. The plan is to have 
them notify 'the nearest fire wardens, in order 
that no time need be lost. 
A Harrisburg firm has made plans to give 
25,000 young maple trees to the school children 
of that Pennsylvania city on Arbor Day, the little 
sprouts to be planted in and about the city. 
Twenty-three thousand aluminum canteens 
and cups of an approved pattern are to be made 
for the United States army. 
