ceed down a public highway unless I keep to my 
right. If I fish in the pond back of my house I 
must needs a license. If I hunt the lowly rabbit 
or ’chuck or even the kingly grizzly I need a license. 
To run my licensed automobile I need a driver’s 
license. If I build me a house the plaster is ap- 
proved, the woodwork is approved and so it is 
unto the cement work, steel work, wiring, plumb- 
ing, fixtures and even the roof. If I entertain, the 
chief of police watches; therefore I do not indulge 
in the fruit of the vine. I smoke taxed brands and 
suffer. I work so many hours per day as set down 
by the Labor Board. I pay a tax on the things I 
eat, wear, or even touch. If I make a profit I pay 
part of it for tax. If I am the beneficiary of any- 
thing I am taxed. If I give anything away I am 
taxed. My real estate is taxed. On securities I 
pay atax. I paid a tax to get married. My chil- 
dren are taxed via a thousand needs. I pay a poll 
tax just to exist. And now the yegg—He who en- 
ters my house or holds me up on the street or in 
my office or shop and who forcibly takes from me 
these things for which I labored and paid taxes 
on—He pays no taxes, nor cares. And all I can 
do is yell and call for help to the police who are 
never near and who are paid with the money I 
_ paid for taxes. SolI yell and call for help but dare 
--not as an honest man, carry a gun to protect my 
— life and wife and children and goods upon which 
I pay taxes. And so again I say my prayer: 
Give us this day our daily bread and clothes and 
house and all we pay tax on, and, O Lord, let us 
have a gun that we may keep these things and we 
might as well pay tax on the gun too.—Arthur H. 
Trumble, from The American Rifleman. 
BACK OF BEYOND 
N a yard among the dark spruce the moose milled 
with apparent restlessness. Bull, cows and 
calves eyed the scanty supply of birch and young 
spruce, and with tilted ears listened to the haunting 
ery of the wolf pack. Huge, high-shouldered, mas- 
sive of neck and horns, the bull raised a thick 
curved muzzle to nose the ice-armored twigs and 
snorted viciously as he crumbled the frozen tips. 
Squatting in the gloom of a blow-down a black 
bear watched the moose, his red-rimmed eyes shone 
in a glance of shrewd, fierce, aching desire. He 
studied the herd, and rolled his chops hungrily at 
sight of the calves, then like a bulky shadow slid- 
ing away in the forest he turned and stepped 
toward the bottom lands of the river. 
Sometime in the night, when the moon hung low 
over the ragged spires, the bull throated a guttural 
sound, stepped into the soft deep snows beyond the 
yard, and led his herd down the entanglement of 
snow and silence, moonsheen and shadows. With 
muzzle out he whiffed the odorless air, with horns 
laid back he wallowed and plunged silently, break- 
ing trail for the gaunt and ungainly cows who 
followed in single file, and behind ambled the 
calves, awkward, treading the broken trail with 
drooping heads and utter lack of life. 
Along the trail sinister killers watched, waited, 
and swept feverish eyes down the shadowy aisles. 
Their success was scanty, hardly enough to battle 
the pains of stomach. Fisher, marten, mink, weasel 
—implacable marauders who knew no fear, who 
hunted incessantly for warm blood behind fur and 
feathers. They wandered far and wide in wild 
quest, and took toll of mice and shrews, tender 
Hae which only fanned savagely the famine 
res. 
Silent, suspicious, broad-padded gray lynxes 
crept like shadows in their hunting. Eyes that 
were round and set, dangerous, strangely luminous, 
watched the moose. And so the big cats followed 
the herd. At a little clearing the moose wallowed 
in drifts and the family became strung out. Sud- 
denly two grayish forms shot from under the 
boughs of a little spruce, and in silence the last calf 
was swept to swift death. ~ 
Streamward, lean foxes cruised the game trails, 
nosing them to the lairs of the absent night 
prowlers. The crafty foxes robbed and fed, feasted 
royally and stole away. Gaunt figures dug furi- 
ously, angrily, at the beaver houses with ill reward. 
They traded up and down the frozen river, and 
poked at warm holes. Hoof and claw and talon 
prowled and looked and listened. Signs on the 
snow denoted where life fought hard and died, 
where it bled and won and lived to get away. All 
were battles of survival. From the shadows glassy 
eyes watched for movement. On the wings of the 
i swept the wolf cry, the song of the hunger 
god. 
TRUMPETER SWANS NOW PROTECTED 
COMPLETELY IN U. S. 
RUMPETER SWANS, very few of which are 
in existence, will be given complete protection 
in the United States, says the United States 
Department of Agriculture. Not even will Federal 
permits be issued for taking them for scientific 
purposes. Along with whooping cranes, they have 
been completely excepted from the list of migratory 
birds which may be taken under such permission. 
By action of the Acting Secretary of Agriculture 
on November 12, 1924, approving a recommenda- 
tion of the Biological Survey, trumpeter swans 
were included with whooping cranes, which were 
similarly protected by the department in 1922. 
Neither of these two species may be taken in the 
United States for any purpose. Complete protec- 
tion is also afforded both species in Canada. 
Under the provisions of the treaty with Great 
Britain for the protection of migratory birds, cer- 
tain birds, including swans, are given continuous 
protection through a closed season for a period 
of at least 10 years following the going into effect 
of the treaty. Provision was also made in the 
treaty whereby all protected species should be 
taken under proper permit for strictly scientific 
purposes. 
So far as known there are but very few trum- 
peter swans in existence, and it was deemed ad- 
visable, in order to prevent the complete exter- 
mination of the species, to afford them absolute 
protection by removing them from the list of 
migratory birds that may be taken under scien- 
tific permits, as was previously done with the 
whooping cranes. 
153 
