A 
‘i 
5 
2 
é 
5 
x 
» tess 
> ne 


; October 
“What a month of rare gold is October!” 
exclaimed the Optimist. “Next October, next 
October!” runs an old song, and, indeed, how 
good the old earth seems just before the sum- 
mer is laid to rest neath a harvest of leaves. 
Why, Dreams come true in October! 
But the birds are saying good-by. Here and 
there, in field and fen, one may hear a few 
snatches of song, but only a bar or two of the 
entire hymn. A thrusk may tune up a little and 
a Bob White manage to call ‘‘White.” A lone 
robin may give promise of its full song, only to 
lapse suddenly into silence again. To-morrow 
snow may fly. You shrink from contemplation. 
Bluebirds passing overhead carol softly, “Far- 
away,” and its echo in your heart answers, 
“Hurry back.” 
The autumnal splendor seems to have been 
caught fora moment in the treetops, just before 
it all vanishes. The forest runs riot with bril- 
liant colors, but the asters and goldenrod, prim- 
roses and gentians are fast fading, and in their 
place have come the softer, more satisfying 
tints. Lo! Here isa solitary, vagrant violet-—a 
vagabond among the gypsy weeds of fall. Just 
the same, it whispers something about spring 
coming again. 
The crickets and winds are singing summer 
to sleep. She is so weary and tired with the 
great burdens she has borne; let her rest 
a while. And when she wakes, the light in her 
eyes will be brighter because she has slept. 

Why Deer Are Scarce 
David Patterson, a section house keeper for 
the Northwestern Railroad, whose place is near 
Watersmeet, in Gogebic County, Mich., was 
found guilty during August last of having killed 
or being identified with the ki=ing, out of sea- 
son, of deer to the number of at least forty. 
In a spring house near the section house 
Deputy Game Warden Voght, of Escanaba, 
found a barrel of fresh venison. At a point 
across the Ontonagon River from the section 
house a barrel of green hides was located, but it 
was in the waters of t_ civer that the most 
astounding evidence of « slaughter of deer 
was found. The warde- “>covered in an eddy 
RX. “ i £ Z, 
We AGHA 
SN SZ 
caused by a big pile of drift over twenty-five 
deer hides floating in the water, and portions of 
the bodies of many deer that had been recently 
killed, as well as the bodies of two unborn 
fawns, which had been thrown into the river 
and had lodged in the pile of drift. 
Patterson had long been under suspicion, it 
being understood that he carried on a regular 
business of killing deer out of season, and had 
furnished the greater proportion of the meat 
supply for a section gang of nine men, in addi- 
tion to supplying travelers and fishermen. 
The warden, on obtaining sufficient evidence 
to convict the man, went to Ironwood and swore 
out a warrant for his arrest. And then, in the 
face of the fact that for several months State 
Game Warden Chapman had been working on 
the case, and despite the enormity of the 
offense, on the recommendation of Warden 
Voght, the prisoner was dismissed on payment 
of a fine of $50! 
They do it in about the same way in Maine 
and in the Adirondacks, only in Maine they 
don’t cause arrest or‘impose a fine. Men will 
tell you, “Why, they always have killed deer in 
summer in Maine, and in the Adirondacks, and 
they always will. The deer are there, and the 
proprietors of the ‘camps’ won’t go to the 
trouble and expense of packing in mutton and 
beef.” So “‘Carletonism”’ lets them have their 
way about it, only requiring them to waste 
nothing, and ‘‘Whippleism” does the same, but 
collects a small fine on occasion. We doubt not 
there isa good graft goes with both isms. 
We submit to State Game Warden Chapman, 
of Michigan, that the best thing he can do is put 
David Patterson and all his ilk out of business. 
No need to say it cannot be done, for Scott, 
of Montana; Fullerton, of Minnesota, and 
Thomas, of Vermont, have disproved that. 
The sportsmen of Michigan will not long stand 
for an administration that tends toward the 
Maine idea. The sportsmen who go to Michi- 
gan to hunt and fish will not grow and multiply 
under a “‘diplomatic administration” as they 
have in Maine. The day of the game and fish 
commissioner who can successfully play both 
ends against the middle, chanting all the while, 
“Tt pays to advertise,” is passing rapidly away. 
Nothing will do but to enforce the laws. 
