Sept. 14, 1895.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



229 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



The Case of Rebellious Goldstein. 



Chicago, 111., Sept. 7.— One day this week Mr. A. Gold- 

 stein, an Irishman who shoots around Thayer, Ind., 

 stepped off the train at Polk street station. Mr. Goldstein 

 had a bright, glad smile on his face and a big game bag 

 on his back. He was thinking what a fine Sunday dinner, 

 yet, the little Goldsteins were going to have, already, of 

 the prairie chickens he was carrying in his game bag. 

 Deputy Warden S. L. Hough (who isn't any relation of 

 mine, though he is a better looking man than I am) was 

 standing in the depot and he noticed Mr. Goldstein's smile 

 and also his game bag. He asked Mr. Goldstein to let him 

 look in the bag, and finding therein three illegal chickens 

 he took the entire outfit in charge and brought Mr. Gold- 

 stein before Justice Foster, who is now pondering over 

 how much he ought to soak him for. Mr. Goldstein's 

 lawyer was going to lick Deputy Hough and then scatter 

 his fragments, but he didn't do that, being perhaps absent- 

 minded. Mr. Goldstein rebels very much at the loss of 

 that Sunday dinner. 



Deputy Hough lives at Hinsdale, a Chicago suburb, and 

 has been doing good work among the early chicken 

 shooters and Sunday bird killers who infest the fields and 

 prairies west of the city. He has a raid or two formulated 

 for next Sunday and thinks he will make a good haul. 

 He tells me that he saw a covey of over a dozen chickens 

 this week near Wheaton, and says that really quite a 

 number of these birds have bred this year within twenty- 

 five miles of the heart of the city. It is astonishing how 

 the old prairie chicken clings to its old favorite breeding 

 grounds of upper Illinois. If I had time I think I could 

 make a goodish bag of these birds in Illinois, even after 

 the opening date, Sept. 15. 



There is a sigular bit of unwritten history which comes 

 up in connection with the visit of Mr. S, L. Hough to 

 this office yesterday (I had never met him before). It 

 seems that Mr. Hough was once in the TJ. S. Secret Ser- 

 vice, and while there learned a thing or two. It was he, 

 and' not Warden Ohas. H. Blow, who originated and 

 wrote the decoy letter which opened the big game freezer 

 at Kewanee, 111. Warden Blow, of course, took all the 

 credit for that, though he mishandled the case after it 

 was begun. His deputy cheerfully accords the warden 

 the credit which the latter is in the habit of cheerfully 

 ascribing to himself, but in this I cannot quite concur. It 

 is, for reasons stated above, not a matter of family pride 

 (though you can hypothecate your cherished existence 

 any one wearing that name is all right anyhow on the 

 game-freezer question); but it is due the public that some- 

 thing of the real nature be made known of our illustrious 

 warden, Chas. H. Wind. 



It has been the custom of the wardens here under the 

 Illinois law to seize illegal game when found and to seize 

 also the gun and equipment of the law-breaker. This was 

 the cause of the ire of Mr. Goldstein's lawyer, "You can't 

 take that stuff!" he cried. "But I have," was the reply. 

 All of which reminds me of a story told me by my friend 

 Dave Crane. It seems that Mr. Crane was once on a rail- 

 way car in Cincinnati, which car happened to be trans- 

 ferring toward home the remains of a German picnic. 

 Evidently there had been some music and perhaps a little 

 beer, for the band was coming home and it was sleepy. 

 The man who played the bass drum fell off into a doze, 

 and as he slept the conductor touched his shoulder and 

 asked him for his ticket. The musician awoke, rubbed 

 his eyes, fumbled in his pocket, and at length declared he 

 had lost his ticket. 



"Oh, come, look again," said the conductor; "you can't 

 have lost your ticket, you know !" 



The bass drum man felt again, and then cast a sudden 

 pained glance around him as another idea crossed his 

 mind. He missed his big drum, which should have been 

 resting by his side, but which some one had no doubt 

 appropriated somewhere while he was asleep. He thought 

 solemnly for a time while the conductor stood waiting, 

 and then said, with an air of firm conviction, "Vat makes 

 you t'ink I gouldn't lose dot ticket? I haf lost a bass 

 drum!" 



The Prairie Chicken Crop. 



It is too early yet to get a great deal of news from the 

 legal chicken shooters, and the news in possession of the 

 "sooners" who had been shooting a month ahead of time 

 is something hard to get hold of. It is likely that the 

 chicken crop is not so good as common in Dakota and 

 northwestern Nebraska, but better than common in Wis- 

 consin, Illinois and Iowa — States once shot out, but now 

 slowly regaining their head of game under the growing 

 sentiment in favor of protection. One party just back 

 from North Dakota, Mr. F. S. Baird and Mr. M. R. Bor- 

 tree, ascribe a scarcity of chickens to a peculiar source. 

