bet him a new hat that he would not catch a fish before sundown. Jones' luck was poor and his skill even worse, and when the sun had set he had not a fish in his basket. But he was not to be beaten so easily. On his way back to the village, he stopped at a fish store and bought a fine three-pound bass, and putting it in his basket, hurried on to Smith's house, triumphantly.

"Well, that's one hat on you," he shouted at Smith, as the latter saw him coming up the garden walk.

Did you catch one, after all?" asked Smith as he hurried up to examine the prize.

"Guess I did," returned the guilty fisherman, enthusiastically; and then, letting his nature run away with his better judgment, he began to dilate on the struggle he had had with this particular monster of the deep.

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Why, I played that fellow for fifteen minutes before I could get him up to the boat," he went on enthusiastically; "and when I finally did get him up close, I had to gaff him before I could land him into the boat. I was just in time then, too, for the hook tore out of his mouth as I lifted him over the gun whale."

"To See Ourselves As Others See Us."

"I HAVE perused with pleasure THE

issue, and I trust you will meet with success in this undertaking, as a fairly good magazine of this kind will be greatly appreciated by the sportsmen of the United States." M. E. POUGUE, Salem, Ore.

We are in receipt of the Mid-Winter Number of THE SPORTSMAN'S MAGAZINE, and cannot say too much in its favor as a firstclass up-to-date sporting periodical. This number is in an artistic cover printed in red, green and black with silver background, and for those whose tastes run to fishing, hunting and other outdoor sports, it is just the appropriate thing. We predict for it a prosperous future." - THE PAWTUXET VALLEY GLEANER, Phenix, R. I.

"The February Number of THE SPORTSMAN'S MAGAZINE contains a long list of welledited and illustrated articles, which meet about every line or taste for sport.”-- THE DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE, Northampton, Mass.

"I have received a copy of THE SPORTSMAN'S MAGAZINE, a periodical that is in the sixth month of its existence, and which certainly presents a very attractive appearance, being handsomely printed, and illustrated with pictures qualified to awaken the interest of any one who possesses the slightest taste for outdoor sport."-THE JOURNAL, New York City.

"The Mid-Winter Number of THE SPORTSMAN'S MAGAZINE is the handsomest issue of any purely sporting publication we remember to have seen printed in America. The cover is attractively designed and is printed in silver, green and red, and the illustrations are as artistic as the subjects are varied.”— EXPRESS, Buffalo, N. Y.

"I saw the initial number of THE SPORTSMAN'S MAGAZINE in Albany. It is certainly a high-class publication, and I have read the numbers with much interest and pleasure."—A. NELSON CHENEY, State Fish Culturist, Glens Falls, N. Y.

"There is at last a fit periodical published for sportsmen. Not one of many publications which have been addressed to the tastes of the hunter and fisher has met the demand as THE SPORTSMAN'S MAGAZINE. It will suit every one who loves the natural things of the world, even those who never handle a gun or a fish rod. It will please women who never go near the water, and are always afraid when their sons or husbands go out with a gun. It is finely illustrated, and its descriptive articles and stories of travel and sport, will please almost any reader from youth to old age."-HAMPshire Gazette, Northampton, Mass.

THE SPORTSMAN'S MAGAZINE arrived all right, and we have enjoyed it very much. If the present standard is kept up we think you will surely make a success of it."-J. C. DAVIDSON, Washington, D. C.

'Most writers of hunting articles were never near any game in their fool lives. Your paper is some different from most of them."-W. S. CORWIN, Messina, Cal.

"I take many magazines, and yours easily stands at the head. I own and shoot over some of the best-bred Llewellyns in the western country, and I appreciate a good dog picture. That on page 393 of your February Number is the best I ever saw of its kind."-C. B. RANDLETT, Council Bluffs, Iowa.

WITH

ITH this issue, the first milestone in the career of THE SPORTSMAN'S MAGAZINE is reached, and our second volume will begin next month. Looking back over the brief existence of the MAGAZINE, we cannot help feeling proud of its success. It is our intention to conduct a high-class magazine exclusively "by sports men and for sportsmen," and we believe that such a publication is bound to find a place in the heart of every true sportsman. That our mission has not failed has been more than proved by the kind words of appreciation received from readers of the MAGAZINE and esteemed contemporaries, a few of which we quote on another page so that all may be able to "see ourselves as others see us."

