192 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[March 28, 1889. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



CHICAGO, March 14.— Messrs. W. N. Low, R. B. Organ, 

 H. D. Nicholls, Chas. Felton and Wm. P. Mussey, 

 who formed the sportsmen's committee, have returned 

 from their visit to Springfield, hut are not saying very 

 much about what they did. A great many shooters here 

 say that if the "three days" law is passed {i. <?., the law 

 prohibiting shooting during the first three days of the 

 week) they will not pretend to respect it, believing it an un - 

 constitutional enactment. It would certainly seem to be 

 a very difficult and confusing sort of law to enforce. The 

 outcome of the legislative fight is not yet, and the latter 

 is hotter than any game law measure has ever been made 

 here before. It is surprising how strong and general is 

 the objection to the spring shooting measure. The latter 

 will, therefore, probably be lost. There seems to have 

 been no just compromise effected between the game dealers 

 and the sportsmen. Without such a compromise the best 

 law framed will be worthless. It is not theoretical 

 protection, but practical protection, that saves the birds. 

 Even should spring shooting be left standing, however, 

 it would not be in anywise fair to call our Illinois sports- 

 men lawless or lacking due respect for game protection. 

 They will favor a practical measure, beyond doubt, and 

 beyond doubt that practical measure will one day be 

 framed. As it is, nobody has ever gone to the bottom of 

 this spring shooting question. It is going to need a lot 

 more thinking, and this our Illinois men are doing, and 

 are going to do for themselves, respecting argument 

 much above mere assertion. I don't know much about 

 this thing myself, but I believe I shall try to get my 

 knowledge among the game dealers rather than among 

 the sportsmen. There are two sides to this question, and 

 we might as well admit that no fair adjustment of these 

 two sides has ever yet been obtained. 



March 16. — Bluebirds and robins made their appear- 

 ance in the outskirts of Chicago March 11. They were 

 very plentifnl on the 14th, and have doubtless come to 

 stay. Large strings of lake perch are now being taken 

 on the Government pier. Plenty of ducks were reported 

 by the Cumberland Club last Saturday. Water Valley 

 had good shooting two days before that. Recent scores 

 at Mak-saw-ba Club are: Mr. Roll Organ, 4; Mr. Joe Kin- 

 ney, 6; Mr. Dicks, 6. Several of the shooters on Mak- 

 saw-ba marsh have doubtless made fair bags, as ducks 

 are reported there now in great plenty. Dispatches from 

 Swan Lake for the past three days report ducks in great 

 abundance on that noted marsh. Mr. Ed. W. Bangs 

 went down to Swan Lake four days ago, and is joined 

 to-night by several others. Telegrams from Charles Camp, 

 Swan Lake, yesterday, to Mr. P. E. Stanley, say: "Plenty 

 of ducks; come and get them quick." English Lake 

 marsh has plenty of water and feed. Mr. John Taylor 

 telegraphs John Gillespie that there are a good manj r ducks 

 in. Mr. F. A. Allen, of Monmouth Gun Club III., went 

 into camp at New Boston, on the Mississippi River, five 

 days ago. Other advices from the Mississippi River say 

 that the stream rose 5*in. three nights ago. If the neces- 

 sary rise come on the Mississippi and submerge the 

 acorn flats, there will be grand shooting near New Bos- 

 ton as usual. Numerous trap matches have been on hand 

 lately, but the enthusiasm of the boys is now tending 

 duckward. In a few days at most the season will be in 

 full swing. Consequently, everything at present seems 

 very cheerful. 



March SO.— Mr. Fred A. Allen, of Monmouth Gun Club, 

 writes from his camp at New Boston, on the Mississippi, 

 under date of March 17: "We have been in camp sinee 

 the 8th. Water is lower than I have seen it for ten years 

 (in the spring). There has been a big flight of ducks, but 

 none of them stopped on the bay, as there is no place for 

 them to paddle. .No water in any of the sloughs or ponds. 

 We are expecting a rise in the river, and if it should 

 come there will be good shooting for a few days. If the 

 ducks come will wire you so you can have a hand in the 

 fun. The wind to-night is northeast and it looks like 

 snow. If you come bring no decoys, as we use live 

 decoys, and have plenty of them for you." 



Mr. L. C. Earle, the artist, and Mr. John Gillespie, the 

 gun man, are under the same hospitable invitation. It is 

 devoutly to be wished that the water will rise. 