 The farmers had been spreading a great deal of poison for 

 gophers, and it was thought that the birds had been de- 

 stroyed by this. These gentlemen killed only eighty 

 birds in three weeks. There is another agency to which 

 I think we could trace scarcity of birds in many regions, 

 and that is early, illegal, destructive and inconsiderate use 

 of the shotgun, by men who are butchers by trade or prac- 

 tice, by so-called sportsmen, or by men who think they 

 are sportsmen. Our friends may have been following in 

 the wake of such an agency, which is apt to be about as 

 bad as poison. There is no game bird living so helpless 

 against the shotgun as the pinnated grouse. It may be 

 futile hope to wish to see so grand a laird preserved for 

 another generation, but it seems too bad when one thinks 

 of the old stubble fields and grass lands of Illinois and 

 Iowa, which once carried so many of them, and whioh 

 now are entirely robbed of them. 



The Duck Crop. 

 It is still too early to get word of the duck crop this fall, 

 except in so far as the local birds are concerned. From 

 Horicon marsh comes w^rd of comparatively small shoot- 

 ing so far. At Maksawba Club grounds, on the Kan- 

 kakee, there was practically no shooting whatever. 

 Sometimes there are a few woodducks there, but this year 

 they seem to have traveled the long, cold road to f reezer- 

 dom a trifle ahead of time. The glory of the Kankakee 

 has departed. 



Personal. 



Mr. George E. Cole, of this city, who has been president 

 of a number of our active protective associations in the 

 past, but who resigned from such work a few years ago, 

 is in harness now on a different line, his rare executive 

 ability having made him a necessity in the council com- 



mittee of the Civic Federation, the local representative of 

 the "better government" movement which now seems 

 needful in large cities like Chicago. 



Mr. Wilbur Dubois, of Cincinnati, is a sportsman of a 

 very pleasant and desirable sort, as all of us know who were 

 with him on the hunting trip in Texas last winter. It is 

 with regret, therefore, that I note indications that Mr. 

 Dubois has created svrong impressions in the minds of 

 many as to his real character. Under his quiet demeanor 

 he has had things up his sleeve. The last number of iho 

 Midland Magazine contains a poem, "Types," by Mr. 

 Wilbur Dubois, and inquiry certifies me that he is him. 

 We did not think Mr. Dubois was going to do this when he 

 was along on the hunt. The worst of it is, it is pretty 

 good poetry too. 



Mr. and Mrs. Winfield S. Bell, of Pittsburg, Pa., stopped 

 to call at the Western office of Forest and Stream to-day 

 on their way West. Mr. Bell judges in the Manitoba 

 Club field trials next week at Morris, Man. The club is 

 to be congratulated on securing so good and desirable a 

 judge. Mrs. Bell has never seen the dogs out in a chicken 

 country, and justly anticipates a pleasure. Mr. Bell de- 

 clares himself as one of those who do not think ability to 

 run fast is the one desirable quality in a bird dog, and in 

 that far I am sure I agree with him. To a plain citizen 

 like myself, who is just folks, the wonder may sometimes 

 arise what field trials are all about. Being just folks, I 

 could never see why a "bench type" should be different 

 from a "field type," or why a field type should be differ- 

 ent from just a plain dog that a fellow can go out and 

 have a lot of fun shooting some birds over. Suppose we 

 say that bench shows and field trials have a business side 

 to them. To whom do these business winners wish to sell 

 their stock? Why, certainly to the amateur sportsman, 

 the bone and sinew of the whole sportsman fabric, the 

 man who subsorioes to the sporting papers, who reads the 

 advertisements, and buys the sporting dogs and the sport- 

 ing goods. The amateur sportsman is the man to be con- 

 sidered. And yet my business winners have been trying 

 to sell him a sort of dog that is in no way 

 suited to his needs — that races, but does not re- 

 trieve, etc., etc., in short, a mighty poor kind of 

 meat dog. This is the business side of it, and yet,» being 

 just plain folks, I could never for the life of me see 

 just where the business sense of it came in. Alas! for my 

 old chicken dog. I wish I had him now. But what 

 business winner is advertising— not winners, but just 

 dogs; not rangers, but plain dogs; not wonders, but just 

 chicken dogs as is chicken dogs? I want to learn just 

 what shows and trials are doing for the plain folks of this 

 country, who don't know points in the bench, but do 

 know points in the field when they see them, and like to 

 see them whenever they go hunting. No one has ever 

 written the Mort de Chicken Dog, but there is a chance 

 here for an epic of regret. 



Where "Forest and Stream" is at. 



To-day I saw something which surprised me, not 

 because of its sort, but on account of its size. 

