Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal. Copyright, 1907, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy. I 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 1907. 
i 
VOL. LXVIII.-No.l9. 
/ No. 346 Broadway, New York 
The object of this journal will be to studiously 
promote a healthful interest in outdoor recre¬ 
ation, and to cultivate a refined taste for natural 
Objects. Announcement in first number oi 
Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
THE RESIDENT LICENSE. 
4 
Failing generally .to secure sufficient appro¬ 
priations for game protection and propagation, 
many States have cast about for a method to 
raise a revenue for these purposes, and in a 
number of cases this means has been found in 
establishing a license system under which the 
taking of game and fish is forbidden, except 
under a license issued by the State authorities. 
The funds paid in for these licenses generally 
go to support the commissions which have charge 
of the game, fish and forests. 
In many cases a license is required only of 
nonresidents, in others, both residents and non¬ 
residents are required to take out licenses, but 
usually the fee demanded is small for the resi¬ 
dent and large for the nonresident. Some States 
call for a still higher fee for an alien residing 
in the State. 
So many States have adopted this system that 
an estimate made up from various State com¬ 
mission reports for 1905 indicates that the license 
fees for the whole country amounted to consider¬ 
ably over half a million of dollars, and in some 
States the receipts from this source were greater 
than the annual cost of commission. 
From reports of. the Illinois Game Commission 
it appears that during the year 1905 no less than 
161,164 licenses were issued, which, at 75 cents 
each, brought in to the State the sum of $120,- 
873. Among the'results of the receipt of this 
great sum are an efficient game warden system 
and a large fish and game propagating plant for 
that State, an account of which was recently 
published in these columns. 
We are told that up to the year 1903, when the 
hunting license system went into operation in 
the State of Colorado, the receipts of the game 
and fish department of that State were very 
small. Since then, however, they have been in¬ 
creasing from year to year; and increase in 
funds is likely to mean increase in efficiency. 
The different view taken by the Legislature under 
such changed conditions is shown by the fact 
that in Colorado the Legislature of 1899 appro¬ 
priated for two years the sum of $31,400 to main¬ 
tain the game and fish department, while the ap¬ 
propriation in 1905 was $57,700 and the amount 
requested for 1907 is $75,400. 
On the whole the system has worked so well 
that a number of States which have hitherto 
ignored the resident license are now seriously 
considering its adoption. Among these States 
are Maine, New York, Ohio and New Jersey. 
To the adoption of the resident license system 
there has been much and bitter opposition. 
Favorite objections to it are that it is a tax 
on a class, or that the establishment of such a 
fee is a hardship on the poor man. Neither ob¬ 
jection seems of much force. Sportsmen, while 
they have one absorbing interest in common, do 
not belong to any one class except the great 
class of Americans. They are rich and poor, 
high and humble, educated and ignorant. They 
are doctors, lawyers, merchants, divines, mechan¬ 
ics and laboring men, with this in common, that 
they love the outdoor life and the association 
with the wild creatures. They are anxious to 
spend their time and money in this recreation 
and do spend so much of both as they can afford. 
As they are the men who are chiefly to benefit 
by the preservation of these natural things, it 
seems but fair that they should be directly taxed 
to pay for this work, which is done so largely 
—though by no means wholly—in their behalf; 
they are the direct beneficiaries of the system. 
A review of the situation seems to make it 
clear that after a time the resident license fee 
will be generally adopted over the whole coun¬ 
try. All things considered this seems a perfectly 
fair way in which to raise the funds for game 
and fish protection and propagation. 
WOLF STORIES FROM EUROPE. 
. If the winter in Western North America has 
been unusual in its severity, not less severe has 
it been in Europe. We hear of snow storms in 
Italy where snow has not been known before 
for fifty years, of train blockades between Rome 
and Naples, of the freezing of the river Arno 
near Florence, and of the death through diseases 
brought on by the unaccustomed cold weather of 
multitudes of the poorer people. In portions of 
central Europe where the land is higher, and 
where population is sparse, come stories of 
ravages by wild animals. In Silesia and in 
portions of Austria-Hungary people are reported 
to have been attacked and devoured by wolves 
which have come down from the mountains and 
out of the forests to procure food, so that in 
some places the populace dare not venture out¬ 
side the villages. The Prince of Pless is said 
f 
to have gone on a wolf hunt and to -have killed 
four. 
Further south and east in the wilder districts 
of the Balkans, bears are said in like manner 
to be turning out and ravaging the flocks, but 
this story may be received with a little salt since 
in temperate climes bears are usually denned up 
in January and February. 
These stories read like those which were offered 
to us in childhood days and may be nothing more 
than survivals of the folk tales which have come 
down to us from primitive ancestors. They tell 
of an old world wolf very different from his 
cousin of the new world. Notwithstanding the 
occasional tales which appear in journals of ex¬ 
cellent general reputation, but of small knowl¬ 
edge of nature life, few authentic instances are 
known where human beings in America have 
been attacked by wolves. The greater abund¬ 
ance of food in America up to recent times may 
in part account for this, but we are disposed 
to believe that by far the greater number of 
these European stories of man-devouring wolves 
are without basis in fact. 
WILDFOWL BUTCHERY. 
We are in receipt of reliable information to 
the effect that the methods followed by shooting 
parties stopping at and in the vicinity of Rock- 
port, Texas, during the present winter are not 
what sportsmen should expect of men who are 
respected and honored in the cities where they 
reside. We are informed that one gunner 
claimed he had fired 13,000 shots during the 
season, at waterfowd, and boasted a score of 320 
for one afternoon. Another man killed 45 brant 
in waterholes, shooting at night. It was no 
secret that waterfowl were ’ thrown away daily, 
as indeed, what could be expected when so many 
men were shooting early and late? One gentle¬ 
man told us, merely to show how easy it was to 
make big bags, that his party agreed to shoot 
only greenhead mallards, yet seventy of these 
were bagged in one afternoon. 
It is high time for the sportsmen of Texas 
to insist that protective laws be enacted, and 
that men to enforce them be provided for. The 
wholesale slaughter of wildfowl along the Gulf 
coast in Texas is of vital importance to every 
State northward, and accounts in 110 small de¬ 
gree for the reduced spring flight. 
For a long time men and women of California 
and the East have been endeavoring to protect 
from the lumbermen and his saw mill the won¬ 
derful big trees of California. But it has been 
up hill work, Congress apparently taking but 
little interest in the matter. A week or two ago, 
however, Mr. Perkins’ bill to create the Cala¬ 
veras big tree national forest was favorably re¬ 
ported by the committee on public lands of the 
Senate. This is a measure which ought to pass 
and to'pass at once. It will be a shame and a 
disgrace to the United States and to the State of 
California if action shall not be taken to preserve 
these marvelous works of nature, which were 
giants when Christ walked upon the earth two 
thousand years ago. 
* 
The statement that Pittsburg is to have its 
first sportsman’s show carries with it assurance 
that the show will be well managed and success¬ 
ful. Pittsburg is a place where they do things— 
a place of successes. The men whose names 
are down as directors of the Pittsburg enter¬ 
prise have already made other enterprises suc¬ 
cessful and have won their triumphs in many 
fields. Now, when they take up the work of 
setting forth the attractions of outdoor life, they 
will succeed again, and we fancy will show an 
example that other and much larger cities may 
profitably follow. 
