RECREA T10N. 



33 



EDITOR'S CORNER. 



BY WAY OF EXPLANATION, 



Recreation is devoted to all legiti- 

 mate and healthful amusements, 

 outdoor and indoor. It will not 

 undertake to say all that maybe said of 

 any of these subjects, but will give 

 enough high class reading matter and 

 illustrations, on each topic, to be worth 

 $10 a year, yet the subscription price 

 is but $i. 



Recreation will be a clean, breezy 

 bright, spicy magazine, such as any lady 

 or gentleman, or any child may read with 

 pleasure and profit. Nothing will be 

 printed in it that could cause any one 

 to blush. 



It is not installed to fill a long felt 

 want. No one has wanted such a maga- 

 zine, that I know of. People don't get 

 time, nowadays, to want anything in the 

 way of reading matter ; but people will 

 want Recreation when they see it, and, 

 they will buy it. Recreation does not 

 claim that there is any special field for it. 

 It will make its own field and then culti- 

 vate it, industriously. 



Bill Nye has said, " It is better not to 

 know so much than to know so much 

 that aint so." Recreation does not 

 claim to know everything, but what it 

 does know, is so." It will be truthful and 

 practical. 



There are a number of sportsmen's 

 publications in this country of high rank 

 and long standing. Recreation is not 

 in the field to compete with any of 

 them. While the magazine is young its 

 price will be $i a year, and it will 

 give its readers the full value of their 

 money, just as surely as they get it in the 

 other publications, which charge more. 

 Recreation makes a small beginning, 

 but it will grow, and it will be well for 

 all interested to keep an eye on it. 



If you want a magazine built on these 

 lines send in your dollar at once. 



GENERAL CUSTER'S FIRST GRIZZLY. 



The group on the title page of this 

 issue of Recreation is a reproduction 

 of an historical painting. In a letter 

 written by General Custer, dated at 

 Camp Bear Butte, in the Black Hills, 

 August 15, 1874, he says : 



" I send you a photograph to-day 



which will convince you that I have, at 

 last, killed a grizzley bear, after a most 

 exciting hunt and contest. The bear 

 measured eight feet. I have his claws." 



This was General Custer's first grizzly, 

 though by no means his last. Persons 

 who are familiar with the history of the 

 opening of the Black Hills to settle- 

 ment will remember that, in the summer 

 of '74, General Custer made a careful 

 exploration of the Hills and of some of 

 the surrounding country. His official 

 report of that expedition reads like a 

 romance. He found beautiful val- 

 leys which were overgrown with rich 

 grass and painted in many colors, with 

 thousands of acres of flowers. He 

 found placer gold so near the surface 

 that the horses' hoofs turned it up 

 when cantering over the soft soil. He 

 found rich deposits of copper, valuable 

 bodies of timber and great cliffs of 

 mica, marble and gold-bearing quartz. 

 He found an abundance of large and 

 small game, and clear mountain streams 

 teeming with fish. All these he de- 

 scribed with the pen of a Verne. 



The picture here referred to was 

 painted from a photograph, taken on the 

 spot, by James H. Beard, N. A., the father 

 of Dan. C, J. Carter and Frank Beard, 

 of this city, under the personal direction 

 of General Custer, so that each face 

 shown in it is an actual portrait. With 

 the General are his brother, Boston 

 Custer, and Chief Bloody Knife. The 

 dog is General Custer's famous deer- 

 hound, Tuck, who, the General states 

 elsewhere, caught and pulled down 

 several antelope, at different times, in 

 straight-away races. 



The original painting is 24 x $6 inches 

 in size and is offered for sale, by the 

 widow of the deceased artist. 



No class of men have had so many 

 stirring adventures, and can relate them 

 so well, as our regular army officers. 

 Within the past thirty years the frontier 

 has been moved from the Missouri river 

 to the Pacific ocean, principally by force 

 of arms, so that there is now no frontier. 

 The United States army has done this 

 great work. The principal actors in this 

 thrilling drama — the army officers — are 

 all scholars ; many of them fluent 

 writers. Their minds are stored full of 

 reminiscences of Indian wars, scouting 

 service, hunting and fishing, camp life, 



