Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1909. 
VOL. LXXIII,—No. 25. 
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 interest 
in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate a refined 
taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
THE WORK OF THE STATE LEAGUE. 
The passage of time renders sportsmen more 
and more earnest in considering the care of 
their recreation grounds and the game and fish 
found on them. This will be evident to all who 
read the report of the proceedings of the forty- 
fifth annual convention of the New York State 
Fish, Game and Forest League, printed in this 
issue. 
Representatives of forty-seven sportsmen’s or¬ 
ganizations located in various parts of the State, 
members of similar organizations in nearby 
States, Canadian officials and bird lovers from 
the North and the South met in council. Dur¬ 
ing two whole days they listened to the speeches 
of men eminent in the work of protection and 
showed a strong wish to bring about such re¬ 
forms and such improvements in existing con¬ 
ditions as recent study and experience seem to 
show are necessary. 
At a convention it is not unusual to formu¬ 
late plans for the future, and that is often the 
end of the matter, but it was significant that at 
this meeting the conditions formerly existing 
and those found to-day were compared, and this 
comparison shows that efficient work has been 
done in the past and is being carried on to-day 
by men whose hearts are in the work; men who 
are ready to contribute their time and their 
money to assist in the conservation of forests, 
game and fish. 
It is difficult to measure the force of the 
sentiment developed by these active workers in 
a cause of far more importance to the public 
welfare than-—until recently—has been acknowl¬ 
edged, but certain conclusions are evident. 
To bring about the greatest good for the 
greatest number, special privileges are con¬ 
demned, and there is a desire for plainer and 
simpler laws for all of the people. Local and 
county exceptions to the game laws are frowned 
on. Sportsmen feel that they must regain the 
friendship of landowners who, in time, may 
cease to post their lands. The sale of game 
will not long be tolerated, and the game fish 
will be included in the prohibition. The use of 
bird plumage is no longer favored. The em¬ 
ployment of dogs in the hunting of deer is a 
matter of history only. The States having 
failed to protect migratory birds, the Federal 
Government will be urged to take charge of 
them. 
It is apparent that the railways, the lumber¬ 
men and the farmers, long-time selfish and 
thoughtless enemies of the forests, have awak¬ 
ened to the fact that it is time to save what is 
left and to replace what has been destroyed, 
else their children will suffer consequences so 
appalling that they cannot be realized save by 
visiting countries devastated centuries ago by 
fire and axe. Sentiment aside, few can contem¬ 
plate a forest fire with equanimity, or regard 
the wholesale destruction of non-game birds by 
foreigners with apathy. Even the lawmakers, 
bound by promises made to their constituents, 
cannot long stem the tide of popular sentiment 
set in motion by those missionaries of the peo¬ 
ple, the village and county game, fish and forest 
protective associations. It is the power of these 
small societies, banded together, that has made 
it possible for the ' greater body, the State 
League, to meet annually for nearly half a 
century, to tell what it has done and what it 
purposes doing. 
There should be such a league in every State 
and Territory; and these State leagues must act 
together if adequate protection is to be accorded 
our fish, game and forests. 
FOREST AND STREAM PRIZE COMPETI¬ 
TION. 
The close of the month of December marks 
the last day for receiving contributions sub¬ 
mitted for the prizes which Forest and Stream 
has offered for the best stories of outdoor life, 
for a condition of the competition was that all 
manuscript must be in our hands before Jan. i. 
Many manuscripts have already been received 
and the last few days before the close of the 
competition will bring, a number more. This 
year the interest in the contest is naturally 
greater than last, on account of the larger num¬ 
ber and value of the prizes. 
Since the competition closes with the end of 
the year, the stories are likely to include a 
variety of the happenings of shooting and fish¬ 
ing excursions made during the past season, the 
events of which are fresh in the minds of the 
writers. It may even be that some one who 
has only recently returned from his outing may 
now be engaged in setting down the story of 
his trip, and there is plenty of time to do this,' 
since there are still two weeks during which 
manuscripts may be sent in. 
The competition as it develops is full of in¬ 
terest. No one can tell what the next manu¬ 
script may contain and there is a real excite¬ 
ment in reading the different papers. This in¬ 
terest our readers will share a little later. 
The manuscripts will be read as soon as may 
be after the receipt of the last ones, and the 
results announced as soon as possible. 
THE PASSING OF RED CLOUD 
The’ death of Red Cloud, the Ogallala Sioux 
Chief, removes a figure that has long occupied 
a share of the popular attention, for Red Cloud 
must have been nearly one hundred years of 
age when he died. For many years he was an 
active warrior and in the fightings which oc¬ 
curred between 1864 and 1876 he frequently took 
an active part. In the popular mind he was 
credited with being the leader of the Fort Phil 
Kearney massacre when Colonel Fetterman and 
a considerable party of troops were lured into 
an ambuscade by the allied Sioux and Chey¬ 
ennes and killed to a man. 
In the summer of 1876 it was suspected that 
Red Cloud and some of his people were about 
to go north and join the allied Sioux and Chey¬ 
ennes who had destroyed Custer and a section 
of his command, and General Crook ordered 
the seizure of Red Cloud’s camp ponies. This 
task was accomplished by the Pawnee scouts 
under Major Frank North and his brother, Cap¬ 
tain L. H. North. The scouts made a ride of 
128 miles in about twenty hours, drove off the 
Sioux ponies and thus made journeys to war 
hopeless. As a matter of fact, most of Red 
Cloud’s fighting young men had joined the hos- 
tiles long before this. 
In the year 1874 Red Cloud, who had been 
having trouble about his subsistence and the 
cattle issued to him by the Indian Bureau, com¬ 
plained against the contractor to Prof. O. C. 
Marsh, of Yale College, who had recently been 
exploring the country south of the Black Hills 
in search of fossils. Professor Marsh investi¬ 
gated the complaints, and when convinced that 
they were well founded, appealed to the Presi¬ 
dent for a hearing, and notwithstanding the op¬ 
position of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs 
and of the so-called Indian ring, succeeded in prov¬ 
ing his case and getting justice for the Indian. 
For the last few years Red Cloud has been 
a quiet old man, his last public appearance of 
importance being at the time of the Wounded 
Knee outbreak. He was unquestionably a man 
of much ability. 
A breakdown in the press rooms led to the 
insertion in our issue of Dec. 4 of an item 
credited to Popular Mechanics. This had to do 
with the achievements and pay of a supposed 
“Government poisoner” who was said to have 
made large wages by destroying prairie dogs. 
Inquiry into this matter fails to reveal the exist¬ 
ence of any “Government poisoner” employed 
either by the Agricultural Department or the 
Forest Service, and we are obliged to conclude 
that the item is one of those fake stories which 
have such currency in the periodical press. That 
one of these items should have appeared in 
Forest and Stream without comment is some¬ 
thing which we cannot too greatly regret and 
which we correct at the first moment practicable. 
