Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1908. 
( VOL. LXX — No. 1. 
I No. 346 Broadway, New York, 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1907, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
George Bird Grinnell, President, 
Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary. 
Louis Dean Speir, Treasurer. 
346 Broadway, 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. 
RIFLE SHOOTING FOR AMERICANS. 
The communication published this week in our 
rifle department contains much valuable matter 
on the subject of rifle practice, as it pertains to 
the success and safety of the nation in the event 
of war. Our correspondent’s suggestions are 
worthy of serious consideration by all Ameri¬ 
cans. 
While war is a remote possibility, the one fact 
that it is possible is sufficient argument for thor¬ 
ough preparation. Efficient attack and defense 
are of such vital importance, when a nation is 
brought face to face with war, that thorough 
preparation, offensive and defensive, should be 
made, regardless of price. In modern wars the 
victorious nation does not hesitate to exact an 
indemnity whose amount may equal the cost of 
the war, and the defeated nation is in the humili¬ 
ating position of paying its own expenses in a 
lost cause, and those of its victor besides. 
In every war in which the United States has 
been engaged it was unprepared for conflict—a 
condition grave enough in the past, but a thou¬ 
sand times worse in a case of a war in the 
I future. 
While many of the suggestions offered by 
Roeel have already been acted upon, in whole 
or in part, by the general government, through 
its National Board for the Promotion of Rifle 
Practice, and by the National Rifle Association 
and affiliated bodies, the promotion of general 
skill with the rifle being their official mission, 
the vital importance of the subject has not yet 
been fully apprehended by the public at large. 
Until there is general active interest in marks¬ 
manship, educational progress therein will neces¬ 
sarily be slow. 
The apathy of the public seems to rest on no 
better grounds than the immunity incident to 
geographical isolation, our victories in past wars, 
our faith in American ability to successfully 
meet emergencies as they arise, and our tradi¬ 
tional skill as riflemen. As precedents all these 
are fallacious. As mere matter of history they 
are very good, but sentiment does not win 
battles. Actual, practical skill with the rifle is 
an essential. Skillful marksmanship is not an 
inheritance. It is acquired only by long and 
assiduous practice. The best guns and the best 
ammunition are of little value in action with¬ 
out it. 
One does not need a high-power government 
arm wherewith to learn rifle shooting. The rifle 
and ammunition manufacturers, who advertise in 
our columns, make rifles of small caliber which 
are marvels of cheapness and accuracy, and am¬ 
munition of equally marvelous perfection; hence, 
on the score of expense, there is no sound rea¬ 
son to consider that the matter is a Government 
obligation. Though it is true that practice with 
a .22 caliber does not fully qualify one to shoot 
forthwith a high-power rifle, still it is quite 
sufficient for the preliminary stages of the art, 
the general laws of ballistics applying to all cali¬ 
bers alike. In any event, after mastering the 
possibilities of the small caliber—no easy task, by 
the way—the rifleman will be better prepared to 
take up long range shooting with all the pre¬ 
liminaries conquered. 
The rifle competitions that are now being car¬ 
ried on at the Sportsmen’s Show are exciting 
great interest in the youth of our schools and 
colleges. They show how ready the young men 
and boys of this country are to take up rifle 
shooting as a sport, and how competent they are 
to excel in it. The holding of these contests is a 
long step in the right direction. 
LEGISLATION FOR SPORTSMEN. 
The New York Legislature is now in session 
at Albany, and sportsmen are curious to know 
what will be the result of its labors in the matter 
of forest, fish and game laws. That changes in 
the grouse season will be made is almost certain, 
if, indeed, shooting them for a period of years 
will not be forbidden. The shooting license 
question will be brought up, and the open season 
for deer shooting may be changed again, as it 
of course does not suit all interests as it stands 
at present. Land and water grab bills can be 
expected to appear under innocent titles, and 
propositions of various kinds that the people as 
a class do not want enacted into laws will be 
made. 
Whatever argument may be brought to bear 
against the resident, nonresident and alien shoot¬ 
ing license question, there is one that cannot be 
lost sight of. It is that New York State, and 
particularly the southern part, is infested in sea¬ 
son and out of season with alien gunners. Com¬ 
pel them to produce a license entitling them to 
hunt or pay a fine, and alien gunners will not 
be so abundant as they are at present. 
This great State employs less than 100 game 
and fish protectors. It seems and we believe it 
is improbable that any resident who hunts in 
season will object to the payment of one dollar 
for a shooting license, provided the money goes 
toward the employment of more protectors. The 
efforts made last winter to pass a law of this sort 
were not as strongly supported as they should 
have been, and the legislators did not wish to 
incur the displeasure of their constituents, some 
of whom believe any measure prohibiting free 
hunting is a direct blow to their ideas of inde¬ 
pendence, while others will fight it as they have 
always fought tax payments. 
Whether it will be wise to close the season 
for grouse for a year or two or not, the fact re¬ 
mains that a certain element will continue to 
shoot grouse in the autumn, and these men boast 
openly that they will not obey the law if one 
protecting the grouse is passed. In some re¬ 
spects the situation is identical with the one in 
Southern States which have tried to prevent 
gun-toting by declaring all weapons less than 
a certain length illegal. Neither law can be en¬ 
forced. Popular approval is lacking, and when 
the people regard a new law with apathy, con¬ 
victions are extremly difficult to secure. Sports¬ 
men would forego grouse shooting, but in re¬ 
mote districts many residents would continue to 
shoot grouse in the autumn months. In the 
open season for other game, they could not be 
successfully prosecuted save when in actual pos¬ 
session of grouse. 
A Western writer marvels over the actions 
of the elk in Wyoming, just as other good peo¬ 
ple have found the habits of the deer of the 
Rocky Mountains remarkable. Comparatively 
few hunters seek big game in the roughest parts 
of the high ranges during the open season, and 
to some of them it seems strange that the game 
should appear in the lower country at the close 
of the shooting season, and commence to pilfer 
hay from the ranchmen’s stocks and feed with 
the cattle. But little imagination is necessary 
to fake up stories based on the habits of the 
big game, which leave the snow-covered higher 
ranges in early winter and descend below the 
snow line to seek the food which is found in 
the lower country. Almost invariably these 
movements of the game are construed to mean 
a large increase, and these estimates are of a 
class with those made in the Maine woods in 
summer, when deer are counted over and over 
again as they are seen from day to day. 
K 
John S. Benn, one of the best known pro¬ 
fessional artificial fly makers, died at his home 
in California recently of pneumonia. Mr. Benn 
was awarded a number of medals for his work 
in making flies, some of the most common and 
best known being the academy, Yosemite, Martha, 
red spinner, red ibis, hackle, mosquito, March 
brown, professor, governor and royal coachman. 
He was born in Malla, county Cork, Ireland, and 
at the time of his death was in his seventieth 
year. He went to California in the early fifties 
and worked as a millwright and a miner. He 
leaves a son and a daughter. The latter. Miss 
Martha, was Mr. Benn’s constant companion dur¬ 
ing his business career. 
