December, 1918 
FOREST AND STREAM 
705 
lunch at noon, and let the full meal be given at night after 
the day’s work is finished. A dog will not hunt well on 
a full stomach, nor will his food digest while he is work¬ 
ing in the field. If you have a brace of dogs work them 
alternately; let one do the hunting while the other is rest¬ 
ing at heel. Do not permit a dog to lie in water for any 
length of time while afield; though an occasional plunge 
will do no harm. 
The first care upon returning at night should be to ex¬ 
amine your dog to see if any harm has befallen him. A 
slight hand rubbing all over will discover if he has met 
with any accident from thorns or briers; if any of these 
are found they cannot be removed too quickly. Special 
attention should be given to the feet. If these are in¬ 
flamed and have the appearance of being made tender by 
his work, they should be bathed in beef brine, which can 
be procured from any butcher. If the skin be much 
worn, or the foot wounded, vaseline should be applied; 
and if very badly off, the dog should be laid up until in 
condition again. Here, as elsewhere, an ounce of preven¬ 
tion is worth a pound of cure. Slight attention paid to 
these matters will insure a dog’s good condition, while 
neglect will often cost dear. 
So much for the physical well-being of our faithful 
field companions. It might be added that their efficiency 
and good performance will be increased if they have a 
good example in their masters. Nothing is more con¬ 
ducive to a dog’s unsteadiness and flightiness than the un¬ 
steadiness and flightiness of the human being who is 
handling him. No man who cannot control himself 
should attempt to control a dog. 
THE BOY AND HIS GUN 
F you have a gun selected for that boy of yours on 
Christmas morning let not reports of fatal carelessness 
with firearms deter you from giving him the gift. A gun 
is a safe and sensible possession for man or boy. Life 
insurance companies do not discriminate against users of 
sporting firearms; there are no provisions in the policies 
that the insured must not go hunting. As a matter of 
fact, most intelligent people know perfectly well that a 
shotgun or a rifle is a safe weapon in the hands of a man 
who will keep himself behind it instead of getting in front 
of it. 
Thousands and tens of thousands of guns are used with 
safety. It is the ten thousand and first that does the 
damage we read of in the papers. See that this ten thou¬ 
sand and first handler shall not be of your kith and kin. 
Teach the boy to handle the arm after approved rules. 
Begin right. Caution is best instilled at the very outset. 
Habit is everything and it is just, as easy to acquire care¬ 
ful habits at the first. Give your boy a gun for his 
Christmas, give him with it an appreciation of its proper 
using, and you will have given him that which will be a 
joy and a satisfaction to him long after he shall have 
reached a riper age than your own. 
A QUESTION OF QUALITY 
HAT is a “family paper”? Certainly not every one 
which flies the term “family” at its masthead can 
rightly be classed as such. There are so-called “family” 
journals which one would never permit to get into his 
home, rather let the house burn down first. And then 
there are journals which not one man in a hundred, un¬ 
familiar with them, would class as “family” papers, but 
which are such indeed. Forest and Stream, for in¬ 
stance. A “sporting” paper it is called, yes but—a fin de 
siecle phenomenon-—a “family” “sporting” paper. And 
why not? The subjects it treats of, are they not of in¬ 
terest to all, young and old? And the manner of their 
treatment, is it not acceptable to the most exacting? As 
a matter of fact—and we rejoice in it—this is a “fam¬ 
ily” paper which goes into thousands of homes every 
month in the year, and no one ever thinks of scrutinizing 
its contents before laying it where all may read. The 
subscriber soon comes to have faith in this quality of 
Forest and Stream ; and—on our side—this faith is 
never broken. 
MAN’S COMPANION 
“YY/'E’LL take a dog first. If we can’t get a dog we’ll 
vv take a goat, or a cat, or a pig, a rabbit, a sheep, 
or, yes, even a wildcat. We’ll take anything for a trench 
companion—but give us a dog first.” Thus spoke Lieut. 
Ralph Kynoch, of the Gordon Highlanders. He has been 
at the front since the war started, and has seen fighting in 
all its phases. He was warm in his praises of the dog as 
man’s companion in lonely places. He merely echoed 
what every other soldier thinks. “People who haven’t 
been at the front don’t know what a little companionship 
means to a man on patrol duty, or in a dugout, or what a 
frisky pup means to a whole company. Dogs were 
created to be man’s companion, and I’m blessed if I don't 
think the dogs know it better than we do. It doesn’t 
seem to matter what kind of dog it is. You’ll find highly- 
bred animals at the front, and you’ll find dogs that 
wouldn’t be admitted to any self-respecting dog show 
when it comes to looks. But for loyalty and devotion 
the thoroughbreds don’t outclass the mongrels. They all 
seem to have the same spirit. The dogs know the dan¬ 
gers of the trenches. Some of the mascots have seen the 
war started. They have seen hundreds of men killed, 
and have seen other dogs stretched out by shell fire. The 
pups know when a barrage is on where they can find 
safety, and they go there, unless the man they look to as 
master is going somewhere else. Trust the dog to stick 
hard by, no matter whether it is in the danger zone or 
not. They’ll hang around till doomsday if they are al¬ 
lowed to do so. And when the master is killed the dog 
still sticks around, and sometimes it is a long, long time 
before he picks up with someone else.” 
THE HARDEST METAL 
"V IRCONIUM, said to be the hardest metal in exist- 
^ ence and possessed of the greatest power of resist¬ 
ance, is used in the manufacture of shells for the 75-mile 
guns with which the Hun has been bombarding Paris. 
This metal, according to reports, is used in an alloy with 
steel. Zirconium ore was discovered in the State of 
Sao Paulo, Brazil, shortly before the war. Large quan- 
ties of the metal were bought by Germany on two oc¬ 
casions, and its manufacture into steel undertaken. It 
was found to give gun tubes tremendous resistance, it is 
reported, and to render them capable of withstanding the 
effect of most severe explosions. 
»A POKER STORY 
HE Great American Game of draw poker is becoming 
a favorite pastime at the Front, in consequence of 
which this story is told of a table stakes encounter be¬ 
tween a British Tommy and an American negro. When 
the Tommy looked at his hand he found therein a pair 
of kings. When the negro “skinned his cards” he dis¬ 
covered a pair of aces. Both drew down to their hands, 
the Tommy acquiring a third king and a pair of tens; 
the negro, two more aces. Thereupon this dialogue: 
Tommy: “Bet yer a pound.” Negro (looking soulfully 
at the four aces) : “Ah, don’t know much ’bout dis yer 
foreign money, but Ah’ll see dat poun’ and raise yuh a 
ton!” 