March 21.— A letter from Hutchinson informs me that 

 Mr. Eli Young and the rest of the old crowd of boys I 

 used to know there are now out most of the time on the 

 Arkansas after geese and ducks, which are showing up 

 in pretty fair plenty now. The boys in one pit got forty 

 ducks and fifteen geese last Saturday. Mr. Al. Price 

 killed twenty-three Canadian geese last Thursday on 

 English Lake grounds. On last Saturday he killed fifty 

 ducks. On last Saturday Messrs. Jesse Cummings and 

 R. W. Cox killed sixteen geese and Mr. Barrell killed 

 thirty ducks and two geese. Most of the ducks in the last 

 bag were pintails. Mallards are reported uncommonly 

 shy. Mr. W. W. McFarland is absent at Hennepin Club 

 ground on the Illinois. The best bag he has reported is 

 twenty-two ducks. 



March SI.— In the Senate Committee on License and 

 Miscellany to-day it was decided to report favorably a 

 committee bill amending the game law, which is repeated 

 below: It shall be unlawful to destroy wild deer, doe, 

 buck or fawn between Jan. 15 and Sept. 1 of any year; 

 grouse, prairie chicken, quail or woodcock may not be 

 destroyed from Dec. 1 to Aug. 15 of the ensuing year, 

 and wild goose, duck and other wildfowl are to be un- 

 molested from April 1 to Sept. 1. The same committee 

 also decided to favorably report Senator Monahan's bill 

 for the appointment of six instead of three wardens, and 

 Senator Gibbs's bill prohibiting the shooting of wild pig- 

 eons at shooting matches. 



The season advances. Ducks are now well scattered 

 over the country. Bluebills not up yet. The bulk of 

 the shooting has been at pintails. Charlie Willard killed 

 41 ducks on English Lake marsh yesterday. Grand Calu- 

 met Heights Club men report that on last Saturday the 

 whole lower end of Lake Michigan was full of fowl, and 

 they could be heard flying every way in the fog. Ad- 

 ditional reports from New Boston, on the Mississippi, 

 state that the river does not rise. There are thousands 

 of ducks in the middle of the river, but a rise of at 

 least three feet is needed before the flats will be covered 

 so the ducks can be worked to any advantage. It is not 

 thought that this rise will come. A letter from the 

 Undercliff Hotel on Lake Sena ch wine states that twenty 

 shooters are at that hotel, one had a bag of 32, another of 

 16, others from 10 down to nothing. The water is low, 



and plenty of work and wading is necessary. Swan 

 Lake reports no very heavy shooting yet, nor does the 

 Hennepin Club above' what is mentioned. 



The Mak-saw-bas some clays ago planted l,2001bs. of 

 feed on their marsh, mostly mixed mill feed and refuse. 

 Most of this was put down in Hailstorm and Winch ell 

 sloughs and points above the club house. 



At a meeting of the Grand Calumet Heights Club last 

 night at the Grand Pacific parlor thirteen new members 

 were added to the lists of the club. E. Hough was' 

 elected an honorary member of the club in courtesy to 

 Forest and Stream, and is duly thankful therefor. 

 The Grand Calumet Heights Club' now has thirty-two 

 members, there being only eight vacancies left. Its record 

 of a year and a half is surely a good one. 



The ice is out of Fox Lake, but no great bags are re- 

 ported there yet. The ice in the big lakes is breaking up. 

 Muskegon Bay is clear. Navigation will soon open. 



E. Hough. 



SHOOTING CLUBS OF CHICAGO. 



