March 28, 1889.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



193 



throw a line out of the back door and catch for break- 

 fast a bass, or may be a bullhead, or leastways a dogfish. 

 The members of these clubs have the privileges of the 

 marsh, which is not preserved in that section of the river. 

 So much may be seen and said for these outside clubs as 

 one passes on toward another Chicago organization. 



THE DIANA CLUB. 



The membership of this club is German, and the mem- 

 bers have their own methods of enjoyment, although 

 these methods would perhaps hardly fall in with the 

 tenets of the duck shooting cult as set forth earlier in 

 these columns. It was midnight of a very dark sort 

 when I reached the diminutive station of Thayer, set 

 down in the sandy oak barren a mile or so beyond Water 

 Valley bridge. Jt is alleged that there are two or three 

 houses in Thayer, but it being so dark I could not find 

 them. A large and ill-mannered dog, which didn't know 

 the difference between a shooter and a tramp, found me, 

 however. In the course of our conversation a man came 

 up from somewhere or other and for fifty cents offered to 

 show me where the Diana club house was. We walked 

 out through the woods toward the railway bridge and 

 finally got to the club house, where my guide left me. 

 The keeper of the club house, Klein by name, would not 

 let me in the house, although T explained to him that I 

 was an angel unawares, and a mighty cold one, too. He 

 said if I didn't have a letter "von der bresident," the 

 angel business didn't go. I didn't have any letter and 

 did not then know who the president was, as I had i'un 

 down unexpectedly from the Cumberland Club, and 

 therefore had not obtained credentials. He finally com- 

 promised on my assurance that I would leave the place 

 the next morning, if, after a night's sleep, I could not 

 prove that I was not a lightning rod agent. Once in the 

 house, I picked out the best big feather bed 1 could find 

 and turned in a good deal amused and a bttle angry at 

 this style of preserved hospitality. It is perhaps, how- 

 ever, justice to Klein to say, that although he surely 

 might have been less gruff, he was doubtless doing what 

 he thought his duty in refusing a stranger entrance. By 

 the rules of the club he is not permitted to keep any but 

 members. Such a rule in such a locality is nonsense in 

 cold weather and at midnight, and not in accordance 

 with good courtesy among sportsmen, and therefore 

 should be made more readily elastic. 



Sleeping late, I found the men all gone out on the 

 marsh when I woke at the Diana Club. Bribing a buxom 

 damsel, I got breakfast, and then wandered about the 

 grounds. The club owns only a narrow strip running 

 down to the river, the shooting being done on the free 

 marsh. There is a good-sized boat house, and a number 

 of boats of all sorts were about, some of them fair ones. 

 On the platform about the boat house I saw a number of 

 decoys of a model and coloration sufficient to curdle one's 

 blood. I hired a boy, and together we ran a boat out the 

 channel into the river, and paddled up to Water Val- 

 ley , on a lovely winter morning and on a river still as 

 glass. The Kankakee at this spot is a mild and lovely 

 stream. "This ain't a wild river, hardly ever," said the 

 boy. 



On the train going home were some of the Diana men. 

 They didn't have any ducks, but seemed a rather jolly 

 lot of fellows. As nearly as I can learn, this club is given 

 much to picnicking, to standing in black clothes on the 

 bank of the river and wondering why they can't kill any 

 ducks, and, alasl to occasional turning loose on bluejays 

 and woodpeckers when the ducks refuse to materialize. 

 A good-natured, fun- loving lot of fellows, numerically 

 strong, but not yet having the art of duck shooting down 

 very fine. But may they live long and prosper. 



THE KANKAKEE LAND AND CATTLE CO. 



The above club is long on name and long on land, but 

 short on membership, and does not want to be any other 

 way. It is a close little corporation of open-handed men. 

 The club has about 5,500 acres of marsh land on the Kan- 

 kakee, which includes nineteen miles of actual river 

 front, The railway station is Roselawn, Indiana. It was 

 here that Mr. A. Montgomery Ward and Mr. E. C. Cook, 

 the two best known Chicago members of this club, had 

 their singular and lurid experience with the hundred 

 pickerel which leaped into their boat. It is of course 

 known that the agricultural name of this club covers a 

 duck club, pure and simple. The membership is not all 

 in Chicago, but Chicago is their centering point, and it is 

 right to call this one of the Chicago clubs. The following 

 are the members, who certainly form a list of great com- 

 mercial importance, and who are, more than that, the 

 right sort of sportsmen: Harry Weddicomb, Pres.; A. 

 Montgomery Ward, Vice-Pres.; E. C. Cook, Sec.-Treas. 

 Other members: T. Stewart White, Thos. Friant, Win. 

