Forest and Stream 
Copyright, 1906, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 



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NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 

MISTAKEN SOLICITUDE. 
THE average man or woman of normal 
physique and intellect delights in wholesome out- 
door sport, and by sensible indulgence therein 
is benefited in many ways. The man or woman 
who has no natural fondness for such sport is 
the rare exception and not in accord with the 
true instincts of human nature. He or she may 
fairly be classed with the unfortunates who are 
deficient in an important Anglo-Saxon attribute. 
Few in number and relatively unimportant in 
comparison to the aggregate numbers of the race, 
are the men who have not actively engaged in 
some forms of sport during their vigorous years, 
though their inclination and activity may be cir- 
cumscribed by the exigencies of business or the 
unfavorable conditions of domicile. 
Man by nature is a hunter. 
hunt is born in him. 
Even in early life, there are forecasts of the 
dominant hunting nature. The plays of boys are 
mimetic in the main, a true reflex of the strate- 
gies and activities essential to the successful 
hunter. So intense is the natural fondness of 
sport that, however earnestly parents may oppose 
it, it cannot be entirely surpressed. 
Nevertheless mothers are likely to be apprehen- 
sive of grave mishap to their children if they 
indulge in the use of firearms or fishing rods, 
their fear being on the score of possible dan- 
ger alone. However, if they would sensibly re- 
flect that the average boy has such an irrepres- 
sible passion for the hunt; that his enthusiasm 
and the practical expression of it in the use of 
the appliances of shooting and fishing are per- 
fectly natural, and that he is prone to indulge in 
the secret use of firearms when denied them, they 
would assume a more reasonable viewpoint. Re- 
pression and disapproval make a conjectural dan- 
ger a real one. Indeed, boys who all alike are 
forbidden the use of firearms, may be drawn 
together as a fraternal band, because of their 
common interests and tastes, their purposes being 
to hunt and to shoot. Many a violation of the 
Sabbath day by a boy has had its source in the 
parental mandate against the use of gun or rod 
on the one hand, and on the other the natural 
instinct to hunt. 
- Since the passion to hunt is so strong and 
active in the average boy, the better procedure is 
to permit him the use of firearms or fishing rod 
under certain wise restrictions and parental 
supervision, or under the instruction of a com- 
petent teacher. It is obvious that when properly 
taught, the boy incurs no dangerous risks, while 
on the contrary a group of boys secretly prac- 
ticing with guns or pistols, are constantly sub- 
jected to danger. 
As a rule, boys will learn the use of firearms in 
some way or other, by hook or by crook if need 
be; and it is incomparably better that they should 
obtain their knowledge and practice in an intelli- 
gent and orderly manner, as opposed to the reck- 
The instinct to, 
1906. 
; VOL, LXVI.—No. 16. 
1 No. 346 Broadway, New York, 

