254 FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER. 



I notice that some of the comrades are complaining that they 

 . do not get a square deal from some of the fur buyers. Shame ! 

 shame! brothers. Do you not know that the Fur Dealer is not 

 even making -a living profit out of your pelts? That is the rea- 

 son why there are so many in the business. And do they not 

 always urge the trapper to send in his furs early for fear there 

 will be a drop in the price, and the poor trapper will lose on the 

 price of his furs? Now, boys, can't you see that the average fur 

 buyer is awfully good to the poor trapper? But comrades, are 

 not we, the trappers, partly to blame for this unfair deal? Are 

 we careful that our furs are at least fairly prime and carefully 

 cured and handled? Are we always careful when making our 

 estimate to give a fair grade ourselves? 



This, comrades, we should always be careful to do, and then 

 we should never ship our furs only to parties who are willing to 

 hold them until they have quoted what price they can pay for 

 the bunch. If the prices are not satisfactory, the fur dealer 

 should have agreed with the shipper before the furs were shipped 

 to him to pay one-half of all express charges, and either return 

 the furs to the shipper or to any house in their city that the ship- 

 per may designate. 



Now, comrades, make some such bargain with your dealer, 

 ?nd if you do not get a square deal do not be shy in giving the 

 transaction with the dealer's name. 



* * * 



Comrades of the trap line, come down to camp and let us 

 talk over this question of the fast disappearance of the furbearing 

 animals. The fact of timber becoming scarce has made nearly 

 every one timber-mad no, that is not right, I mean money-mad 

 and they wish to secure this money through the fast increasing 

 value of timber. In the late sixties, right here in sight of where 

 I am sitting, I saw as nice white pine cut and put into log heaps, 

 burned up for the purpose of clearing the land, as ever grew. 



Now, boys, I liken the trapper and the dig-'em-out and the 

 dog-hunter to our ancestors in the wasting of timber, only our 

 ancestors at that time could not see the value of the timber that 

 they were wasting. The trapper, the di^ 'em-out and the dog- 