 I was in the Btore of Jas. H, Fisk, of this city, 

 one of the advertisers in the Forest and Stream. "Next 

 year I think I Bhall use no paper but Forest and 

 Stream," said Mr. Fisk to me, "because it brings me 

 more returns than any or all of the others." Mr. Fisk 

 then proceeded, to show me the reason for his conviction. 

 He has kept 'a check list of all inquirers coming 

 in from his different advertisements. Some of these he 

 could not trace, as the writer did not name the paper in 

 which he had seen the advt. This collection was marked 

 "Miscellaneous," and it was the largest of any under any 

 head. The method of record was to make a mark for 

 each response to the advt., these marks being placed op- 

 posite each paper's name. Six upright marks were made 

 and then a cross or "tally" mark made across the row. 

 Forest and Stream had three rows of these tallies oppo- 

 site its name, or forty-eight tallies in all. A Chicago 

 weekly publication, in which the advt. had been running 

 for only one month less time, had only eighteen tallies 

 to show. The other papers, mostly printed in New York, 

 were not in the competition. Of course I knew that 

 Forest and Stream was far in the lead of all the sport- 

 ing papers, but I did not know the lead was in so strong 

 a per cent, as this. Mr. Fisk was originally averse to 

 advertising in Forest and Stream, because he thought it 

 "more of an Eastern paper." He doesn't think that now. 

 The relative value of Forest and Stream to Chicago and 

 Western advertisers was never more clearly and unmis- 

 takably shown. 



Mr. Fisk told me that he sold goods all over the country 

 through Forest and Stream, and that lately he sold a bill 

 of $30 worth of goods to a man in Boston. Not long 

 ago the John Wilkinson Co. , of Chicago, told me they ' 

 had just outfitted complete a party of New York men 

 who were going up into Maine. There are some things 

 about the sporting goods trade which cannot be decided 

 out of hand and without a little investigation. 



A New Tent. 



The growth of the bicycle has caused Mr. A. S. Corn- 

 stock, the Protean man, to come out with a new Protean 

 bicycle tent. This is a Protean split in two, making it 

 4x<$ft. in size, big enough for a man, a dog and a bike, 

 and weighing only 41bs. 



Is this the Pine-Nut Bear. 



I am in recent receipt of the following letter from Mr. 

 C. H. Blanchard, of Silver City, Juab county, Utah, 

 which may prove of interest to others beside myself. He 

 says: "Like you, I believe in William Tell, me! Your 

 pursuit of the scientific fellows on the question of the 

 species of deer and bear, as well as the horned snakes, is 

 interesting, and we hope you will continue the contro- 

 versy until these questions are settled as we are leaning 

 something withal. Inclosed please find a slip cut from a 

 newspaper which gives an account of what would seem 

 to be a new species of bear." 



The clipping reads as follows: 



"A New Species of Bkar.^A bear that seems to be certainly a new 

 variety, and Is regarded by some as of a distinct species, is reported 

 from our arctic domain of Alaska, where it frequents the vicinity of 

 the Mount St, Elias glaciers. It is of moderate size and is thus de- 

 scribed by W. H. Dall, the naturalist, writing to Science from Sitka, 

 under date of June 2d: 'The general color of the animal resembles 

 that of a silver fox. The fur is not very long, but remarkably soft 

 and with a rich under-fur of a bluish-black shade, numbers of the lon- 

 ger hairs being white, or having the distal half white and the bastal 

 part slaty. Tne dorsal line from the tip of the nose to the rump, the 

 back of the very short ears ana the outer faces of the limbs are jet 

 black. Numerous long white hairs issue from the ears; black and sil- 

 ver is the prevalent pelage of the sides, neck and rump; the under 



surface of the belly and the sinuses behind the limbs are grayish • 

 white or even nearly pure white, I am told, in some cases. The sides 

 of the muzzle and the lower anterior part of the cheeks are of a 

 bright tan color, a character I have not seen in any other American 

 bear; and this character is said to be invariable. There is no tint of 

 brown elsewhere in the pelage. There is no tail visible on the pelts. 

 The claws are small, very much curved, sharp, black above and 

 lighter below: the animal evidently can climb trees, which the brown 

 bear cannot do. 



'This bear is known to range about the St. Elias glaciers, especially 

 near Yakutat, and a single specimen has been killed on the mountains 

 as far east as Juaeau. About thirty -five skins have been brought to 

 Sitka, mostly from Yakutat. A mounted skin, the only one known as 

 yet osaid to contain the skull), is in the possession of Mr. Frank A. 

 Bartiett, of Port.Townsend, Wash. 1 " 



The main troublo with the old hunters as against 

 Science seems to have been that they did not know a 

 sinus when they saw it. A bear without any sinus is, as 

 I understand it, no good from a scientific standpoint, 

 whereas a bear with copious sinuses is a howling scien- 

 tific success. As this bear is fixed up all right on the 

 sinus line, and as it was viewed by a scientist and not by 

 a hunter, it may stand a good chance of getting into the 

 kingdom of Science, where all well-regulated animals 

 should go. 