XII. — THE LAKE GEORGE, AVATER VALLEY AND OTHER CLUES 



IT is now getting well on into the season of the year 

 popularly supposed to be longed for by gentle 

 Annie, and perhaps also by gentle Reader. There re- 

 main certain numbers of ducks to be shot, and certain 

 quantities of fish to bo taken, and these facts must more 

 or less interfere with continual reading about clubs or 

 continual writing about them. It will be necessary, 

 then, to group a few of the clubs in one general notice, 

 and so suspend regular serial mention for a little while at 

 least. Not that such mention is now in any way com- 

 plete. The fact is, as fast as one climbs on top of one 

 range of clubs, another sticks up in front of him. There 

 is no end to them. So far as I can see, one might write 

 on and on, into a very delightful old age, and still not. be 

 done with his subject. If I might so timidly suggest, 

 Chicago seems to have drawn a full hand of clubs. Cer- 

 tainly this city is a bigger place, and very much more of 

 a sporting center, than most men have any notion of, or 

 than has been hitherto developed by any sportsman's 

 paper, and in view of this fact the only thing to do ap- 

 pears to be to promise an occasional continuance of simi- 

 lar articles— after we have all had a little shooting. In 

 the meantime, what about our trap clubs and fishing 

 clubs, and canoeing clubs and yachting clubs? We have 

 got all those people, and here, too. Nothing in the world 

 that Chicago doesn't have. Need it be repeated that this 

 city lies in so singularly favored a locality that she is by 

 virtue of her locality a natural center for almost every 

 kind of sport. There are the lakes for yachting, the 

 rivers for canoeing, the whole unspeakable paradise for 

 angler, tourist and shooter in the near north; and all 

 about the immediate neighborhood the shooting country 

 which it has lately been sought to describe. There is 

 nothing like it in all the world, nothing approaching the 

 variety, excellence and accessibility of the sportsman's 

 field in this vicinity. To exhaust such a field as a field 

 of investigation seems fairly impossible. The reader 

 would he exhausted first. Reader and writer would 

 better take it leisurely. 



Calumet Heights Club is a sort of off-shoot of Lake 

 George people, and so is the Water Valley Club. But 

 still the two plain edifices which house the Lake George 

 Club hold their own , and always during the season their 

 sides ring with sounds of jolly cheer. The club boys 

 used to get lodgings at the farmhouses near by; then they 

 leased about five miles of shooting privilege and moved 

 into the two homely but comfortable shooting boxes 

 which now make their hunting quarters. These houses 

 are provided with beds in the upper stories and arranged 

 with commod ious fi ttings in the main rooms below. There 

 is a high walk from the club house about 150yds. long, 

 which leads down to the boat house. The club has about 

 forty boats, the Green Bay model seeming to lead. 



There are some old-time shooters in the Lake George 

 Club, and the membership is one of enthusiasts. The 

 club is very strong at the trap, and can turn out a team , 

 which make most of them keep moving. Following is 

 the membership of Lake George Club: President, J. W. 

 Sheaban; Vice-President, F. A. Place; Secretary and 

 Treasurer, J. S. Orvis. Members: F. E. Bernard, S. M, 

 Booth, Chas. Bour, Frank Bour, J. P. Card, C. C. Car- 

 hart, W. H. Colcord, J. J. Flanders, H. B. Foss, W. W. 

 Foss. C. N. Hale, J. F. Hall, L. M. Hamline, C. N. Holden, 

 E. S. Hunter, A. G. Jaeger, E. E. Lee, R. J. Lewis, Chas. 

 P. Miller. W. P. Mussey, J. S. Orvis, Chas. Parker, L. 

 Paus, Wm. G. Payson, Wm. Perrv, J. F. Phillips, F. A. 

 Place. C. H. Root, C. E. Rollins, John Rumsey, J. W. 

 Sheaban, J. A. StelL J. F. Thacker, R. A. Turtle, George 

 Vannette, Thos. Walker, A. J. White, Jesse Williams, F. 

 W. Wood, C. E. Worthington. 



In the above list Chicago readers at least will recog- 

 nize a plenty of names of the old reliable sort. J. S. 

 Orvis (a brother of the lamented Harry Orvis, that grand 

 fellow who met his death from a gunshot accident re- 

 ceived on a hunting trip in Dakota), "Sam" Booth, an 

 old Columet shooter; R. A. Turtle the taxidermist, 

 "Charley" Holden of the wholesole house of Gray, King- 

 man & Collins, "Billy" Mussy— all the sportsmen around 

 here know these of all the others. So we may pass on to 

 that foster-child of the Lake George Club known as 



THE WATER VALLEY CLUB. 



The real name of this club is "The Sportsmen's Club of 

 Chicago." It gets its shorter name from its situation 

 directly on the bank of the Kankakee River, at the little 

 water-tank stopping yla.ee on the Louisville and New I 

 Albany Railway, known as Water Valley. The boys have 

 put a long, low, rakish-looking rough one-story building 

 just at the edge of the bank, and within the toss of a bis- 

 cuit from the water tank. They don't own any ground, 

 but have a world of vacant marsh above them and below 

 them on the Kankakee, for it must be remembered that I 

 we now have dropped away down below Lowell, the rail- 

 way point of the Cumberland Club, and are now on the 

 Kankakee some distance below that organization. This 

 is in a wooded and beautiful country. Mr. C. N. Holden, 

 the skillful amateur who gave me the photographs of I 

 Lake George Club club houses, had no view of the Water i 

 Valley club house. Ho had one picture made by himself, 

 looking out across the river from the house porch, which 

 is a thing worthy to be embodied in a great painting, it ig j 



j ■ . » 



LAKE GEORGE CLUB HOUSE, 



LAKE GEORGE SPORTSMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



The only really fair thing to do would be to give this 

 organization, better known as "the Lake George Club," a 

 complete article by itself, for it is one of the oldest clubs 

 of the city, and lies in a locality where most of our best- 

 known shooters got their earlyeducation. The railway 

 station for Lake George Club is "Whiting's," on the Michi- 

 gan Southern Railway, whence it is only a trifle over a 

 mile to the club houses, which lie on the banks of Lake 

 George; which lake, as may be seen by reference to the 

 Forest and Stream map of the Calumet region [printed 

 last week], lies fairly in the heart of that vast system of 

 lakes and marshes which formed the early hunting- 

 grounds of all the old-timers of Chicago. 



