24 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Jan. 81, 18S9. 



brings us to the simple business proposition of how much 

 protection can be enforced, and the answer is you can 

 stop hounding and crust-hunting if you extend the open 

 season to August and September, ff five months is too 

 long lop off December, and if you wish, November also. 

 The protection of deer will then become a matter of per- 

 sonal interest to the vast majority of men who frequent 

 the woods. But why not make the sportsmen who wish 

 to kill deer pay directly to the State a portion of the 

 expenses of protection? Charge everv man who wants to 

 hunt deer a license fee of ten dollars for the season, and 

 prohibit any man from carrying a gun into the woods 

 who has not first secured a license. Your game wardens 

 can issue these licenses, and the amounts collected will 

 doubtless more than defray their salaries. Then every 

 sportsman who has paid his fee will have a personal 

 interest in seeing that the laws are strictly enforced. 



There are doubtless some who will not agree with these 

 suggestions, but in filing your objections, brethren, please 

 bear in mind that the protection of fish and game in 

 Maine has no more ardent supporter than 



Anthony Morce. 



THE SHOOTING CLUBS OF CHICAGO. 



TV. — ODD CORNERS ABOUT POX LAKE.— THE FOX RIVER 

 ASSOCIATION. 



rpHERE are certain landmarks about Fox Lake, with- 

 J. out which the sportsman of that district is left at 

 sea. I am not sure that is the correct wav of mixing a 

 metaphor, but what I want to say is that, if no mention 

 should be made of certain of the old-time places about 

 the lake, the best of descriptions could only be found 

 wanting. 



Now there's Col. Lippincott's place, over on the tim- 

 bered point. Everybody knows "Lippincott's," and 

 everybody knows Col. Lippincott. Nobody knows how 

 old he is. He is a fixture of the lake district. He dis- 

 covered Fox Lake. He was, if you mav believe Col. 

 Lippincott. upon this spot before Fox Lake* was dreamed 

 of. In the dim days of the glacial epoch, when the 

 vasty North hung in a dim haze of nothingness and cold, 

 and ere the grind of the Laurentian niggerhead" was 

 heard upon the greensward of what was once a wide and 

 pleasant plain, Col. Lippincott, slightly gray and even at 

 that data a man of wide experience, was on hand, spec- 

 tacles on nose, to see that Fox Lake was properly con- 

 structed. It was he who watched the primordial germ as 

 it slowly and gently floated in out of the circumambient 

 chaos, and who guarded it tenderly as it in the course of 

 ages centralized, functionized, grew, expanded, took on 

 stature, length and fins, and at length burst forth with 

 the merry, rippling smile of the muscallonge. The first 

 black bass ever known was — contrary, perhaps, to gen- 

 eral belief— the invention of Col. Lippincott himself, and 

 he has, since he first conceived the idea, made many im- 



?rovements upon the place covered by his first patents, 

 t is due to Col. Lippincott that the black bass has 

 attained his present high standing in polite society. It 

 is due to this long lamiliarity with Fox Like and its 

 inhabitants tbat Col. Lippincott has claimed without 

 dispute the position of ultimate authority and champion 

 liar of the lakes. There is no use trying to trot iu har- 

 ness with him when it comes to a good' square fish lie, 

 illuminated with the light of other days. Aud so 

 strongly does this light still illuminate, over on the tim- 

 bered point, that the Colonel will persuade any new 

 comer that all he needs to do is to cast out into the lake, 

 anywhere, just off the pier, and he will catch a muscal- 

 longe twelve feet long. One time the Colonel came down 

 to Chicago and bought a big muscallonge and took him 

 up to the lake, and on* the next morning sneaked him 

 out in his boat. When he came in that night, didn't he 

 have a muscallonge? Of course he did; and it wasn't 

 anybody's businei-s about the color of his eyes, either. As 

 If a fellow didn't know anything about a muscallonge, 

 when he had seen the first muscallonge developed from 

 a primordial germ. Col. Lippincott admits that it was 

 a leetle cold in the old glacial days, but says it was blame 

 good fishm' when the ice cleared out. And he insists 

 that the Ashing is just as good now as it was then. There 

 are some reasons why the boys like to go over to the tim- 

 bered point, where they are always sure of a jolly time, 



Ed Howard's place is near the top of the bluff on the 

 west sile of the lake, and is reached by a balloon from 

 the boat landing. It commands a grand view of the lake. 

