Will
the hunters ever catch up?

The anglers have steadily diminished the weight of the rod and the size
of the line; and they have prohibited the use of gang hooks and nets. In
this respect the initiative of the Tuna Club of Santa Catalina is worthy
of the highest admiration. Even though the leaping tuna, the jewfish and
the sword-fish are big and powerful, the club has elected to raise the
standard of sportsmanship by making captures more difficult than ever
before. A higher degree of skill, and nerve and judgment, is required in
the angler who would make good on a big fish; and, incidentally, the
fish has about double "the show" that it had fifteen years ago.

That is Sportsmanship!

But how is it with the men who handle the shot-gun?

By them, the Tuna Club's high-class principle has been exactly reversed!
In the making of fishing-rods, commercialism plays small part; but in
about forty cases out of every fifty the making of guns is solely a
matter of dollars and profits.

Excepting the condemnation of automatic and pump guns, I think that few
clubs of sportsmen have laid down laws designed to make shooting more
difficult, and to give the game more of a show to escape. Thousands of
gentlemen sportsmen have their own separate unwritten codes of honor,
but so far as I know, few of them have been written out and adopted as
binding rules of action. I know that among expert wing shots it is an
unwritten law that quail and grouse must not be shot on the ground, nor
ducks on the water. But, among the three million gunners who annually
shoot in the United States how many, think you, are there who in actual
practice observe any sentimental principles when in the presence of
killable game? I should say about one man and boy out of every five
hundred.

Up to this time, the great mass of men who handle guns have left it to
the gunmakers to make their codes of ethics, and hand them out with the
loaded cartridges, all ready for use.

For fifty years the makers of shot-guns and rifles have taxed their
ingenuity and resources to make killing easier, especially for "amateur"
sportsmen,--_and take still greater advantages of the game_! Look at
this scale of progression:

FIFTY YEARS' INCREASE IN THE DEADLINESS OF FIREARMS.

KIND OF GUN. ESTIMATED DEGREE OF DEADLINESS.

Single-shot muzzle loader xx 10
Single-shot breech-loader