THE REFERENDUM. 



507 



to the bag, and takes them to his home, 

 where he keeps them until the weather has 

 moderated sufficiently to release them. 



If the sportsmen in the vicinity of Arenac 

 county, Michigan, want to have sport when 

 the gunning season comes in, let them follow 

 the example of Mr. Wilson, and then they 

 will have no reason to bemoan their luck, as 

 it is the only way to preserve the birds dur- 

 ing the long, cold winter months. 



Harry S. Smith (Bob White), 

 Philadelphia, Pa. 



A GIFTED EDITOR. 



Editor Recreation : 



The men who occupy the editorial chair of 

 the lay press are gifted in their own peculiar 

 way. Their knowledge of current events, of 

 ancient history, and future politics is undis- 

 puted, except among themselves. Occasion- 

 ally one of these gentlemen drifts and, after 

 the fashion of the drunken sailor, runs amuck 

 in new water. Read this leading editorial 

 from the Tribune of Oakland, Cal., the town 

 known on the Pacific Coast as the place where 

 San Franciscans sleep : 



The senate did a foolish thing in passing the 

 bill making it a felony to kill an elk. What has 

 made the elk a sacred animal in California? Is 

 the elk any more sacred than a deer or an ante- 

 lope or a plain, ordinary steer for that matter? 

 It is already a criminal offense to kill an elk out 

 of season or to slay one at any time belonging 

 to another person — to surround it with the sanctity 

 of the white elephant in India or the white bull 

 in ancient Egypt is an act of legislative absurdity. 

 Surely the honorable, senators do not believe any 

 sane jury would send a man to the State prison for 

 killing an elk without criminal intent. Some 

 queer kinks get a run in legislative bodies, but this 

 holy elk bill is about the queerest that ever came 

 over the pike. 



I believe that it was in Golden Gate 

 Park, San Francisco, that one of the noblest 

 specimens of elk in captivity was shot sev- 

 eral years ago to adorn the lodge of a local 

 secret organization. Perhaps this editor is 

 the friend of the man who shot this elk, for, 

 if I remember aright, never was a bunch of 

 criminals "toasted" to such a turn. 



C. H. Ireland, San Jose, Cal. 



A CAMPFIRE TALE 



Editor Recreation : 



Around the campfire one night the talk 

 was of bears. Our guide, Leslie, had ob- 

 served signs of bruin around the carcass of 

 a bull moose we had shot a few days before 

 near the margin of the lake, and a bear 

 hunt was suggested; but the old guide dis- 

 couraged us, and said the chances were de- 

 cidedly against our getting to close quarters 

 with bruin on a still hunt. We were then 

 camped near by a brook, distant some twelve 



miles from Grand Falls, in New Brunswick 

 — in the very midst of the big game country. 



"A bear," observed Leslie, "is a wily 

 critter, and it is impossible to follow his 

 tracks, except after the first snow during 

 the early winter before the bear seeks win- 

 ter quarters under some old root or in a 

 large hollow log. Even then, a bear will 

 lead the hunter a chase through almost im- 

 passable thickets, where it is nigh impossible 

 to follow, and although a trained dog may 

 overtake and tree him, man cannot success- 

 fully follow him. To still hunt a bear at 

 this season would be a waste of time. A 

 bear is gifted by nature with excellent au- 

 ditory olfactory nerves, and he will gener- 

 ally keep out of the hunter's view. Fre- 

 quently bruin is surprised, but on such oc- 

 casions he is generally so preoccupied in at- 

 tending to the cravings of his stomach that 

 he fails to observe the approach of man. 

 When he does catch a glimpse of his enemy, 

 bruin loses no time in performing the disap- 

 pearing act." 



To my query, if a bear would take the 

 initiative in attacking man if very hungry, 

 our guide replied, "no." "A bear," he said, 

 "is the greatest coward that inhabits those 

 woods, and will always fight shy of man 

 unless cornered. A she bear with cubs," 

 he continued, "will protect them and attack 

 any person who molests them. Now a bull 

 moose is a really dangerous animal who will 

 sometimes go out of his way to attack a 

 human being, but a bear will always fight 

 shy of encountering man. I have," said c-tr 

 guide, "killed over thirty bears in my life- 

 time — killed 'em in all sorts of ways — 

 trapped 'em, shot 'em, killed several with an 

 axe, and one in a square, stand-up fight 

 with a knife. I have been badly chewed sev- 

 eral times, but I never received a serious 

 wound. I would have no fears if I en- 

 countered a bear when unarmed, since a 

 bear, as I remarked, is a craven coward who 

 will always flee from the sight of man. I 

 was only once frightened by a bear — that is, 

 frightened to an extent which never befell 

 me before or since." 



We pressed him to tell us the story, which 

 I will narrate in nearly his own words. 



"I was about seventeen years old when I 

 passed my first winter working in the lum- 

 ber woods for my uncle. My uncle had two 

 camps distant some six miles from each 

 other, and towards the early part of spring, 

 operations having ceased near the further 

 camp, he sent me and a chopper named 

 Worth to the abandoned camp to transport 

 a barrel of pork which had been left in the 

 latter camp. We started after breakfast, 

 and the day being warm, the snow was 

 rapidly melting, which made walking both 

 tiresome and unpleasant. We reached the 

 camp after a few hours travel, and removing 

 the pork from the barrel placed it in two 