 Ed Howard has been there a long time, and should know 

 a plenty about the country. When I was there he was 

 too busy to talk, being engaged in an all-night game of 

 poker with some men from the Columbia Club across the 

 lake. The next morning he thought the country was all 

 going to the dogs. He was tired. His place is one of the 

 best known on the lake. 



On a pretty wooded flat below the bluff is the Lake- 

 side, an old stand-by resort known to all the shooters and 

 fishers who go up to the lake. It is ran by Messrs. Clarke 

 & Neltnor, and in the season there is a whole lot of fun 

 and comfort there. 



Just around the corner of the point is the home of 

 Capt. Hill, who runs the lake steamers. The best thing 

 about this man and his steamers is that he does not allow 

 any shooting from them. It is, however, chiefly a fiction 

 of Col. P. D man, of the Wisconsin Central, which would 

 lead a vioitor to believe that these steamers can placidly 

 puff along through serried ranks of docile canvasbacks 

 without disturbing the happy birds, which cluster about 

 the bow with tears of gratitude in their eyes. That is 

 where Col. P. Donan puts his fine Italian foot in it. The 

 fact is, the steamers do disturb the ducks, and that 

 badly. 



Around the point a little further is Harry Dunnilf's 

 plaoe and also the cottage of Rob Stanley. ' I know I 

 voice the sentiment of every sportsman on the lake, and 

 even of every reputable pusher, when I say that Mr. 

 Stanley, and his children, and his wife's relations, and 

 his hired man, and his hired man's relations, and all the 

 friends of their relations, and all the relatives of their 

 friends, should get lost, strayed or stolen, or if the 

 place that once knew them should know them no more 

 forever, even if raked with a fine-toothed comb, it would 

 be alto<ether better for the sport of duck shooting on 

 Fox Lake. On one morning the Stanley outfit went 

 across the middle of the lake fen boats strong and scared 

 every feather off it. They drive the ducks off the open 

 water and then begin to "coast" them all out of the bays. 

 One of them picked up two ducks below my blind: birds 

 that I had killed when ducks were ducks, and made me 



so mad I broke out in blue spots. These men don't know 

 how to hunt ducks, they won't learn how to hunt ducks, 

 and they don't let anyhody else hunt ducks that does 

 know how. They ought to be taught to fall in with the 

 general sentiment of the lake, which is emphatic and 

 rapidly growing more emphatic and more needful; that 

 no boats shall be allowed to disturb the wildfowl on their 

 beds in the open water, and that none shall coast out the 

 birds while they are on the feed. The Stanleys can't 

 learn this it seems. They can't learn that they are losing 

 money for themselves in thus spoiling the fun of the men 

 who have put money into their sport and who want to 

 keep a bit of nature alive for to-day and to-morrow. 

 They can't learn anything. They have 'been remonstra ted 

 with by other pushers, by other market hunters and by 

 gentlemen of the clubs, but it doesn't do any good. They 

 want a house to fall on them. If thev got many ducks 

 it would be different, but the fact is theu- method is un- 

 successful, as well as disastrous to the proper methods of 

 others. But they want a, house to fall on them. Old 

 man Wood, down at Swan Lake, told me that in the 

 early days old man Stanley conceived the brilliant idea 

 of inclosing a few acres of marsh for a muskrat farm. 

 He thought he could raise them like sheep, and never 

 could understand why or how they dug out, climbed 

 out and left his rat farm all alone. 



