

‘A FAKE ELKHEAD. 
It seems strange you should let some at- 
torney write me when you could have 
done so and given me a statement about 
the head. We can arrange a settlement 
satisfactory to us both. I never knew elk 
horns could be spliced and am greatly sur- 
prised that you think they are, yet they 
might be, and I do not know it. I wish you 
would write and be fair with me, as I will 
with you and state how you are willing to 
make a fair settlement. 
Yours truly, 
J. Everett. 
~ 
Then Everett refunded: 
Livingston, Mont., March 2, 1899. 
Dr. Palmer. 
On your word that the horns are spliced 
I return you the $200 you sent me. You 
may do with them as you see fit. You 
now have them ffor only the express 
charges. Yours truly, 
J.. Everett. 
Here is another testimonial for Wittich. 
Livingston, Mont., Feb. 17, 1899. 
is. Palmer. 
I think the head you bought was one. 
that Wittich owned and he took that way . 
of getting the head off on to you. Now 
their play will be to pretend the head be- 
longed to some one else and that Everett 
was an innocent party and did not know 
the head was a fake. 5 
This from another expert: 
Orange, N: J., Feb. 12, 1899. 
Your postal received. When I read 
your letter about that elk head I was skep- 
tical about it. Tne largest known pair 
have a spread of 57 inches from outside of 
main beam—not from points that stick out. 
I have a pair that measure 60 inches from 
point to point, whereas the beam measure- 
ment is only 47 inches. There is a taxider- 
mist in Livingston, Mont., that works that 
kind of a trick. I have seen a pair from 
him that were so large I made critical ex- 
amination and found they were spliced 
with other parts of horns. It was well 
done, and only by careful examination 
could it be detected. That same man sent 
a pair to Germany and when they arrived 
they had fallen apart. There was a big 
TOw Over it. 
I wil give $300 for a pair of American 
elk horns that will measure 60 inches 
across outside of mainbeams and 63 inches 
along the beam. Yours very truly, 
Robert Gilfort. 
Davenport, Ia., March 7, 1809. 
I got the $200 back from the 22-point 
fake elk horns. As soon as I have time 
will mail you the letters so as you can 
write up the business. 


Dr. Palmer. 
And so ends this remarkable _ story. 
Readers will draw their own conclusions 
and hereafter will require something more 
147 
than “rough sketches’ and poor photo- 
graphs when buying heads from Wittich. 
This correspondence is printed solely 
for the purpose of protecting possible buy- 
ers of heads, and not for the purpose of 
doing Wittich or Everett any injustice. 

EDIEORSS CORNER. 
The Ancient Defender of Game Hogs. 
otherwise called ‘‘Forest and Stream,” 
devotes a page and a half to a review of 
one of my books, which I should thor- 
oughly appreciate if it had any circulation 
worth while. The A. D. G. H.. under- 
takes to show that 25 years ago, in Flori- 
da, I killed a vast amount of game. There 
were 4 of us in the party and so nearly as 
I can recall we killed 5 or 6 alligators, 2 
deer, 5 turkeys and 20 herons, egrets, etc. 
This in a 3 weeks’ hunt. Game abounded 
in those days and we could easily have 
killed 500 birds and 1oo alligators in the 
same time, if we had been the game hogs 
which the editor of the A. D. G. H. says 
we were. However, if we were there again 
I should. not kill so much game, because 
it 1s scarce now. 
The conditions that make some men 
game hogs now did not exist then and 
no one supposed they ever would. The 
difference between a man and a jackass is 
that a man can change his mind and—the 
editor of F. & S. can’t. 

J. J. Barkley, of Boone, Ia., is a candi- 
date for a seat in the Iowa legislature. He 
is president of the Boone County bank; 
a veteran of the civil war and has filled 
many positions of trust in years past. 
What recommends him most strongly to 
the readers of RECREATION is the fact 
that he is a thorough sportsman and a 
member of the L. A. S. All sportsmen 
in his district should therefore vote and 
work for him, without regard to party 
lines. If elected he will no doubt work 
hard for the improvement of the Iowa fish 
and game laws, and there is great need of 
some important amendments to these. 

The new fish law of Wisconsin prohib- 
its the sale of brook trout at all times. 
This is another State that has lined up on 
the side of prohibition. They will all get 
there in time. 

Join the L. A. S. The membership fee 
is only $1. Sixty cents of this goes back 
into your own state to be expended there 
in the work of game protection. 

Who wrote the poem entitled “The Song 
of the Hunted”? Am holding it for this 
information.—ED, 
