JUNE 9, 1906.| 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
’ GANIE RAG ARID GUN 


The Automatic Gun. 
Editor Forest and Stream: : 
- The fight against the automatic shotgun is in 
one sense creditable to those who are making it. 
Their motives: cannot be impugned; they are 
trying in an indirect way to protect our game 
birds. They are, I assume, not opposed to the 
automatic gun per se, but they seek by pro- 
hibiting its use to promote game protection. 
The real question is whether or not this 
method is logical and reasonable. As to temper- 
ance in drink there cannot be two opinions, yet 
as to the regulation of the traffic in intoxicants 
there is the utmost divergence of opinion. So 
as to game protection there is practical unan- 
imity of view, yet as to thé prohibition of the 
use of a superior firearm there seems to be very 
radical difference of opinion. 
There never was a good cause that was not 
hurt by enthusiasm of its adherents if that en- 
thusiasm were not tempered by reason and 
moderation. Now that enthusiasm which leads 
to a break in the ranks of the army fighting for 
the protection of game may be deplorable. The 
case should be very clear indeed to justify such 
a result. But the case is not clear, for the pro- 
hibition would be a blow at inventive skill and 
a check upon the development of the art of gun 
making, omitting any reference to the con- 
venience and satisfaction of the sportsman in the 
use of a better weapon. | j 
The lover of hunting may regard the protec- 
tion of game as of more importance than any im- 
provement in firearms, but there is a large num- 
ber of men who take the opposite view. The 
case would be greatly altered if the use of the 
improved gun meant the extermination of game 
birds, but to assert this is only to go to an 
absurd extreme and so invite defeat. 
We all know that the great majority of sports- 
men will not kill game improperly. The ban 
upon the automatic therefore is asked to prevent 
the law breakers from increasing by some per- 
centage their already excessive killing. I sug- 
gest the propriety of having the punishment fit 
the crime; let the blow fall where it is deserved. 
Do not punish the innocent, the law-abiding 
sportsman,, inventor and manufacturer; smash 
the actual wrong doer. 
But let us look at the matter from another 
standpoint. Is the principle of restricting the 
sportsman to the use of inferior weapons sound? 
Has the great progress made in game protec- 
tion in recent years been hindered by improve- 
ment in weapons? If the principle of limita- 
tion to the use of inferior arms be admitted, 
why stop with the automatic? How about the 
double barrel? What- about the breechloader? 
Would not a single barrel, muzzle-loading shot- 
gun be about the right thing? Shall we say, 
“No repeating rifles’? As there seems: to be 
no logical bound to be put upon the restriction 
once begun, must we not doubt the correctness 
of the principle involved? 
It is a fact not to be gainsaid that coinci- 
dently with the development of the more deadly 
long-range, high-power, smokeless rifle, game 
has been increasing rapidly in. many districts 
where the rifle has been used. In New Bruns- 
wick moose have increased wonderfully in the 
last ten years, just when the black powder rifle 
was going out and the smokeless coming in. 
What is the explanation? Simply a moderately 
well enforced game protective law. 
The fact is that any style of our present fire- 
arms is deadly enough to bring about. the’ ex- 
tinction of our game. The greatest game killer 
in history, King John George II,, who shot 
more than sixty thousand deer,. used a flint- 
lock. The efficient protection of game depends 
upon right public sentiment, and the resulting 
enactment and enforcement of protective laws. 
We must not seek to interfere with the march 
of invention, for we shall thereby divide our 
forces. We should not urge the use of the an- 
tiquated arms, but should stand unitedly to 
enact good game laws and to compel obedience 
to those laws. M. F. WESTOVER. 
A Shot at Quail. 
From Amelia B. oo een Thousands Miles up the 
Nile.” 
So THE Painter pitches his tent at the top of 
the sand drift, and the Writer sketches the 
ruined convent opposite, and L. and the Little 
Lady write no end of letters, and the Idle Man 
with Mehemet Ali for a retriever, shoots quail; 
and everybody is satisfied. 
Hapless Idle Man—hapless, but homicidal. If 
he had been content to shoot only quail, and had’ 
not taken to shooting babies! What possessed 
him to do? Not—not, let us hope—an_ ill- 
directed ambition, foiled of crocodiles! He 
went serene and smiling with his gun under his 
arm, and Mehemet Ali in his wake. Who so 
light of heart as that Idle Man? Who so light 
of heel as that turbaned retriever? We heard 
our sportsman popping away presently in the 
barley. It was a pleasant sound, for we knew 
his aim. was true., “Every shot,’ said we, 
“means a bird.” We little dreamed that one 
of those shots meant a baby. 
All at once a woman screamed. 
sharp, sudden scream, following a_ shot—a 
scream with a ring of horror in it. Instantly it 
was caught up from point to point, growing in 
volume, and seeming to be echoed from every 
direction at once. At the same moment the 
bank became alive with human beings. They 
seemed to spring from the soil—women shriek- 
ing and waving their arms; men running; all 
making for the same goal. Vhe Writer heard 
the scream, saw the rush, and knew at once that 
a gun accident had happened. 
A few minutes of painful suspense followed. 
