232 



RECREATION. 



mal or bird may be domesticated if taken 

 when young and confined to a small space; 

 but it is different with the gray squirrel. 

 You may turn out one or 10 or ioo of these 

 in a grove about your house, and if you will 

 not allow them to be shot at or otherwise 

 disturbed by men or dogs for 6 months, 

 they will become almost as tame as your 

 domestic animals and fowls. If you culti- 

 vate their acquaintance, walk among them, 

 talk to them, and feed them every day, you 

 will have them climbing over you, eating 

 from your hand, and even searching your 

 pockets for food, just as the squirrels do in 

 Central park. , 



If you could come into my office and see 

 Inkie climbing over the desks and over the 

 people employed in the office; note how 

 fond he is of them and how fond they are 

 of him, you would see the difference be- 

 tween the killing of squirrels and other 

 animals or birds. Hundreds of sportsmen 

 who have seen this little creature, and who 

 have made his acquaintance in my office, 

 have said they would never kill another 

 squirrel. 



There are many towns and cities in the 

 country whose inhabitants now systemati- 

 cally propagate squirrels in their parks, 

 and they are proving the most important 

 object lesson in nature study that has ever 

 been placed before these people. You may 

 turn a bunch of squirrels into any public 

 park in any town, and at first sight the 

 average town boy will go for them with a 

 club or a rock; but let this boy be re- 

 strained and cautioned and reasoned with, 

 and in a short time he will begin to admire 

 the pleasant manners, the graceful move- 

 ments, the beautiful eyes, and the waving 

 plume of his new neighbor. The next day, 

 or the next week, he will be ready to take 

 a club or a stone to any dog or cat, or even 

 any man or boy, who attempts to molest 

 one of these squirrels. The next day, or the 

 next week, you will find this same street 

 gamin carrying peanuts, or corn, or other 

 food, to the park, to feed the squirrels. In. 

 many of the towns or cities where squirrels 

 were put a year ago, or a few years ago, 

 you could scarcely hire a boy to kill one. 

 All of the boys, whose natural instincts 

 prompt them to kill every living thing they 

 find in the woods, have learned that the 

 gray squirrel is too beautiful, too interest- 

 ing, too familiar, and too lovable, when once 

 thoroughly known, to be considered an ob- 

 ject of game. 



Try it, brother Jones. Put out a few 

 squirrels in the trees about your house. 

 Put up some boxes for them. Cut a hole 

 in the bottom of each box large enough for 

 the squirrel to go in and out. If you cut 

 the hole in the side of the box, the birds 

 will appropriate it. If you cut it in the bot- 



tom, they will not. Then the squirrels will 

 not be disturbed in the occupancy of their 

 houses. Put food under the trees every 

 night, and let the squirrels find it there 

 every morning when they come down. Pro- 

 tect your little neighbors rigidly from an- 

 noyance or disturbance of any kind, and in 

 a few months you will be as radically op- 

 posed to the killing of squirrels as I am. — 

 Editor. 



LOOK OUT FOR ENGEL. 

 Readers of Recreation,, and especially 

 dealers in sporting goods, are cautioned 

 against extending credit to Dr. C. Engel, 

 Crescent, la. He has been buying goods 

 on credit from various people, and using 

 my name as reference, without my per- 

 mission. He bought a pair of snow-shoes 

 from A. N. Dunham, Norway, Me., and 

 promised to remit as soon as the goods 

 were received. He failed to keep this 

 promise, and after having had the snow- 

 shoes in his possession several months and 

 •on being urged to pay for them, he asked 

 permission to return them. This was in 

 November last. Mr. Dunham wrote En- 

 gel, accepting his proposition, but the shoes 

 have not been returned. 



Engel bought about $12 worth of goods 

 from Schoverling, Daly & Gales nearly 2 

 years ago, and has not paid a dollar on the 

 account. When they write him, urging re- 

 mittances, he ignores their letters. He or- 

 dered a $200 gun from a German gun- 

 maker, representing himself as one of the 

 leading American sportsmen, and promis- 

 ing to pay for the gun promptly if it pleased 

 him. The gun was shipped to Engel by ex- 

 press, and the maker has never heard from 

 him since. 



Engel is an unmitigated fraud, and should 

 be locked up. 



MORE CLERGYMEN IN TROUBLE. 



Game Warden M. F. Hardesty, of Asto- 

 ria, Oregon, recently made a remarkable 

 haul while looking for law breakers. He 

 found 4 Episcopalian clergymen and an- 

 other man fishing for trout in the Necani- 

 cum river at night. An Oregon statute 

 makes it a misdemeanor to even fish for 

 trout between one hour after sunset and 

 one hour before sunrise. These 4 reverend 

 fish pirates were taken to court, but as it 

 appeared that the Rev, J. E. Simpson, pas- 

 tor of St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Port- 

 land, was the only man in the party who 

 had caught any fish, he was fined $20 ana 

 costs. The others were, discharged. Mr. 

 Simpson's accomplices in this law breaking 

 were Rev. E. T. Simpson, pastor of All 

 Saints' Church, Portland, a brother of the 

 man who was fined; Rev. P. K. Hammond, 