Lake George, like Hyde Lake, Sand Lake and Wolf 

 Lake, partakes of the general characteristics of the waters 

 of that section, which seem to have have been made ex- 

 pressly for duck-shooting purposes. The main body of 

 water is nearly four and a half miles long by about three- 

 fourths of a mile in width, with a broken and irregular 

 outline. The feed of the main lake is chiefly wild rice 

 and marsh roots and grasses, the shore being nicely 

 fringed with cover of this sort. It is claimed that there 

 is some wild celery in the lake, though I did not see any. 

 There is, however, a good supply of deep-water ducks, 

 redheads, bluebills, and still a few canvasbacks. Marsh 

 ducks are abundant in any decent season, and the mal- 

 lard si sooting is often very fine. In that peculiar strip 

 known as the "cranberry marsh" over in the pines, Fred 

 Egers and Wm. Veders, two years ago, killed 285 mal- 

 lards in one day. This is not bad for so recent a date or 

 grounds so old and much frequented. This old lake has 

 seen some magnificent shooting in its time, and is as apt 

 to see it again as any of the nearer Calumet country. 



In the olden days nearly everybody used to go shoot- 

 ing down on Calumet Lake, Lake George, or somewhere 

 in that vicinity, and Florence Benner's, the Kleinman 

 homestead, and all those old standby places, were 

 as well known to every Chicago shooter as his 

 old dooryard. It was somewhere down along in 

 there that there used to stand a little shanty, which 

 was the home of the nucleus of the Mak-saw-ba 

 Club. Indeed this region seems to have been a breeding 

 place not only for ducks, but for duck clubs. The Grand 



so calm and beautiful. No engraving could justly repro- 

 duce it, so it Avas not sent on. I have placed it by Mr. 

 John Wilkinson's picture of sheep in a wood near Fox 

 Lake, and when I am tired I look at these. A look at 

 the great square walls of the new Chicago Auditorium 

 building, solid and strong as the pyramids, and then a 

 look at these two little pictures of the quiet woods will 

 rest the tiredest man that ever was. 



There is great woodduck shooting along this part of 

 the Kankakee in the late summer, and the warm coppices 

 (tha t strikes me as being a pretty good word) along the 

 river afford good sport at the woodcock in season. Dick 

 Turtle killed thirty-one woodcock in the course of an 

 easy three days' shooting last summer. Then, unfortun- 

 ately, his favorite clog was killed by the cars on the rail- 

 road bridge, and now he doesn't like to hear any one talk 

 about woodcock. Following are the names of the Sports- 

 men's Club: President, C. N. Holden; Vice President, 

 Frank Barnard; Secretary and Treasurer, Al. W. Carlisle. 

 Members: F. E Barnard, C. A. Orvis, J. S. Orvis, C. N. 

 Holden, A. W. Carlisle, J. F. Phillips, W. W. Foss, R. A. 

 Turtle, J. J. Flanders, J. A. Sharp, Chas. Hadweer, M. 

 McDonald, Jr., A. G. Jaeger, J. F. Eberhart, F. F. Oviatt, 

 W. H. Knight. 



Just across the railroad bridge from the Water Valley 

 tank, directly upon the bank of the river, and only a few 

 feet from the railroad track, from which a sidewalk 

 leads out to it, is the plain two-story house of 

 THE RENSSALAER CLUB. 



This club is a small one, its membership belonging 

 mostly in Renssalaer, Indiana. It isn't a Chicago club, 

 but it got in among the Chicago clubs and was rounded 

 up by mistake. So too was 



THE DELPHI CLUB. 



This organization belongs at Delphi, Indiana. I was 

 told that its membership is not heavy. The building 

 almost touches the railway, is like its two neighbors just 

 above high water, and is elbowed by 



THE ROD AND GUN CLUB OP INDIANAPOLIS. 



The members of this club, as of the two previous ones, 

 take advantage of their little camp by the river about as 

 much for the purposes of fishing and a general outing as 

 for duck shooting. At any of these houses you can fairly 