We wish to thank our friends for their kind words, which are always welcome, and to suggest that criticism is wanted as well as praise. We should be glad to hear from all our readers, and would remind them of the old adage: 'If you don't see what you want, ask for it."

We shall begin our second volume with the same intention to produce an ideal magazine for sportsmen, as when we started, and with the additional help of six months' experience in learning the wants of sportsmen-readers. The special Christmas and Mid-Winter numbers met with such marked approval that our April issue, which will be the Fishing Number, will also be enclosed in a handsome lithographed cover in colors; other special numbers have been planned for later months' too. A complete index of the six numbers which comprise the first volume, is issued as a supplement with this number, and although back numbers cannot be exchanged for binding, copies of the complete volume bound in cloth have been prepared for those who wish to preserve THE

SPORTSMAN'S MAGAZINE in some permanent form for library use.

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WH

*

HAT constitutes the ethics of true sportsmanship?" is still as much open to dispute as when the question was raised in these columns last month. Hosts of replies have been received from readers of the MAGAZINE, and it is pleasing to note that a large proportion of their writers agree that it is the motive actuating the man, rather than his methods of killing game, that distinguishes between the sportsman and the pot-hunter.

In reason, it could not be otherwise, and it would be an injustice to many a thorough sportsman, if he was frowned upon simply because he shot a bird on the ground, when he knew to a certainty that he could not kill it on the wing. On the other hand, a man may think himself a sportsman because he observes the game laws and never kills

game in an " unsportsmanlike" manner;

but many such will shoot from morning till night, if game can be found, and take great pride in boasting of the large numbers of birds killed, not thinking that they may be acquiring reputations as game-hogs.

To sportsmen who have watched with anxious eye the trend of sentiment and practice through the last generation, it is a satisfaction to see that it is improving rapidly and radically. Forest and game preservation are uppermost in the minds of men who, a few years ago, gave little thought to the needs of the future. Boys are taught true sportsmanship by example, and it becomes second nature to them; while their fathers had to learn by dear experience that game killed in wasteful numbers would react upon their own pleasure in a way they never dreamed might be possible.

IN turning over the first four or five pages of a recent issueof a prominent weekly journal for sportsmen, one is pleased with its staunch stand for game protection, and better fish and game laws. But the good effect of all this is dispelled by an illustration, only a few pages farther on in the same issue, showing seventy-eight bass, the author says, "the smallest of which weighed one and one-half pounds, and the largest five pounds." This string of fish was taken, we are told, by one man in five hours, from a lake in northern Wisconsin. That the fisherman was proud of his catch is evident by his having had it photographed; but in his account of it, he says to young fisherman: As you graduate from your novitiate, your desire for slaughter will cease." Now,

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tanglement. Among the hosts of other features will be an exhibit of pictures and photographs for sportsmen; hunting dogs, game, fish, guides and a magnificent collections of sportsmen's trophies loaned by their owners. Madison Square Garden, in New York, will be a perfect paradise for sportsmen from March 13 to 20.

Aside from all individual interests that sportsmen may have in the Exposition, the greatest possible good comes to sportsmen collectively from this annual show. Its influence is wide and powerful, and as an educator the Sportsmen's Exposition is the greatest school for sportsmen that could be devised.

this catch was made and the photograph taken before or after the "graduating' process of the angler; also, whether the illustration was published as a "horrible example," or as a standard of excellence for the novitiate."

In these days of game protection, it is well for a journal devoted to the interests of sportsmen to point out the evils of game slaughter, and for the sportsman-writer to dwell upon the beauties of " graduating" from the desire for big catches and heavy game bags; but it would be better if the former were consistent, and the latter did not boast of his depravity in the days of his novitiate."

*

birds are threatened with extermination. Wrens and bluebirds are driven from their old haunts by sparrows,-and he might have added that small boys are after the sparrows. Terms are slaughtered in thousands, he avers, for the millinery business, and Florida is similarly despoiled of its heron, ibis, pelican and smaller birds. Fashion, at present, is the greatest enemy of bird life. This would indeed be a dreary outlook, if there were no relief in sight. But we trust that as soon as the various state legislatures have wrestled successfully with the theatre-hat problem, that our lawmakers will turn their guns toward the bird-hat menace.

