Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal. Copyright, 1907, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
f 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 1907. 
j VOL. LXVIII.—No. 17. 
1 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 of 
Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
UNIFORMITY NEEDED. 
For more than a quarter of a century those 
anglers who are constantly endeavoring to im¬ 
prove fishing rods and tackle, and to attain the 
highest order of skill in their use, have dili¬ 
gently practiced fly- and bait-casting. Clubs 
have been formed and tournaments held from 
time to time. These public or semi-public affairs 
have shown what skilled men can do with the 
best of rods and accessories, but the patient and 
painstaking experiments of individuals have made 
possible the attainment of excellent records. It 
is to the man who devotes time and money to 
the working out of theories—the elimination of 
ideas that are untenable—that so many improve¬ 
ments in fishing tackle are due. 
Men of this type have experimented carefully 
and methodically with all the known materials 
the world has produced, with the result that to¬ 
day less than six of these materials are recog¬ 
nized as good enough to be made up into fish¬ 
ing rods, while only two—bamboo and green- 
heart—are employed in tournament casting. By 
the same token the best types of reels for cer¬ 
tain purposes have been perfected, and this pro¬ 
cess of elimination has given the angling frater¬ 
nity an accurate knowledge of the reliable 
materials for lines, leaders and so on. The 
manufacturer may produce an article of apparent 
merit, but the crucial test by the man who prac¬ 
tices and experiments proves its worth or other¬ 
wise. 
And the results of these experiments and tests 
are not kept secret, but are disseminated among 
anglers, so that in time certain articles become 
standardized, to their makers’ profit. 
The angler who fishes for recreation and 
amusement may attain a large knowledge of rods 
and tackle. He may declare that it is not neces¬ 
sary for him to practice fly- or bait-casting alone, 
with a club or at a tournament, in order to 
learn the niceties of casting and of equipments. 
He may argue that tournament casting is not 
fishing. But let him associate with men fond 
of this sort of amusement, and try their pet 
rods, and all his old resolutions are forgotten. 
In a short time he will admit that while actual 
fishing taught him many things it is well and 
pleasant to know, practice casting and all the 
little things connected with it throw a new light 
on the sport. His enthusiasm grows apace. He 
recognizes, as never before, that the casting plat¬ 
form is the proving ground for fishing tackle, 
and he knows then that it is of value equal to 
that of the target range where rifles are tested 
before being placed in the hands of hunters. 
This game of casting with fishing rods—for 
it is a game that furnishes recreation to men 
who cannot often indulge their fondness for fish¬ 
ing—has been developed gradually through the 
years, and the records in every style of casting 
have been carefully preserved. But in no other 
sport do the records vary so much as in this 
one. Some tournaments are held indoors, others 
on lakes where unfavorable winds handicap the 
casters. At some tournaments the bait-casting 
is held on a lawn (the flimsy excuse being given 
that there it is easier to record the scores). In 
San Francisco, where a steady but strong wind 
prevails every afternoon, scores have been made 
with apparent ease that can never be equalled on 
calm days elsewhere. We have no wish to be 
understood as casting discredit on the San Fran¬ 
cisco anglers, for theirs is one of the oldest 
clubs of its kind, but the exceedingly high scores 
made there discourage clubs that are usually 
handicapped in their practice by unfavorable 
weather conditions. 
Last summer the casting clubs of the country 
combined in a national association, the officers 
of which have been laboring diligently to for¬ 
mulate rules under which tournaments may be 
held, the object being to make the rules and con¬ 
ditions as nearly uniform as possible. These 
rules are printed elsewhere in this issue of 
Forest and Stream. Perusing them will con¬ 
vince the reader that the utmost care has been 
taken to make them applicable to all forms of 
casting and to keep professionalism and com¬ 
mercialism out of the sport; but while all this 
is commendable, and all clubs affiliated with the 
National Association will observe uniform rules, 
the club records will of necessity vary in ac¬ 
cordance with weather conditions. 
This being true, the National Association 
should require each club to keep a record of the 
direction and speed of the wind, and refuse to 
recognize any record made unless accompanied 
by a statement to this effect, for in no other 
way is it possible to estimate the real value of 
a high score. Under present conditions a club 
whose meetings are held on water where, by 
reason of environment, every wind that blows is 
cut up into flaws and catspaws, can never hope 
to equal the work of other clubs which cast in 
a steady and strong rear wind. 
“LADY GUIDES.” 
And now comes a young woman with the 
statement that she intends to become the original 
“lady guide” because she loves nature and a 
life in the woods—and anyhow, why should not 
young women become guides? Although she is 
woefully ignorant in asserting that she intends 
to become the pioneer “lady guide,” she evidently 
recognizes the value of publicity, for instead of 
advertising her intentions in the manner usually 
followed by mere men guides, she launches her 
career through the medium of a long interview 
in the metropolitan press, thereby hoping, it is 
to be assumed, that scores of persons will write 
to engage her services. 
As a matter of fact, there have been women 
guides ever since there have been men and 
women visitors to the w T oods that surround sum¬ 
mer hotels and camps; but while these estimable 
persons are nearly always competent to point 
out well-defined trails, select the best fishing 
waters, and lead their women patrons to points 
where deer may be seen, they are “guides” by 
courtesy only, for they cannot carry heavy packs 
or canoes over back-breaking trails, row boats 
all day, perform the heavy drudgery incident to 
backwoods camp life, wield an ax—or bait a 
hook. Neither can they, with entire respect for 
the conventions, take parties of men into the 
woods. The guide who is entitled to be so 
called is merely a man-of-all-work in the camp 
and on the portage, and we pity any young 
woman who, wishing to emulate the example of 
the “lady guide” in question, wastes her time 
and savings in any such profitless wild goose 
chase. If the young woman in question wishes 
to pursue her new fad, let her, for it is said 
she has an abundance of this world s goods, but 
she cannot earn her salt in guiding in the true 
sense of the term, nor can any other woman who 
is rvomanly and not an amazon. 
GOOD MEN ON THE WRONG TRAIL. 
Nothing could be wider of the mark than the 
assertion made during the sessions of the Peace 
Congress, held recently in New York city, that 
rifle practice by students in our schools and col¬ 
leges should be discouraged on the ground that 
it induces a warlike spirit. As a matter of 
fact the man who is known to be a skilled 
marksman exercises more moral influence than 
a battalion of men who know the rifle only as 
an accessory to drills and dress parades. It is 
the peace officer who can shoot straight who is 
severely let alone by evil doers. If America 
ever again merits the term ‘a nation of rifle¬ 
men,” a term to which she was at one time en¬ 
titled, her peace with the nations will be assured. 
Already the movement toward rifle practice for 
students is well under way and is gaining ground. 
And it has a worthy object, of which every man 
should be proud. Even if nothing else is ac¬ 
complished, rifle practice will teach our youths 
to respect firearms and to avoid those actions 
which result in so many fatal accidents in our 
suburbs as well as in the hunting field. To be¬ 
come familiar with a firearm is to respect it. 
That the advocates of universal peace go to 
extremes is shown in another direction, too. The 
Rev. Dr. Levy, president of the Pittsburg Peace 
Society, has announced his intention to visit the 
European makers of toy soldiers and try to per¬ 
suade them to cease exporting their famous lead 
toy soldiers to the United States. Fancy the 
good doctor trying to convince the thrifty Ger¬ 
man manufacturers that the loss of their profits 
will help to prevent war! Fancy, too, the Ameri¬ 
can boy’s lead-soldierless Christmas! 
N 