 Gilbert, F. W. Cook, Watts De Golyer. Messrs. Weddi- 

 comb, Gilbert, Stewart and Friant are all of Grand Rap- 

 ids, Mich. , the latter two gentlemen of the White Lumber 

 Co., and the former of the Grand Rapids Furniture Co. 

 Mr. De Golyer is the forefront of the big Watt9 De Gol- 

 year Co., of Chicago, manufacturers of varnish. It is 

 said to 'be due to this fact that not one of the members of 

 this club was ever known to tell a plain unvarnished tale. 

 This is especially applicable to Mr. Ward and Mr. Cook, 

 both of which gentlemen, however, are too well known 

 in Chicago for comment. Mr. F. W. Cook is of E. C. Cook 

 & Bro., and I suppose if almost any sportsman will look 

 into his kit, he will find something made by that big 

 hunting outfit firm. 



THE BLACK HAWK CLUB, ON KOSHKENONG. 



A light jump of a hundred miles or so north of Chi- 

 cago into the State of Wisconsin brings us to Lake Kosh- 

 kenong, the first celery lake north of Fox Lake, and 

 perhaps the most wonderful canvasback lake in this 

 vicinity. This is a great shallow sheet of water, and all 

 those who have visited it declare that it has more deep- 

 water ducks on it than can be seen in one body anywhere 

 on the line of migration on this meridian. The shores 

 are pretty much taken up, and this fact, together with 

 the peculiar laws of Wisconsin, renders the shooting at 

 Koshkenong something pretty hard to get at by the lay 

 shooter. The Black Hawk Club is a pretty stiff organi- 

 zation, numbering well on to fifty members, mostly 

 drawn from the very wealthy shooters. There is no 

 shooting at this lake in the spring, and there is, conse- 

 quently, no attendance now at the club grounds. The 

 fall is the time of glory for Koshkenong, and it makes 

 one's mouth water to think what a rattling lot of infor- 

 mation about Western canvasback shooting can be gotten 

 together up there. Until the proper opportunity for 



complete observation has come, therefore, it will be best 

 to defer mention of this club. 



THE NEE-PE-Ni UK CLUB. 



Chicago, however, is not yet satisfied. We will jump 

 yet another hundred miles northward, and so land in a 

 country which is nigh akin to the absolutely perfect 

 from a sportsman's point of view. This club is on Puck- 

 away (or Pacawa) Lake, up in old Pere Marquette's 

 country, and right on the line of the old Indian water- 

 way, between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, 

 there being only about two miles of portage necessary 

 between the two systems of streams and lakes. The rail- 

 way station for the Nee-pe-nauks is Princeton, on the 

 C. & N. W. Railway. This is near the great Northern 

 River, remarkable for its bass fishing. Puckaway Lake 

 is the next of the celery lakes north of Koshkenong. 

 The shooting there is superb, and the Qshing in the near 

 country about in summer is something to live for. I 

 suspect that in this club we have got near to the cream 

 of the cream. It is a very select organization, and the 

 list of sixty odd members shows an aggregation which 

 would take the breath of anybody who thinks that the 

 very wealthy and very prominent men don't go shooting 

 and fishing. Gen. Phil. Sheridan was an honorary mem- 

 ber of this club before he joined the silent majority. 

 There is so very much of interest attached to this club, 

 both from its location and its composition that it is hard 

 to refrain from writing an article about it now; but since 

 it is really partly a fishing and summer club, and since 

 these features cannot at this season be properly looked 

 into, it will be better to def er the mention of this club, 

 albeit somewhat impatiently. 



THE GAYLORD CLUB. 



But we are not even yet beyond the reach of Chicago's 

 arms, or beyond the enterprise of Chicago's clubs. Yet 

 another one" hundred miles to the north, three hundred 

 miles in all from Chicago to Kirton, Wis., on the "Soo" 

 line, and we reach the railway station for Coleman Lake, 

 the home of the newly- organized "Gaylord Club," so called 

 after the first promoter, Mr. M. M. Gaylord,, who visited 

 that region, fell in love with it, and came back and told 

 his friends. There are big bass in Coleman Lake and big 

 trout in the streams all around, and the ducks are on hand 

 in season in any numbers you want. We are now get- 

 ting up into the northern logging region. This club adds 

 deer shooting to its sports. There is much of novel in- 

 terest to be noted about this club, and nothing but the 

 good fishing of the locality, wmch the club members 

 insist must be seen to be appreciated, prevents full men- 

 tion of this club right here. Young as this club is, it 

 being only a matter of the last few months, its member- 

 ship of thirty-five is already full. The memberships 

 were placed at $100 and the annual dues $25. Full par- 

 ticulars in our next whirl at this club. 



