The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-02-04
REMARKS TOUCHING DOGS,
 BIRDS AND TRUE SPIRIT
Many Man Going High Pressure Gait In Business World Prolones Life When He Takes Day of
 for Shooting.
BY THOMAS p. cRAsTY.

sure business activity great many very useful men who are enabled to go the pace only by reason of occasional in- dulgence in restful recreation. Any sort of outdoor exercise is restful to the nerves and brain, provided it be sufficient ly absorbing in itself to chase out of the mind every other thought The man who takes long walks merely to stretch his legs while his thoughts are on tho business problems of the day gets little or no benefit.
 Sport Is the quickening element of exer- else. And sport in this connection, may be defined as the physical pursuit of something eagerly desired. Golf has been worth countless millions to Anglo Saxon commercial and industrial supremacy, and next to golf, bird hunting.
 Following the untimely death of the late Samuel Spencer, there appeared Il thousand tributes to his worth and plaud- its on the great work he had done for the upbuilding of our southland. If 1t had not been for the good effects of bird hunt ing to which he was an enthusiastic de- votee, it is doubtful whether he might not have broken down long ago, which would have been worse than death, un- der the mereiless strain which his great and trying responsibilities subjected him to. during about eighteen hours out Of the twenty for many years. MT. Spencer, however, was only one among many thousands of our brightest and best men of affairs whose usefulness has been prolonged by fondness for ard frequent indulgence in this royal sport. George J. Gould Is another devotee.
 But it was not of the profitableness Of bird hunting, as we call it, or bird shoot ing as they call 1t further north, that started out to write It is about the sportsmanlike way of enjoying it that feel moved to say a few words-and likewise a word concerning the duty nr every man who loves it to join in any movement calculated to maintain it and prevent it's passing as have many other noble sports afeld.
 The quail will be with us always if we only give the quail a chance. But unless he is protected by law and public sen timent, in few years more he will disappear as have the buffalo and deer. l am told that in many localities in this state the killing season for quail begins only with the mating season, when bob white sits boldly and serenely on the fence posts whistling to his mate-when no dog is needed to find him, when no skill is need to effect the slaughter: I should rather say--to do the murder easy. In such localities it goes without saying that civilization is to put it mild ly) very "backwardly." In fact the estimation in which true sport is held may be set down now as a safe index to any community's civilization.
 You cannot be a true sportsman unless you are willing, us they say in the rural regions "to leave enough for seed" You can't be a true sportsman unless you get quite as much pleasure in the pursuit as in the actual killing. Now unless you are in such sympathy with your dogs as to get keen pleasure from witnessing their endeavors to locate the game be a true sportsman. Unless you set great CT store by skill than slaughter; unless you are capable of returning from an all-day hunt much interested in the shots you missed in those that found the mark; unless you are willing to spend as much time in search of wounded bird as you would spend in finding a fresh covey; In short. you can't be true sportsman unless you are q true man and a gentleman.
 I used to hunt burds with an Episcopal clergyman up in Virginia, where bough- a farm mainly in order to give the birds a chance. He was no sort of a shot, but a sportsman to the marrow in his bones. l am " no great shakes as shot, like your master-craftsman in that line. my friend. Johnny Fletcher. of Birmingham, but I scorn a pump-gun or an automatic or any other piece of ordnance of the magazine type which hear with sorrow some men take afleld. Well. my friend. the preacher, would be moderately happy if after shooting thir- ty or forty times he should bag five birds. But to increase his happiness and my own as well. I found that occas- lonally by simultaneous firing I could
 bring down the bird he was almost sure to miss. I increased his bag in this way from five to about fifteen. and so made him the happiest man on the face of the earth for that particular day. He was none the wiser and supposing that the birds I had killed for him were brought down by his own markmanship, used to sound my praise in this tense: What a difference 1t makes in ones shooting to feel sure that your companion will not shoot at the bird when 1t is your turn to shoot. When I am hunting with most others that I go with I feel nervous and disconcerted when it is my turn, lest my companion will shoot and kill my bird and that makes me shoot too quick. and miss nearly every time. Bu: when I am hunting with Mir. Grasty I know he will not shoot at my birds no matter what may happen; and that quiets my nerves and enables me to kill nearly every bird have a fair shot at" I tell this merely to illustrate one idea-that in bird hunting your true sportsman may get a whole lot of pleas
 ure for himself by giving it to the other fellow. And that's why it Is that the gentlemanly instinct and the sports manshiplike instinct generally, if not in deed always, run in parallel lines. No hoggish fellow was ever a real sports man. I have said a thousand times when l would be told that this that individual in community was a thor ough sportsman then he is no doubt a gentleman to his toenails..' and sub sequent acquaintance has almost invari- ably confirmed this prognosis.
 Thus it follows that the fellow who claims all doubtful birds is not a sports
 man. Indeed when two experienced sportsman go atleld together there are no doubtful birds" They shoot according to established rules, either the alternate rises. or right and left. By right and left mean if the bird goes to the left of line drawn between the two and over the dog then the man on the left takes the shot and vice versa. By alternate. I mean when single birds are flushed the two take turns about In the shooting