less and furtive methods likely to be employed by 
them when they are exercising their own judg- 
ment and pleasure. 
Get a boy a gun. Sanction its use within 
proper limitations. Teach him how properly to 
use it. With the knowledge of correct methods 
consequent to correct teaching, all danger is rea- 
sonably eliminated. To attempt to suppress what . 
cannot be suppressed—that is, the natural instinct 
to hunt—puts a premium on disobedience, decep- 
tion and the happening of possible injury. But 
education, properly acquired, would reduce to a 
minimum the many deaths resulting from the 
didn’t-know-it-was-loaded act, from the killing 
of a man because he was mistaken for a deer, and 
from the hundreds of other grievous happenings 
which have their source in the careless, reckless 
or ignorant use of firearms. 
APRIL BROOKS. 
THE angler who cautiously works his way 
along the brook in April, in quiet waters care- 
fully drawing his flies close under the deep banks, 
or letting them be hurried down by the impetuous 
current of the ripple and then drawing them back, 
may catch some fish or he may not. Whether his 
creel at night be heavy or light, he is sure to have 
seen many beautiful things during the day and to 
have had much enjoyment. 
We are apt to think of the brook as always 
hurrying, restless and noisy, toward that larger 
stream which more placidly bears its burden to- 
ward the sea, but there is individuality in brooks, 
and even the same brook has many moods. At 
times it brawls and riots and will not be re- 
strained, and then, on a sudden, realizing how 
boisterous it has been, it pauses, abashed, and 
moves along decorous and silent, too demure even 
to be suspected of making a noise. 
Gray for months, the banks of the brook are 
now beginning to take on color. Weeks ago, the 
skunk cabbage—that harlequin among early flow- 
ers—began to thrust its yellow purple striped 
spathe above the ground, and though often 
checked and discouraged by nights of frost and 
days of heavy snow, it and all its tribe persisted, 
and now in many places green leaves overtop the 
gaudy blossoms. On tiny islets and points in the 
brook the little grass tufts are brilliant green, 
as are the tufts of the marsh marigold which 
stand there, their roots well under water, their 
stems perhaps waving in the current. Already 
the golden blossoms are beginning to open, and 
in a few days they will be in full flower. 
The red blooms of the swamp maple are nod- 
ding over the quiet reaches of this brook that we 
have pictured and are reflected in it. Willows 
are in blossom and all the wild tangle of the 
swamp through which our brook flows is pul- 
sating with life and will soon burst into bloom. 
If there be any who have not this year seen 
the brooks in April let them hurry to see them 
before April ends, 
GENTLEMAN AND SPORTSMAN. 
A DISCUSSION concerning what constitutes a 
gentleman has had place in several issues of that 
brilliant luminary that shines for New York and 
other places—the Sun—for a week or two re- 
cently. The correspondence evoked much vary- 
ing opinion and indeterminate conclusions, Quali- 
ties artificial, acquired, mental, moral and physi- 
cal were set forth in the way of definition. Such 
views were expressed as that a gentleman was “a 
man who shaves himself every day,” or “a man 
who never wears a make-up tie’; but from these 
the guesses, theories and dogmatic assertion cov- 
ered much of the wide scope of heredity, manner- 
isms and fashionable attire, while a few averred 
that the kindly consideration displayed at all 
times for one’s fellow men was the true test of 
gentility. 
Inasmuch as many of our readers have founded 
their contentions concerning what constitutes the 
“true sportsman’ on what constitutes the true gen- 
tleman, the absence of any general conventional 
standard of “gentleman,” as indicated by the dis- 
cussion aforementioned, would seriously cloud the 
attempt of the public at large to comprehend the 
combined ideals of sport and gentleness in man. 
Thus, if it is maintained that the true sportsman 
is defined by the term gentleman, and therefrom 
some one then understands that the true sports- 
man is one who does not wear a make-up tie, the 
difference of mental conception between teacher 
and pupil may be hopelessly at variance on this 
important point, The attempt to define the attri- 
butes of true sportsmanship have not resulted in 
blithesome concurrence of sentiment among 
sportsmen themselves, and so the absence of gen- 
eral knowledge concerning what constitutes gen- 
tility may be leniently judged. Perhaps the bet- 
ter way to secure a definition would be to let each 
class rest on its individual excellence, and to 
define it accordingly, if need there be for defini- 
tion at all. 

An important decision has just been handed 
down by Judge Pitman. of the United States 
Circuit Court of Appeals in the Percy Sumner 
Club case. The matter has been before the court 
for a number of years and is more or less familiar 
to our readers. The Percy Sumner Club, which 
owns a large tract of land in the northern part of 
New Hampshire, surrounding a pond of more 
than ten acres in area, endeavored to prevent any 
but members of the club from fishing in this pond. 
The lower courts had decided that the public have 
the right to fish in ponds of New Hampshire 
having an area of ten acres or more, and that 
ponds of this size constituted public waters, The 
matter was appealed and carried from court to 
court until now the United States Circuit Court 
of Appeals has denied the right of the club to 
prevent the public from fishing in the pond, and 
has assessed on the club the costs of the case. 
