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 Fishing and
 Shooting Sketches

 BY
 GROVER CLEVELAND

 Illustrated by
 HENRY S. WATSON

 NEW YORK
 THE OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY
 1906




 COPYRIGHT, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, BY THE CURTIS PUBLISHING CO.
 COPYRIGHT, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, BY THE INDEPENDENT.
 COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY THE PRESS PUBLISHING CO.
 COPYRIGHT, 1905, BY THE COUNTRY CALENDAR.
 COPYRIGHT, 1906, BY THE OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY.

 Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England.

 _All Rights Reserved._

 THE OUTING PRESS
 DEPOSIT, N. Y.




 [Illustration: From Copyright Photo, by Pach.
                      Yours truly
                         Grover Cleveland]




 CONTENTS


                                                  PAGE

 THE MISSION OF SPORT AND OUTDOOR LIFE              3
 A DEFENSE OF FISHERMEN                            19
 THE SERENE DUCK HUNTER                            49
 THE MISSION OF FISHING AND FISHERMEN              79
 SOME FISHING PRETENSES AND AFFECTATIONS          111
 SUMMER SHOOTING                                  139
 CONCERNING RABBIT SHOOTING                       153
 A WORD TO FISHERMEN                              165
 A DUCK HUNTING TRIP                              179
 QUAIL SHOOTING                                   197




The Mission of Sport and Outdoor Life


I am sure that it is not necessary for me, at this late day, to dwell
upon the fact that I am an enthusiast in my devotion to hunting and
fishing, as well as every other kind of outdoor recreation. I am so
proud of this devotion that, although my sporting proclivities have at
times subjected me to criticism and petty forms of persecution, I make
no claim that my steadfastness should be looked upon as manifesting the
courage of martyrdom. On the contrary, I regard these criticisms and
persecutions as nothing more serious than gnat stings suffered on the
bank of a stream--vexations to be borne with patience and afterward
easily submerged in the memory of abundant delightful accompaniments.
Thus, when short fishing excursions, in which I have sought relief
from the wearing labors and perplexities of official duty, have been
denounced in a mendacious newspaper as dishonest devices to cover
scandalous revelry, I have been able to enjoy a sort of pleasurable
contempt for the author of this accusation, while congratulating myself
on the mental and physical restoration I had derived from these
excursions. So, also, when people, more mistaken than malicious, have
wagged their heads in pitying fashion and deprecated my indulgence
in hunting and fishing frivolity, which, in high public service, I
have found it easy to lament the neglect of these amiable persons
to accumulate for their delectation a fund of charming sporting
reminiscence; while, at the same time, I sadly reflected how their
dispositions might have been sweetened and their lives made happier if
they had yielded something to the particular type of frivolity which
they deplored.

I hope it may not be amiss for me to supplement these personal
observations by the direct confession that, so far as my attachment to
outdoor sports may be considered a fault, I am, as related to this
especial predicament of guilt, utterly incorrigible and shameless. Not
many years ago, while residing in a non-sporting but delightfully
cultured and refined community, I found that considerable indignation
had been aroused among certain good neighbors and friends, because it
had been said of me that I was willing to associate in the field with
any loafer who was the owner of a dog and gun. I am sure that I did not
in the least undervalue the extreme friendliness of those inclined to
intervene in my defense; and yet, at the risk of doing an apparently
ungracious thing, I felt inexorably constrained to check their kindly
efforts by promptly conceding that the charge was too nearly true to be
denied.

There can be no doubt that certain men are endowed with a sort of
inherent and spontaneous instinct which leads them to hunting and
fishing indulgence as the most alluring and satisfying of all
recreations. In this view, I believe it may be safely said that the true
hunter or fisherman is born, not made. I believe, too, that those who
thus by instinct and birthright belong to the sporting fraternity and
are actuated by a genuine sporting spirit, are neither cruel, nor greedy
and wasteful of the game and fish they pursue; and I am convinced that
there can be no better conservators of the sensible and provident
protection of game and fish than those who are enthusiastic in their
pursuit, but who, at the same time, are regulated and restrained by the
sort of chivalric fairness and generosity, felt and recognized by every
true sportsman.

While it is most agreeable thus to consider hunting and fishing as
constituting, for those especially endowed for their enjoyment, the
most tempting of outdoor sports, it is easily apparent that there
is a practical value to these sports as well as all other outdoor
recreations, which rests upon a broader foundation. Though the
delightful and passionate love for outdoor sports and recreation is not
bestowed upon every one as a natural gift, they are so palpably related
to health and vigor, and so inseparably connected with the work of life
and comfort of existence, that it is happily ordained that a desire
or a willingness for their enjoyment may be cultivated to an extent
sufficient to meet the requirements of health and self-care. In other
words, all but the absolutely indifferent can be made to realize that
outdoor air and activity, intimacy with nature and acquaintanceship with
birds and animals and fish, are essential to physical and mental
strength, under the exactions of an unescapable decree.

Men may accumulate wealth in neglect of the law of recreation; but how
infinitely much they will forfeit, in the deprivation of wholesome
vigor, in the loss of the placid fitness for the quiet joys and
comforts of advancing years, and in the displacement of contented age by
the demon of querulous and premature decrepitude!

     "For the good God who loveth us
     He made and loveth all."


A Law not to Be Disobeyed

Men, in disobedience of this law, may achieve triumph in the world of
science, education and art; but how unsatisfying are the rewards thus
gained if they hasten the night when no man can work, and if the later
hours of life are haunted by futile regrets for what is still left
undone, that might have been done if there had been closer communion
with nature's visible forms!

In addition to the delight which outdoor recreations afford to those
instinctively in harmony with their enjoyment, and after a recognition
of the fact that a knowledge of their nerve- and muscle-saving
ministrations may be sensibly cultivated, there still remains another
large item that should be placed to their credit. Every individual, as a
unit in the scheme of civilized social life, owes to every man, woman
and child within such relationship an uninterrupted contribution to the
fund of enlivening and pleasurable social intercourse. None of us can
deny this obligation; and none of us can discharge it as we ought, if
our contributions are made in the questionable coin of sordidness and
nature's perversion. Our experience and observation supply abundant
proof that those who contribute most generously to the exhilaration and
charm of social intercourse will be found among the disciples of outdoor
recreation, who are in touch with nature and have thus kept fresh and
unperverted a simple love of humanity's best environment.


A Chance in the Open for All

It seems to me that thoughtful men should not be accused of exaggerated
fears when they deprecate the wealth-mad rush and struggle of American
life and the consequent neglect of outdoor recreation, with the
impairment of that mental and physical vigor absolutely essential to our
national welfare, and so abundantly promised to those who gratefully
recognize, in nature's adjustment to the wants of man, the care of "the
good God" who "made and loveth all."

Manifestly, if outdoor recreations are important to the individual and
to the nation, and if there is danger of their neglect, every
instrumentality should be heartily encouraged which aims to create and
stimulate their indulgence in every form.

Fortunately, the field is broad and furnishes a choice for all except
those wilfully at fault. The sky and sun above the head, the soil
beneath the feet, and outdoor air on every side are the indispensable
requisites.




A Defense of Fishermen


By way of introduction and explanation, it should be said that there is
no intention at this time to deal with those who fish for a livelihood.
Those sturdy and hard-working people need no vindication or defense.
Our concern is with those who fish because they have an occult and
mysterious instinct which leads them to love it, because they court the
healthful,