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. 
THE NATURE LOVER 
A RE you one of those rare sportsmen who 
have a tendency to prowl over parts of na¬ 
ture’s common things? And by prowling, I 
mean communion with nature. If so, then you 
are gifted with the spirit of a high calling. If you 
are a nature lover as well as a sportsman, then 
you are one man in a large number, in a thousand. 
You may be a man apart, but you have attained 
distinction. 
Some men find unalloyed pleasure in tramping 
over the landscape without wetting a line or put¬ 
ting pressure to a trigger. There are other men 
who kill for sheer amusement, who delight savagely 
in seeing birds crumble to the yellow leaves or 
glistening surfaces of the ponds, in seeing deer 
go crashing to earth a bundle of horns and hide, in 
seeing fish brought fighting to the net or gaff. 
Their amusement is sportsmanship only because 
a legal bar forbids further slaughter. 
And there are other men who follow the water 
trail for trout and salmon and bass and pike, and 
take enough for current supply as well as furnish 
the adventure that the blood calls for, who put in 
long and cold hours on the game trail in order to 
secure their moose or caribou or bear or deer not 
only for the trophy but for the supply of meat that 
body-hunger has long been craving. They fish and 
hunt, not only for amusement, but for a deeper 
purpose. They answer the call of the wild, the 
lure of the wood gods, the song of the red gods. 
To them a foray into the wilderness is food for 
soul and stomach, balm for the heart, medicine for 
the body, and relaxation from the trials and tribu¬ 
lations of the fleshpots. These men are sportsmen. 
Of these latter men there may be one in many 
who putters over trivial things when he has 
secured what the law allows. He may abhor a 
game of cards and repulse horse-play, but he will 
sit for hours watching studiously some common 
event in the animal world. He delves into the 
book of nature, reads of a language few men un¬ 
derstand, and finds much of interest, a lot he has 
read about, and a mass of incidents he alone has 
discovered. He is a poet, naturalist, nature lover, 
and he is unconscious of that important fact. 
The swirl and leap of trout feeding out on the 
placid waters at twilight is a bit of art unpainted 
yet remembered in mind’s bin of treasure. A wild 
flower nodding above muddy shallows may cause 
more riot in the soul than a painting of some dead 
master. The song of some bird hidden in the vel¬ 
vet shadows of the night shrubbery produces more 
real feeling than the deep-throated wailings of 
some stout prima donna. 
And coming close to earth—there is the print 
of a deer’s hoof, of a bird’s claw, a leaf’s lines. 
This is unwritten mystery, history, even an epic. 
He listens the soft, silken, persuasive whisper of 
boughs when day has fled and a last livid color 
stabs the western sky. He ponders an empty nest, 
an old mushroom-burdened stump in the clearing, 
a butterfly on fairy wings, a handfull of cold moss, 
a pebble, the dawn glow, trees, sounds, smells. 
Men may playfully chide their companion of the 
hunt, but who dares match his secret lore of 
nature. Given a heart, a soul, a spirit deeply em¬ 
bedded in the sorcery and beauty of nature,. there 
is no telling what far flights may be taken in the 
empyrean of imagination. Strong men have been 
known to weep over the inconstant beauty of a 
humble blossom, the fading of a fleeting bar of 
color, the gleam of pallid landscape that tantalises 
and will not last. The men who finds nature is 
poetry, mystery, beauty of passing scenes, knows 
nature is older than man. Think not lightly of 
this man but rather highly. For he walks with 
the gods over the landscape as men walk with their 
brothers. 
PUBLIC SHOOTING GROUNDS GAME 
REFUGE BILL 
T HE Public Shooting ' Ground-Game Refuge 
Bill was defeated in the last session of Con¬ 
gress by a very narrow margin. The Senate 
passed it by a vote of two to one, but the House of 
Representatives rejected the bill by a few votes. 
This defeat was accomplished by means of a time- 
honored legislative artifice, viz: by submitting the 
bill at a time when a great many of its supporters 
were absent. 
The object of this measure is to provide for all 
time, public shooting grounds in the several states. 
These refuges are to serve as sanctuaries for our 
national wild life and shooting grounds for the 
sporting public at large. The Federal government 
is to have the same supervision over these refuges 
as it now holds over the Migratory Bird Treaty 
Act. 
This most excellent bill will be brought before 
Congress again during the December session, and 
with the proper cooperation on the part of sports¬ 
men, it should pass by a good majority. 
The reasons for its not having passed at the 
last session are several. Some of the arguments 
set forth by the opposing members of the House 
of Representatives showed honest thought, but a 
great many more were perhaps born of ignorance 
of what the bill stood for, or of a selfish desire to 
promote commercial interests. 
The objection has been raised that the acquisi¬ 
tion of land by the Federal government would 
seriously interfere with the rights of the individual 
states. The answer to this is that the selection of 
all land for this purpose is to be referred in each 
case to the individual state in which the property 
is located. In connection with this, it might also 
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