Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy, 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1910. 
VOL. LXXV.-No. 27. 
No. 127 Franklin St., New York. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1910, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
George Bird Grinnell, President, 
Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary, 
Lours Dean Spkir, Treasurer, 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful in¬ 
terest in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate 
a refined taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 187S. 
NEW YORK FISH AND GAME COM¬ 
MISSION. 
A most important appointment to be made 
by Governor Dix is that of Forest, Fish and 
Game Commissioner. Among the candidates 
who have been named John B. Burnham easily 
stands first. 
Mr. Burnham possesses admirable qualifi¬ 
cations for the place. When he first entered 
the service of the Commission as protector he 
took up the work because he was genuinely in¬ 
terested in it, knew the conditions, recognized 
the nature of the task and was ambitious to 
reform certain flagrant abuses. He went into 
a district where game and fish protection had 
been lax, and where offenders went unpun¬ 
ished because of their political alliances; and 
he undertook to show these old and bold and 
confident violators that the law was meant for 
them, politics or no politics, pull or no pull. 
From the start he acted on the principle that 
the way to enforce the law was to enforce it. 
And he did it. Essex county, which had long 
been a harbor of illicit and defiant deer hound- 
ers and trout poachers, was by his energy, 
courage and persistence—by long trips into 
the wilderness, by sleeping on the trails of the 
poachers and by literally walking up to the 
muzzles of guns held in the hands of hostile 
men—converted into a decent district, where 
the law was respected, and seasons and modes 
observed. 
What he did in Essex, he helped other pro¬ 
tectors to do in other districts. The reform 
of long standing abuses, the suppression of old 
offenders, the cleaning up of one district after 
another, and the creation of a wholesome pub¬ 
lic respect for the forest, fish and game laws, 
have been promoted by Mr. Burnham in a 
degree that renders him deserving of the 
gratitude and confidence of the people of the 
State. 
To the interest which first prompted him to 
take up the protective work, has now been 
added the knowledge gained by the years of 
his practical experience, and these two quali¬ 
fications give an assurance of his fitness to under¬ 
take the more onerous and important duties of 
the larger position. 
Mr. Burnham’s service with the commission 
has made him familiar with the routine of the 
office work, and has given him an enlightened 
understanding of the entire field. He knows 
intimately the personnel of the force. The 
efficiency of the present staff of protectors is 
in large measure due to his weeding out of the 
weaklings, heartening of the strong men of the 
force, and making it possible for every pro¬ 
tector in every district to do his duty without 
fear of political molestation. He has put his 
own spirit into the force. 
Besides being experienced, interested and 
able, Mr. Burnham is honest. In the recent 
investigation of the commission there was no 
suggestion that he had done anything but 
his duty, or had been influenced or swerved 
by considerations which he must conceal—and 
there were game law breaking politicians 
enough who, remembering what Mr. Burnham 
had done to them, would gladly have brought 
to light anything questionable in his official 
career, had there been any hope that mud 
would stick or slurs be listened to. More¬ 
over, he has the courage that comes of hon¬ 
esty. With a record absolutely clean, he is 
ready to undertake any task that presents 
itself and to carry it through without fear or 
favor. 
We but give expression to the conviction of 
those who are familiar with forest, game and 
fish conditions in the State of New York, when 
we say that the appointment of Mr. Burnham 
as commissioner will mean the conduct of the 
office in a way to insure the highest possible 
good to the State. 
TWO PENNSYLVANIA DECISIONS. 
Two years or more ago the frequently re¬ 
curring difficulties of the game protective 
authorities of Pennsylvania with unnaturalized 
foreigners occupied much space in the news¬ 
papers. In years past, game wardens were 
several times killed or injured by aliens whom 
they endeavored to arrest or to keep from 
violating the law of the State. These out¬ 
rages resulted in the passage of the act of 
May 8, 1909, which forbids the ownership or 
possession of shotgun or rifle by any unnatural¬ 
ized foreign-born resident within the Common¬ 
wealth and prescribes penalties for violation of 
the provisions of the act. We have frequently 
referred to this law and the manner in which 
it is enforced. 
Decisions by the Superior Court of Penn¬ 
sylvania within the past year establish the con¬ 
stitutionality of these laws, and are therefore 
of high importance not only to residents of 
Pennsylvania, but to the general public, every¬ 
where throughout the United States. Judge 
Orladv’s opinion, rendered Oct. 10 last, and 
iust printed, goes into the whole question with 
extreme fullness, citing many authorities and 
laying down the law in unmistakable terms. 
He decides that the Act is not in violation 
of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Consti¬ 
tution of the United States, and that the Penn¬ 
sylvania law, under which these actions were 
brought, is a good law. 
The legal fraternity, and especially all per¬ 
sons interested in game protection, cannot 
fail to read these decisions with great interest. 
HUBERT LATHAM, PIONEER. ' 
To fly is considered by many aviators as an 
accomplishment of no mean order; to engage 
in another pastime while flying is quite another 
matter. Hubert Latham, being a sportsman as 
well as an aviator, has ideas of his own, and has 
demonstrated some of them on occasion. A 
year ago, while in Chalons, he took his gun 
and monoplane and flew to Berru, eighteen miles, 
to accept an invitation to shoot on the preserve 
of the Marquis de Polignac. When he flew 
back to Chalons his game bag was heavier by 
several pheasants. 
Now M. Latham is heard from in California. 
Press dispatches state that on Wednesday of 
last week he was the guest of the Bolsa Chica 
Ducking Club, whose preserve is on the marshes 
near Los Angeles. There it is the custom of 
the members to wait patiently in blinds for the 
lusty, well-fed ducks to come their way, and 
when a member has accounted for twenty-five 
of them, he pretends to be satisfied with this 
paltry handful for his day’s shooting. It is the 
law. 
To sit still and fire a shot now and then is 
dull sport for one accustomed to the delights 
of flying, and M. Latham would have none of 
it. Instead of waiting for the ducks to come 
to him, he flushed them in his beloved mono¬ 
plane, gun in hand. It is said that the wildfowl, 
resting in accustomed security in the center of 
one of the sweet water ponds, rose in great con¬ 
fusion as the monoplane circled over them, and 
that, in the shots obtained by M. Latham, he 
“killed a few and crippled others.” 
The “others” are attended to first by the occu¬ 
pant of the blind. What the gunner of the 
future who may or may not attempt to follow 
M. Latham’s lead will do with cripples remains 
to be seen. 
It is claimed that there are twenty-two sports¬ 
men among the Assemblymen who will sit at 
Trenton when the New Jersey Legislature con¬ 
venes. Further, that they favor the proposed 
revision of the fish and game laws of that State 
—work that is very badly needed. 
A South Dakota trapper contributed quite a 
tidy sum to the game fund recently. He was 
fined $65.55 for having mink and muskrat pelts 
in his possession in the closed season. The pelts 
were confiscated and sold for $110. 
