St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-10-19
HUNTING AS AN ART.
Interesting Distinction Be-
tween the True Sportsman
and a Sporting Man.
Glorious Minnesota October
and the Thoughts Of Whir-
ring Wings in 1t.
The Rod and Gun Considered
in Therapeutic and Hygi-
enie Sense.
A Chapter Of the Beauty and
Value Of Dogs in Wood
land Sports.


atmosphere and golden sunlight brown
stubbles and steaming bog lands, has
come again to gladden. the heart of
every admirer of nature. 1t is at this
season that the year reaches Its matur
ity and nature wears its fairest robe of
commingled scarlet, purple and emer-
aid. The forest and prairie teens with
exuberant life, and the huntsman is
happy.
Yet, why do we hunt? Why should
civilized man who lives in plenty on the
fruits of the factory, the products of
the grain field. on the earnings of his
pen, seek to revel amid scenes of blood
letting and pillage from the storehouse
of animate nature? Modern opinion is
singularly divided on the subject. The
sentiment of most writers fayors shoot
ing for sport and against killing for
market, and thereby seeks to reverse
one of natures laws. 1t is uEdeniable
that the instinct to kill is strongly de-
veloped in mankind, and the trait is
traceable back through every evo-
tuition of the human race
to it's fountain of heritage,
the chase as a means of livelihood or in
self-defenSe. But the circumstances
which have rendered necessary the pur-
suit of game for subsistence no longer
exists, except. perhaps, i'll Isolated
cases, and hunting is now reSorted to as
Il means of recreation, that, wherever
followed, indicates a high degree of civ
iiZation. We find. therefore, sports
men and sporting men. They are not of
kin, for the latter is diSting by
his propensity for bl0odshed, and
usually where a YicariouS element SUI
perveneS. The sportsman, On the other
hand, is of better order. He emuIates
skill, and does not wantonly take life;
and. if his education has taught him
that shooting for the pot is objectiona-
bic, let him call 1t recreation, since it
amounts to the assertion of natural
instinct under different training. There
may be distinction. but modern prac-
tice does not lay the foundation of q
strongly marked difference. We are all
pot hunters, at best. No one shoots
game unit for food, and, while one
gives to his friends the surplus contents
of his bag, the other sells his portion.
Ancient Sportsmen.
Hunting as a sport dates back to the
beginning of written history. Among
the deep-thoughted people of the Nile
the huntSmen constituted subdivision
of royal caste, and both the lion and
dog were trained to the chase. The an
cient Assyrian kings maintained extern
Sive preserves i'll which game of every
kind was incloSed, and their example
was followed by the Persian sovereigns,
notably by Cyrus, the elder, who, ac-
cOrding to Herodotus, devoted the rev.
Of tn hG.a
of his hunting establishments. PaleS-
tine abounded in game and there are
numerous biblical indications that it
was much sought after. Herod. the
mighty, though sfepulsive Judaean
ruler was a successful hunter, and it is
recorded by JOSephuS that he killed no
fewer than forty boar, wild ass and
deer in one day. But among the frag-
mentary illusions to hunting found in
the Scriptures there is no evidence of the
use of the dog, Or even of tue horse. in
the sport among the Jews during the
period covered by the New Testament
The ancient Greeks were mighty hun
tiers, as isoevidenced in the writings of
Homer. The blind poet was familiar
with the chase, and scattered through the
'Iliad' and the Odyssey" are frequent
illusions to it as manly diversion, while
some of his most striking SMILES are
drawn from the sports of the field.
But the Greeks did not wholly
view hunting in the light of sport.
they did little pot hunting, in fact a
great deal, and possibly Il portion of the
contents of well-filed bag went into
the market. When Aphrodite came to
the shepherds hut OF AnchiseS, the
hero'S bed was spread with skins OF
bears and lions, which had been pur-
chased; and also when Agamnemnon
prepared to go to his brothers. tent he
threw over himself the dark. red skin of
lion that had been procured from one
of his hunters.
Field sports seem to have found little
favor among the Roman gentry, and the
pursuit of game throughout the empire
was confined to the middle-clasS OF peO-
pie. The immense viyaria in which
wild animals were kept were develop
ments arising at a late period, and after
the Romans had borrowed some things
in the art of hunting from the Gauls.
The origin of the chase in the British
islands is not traceable by history-it
reaches back OF tradition, while the
hunting dog whose good qualities have
passed through decades of English
speaking people antedates the Norman
conquest. 1t would seem that sufficient
testimony had been adduced from his
tory 10 Justify the pursuit of game as a
recreation, but still the dlssenters are
numerous.
Healthfuiness of Hunting
However, aside from sport or market,
cruelty or forbearance. there is still
another view to be taken of hunting
! Medical practitioners and the laiety
sometimes recognize the therapeutic
value of field sports. Practitioners of
rational medicine do not now confine
the curative science to the prescription
of drugs alone, nor do they deny that
amusement Is powerful agent in the
control of certain diseases. 1t is true
that one cannot laugh away yIrulent
typhus nor abate the grip with any
amount of amusing jokes. In kindred
cases.Such course of therapeutics would
become hidious; but in the hundred ills
resulting from impaired digestion and
overtaXed nerves, the out-of-sorts will
find relief in diversion of the mind
from Self-contemplatiOn.
Back in the middle of the sixteenth
century Benvenuto Cellini discovered
| the curative effects resulting from the
use Of gun, and in bis autobiography
occurs this remarkable passage:
In words great was the delight took in
shooting that it often diverted me from the
DuSlucSS VI VIC SuOpo- IuOlSu ~ udQ ILLS Ill
consequence, it in other respects procured
| me considerable advantages, for by this exer.
| else of shooting l greatly improved my con.
| stitution. The air was of vast service to me
| and braced my nerves, which were naturally
| relaxed. Whilst was enjoying these pleas
| ures my spirits suddenly revived; no longer
| had my usual gloom, and worked to more
| purpose than when my attention was totally
| engrossed by business
| We may never know how much the
rinl@< I'D 70,
which have made the name of Cellini
| famous. Had he attended solely to the
| business of his shops, as he puts it. the
immortal sculptor of the Perseus might
| instead have only produced works of
| mediocrity.
1t is not sufficient to say that exercise
may be taken without resorting to the
| field, for the more one exercise mind the
| less Inclined is one to exercise the body.
| There must be some stimulus to exer-
ton and Celllni found that taking a
hor in NIL