At the foot of Pistaqua Lake there are a number of 

 summer cottages owned by well-to-do people in the city. 

 They lie out of sight from the western edge of Fox 

 Lake bluff. City Coroner Hertz has a pleasant little 

 villa here, and swears by Pistaqua Lake, as do a great 

 many of the frequenters. The Lotus Club, a small body 

 of a dozen or fifteen members, without formal organiza- 

 tion, also have over on Eagle Point an acre or so of 

 ground, stretching from side to side of the point, on 

 which they have a cosy little club house and boat house, 

 for the accommodation of their members on their occa- 

 sional trips. Mr, G. E. Rickcords is a prominent member 

 of this club, which finds most of its membership in the 

 business firm of which he is a member. 



Swinging back, around the point, one sees quite a little 

 collection of houses, among which are different cottages, 

 and the commodious building of the Waltonian Club! of 

 Elgin. 



This latter club is rather more a fishing than a shoot- 

 ing club— though most of its members also shoot. It is 

 a strong and progressive body of good sportsmen, who 

 are all active in any measures to preserve or increase 

 the natural supply of fish and game. This club actively 

 co-operates with the Fox River Fish and Game Associa- 

 tion, of which mention is presently made. 



Tne Sycamore Club, of the town of Sycamore, 111., 

 has a big and homelike home up on top of the hill, near 

 the Howard House, and in the summer time the families 

 of the members take turns in living there. The turn of 

 each is determined by lot, as I understand it, and each 

 family supplies its own food and furniture. This does 

 not seem so purely jolly an arrangement as the com- 

 moner club organization, and I do hot think is so com- 

 mendable. But there is a lot of fun there, all the same. 



Across the lake from the big bluff, and about three- 

 quarters of a mile from Lippincott's, is a little club for 

 a cent, the Eagleside Club, with only four members, 

 namely, Messrs. John W. Lyke, Squire T. Harvey, D, S,' 

 Daly and H. T. Murray. These gentlemen own about an 

 acre of ground, and have- a cottage 20 x 50ft. in size, and 

 a large old time, a good deal bigger than 20 x50ft. Mr. 

 Lyke is one of the directors of the Fox River Fish and 

 Game Association, and a man prominent in good work of 

 that kind. Near this pleasant little house are the cottages 

 of Mr. J. C. Burket and Mr, Geo. A. Lornax. Not very 

 far from that is the Oak Glen Hotel, run by Hodges & 

 Morrison, and near that is the cottage of Col. Geo. R. 

 Davis. Along in here the woods are full of cottages and 

 hotels, and we may as well let a few get away. Mrs. 

 Kine's hotel, however, is a familiar word, and so is 

 "Ramakers" place, up on the head of the lake, not far 

 from the Petite Lake channel. 



Between the two points last named, and situated at the 

 edge of the wood on the east side of Fox Lake, is the not 

 very pretty building of the Columbia Club, a pretty 

 heavy organization of Scandinavians. These men are 

 most of them wealthy, and I suppose have among them 

 some fine fellows. They are not, however, entitled to 

 the name of a genuine sportsman's club. It seems that 

 to them the acme of human bliss is to Me out in a boat in 

 the open lake, and blaze away at everything that comes 

 within half a mile of them, and to drink four gallons of 

 beer each per diem. That sort of thing, it always makes 

 me tired to see, think of or write about. 



Lying as if to block the way into Grass Lake is Crab- 

 apple Island, looking so near that one might almost cast 

 a frog on to it from the top of the big bluff. Here, among 

 some good old trees, are the summer cottages of Mr. 

 John Wilkinson,, John P. Reynolds, Mr. John Walker 

 and Mr. J. J. De Carteret. The other Johns got away. 

 Mr. De Carteret has a cottage or so for lease. He fives on 

 the island, and is called the "Hermit of the Island." Mr. 