The ornithologist further says that the quail is becoming very scarce. The ornithologist is doubtless a learned man, and

men's Exposition draws near, its immensity becomes more and more apparent. There have been shows beforecycle shows, horse shows, dog shows and shows of various other kinds, but each appealed to a single class of sportsmen. This is not so with the Sportsmen's Exposition, for the gunner, the hunter of big game, the target-shooter, the angler, the amateur photographer, the student of natural history, the traveler--in short, every sportsman will find the Exposition full of interest, and a perfect mine of information as well. Besides the exhibits, riflemen and pistol shots will meet in a series of matches that promise to result in much more than mere events of competition; for by bringing together competitors from different states, ideas are interchanged, plans for future events made on broader lines, and all danger of sectional prejudice overcome. The follower of the gentle art of angling is also provided for in the ar rangements for a fly-casting tournament. Some of the features of this competition are quite novel. The casting will be over an artificial stream indoors, with no winds to bother the competitors, and accuracy and delicacy will be tested by semi-submerged branches, and other lurking sources of en

on every bird from a wren to an eagle; but there are some things about the quail that he has perhaps overlooked. In some of the northern states, quail are more abundant now than ever before, and good shooting can be had where, a few years ago, the birds were found only in small numbers. Mildwinters in Minnesota, for instance, have permitted this game bird to increase and multiply to numbers never before known there. An unusually severe winter in some of the southern states invariably kills vast numbers of quail. Maryland, this year, is a case in hand. Then the cry goes up that the bird is almost extinct in that locality; but in four or five years their numbers have again reached the point they were before the cold winter.

In our opinion, there is only one real danger threatening the quail, and that, fortunately, in comparatively few states. This is trapping them for market. Were this practice more general, there would indeed be reason for alarm; but even though not common, wherever it is known to exist, sportsmen should stamp it out by having the lawbreakers hounded by the game wardens until their illegal business is too unsafe to be continued.

Volume I. of "The Sportsman's Magazine."

BOUND copies of the first volume of THE

SPORTSMAN'S MAGAZINE, which is completed with this issue, have been prepared. Lovers of sport will find in the 520 pages of this first volume, a veritable literary feast, for among the profusely illustrated pages of these first six numbers of the MAGAZINE will be found nearly one hundred articles and stories of general interest to sportsmen. A glance through the volume index, which is issued as a supplement to this number, will show how completely the entire field of sport has been covered. Hunting, for large game and small; shooting for upland and shore birds; fishing, in fresh water and salt; field sports, both indoor and out; hunting dogs; thoroughbred horses; amateur photography, and all the other branches of sport, will be found fully treated and illustrated.

The department for "Vignettes of Sport," is a particularly attractive feature of the volume; Current Topics" in sport were reviewed by experts, and the department, "Sportsmen's Books Reviewed,' will be found to contain a complete critical record of all books published for sportsmen, reviewed by sportsmen and for sportsmen."

46

OFT

FTEN an additional interest would be given to hunting if the sportsman

could preserve an unusually fine

specimen of game killed; but birds or heads mounted incorrectly are worse than none at all. The Department of Agriculture of the state of Pennsylvania has issued a third edition of " Taxidermy, How to Collect, Skin, Preserve and Mount Birds," which is published with the state game and fish laws. The notes on taxidermy are concise and practical, and a few illustrations of properly-mounted birds are shown. This little book will be found very useful to sportsmen interested in the preservation of small-game specimens. A close study of these pictures cannot fail to be a help to novices in taxidermy. The ptarmigan, for

PALDING'S

SPAL

'Athletic Almanac for 1897," recently issued by the American Sports Publishing Company, contains the most complete tables of athletic records that have appeared for many years. The fact that these records were compiled by James E. Sullivan, president of the Metropolitan Association of A. A. U., with the assistance of William B. Curtis, the "father" of amateur athletics in America, should vouch for the accuracy of the figures given. Mr. Curtis is probably the bestknown authority on athletics we have in this country, while Mr. Sullivan's name has been so long and so favorably known in the athletic world, that this little book is issued under most favorable auspices. It is profusely illustrated with half-tone portraits of athletic champions from all sections of the country, which serve to brighten the pages that would otherwise serve as a record book only. Brief summaries of all the important intercollegiate and championship meetings of last season are added to the tables of the best records in all branches of athletics, and the book is most complete in every department. Although bound only in paper and of small size, this little volume will prove an invaluable addition to the student of athletics and an ever-ready handbook for those who are interested in records. J. Parmly Paret.

OPIES of the first volume of THE

with gold-and-black stamping on side and back, can be had at this office. Price, $1.50, postpaid.

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