Then Mehemet Ali appeared, tearing back at 
the top of his speed; and presently—perhaps 
five minutes later, though it seemed like twenty 
came the Idle Man, walking very slowly and 
defiantly, with his head up, his arms folded, his 
gun gone, and an immense rabble at his heels. 
Our scanty crew, armed with sticks, flew at 
once to the rescue, and brought him off in safety. 
We then learned what had happened. A flight 
of quail had risen; and, as quail fly low, skim- 
ming the surface of the grain and diving down 
aga.n almost immediately, he had taken a level 
aim. At the instant that he fired, and in the 
very path of the quail, a woman and child, who 
had been squatting in the barley, sprang up 
screaming. He at once saw the coming danger; 
and, with admirable presence of mind, drew the 
charge of his second barrel. He then hid his 
cartrige box and hugged his gun, determined to 
hold :t as long as possible. The next moment 
he was surrounded, overpowered, had the gun 
wrenched from his grasp, and received a blow 
on the back with a stone. Having captured the 
gun, one or two of the men let go. It was then 
that he shook off the rest, and came back to the 
boat. Mehemet Ali at the same time flew to 
call a rescue. He, too, came in for some hard 
knocks, besides having his shirt rent and his 
turban torn off his head. 
Here were. we, meanwhile, with less than half 
our crew, a private war on our hands, no cap- 
tain, and one of our three guns in the hands of 
the enemy. What a scene it was! A whole vill- 
age, apparently a very considerable village, 
swarming on the bank; all hurrying to and fro; 
all raving, shouting, gesticulating. If we had 
been on the verge of a fracas at Tafah, here we 
were threatened with a siege. 
It ‘was: a 

Drawing in the plank between the boat and 
the shore, we held a hasty council of war. 
The woman, being unhurt, and the child, if 
hurt at all, hurt very slightly, we felt justified 
in assuming an injured tone, calling the village to 
account for a case of cowardly assault, and de- 
manding instant restitution of the gun. We ac- 
cordingly sent Talhamy to parley with the head 
man of the place and peremptorily demand the 
gun. We also bade him add—and this we re- 
garded as a master stroke of policy—that if due 
submission was immediately made, the Howadji, 
one of whom was a Hakeem, would permit the 
father to bring his child on board to have its 
hurts attended to. 
Outwardly indifferent, inwardly not a _ little 
anxious, we waited the event. Talhamy’s back 
being toward the river, we had the whole semi- 
circle of swarthy faces full in view—bent brows, 
flashing eyes, glittering teeth—all anger, all 
scorn, all defiance. Suddenly the expression of 
the faces changed—the change beginning with 
those nearest the speaker and spreading gradu- 
ally outward. It was as if a wave had passed 
over them. We knew that our coup was made. 
Talhamy returned. The villagers crowded round 
their leaders, deliberating. Numbers now be- 
gan to sit down, and when a Nubian sits down, 
you may be sure that he is no longer dangerous. 
Presently, after perhaps a quarter of an hour, 
the gun was brought back uninjured, and an 
elderly man carrying a blue bundle appeared on 
the bank. The plank was now put across, the 
crowd was kept off, and the man with the bun- 
dle and three or four others were allowed to 
pass. 
The bundle being undone, a little brown imp 
of about four years of age, with shaven head and 
shaggy scalp-look, was produced. He whim- 
pered at first, seeing the strange white faces; 
but when offered a fig, forgot his terrors and sat 
munching like a monkey. As for his wounds, 
they were literally skin deep, the shot having 
but slightly grazed his shoulder in four or five 
places. The Idle Man, however, solemnly sponged 
the scratches with warm water, and L. covered 
them with patches of sticking plaster. Finally 
the father was presented with a Napoleon, the 
patient was wrapped in one of his murderer’s 
shirts, and the first act of the tragedy was ended. 
The second and third acts were to come. 
When the Painter and the Idle Man talked the 
affair over, they agreed that it was expedient, 
for the protection of future travelers, to lodge a 
complaint against the village; and this mainly on 
account of the treacherous blow dealt from be- 
hind at a time when the Idle Man (who had at 
once attempted to defend himself) was power- 
less in the hands of a mob. They therefore went 
‘next day to Assuan; and the governor, charming 
as ever, promised that just:ce should be done. 
Meanwhile, we moved the dahebeeyah to Philae, 
and there settled down for a week’s sketching. 
Next evening came a woeful deputation from 
Torrigur, entreating forgiveness, and stating 
that fifteen villagers ‘had been swept off to 
prison. 
The Idle Man explained that he had no longer 
anything to do with it; that the matter, in short, 
was in the hands of justice, and would be dealt 
with according to the law. Hereupon the 
spokesman gathered up a handful of imaginary 
dust, and made believe to scatter it on his head. 
“OQ dragoman!” he said, “tell the Howadji 
that there is no law but his pleasure, and no 
justice but the will of the Governor!” 
Summoned next morning to give evidence, the 
Idle Man went betimes to Assuan, where he was 
received in private by the, Governor and Mudir, 
Pipes and coffee were handed, and the usual civ- 
ilities exchanged. The Governor then informed 
his guest that fifteen men of Torrigur had been 