 N. W. Brooks and Mr. F. I. Pearce also have private 

 summer cottages on the island. Mr. Wilkinson's cottage 

 is called Bittersweet Lodge. I don't see anything very 

 bitter about it, nor about his tidy little steamer — the old- 

 est on the lakes, I believe — which also bears the name of 

 the Bittersweet. Mr. Wilkinson is known in the com- 

 mercial world as one of the big iron firm of Parkhurst & 

 Wilkinson, and as the head of the John Wilkinson Co., 

 dealers in fine sporting gear. Mr. Wilkinson's hobby is 

 amateur photography, and I must say he is a rattler at it. 

 Forest and Stream is indebted to him for several views 

 used in illustrating these articles. Crabapple Island is 

 closely surrounded^ by reeds and wild rice, and in the 

 summer, when the rail season is on, very good rail shoot^ 

 ing can be had right from the edge of the island, these 

 birds often rising out of the rice when disturbed by a 

 stone thrown among them from the shore. Not very 

 much has been said about the sport of rail shooting, since 

 it is not so very much thought of about Fox Lake^yet if 

 one cares for a sport where endless, easy repetition is 

 possible, he can kill a hundred or a hundred and fifty rail 

 in a few hours on almost any ordinary day in August or 

 September when a good flight of these little marsh birds 

 is in. 



Now, then, I am done talking about houses and lots. 

 Doubtless enough has been said to impress the fact that 

 the shores of this lake are pretty well occupied by the 

 properties of sportsmen or parties interested in sports- 

 men. Is a locality like this of genuine interest to the 



sportsman who, once in a while, gets into the unsettled 

 wilderness? I think it is, and believe it to have legiti- 

 mate interest. In the first place, the Fox Lake waters 

 are not to be held as merely the location ground for a lot 

 of summer resorts, for which a little wetness and three 

 or four sunfish arc ordinarily thought sufficient. There 

 is fishing and there is shooting at Fox Lake, and that in a 

 degree which is nothing less than wonderful when one 

 comes to consider the environments. This is the main 

 fact, and the interest for the modem sportsman which 

 centers in this fact lies in the further fact that all this has 

 been accomplished by game and fish protection, set on 

 foot and carried through by the large-minded men whom 

 it has been a pleasure to note as forming the little com- 

 munities of sportsmen mentioned. These two facts make 

 a sermon, and the only kind of a sermon which will 

 do the sportsman of to-day any good to listen to. If we 

 are to have any game we must protect it, feed it, guard 

 and care for it wisely and providently, it is a battle of 

 the intelligent mind against the unthinking, brutal and 

 destructive mind. This battle has been carried on, and 

 will be carried on more thoroughly in the Fox Lake 

 region, by the large and grand organization known as 



THE POX RIVER PISH AND GAME ASSOCIATION. 



This Association, not a club of itself, and not made up 

 of members merely of Chicago clubs, but a membership 

 which practically binds together all the sportsmen's clubs 

 of the entire northwestern part of the State, has at pres- 

 ent a roll of 250 members, and is growing. It has clone 

 more than any one club toward game preservation, and 

 although it does not work outside of the Fox River 

 region, has probably more results to show by way of 

 accomplished legislation, constructed fishways and un- 

 killed game, than any State association. 