There are no advices from the Arctic regions showing 

 whether Chicago has any clubs up there or not, and I'm 

 sure I don't know how far south they run. In the 

 country adjacent and allied to Chicago there are numbers 

 of clubs, like the Crown Point Club, of Indiana, or the 

 Monmouth Gun Club, of Monmouth, 111., which one might 

 almost be forgiven for including in mention of Chicago 

 clubs, so well known are they here. The Crown Point 

 Club is very strong at the trap," and last year broke nearly 

 40,000 blackbirds, or more than all the Chicago clubs 

 combined. The Monmouth Gun Club is known through 

 its vigorous and persistent opposition to the measure 

 looking toward the abolishing of spring shooting. It is 

 a very strong organization. 



The only feeling left to a writer on this subject is one of 

 fear that the field has not been fully covered, for it has 

 kept on extending and extending in a manner that has 

 been an absolute surprise. It is fair to admit at this 

 point, however, that no city in the Union can show a 

 similar group of sportsmen's organizations. Quiet, 

 modest, attending to their own business, and not seeking 

 notoriety, their very existence seems hardly to have been 

 suspected. Seen as they really are, there is no stronger 

 commentary on the tendencies of modern sport. For the 

 men who make them up, they are as good fellows and as 

 genuine sportsmen as ever lived anywhere, and to thank 

 them for their ready courtesy to Forest and Stream 

 would be poor pay for the privilege of having been with 

 them. E. Hough. 



No. 176 Monroe Street. 



DUCKS AT TWIN LAKES. 



M ANSON, la., March 19.— Duck shooting has been at 

 its height the past two weeks, and some good bags 

 have been made, especially in the neighborhood of the 

 Twin Lakes, southwest of here. The shooting at the 

 lakes was principally at redheads and ring-bill black- 

 heads, with occasionally a shot at green-winged teal. 

 These varieties have decoyed well along the shore, and 

 bags ranging from twenty to seventy a day have been 

 the rule. The writer shot over decoys at the lakes the 

 evening of the 15th and secured eight redheads and six 

 blackheads. A party of five market-hunters have been 

 located there over a week and four of them had been 

 shooting pintail and mallards over decoys in the sloughs 

 two miles back of the lake. They returned at night well 

 loaded with game, and reported the mallards as decoy- 

 ing well. Among their game was a canvasback and two 

 fine Canadian geese. The man who remained to shoot 

 at the lake brought in a bag of thirty-six, among them 

 was a canvasback. Over 1,500 ducks were hanging in 

 a corncrib awaiting shipment. Among them I noticed a 

 few butterball, hooded meganser, redheaded meganser 

 and green-winged teal. Resting On the lake that day 

 were probably 2,000 geese and brant, 50 swans and mul- 

 titudes of ducks. The weather to-day is bright and 

 clear and future shooting will depend altogether on the 

 weather. 



Spring seems to be hero in earnest. Robins, meadow- 

 larks, killdeer, blackbirds and others are here in num- 

 bers. No jack snipe nor plover have arrived yet. 



The shooting this spring, while good, lias not been up 

 to the average. The grounds which I shall endeavor to 

 describe in the future more fully have more than a local 

 reputation, and every fall and spring brings sportsmen 

 hundreds of miles to try their skill on the varied shoot- 

 ing here afforded. H. A. K. 



Dayton, Ohio, March 26. — Wild ducks in good sized 

 flocks wintered along the rivers and in the ponds and 

 little lakes of this vicinity. Wild geese are flying over 



us to the north. Snipe have been feeding in the marshes 

 through this very mild season. Quail have wintered 

 well, and the law has been a perfect protection to them 

 and to wild ducks. Woodcock have come in larger 

 numbers than usual, the advance birds having arrived 

 one week ago, and for a day or two met with chilly re- 

 ception. Observers have been astonished to find many 

 dead woodcock in the fields, and along the pikes, William 

 Kiefer of the Mad River neighborhood having seen seven 

 near each other, and could find no apparent cause for 

 death. Some of the sportsman advance the theory that 

 as the woodcock come in at night, and flying about thirty 

 feet high, collide with the maze of telegraph wires that 

 string along all of the roads and are thus killed. But this 

 would scarcely account for the dead woodcock that are 

 found in the fields. — A. B. 



Delaware License Law —Editor Forest and Stream: 

 A bill now before the Delaware Legislature, and in the 

 hands of the Senate committee demands by its provisions 

 such radical changes in the game laws of the State that 

 if passed the Delaware Game Protective Association will 

 soon be a thing of the past, in that the power vested in 

 the association to grant licenses to hunt game in the State 

 is to be repealed. A great injustice would be done the 

 Philadelphia and New York sportsmen who are members 

 of the association, and who have so generously con- 

 tributed, by gifts of money and game, toward stocking 

 our State with the best species of game that are adapted 

 to our soil and climate. Under their management the 

 game laws have been implicitly respected, and our pres- 

 ent legislators should not be so ungrateful to the asso- 

 ciation whose good deeds have been so highly commended 

 by their predecessors. — Del. A. Ware. 



