FOUNDERS OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETY 
Dr. WILLIAM BRUETTE, Editor 
Member of Audit Bureau of Circulation 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL WILL BE TO 
studiously promote a healthful interest in outdoor 
recreation, and a refined taste for natural objects. 
August 14 , 1873 . 
R ICHER than all the glorious traditions with 
which America is resplendent is its love for 
the great outdoors. 
This month—America answers the call and from 
office, workshop and home, men, women and chil¬ 
dren begin the long journey. On foot, in automo¬ 
bile, in sailing vessel, in motor-boat or canoe, on 
mountain top and beside the roaring surf, millions 
rush out to live with nature once more. 
Once again laughter and sunshine comes into the 
human breast and a nation goes to play. 
For this is America . . . this is its common 
touch. It is this that makes it a child among the 
nations, ever youthful . . . ever vigorous . . .. 
ever strong. . . . 
For here ... in the great open expanse of plain 
and prairie . . . here beside the stream . . . here 
under tall tree . . . America finds itself and its 
purpose. . . . Here . . . America learns patience, 
understanding, tolerance and strength. 
There are those who are going out whose souls 
are sick, whose hearts ache, who are weary from 
the struggle and untiring strife of life and all its 
problems. . . . Here in the great open . . . they 
will find the answer . . . here they will find the 
peace that will heal once more and help them go 
back and take their place in line. 
Here ... in the outdoors, anger and envy and 
all of the millions of little hates that infest our 
fiber . . . here they disappear . . . here they van¬ 
ish under the golden glow of a sunset . . . here 
they are gone and in their place comes peace and 
joy. 
For this is America. ... It is this which the 
world has come to accept as distinctly our own, and 
just so long as America continues to go outdoors 
.just so long will this strength and peace be 
hers. ... 
Let us cherish it! Let us keep it and live it and 
then . . . pass it on to those who come after us so 
that they, too, may know what we have known and 
share in the splendor which is ours, to-day! 
To keep these open spaces, to preserve the beau¬ 
tiful song of the birds in the trees, to keep this 
laughter, this youth for America, so that it may 
know it always . . . that is your responsibility and 
my responsibility and the responsibility of all 
Americans. For it is these golden moments in the 
outdoors that help us to go on. 
All science, all poetry, all art . . . everything 
that makes us what we are and helps us climb a 
little closer to the goal of perfection ... all of 
these are born in the great outdoors, and it is here 
that they find their rich inspiration. 
When all the world is filled with industry and 
enterprise, and when every inch is crowded with 
towering structures of steel, let there be room here 
in America for the world to play! Let there be 
trees and grass and birds and flowers and scurry¬ 
ing animals! Let these all live and keep it so for 
ever and ever after. 
INCREASE IN WATERFOWL 
HE Spring migration of ducks and geese 
northward this year is one of the greatest 
which has taken place in the memory of the 
present generation, at least so far as the Eastern 
part of the country is concerned. Along with the 
waterfowl, the wild swans have increased in num¬ 
bers. These swans, which winter chiefly in the 
neighborhood of Currituck Sound, North Carolina, 
are very apt to pass into Canada between^ Lakes 
Erie and Ontario in the neighborhood of Niagara . j 
Falls. 
In the central states J. W. Stuben, Asst. Chief of 
the Ohio Fish & Game Department, writes: 
“The increase in waterfowl is so large that we 
can hardly believe our own eyes. Our game refuge 
territories cover both land and water, and it is a 
pleasure to see these birds remaining on the refuge 
territory, where they are never disturbed. Last 
Fall we had excellent duck hunting in Central 
Ohio, and I think more geese were killed here on 
farm lands and at the smaller lakes than at any 
time in my memory. I know ten years ago it was 
nuite unusual for hunters to attempt goose shooting 
in the Fall of the year in Ohio, but last Fall geese 
were killed in many parts of the State. This goes 
to show without question that if these birds are 
protected in the Spring the average hunter will 
benefit from the increase by having better hunting 
in the Fall. 
“It is now possible in Ohio for the average man 
to have good duck shooting and goose shooting in 
the Fall of the year, whereas a few years ago he 
had only a few passing shots,_ and there is every 
reason to belive that the shooting this Fall will be 
much better than last year, the results due to the 
Migratory Bird Treaty act and our game refuge 
system. 
" Our correspondents in the Mississippi Valley and 4 
experienced observers along the Platt report the 
flight as the largest in a quarter of a century. 
PUBLIC SHOOTING GROUNDS 
HE present is the time to begin to line up Sen¬ 
ators and Congressmen for voting favorably 
upon the public shooting ground-game refuge 
bill, which will be introduced at the next session 
of Congress, which meets in December. At that 
session there will not be a Representative Mondell 
to introduce politics and sectionalism against a bill 
that has no politics and no sectionalism. If those 
who voted against the bill in the House (the Senate 
voted for it more than two to one), can find any¬ 
thing sinister in the bill, they are uncovering some¬ 
thing that no fair-minded man has discovered. The 
bill is intended to benefit the rank and file. 
Mondell, a “lame duck” for the present, is out of 
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