Convinced by their eyes that thousands of fish did as- 

 cend Fox River, until stopped by this law, the Associa- 

 tion began the work of enforcing the law in regard to 

 fishways. It has secured six fishways on the river 

 already, and has instituted six suits against parties fail- 

 ing to comply with the law. It has stopped the spear- 

 ing of fish .(and will soon turn its attention to the per- 

 sistent "jigging" which is carried on at McHemy), has 

 stopped night shooting at wildfowl, and inaugurated a 

 number of measures which have tended to remedy the 

 old ruinous state of affairs which existed in the region 

 where it works. It has put down 20,000 young bass in 

 Fox Lake, and also numbers of carp, cattish, etc. It in- 

 stigated the recent important suits at Elgin. It won the 

 prominent Carpenter suit, in the matter of a fishway, and 

 when Carpenter appealed, it slapped another suit on to 

 him, and will continue to do tnis until he gets sick of 

 life without a fishway. It has opened the way through 

 half the dams on Fox River, and even through the big 

 State dam, hardest of all. It will not rest until everv 

 dam owner and every dam has given the fish their 

 chance. It will now turn its attention to the ruinous 

 practice of fishing tbrough the ice, which is so murder- 

 ously carried on at Fox Lake by the natives. It will 

 look also to the abolishment of all shooting from steam- 

 ers and sailboats, and do what it can, ouiside the prov- 

 ince of legal action, to put an end to coasting and rout- 

 ing out the birds from the open water, "Altogether, 

 composed as it is of the club men, themselves the most 

 honorable and enthusiastic sportsmen, the Fox River 

 Association presents the refreshing spectacle of a game- 

 preservation society which isn't afraid of anything on 

 earth, which means dead business every time, and which 

 keeps on coming when it starts. It is the biggest and 

 livest organization of its sort in the West, and it is doubt- 

 ful if there is anywhere in the country a more energetic, 

 intelligent and plucky body of the kind. 



It would be a pleasure to write more of the lake district 

 and more of the Association, but there must be a limit. 

 Readers of Forest and Stream may be sure that the 

 game and fish of the district are left in good hands when 

 left with the clubs and with this union of the clubs. 



CHICAGO, 111., Jan. 13.— In last week's mention of sport- 

 ing appliances invented by Western men, it seems I 

 didn't quite get around to all of them, I was down on 

 the Hennepin and Swan Lake marshes this week, and 

 learned a point or two further about duck shooting. Some 

 of the best duck shots of the country visit or live on those 

 marshes, and it is a high recommendation that nearly all 

 of these use what is called the "Illinois River duck call." 

 1 had heard and seen a great deal of this call before I 

 visited that country, and, being upon its native heath, I 

 investigated its origin and place of production. In a 

 little, crowded cottage, in the town of Henry, I found 

 the inventor and sole manufacturer of what, in my own 

 opinion, is the best duck call made, an inventive carpen- 

 ter by the name of Sam Horner, whose only capital in 

 fife would seem to be a wife, several children, a turning 

 lathe, a tamed wild mallard, and a genius for tinkering! 

 They brought me out a whole boxlul of the calls, some 

 tuned and some untuned; and among these I hunted for 

 one which should seem to me more seductive, so to speak, 

 than the others. There were hardly two of the calls alike 

 in outward appearance, but each in general was simply 

 a round cedar stick about five or six inches long, with 

 more or less simple ornamental lines cut in with the 

 lathe. The hole through the call is large. The reed is 

 made of thin German silver, and is fastened in by a per- 

 forated plug at the greatest possible distance from the 

 mouth-piece. That is all there is to it; yet it is, as before 

 remarked, the most perfect duck call I have ever hap- 

 pened to see. This is simply the result of constant experi- 

 ment by the maker. I don't suppose anybody else could 

 copy one of these calls any more than he could copy 

 the Stradivarius violin. The tone of a duck call is all 

 there is to it, and the tone is what the individual master 

 spirit, art, genius, faculty or what you like, must impart 

 to violin or humble duck call. Mr.* Horner told me that 

 he tuned his call to a wild mallard which he had in his 

 yard. The call was new to me, and I could not get very 

 good results at first, but Homer could take one and pro- 

 duce a note not distinguishable from that of the wild 

 mallard, and could also give the redhead and bluebill 

 call very perfectly. He said he made a few calls of black 

 walnut, but that such a call always made the lips sore. He 

 also stated that the length of the tube seemed to make 

 no difference. The tone is quite free from all reediness 

 and metallic quality. There is no other call used in that 

 locality, but the article is not on the market. Horner 

 could have sold six hundred dozen at one time, but de- 

 clined the order. He is rather an odd genius. He doesn't 

 have any regular price for a call, but just charges what 