A Montana Case.— Billings, Mont., March 8.— Editor 

 Forest and Stream: Before Judge Matheson this week, 

 Henry Brown was on trial for killing game out of season. 

 He pleaded poverty as the cause of the act, but this was 

 not a sufficient excuse, and the Court thereupon fined 

 him $20 and costs. The costs, however, out of sympathy 

 were remitted by the Court and attorneys. Brown was 

 convicted through the efforts of a private citizen of this 

 city, who proposes to report to county officers every 

 case of the kind that comes to his notice. He de- 

 serves credit and praise for his zeal and interest in the 

 game laws. The culprit has killed thirteen deer and six 

 antelope since the 15th of December — that is, in the close 

 season. Almost all the deer and antelope were does. 

 The people of this section are waking up to the fact that 

 game must be protected. — One Who Respects the Law, 



Wisconsin Game Legislation.— Lake Koshkonong, 

 Wis., March 21.— Editor Forest and Stream: A big fight 

 is going on in the Legislature at Madison over the fish and 

 game bills. Never before have there been so many bills 

 with so much opposition to them. The leading sports- 

 men throughout the State are working hard to have 

 strict game laws enacted. A bill to prohibit spring shoot- 

 ing, and only allowing shooting in the fall on Tuesdays, 

 Thursdays and Saturdays meets with great opposition 

 with persons who, by their correspondence with the daily 

 papers, one would think are farmers, or persons writing 

 just to have their names come before the public. One of 

 the fish bills makes the open season from May 15 to Jan. 

 1.— Rex. 



Berthoud, Col,, March 19. — The continued dry weather 

 has made spring shooting rather poor, but for the past 

 few days our lakes have been quite full of ditcks, mostly 

 redheads. A few nights ago I captured five incomers 

 and to-day a flock of green has been hanging about my 

 field and in the lake. At one time while at work in the 

 field I was within 60yds. of them, and if I had been in 

 possession of my Bonehill for a few seconds I think there 

 would have been at least four less geese to go to the lake. 

 -A. A. K. 



Loading Paper Shells.— I take pleasure in loading 

 my own in preference to the machine-loaded. I use a 

 12-gauge ^lbs. gun, and think 3drs. powder and loz. shot 

 enough. I find about fin. wads are necessary to have the 

 shells crimp nicely, and am satisfied the gun recoils more 

 in consequence, with less penetration. I used, some years 

 ago, shells with the conical base, but of late years do not 

 see them advertised. If they are still on the market 

 would like to know where they can be obtained. — Shell. 



Madison and Chenango Counties, N. Y.— Partridges 

 have wintered well and are seen in fair numbers by 

 woodchoppers. Sherburne, Chenango county, has one of 

 the best fish and game protection societies in this section. 

 The boys are in dead earnest, have stocked the streams 

 and caused the board of supervisors to enact a law pro- 

 hibiting woodcock and squirrel shooting until Sept. 1.— 

 Wing. 



Paola, Kas., March 22. — Green-winged and blue- 

 winged teal, pintails and mallards, wintered here. Usu- 

 ally ducks are only migratory with us, stopping on our 

 waters for a fortnight in spring and fall, though some- 

 times they stay longer when, as this winter, there is bttle 

 ice.— Pyranga. - 



NEW YORK GAME LEGISLATION. 



[.Special Correspondence Forest and Stream.] 



ALBANY, March S5 —Mr. Savery's bill providing for the pro- 

 tection of fish in Lake Ontario has been passed by the 

 Senate. The Assembly committee on game laws has reported the 

 bills of Messrs. Barton and Treadway. 



Senator Walker and Assemblyman Little have introduced a 

 bill prohibiting fishing by nets or anything else than hook and 

 line in the waters of Niagara county, adjoining the Niagara 

 River and Lake Ontario. 



Senator Ooggesbali and Assemblyman Kimball have introduced 

 the bill that bas been here for several years for the appointment 

 of commissioners to codify the game laws. 



Mr. Depeyster has introduced a bill in the Assembly amending 

 the general game law of 1879 so as to strike out the words "with 

 the aid of any light or lantern." This is so that wildfowl shall 

 not be killed at night. 



Found Out It Was Loaded. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have had over 800 inquiries for my Patent Safe Cartridge 

 Loading Machine in the three months my advertisement has 

 been in Fobest and Stbeam, and am now behind more than 

 thirty orders. Inquiries come from all through the Wt st and all 

 over the country. I got one from South America- I cannot speak 

 too gratefully for Foeest and Stream. Geo. D. Hun-ebb. 