As to this being the pine-nut bear, one can only say 

 Quien sabe? Old Bill Hamilton says that no naturalist 

 ever saw a pine-nut bear, and that the old hunters only 

 saw a few of them. The Alaska bear does not tally 

 exactly with the pine-nut bear, or rather, one cannot tell 

 exactly whether it does or not, exoept in one respect. 

 The sharp, curved claws were mentioned to me both by 

 Bill Hamilton and A. Gottschalk, of Bozeman, a fur 

 dealer of experience, as peculiarities of the pine-nut bear. 

 Of course I nave written to Mr. Bartiett and asked him to 

 tell us more about his specimen. 



Can They Climb? 



Science advises us that we have only two kinds of bear, 

 the black and the grizzly. We are told that the black 

 bear climbs trees, the grizzly never. Yet we are also told 

 that the cinnamon bear is only a grizzly bear with a red 

 coat. But Kit Carson, though no scientist, tells of two 

 cinnamon bears that he saw climb a tree. I have had 

 five different hunters tell me of cases of the cinnamon 

 bear climbing trees, and I have had old hunters express 

 surprise at the statement that they do not so climb. Hith- 

 erto Science has never observed the phenomenon of a 

 climbing cinnamon, perhaps because Science has always 

 reserved the right to climb the tree itself. I never saw a 

 cinnamon bear climb a tree myself, but if I had it would 

 make no difference, for I am not a scientist. All we can 

 hope is that this new bear may prove itself capable of 

 passing the civil service examination in sinuses and abil- 

 ity to climb; and then maybe we can call it Ursus cana- 

 densis, or virginiensis, or something of that sort, since it 

 is found in Alaska. That will be all right. 



E. Hough. 



909 Security Building, Chicago. 



For Park Buffalo Protection. 



Union League Club, New York.— Editor Forest and 

 Stream: As a constant reader of Forest and Stream I 

 have always taken great interest in its efforts to save 

 from extermination the big game of this country and 

 especially in the efforts which it has put forth to save the 

 buffalo. 



Eeading recently of the continued slaughter of the Yel- 

 lowstone Park herd, the thought has occurred to me why 

 could not a part of the favorite feeding grounds of the 

 buffalo in the Yellowstone Park be fenced off with a wire 

 fence, into which the animals could be driven and allowed 

 to breed in peace and safety. 



Hay also could be provided for them in unusually cold 

 winters. 



1 do not suppose there is any Government appropriation 

 which could be used for fencing the necessary land, which 

 should be of large area, but I suggest that the money be 

 raised by private subscription. 



I should be willing to contribute my mite, and if all 

 others who are interested in the preservation of the 

 buffalo would do likewise a sufficient sum would soon be 

 raised. 



Trusting that Forest and Stream will be willing to 

 undertake the task of receiving subscriptions and seeing 

 to the application of the fund. 



A Constant Reader. 



Some Sound Doctrine. 



Every physician must know that if civilized man would 

 only follow his instincts in respect to fresh air, sunlight, 

 exercise, food, water, bathing, etc., he would be far 

 healthier, happier, and even more moral than he now is. 

 Our dyspeptic race would be better in every way for a 

 greater indulgence in "the pleasures of the table" (includ- 

 ing at least twenty-two minutes for dinner), for more cat- 

 like basking in the sun, for a good deal more "barbaric 

 indolence," for more rebellion against the fiendish old 

 saw that "Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to 

 do," for a more frequent giving way to the impulse to 

 fling the yardstick out of the window and the ledger 

 under the desk, and away to the woods, the fields, and the 

 mountains! If the grown man would but run away and 

 "go swimmin'," as the boy does!— Medical News, Aug, %%> 



" Singgamble." 



Central Lake, Mich., Sept. 2.— The very full and inter- 

 esting reply of El Comancho to my query about the "sing- 

 gamble fire" has been read and re-read with great inter- 

 est, and I tender him my sincere thanks for his courteous 

 attention to my request. 



I had hoped to meet him this season in his own country, 

 also to cast a fly with Judge Greene and do two or three 

 other things which cannot properly be managed this side 

 of the P*ockies, but I find that I must wait awhile. 



Kelpie. 



Minnesota Game. 



Warren, Minn. , Sept. 2. — The chicken crop is unusu- 

 ally short this season throughout this section of the North- 

 west. It is due chiefly to heavy rains during the hatching 

 season. 



There will undoubtedly be an abundance of ducks and 

 geese as well as deer. 



Parties contemplating a season with Minnesota's big 

 game will do well to read the new game law. Remac. 



