Forest and Stream 
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NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 25 , 1910 . 
( VOL. LXXIV.-No. 26. 
1 No. 127 Franklin St., New York. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1909, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
George Bird Grinnell, President, 
Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary, 
Louis Dean Speir, Treasurer, 
127 Franklin Street. New York. ' 
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. 
COLONEL ROOSEVELTS RETURN. 
After fifteen months’ absence from America, 
Colonel Roosevelt returned home last Saturday. 
He was received at New York with a great and 
enthusiastic welcome in which Mayor Gaynor 
acted for the city of New York. War vessels 
boomed out their salutes and a million of people 
saw him and expressed their delight that he had 
once more returned to his native land. 
The welcome was not that of New York alone, 
but of the whole country. From all sections 
North, South, East and West, representatives 
had gathered to do him honor and to bear testi¬ 
mony to the place that he holds in the hearts of 
his countrymen. No such tribute was ever given 
to any private citizen. 
Colonel Roosevelt is undoubtedly the most 
popular man alive to-day. Though criticised by 
many people, as is the fate of all men of action 
in high position, he is yet respected by all and 
admired and beloved by most. He possesses in 
splendid measure certain qualities which appeal 
especially to the American heart—integrity, cour¬ 
age, energy and industry. It is not strange that 
he is the most popular and the most influential 
of Americans. 
Being thus popular and thus* influential, Colonel 
Roosevelt s responsibilities are far greater than 
those of other men. To him the people listen; 
he has the power to sway them for good or for 
evil. His honesty and his strong common sense, 
inherited from worthy ancestors and strength¬ 
ened by unflagging training, make it certain that 
so long as he lives he is to be a helpful and 
faithful friend to the people he loves so well. 
Massachusetts sportsmen are proud, and 
justly so, of Game Warden D. M. Shea, who 
last week subdued and arrested Silas Phelps, the 
murderer of Deputy Sheriff Emmett F. Haskins. 
Phelps was armed with two guns and a knife. 
In the woods the warden stalked the outlaw as 
he would have stalked dangerous game, and 
when an opportunity was presented, he threw 
down his own rifle, sprang on Phelps, disarmed 
him and turned him over to the sheriff, manacled. 
Warden Shea’s act was one of true courage. It 
will go far toward upholding the dignity of his 
calling and respect for the laws. 
SPORTSMEN SHOULD ORGANIZE. 
Evidence accumulates that sportsmen are be¬ 
ginning to appreciate the importance of organiz¬ 
ing not only for the protection of game, but for 
their own protection. The address recently de¬ 
livered by John H. Hendrickson, at Syracuse, 
N. Y., on the occasion of the annual meeting of 
the New York State Sportsmen’s Association, 
of which he is vice-president, deals with this 
matter from numerous .novel yet pertinent view¬ 
points. 
Few people have thought so carefully as Mr. 
Hendrickson on subjects connected with the gun¬ 
ning and game preservation, and his speech made 
a deep impression on those who heard it. Full 
of pregnant suggestion it brings up in concrete 
form a subject which sportsmen will be glad to 
discuss. 
It is interesting to see that Mr. Hendrickson, 
in common with a multitude of other good 
sportsmen and careful thinkers, believes thor¬ 
oughly in the Federal control of migratory 
birds. Besides being an expert in shooting mat¬ 
ters, he is an accomplished field naturalist, there¬ 
fore is much better equipped with knowledge on 
these points than is the average sportsman. 
Another sign of the times is the meeting held 
last week in Boston by gunners who wished to 
protest against efforts at game protection which 
they believe ill-directed. 
To all these questions there are two sides, and 
sportsmen will do well to discuss them fully. 
Most of us know far too little of them, and the 
more generally they can be brought to the atten¬ 
tion of gunners and the more carefully they can 
be thought over, the sooner we shall arrive at 
just conclusions about them. These matters 
should be thoroughly discussed in Forest and 
Stream and should have as wide a circulation 
as possible. 
TOURNAMENT CASTING. 
The rules which will govern the international 
fly- and bait-casting tournament, to be held at 
Hendon, England, next month, together with 
the tentative list of events, have been pub¬ 
lished in recent issues of Forest and Stream. 
In view of the fact that the rules governing the 
last British contest, held two years ago, were 
in some respects prohibitory to Americans who 
might otherwise have competed, it is pleasing 
to note the lack of close restrictions in the new 
rules. These differ in minor respects only from 
the American national rules, are absolutely fair 
to all intending competitors, and at the same 
time are shorn of restrictions such as sometimes 
lead to confusion if not to dissatisfaction. 
Our British cousins have held only a few cast¬ 
ing tournaments. These were carefully planned, 
attracted the attention of anglers throughout the 
Empire, and were discussed for months after¬ 
ward in the anglers’ journals, showing that they 
were considered important. American tourna¬ 
ments are as carefully prepared for by intend¬ 
ing competitors, each in his own way, but are 
discussed but little before or afterward, save 
among small groups of anglers. This is due, 
not to lack of interest, but to a desire to avoid 
publicity. As a matter of fact, anglers who 
have never attended a casting tournament, and 
probably never will, are more keenly interested 
m the outcome of these affairs than many of 
the oldest contestants. In this way casting is 
like baseball playing. In both there are few 
players, but a great many who love to watch or 
read of the games. 
Recently a casting club with a large member¬ 
ship was formed in London. It has become a 
power in its peculiar field, and its influence will 
be .felt in France and Australia—where casting 
as a game is new—as well as here and in Eng¬ 
land. In time an international association may 
be formed. 
In view of all this it is worth noting that the 
British organization has declared in favor of 
class casting. This method has so far not 
been approved by the American National As¬ 
sociation, but it is favored by many of the clubs 
affiliated with that organization. Classification 
has been proved to be a very satisfactory method 
of encouraging beginners, and is advocated by 
most of those who wish to promote the sport 
and build up the integral parts of the body 
formed to promote it instead of making cast- 
ing a game for a few experts only, as in the 
past. 
Another evil which our national association 
should remedy is found in its prizes. These 
should be of the lowest possible intrinsic value, 
of wider distribution among the classes, and 
fewer in number. Providing for a national 
touinament would not then prove so heavy a 
burden to the club managing it, and greater 
value would attach to each prize awarded. The 
day of diamond medals is past. A prize should 
be substantial enough to withstand the ravages 
of time, nothing more. 
Many persons availed themselves of the privi¬ 
lege accorded by the new Alaska game law of 
shipping trophies out of, the Territory prior to 
Sept. 1, 1908, and the shipments recorded by the 
Biological Survey included nearly 175 heads and 
horns of moose, caribou and mountain sheep. A 
few trophies have since come out under license 
and the department has issued permits for the 
export of eighty-one specimens, chiefly heads and 
horns of the above named species for exhibition 
purposes. 
* 
Lewis Hopkins’ story of Ponto and his boy 
friend, which is begun in this issue, and is one 
of the Forest and Stream prize series, will 
cheer the hearts of field shooters in the closed 
season. It is one of the author’s best papers. 
