246 



FOREST AND STREAM, 



[Oct. 17, 1889. 



THE BEAR AS A BOXER. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In one of the most graphic and best told stories I ever 

 saw in print (your issue of Sept. 19) your Dakota corres- 

 pondent "Larry Yatt" ingenuously states that "Hugh 

 Campbell taught Rube boxing." Rube, T must mention, 

 was a camp bear raised from a cub, and Campbell was a 

 "rustler from the Bad Lands." You will mark the differ- 

 ence? But I object to the statement. I am willing to 

 believe that what Larry slings off-hand so gracefully was 

 said inadvertency, for I am convinced that he knows 

 better. Rube never had a lesson from Campbell, or any 

 other man. They may have had intimate business rela- 

 tions, but there is no room for them both in the same prize 

 ring. John L. Sullivan himself couldn't give a bear 

 points. Bears are self-taught. The sparring instinct is 

 in 'em, and there never was a professional so handy at 

 Grseco-Roman, or catch-as-catch-can. I say this boldly. 

 I know bears — as well as beans. I have raised bears from 

 young cubs up to four years, and I have had them in 

 the kitchen and in the camp, several of them. 



When I was corresponding secretary of the Blooming 

 Grove Park Association in 1871, we were building the 

 club house and staking out the one-mile deer paddock in 

 Pike county, Pa. Ira Tripp, of Scran ton, gave us a cub, 

 which became a great pet as he grew in years, and the 

 ladies fed him ice cream and watermelon. He was very 

 gentle, and would let us comb his hair. We called him 

 "Joe" for short; but this didn't shorten him any, for he 

 grew in stature until he measured eight feet standing 

 erect by his climbing post, with his great black paws 

 clasping it above his head to steady himself. Capt. La- 

 fayette Westbrook was then a war veteran of seven years 

 standing, and he stood six feet four inches in his socks. 

 He had been a member of the Legislature for Pike. Green 

 and Monroe counties, and had plenty of practice in legis- 

 lative sparring, as well as previously in the school of the 

 drill-shed. Indeed, we all regarded him as an expert, 

 though he made no great account of himself, being of 

 a rather retiring disposition and by no means aggressive. 

 Lafe was as good-natured as the bear. But one day when 

 a party of us were amusing ourselves with Joe, he took it 

 into his head to aggravate the animal. Bruin was up- 

 ended, smiling, and Lafe waltzed into the ring with a 

 flourish, and made a few scientific passes at his chest 

 and mug. He tweaked his nose, smacked his chops, 

 rubbed his head, pulled his ears, thumped his ribs, and 

 made himself generally familiar. Joe stood it for a 

 while without showing heat, merely dropping his jaws, 

 lolling his bright red tongue and leering foolishly at the 

 crowd. Occasionally he would clutch somewhat briskly 

 at the captain's feints, but the play went on monotonously, 

 until quite of a sudden the bear hit the captain a left- 

 handed swipe which tossed him outside of the ring and 

 curled him up promiscuously. This ended the play. The 

 captain allowed he was hurt badly, and we didn't see 

 him any more for several days. It was whispered that 

 he had gone down to Milford. 



There were a couple of rather amiable full grown bears 

 up at my place in Hallock, Minnessota, a brown one and 

 a black one, who used to try their science on each other 

 for the amusement of spectators, but they never injured 

 any one until one day the black one laid out a spiflicated 

 Swede in pretty much the same way. Although re- 

 peatedly warned, he persisted in monkeying with the 

 bear, and hence those tears and tears, the court plaster 

 and the tailor's bill. 



I tell you, Mr. Editor, that it never came in Hugh 

 Campbell's way to teach Rube boxing. I don't know 

 either of them, but I declare it on general principles. If 

 any of your readers whose name begins with Aleck wish 

 to be convinced, let them step into the zoological house 

 at the Smithsonian grounds in Washington, where the 

 bears have an hourly set-to in the pit every day in the 

 week, including Sunday. Why, sir, they are the very 

 masters of science. Go and see them, Mr. "Larry Yatt," 

 and then pit Rube against the field: but leave Mr. Camp- 

 bell out of the play. Charles Hallook. 



NOTES FROM WORCESTER. 



WORCESTER, Mass., Oct. 11 —The good bags of birds 

 brought in on opening day led every one to believe 

 that we were to have an excellent season's shooting, but 

 nearly every one has experienced some strange freaks of 

 fortune since then. 



One day you find a good number of birds and find them 

 right where you want them. They lie well for the dogs, 

 and when tliey get up you "get in a right and left with 

 the little hammerless." The next time you are out the 

 moment you get over the wall into a cover, purr-r-r-r-t 

 goes its sole occupant in the shape of "biddies" out the 

 other side. When you do get a woodcock pinned, he gets 

 up and whips around a birch before you can cover him, 

 and you are forced, at dark, to quit without a feather. 

 When it comes to putting in two such days in succession, 

 especially by one of the "Old Guard" and on his favorite 

 ground, it seems a trifle like rubbing it in, doesn't it? 



Possibly the next report you hear from one of the 

 "beginners" who declares that he never killed bird yet 

 that he saw when he shot at it. He has been out and 

 downed five partridges in a day. That evening you drop 

 into "Lisha's" and hear the boys making it interesting 

 for two of the best bird shots in the country who were 

 out all day and both got shut out. 



Well, so it goes, but the general belief is that there are 

 a fair number of birds, and if they ever do get out into 

 the edges and runs, some of them will have to pay dearly 

 for the trickery and even abusive treatment we have re- 

 ceived from their relations. 



That the birds are more wary than usual this fall there 

 is no doubt. Even the woodcock are getting educated, 

 and you find them with their dress suits all on, ready for 

 a party at a moment's notice, and the way they do scoot 

 across an old pasture about the second time you get them 

 up makes you think of the flight of an old cock partridge 

 when he dives out of an apple tree and sails away over a 

 mowing with his coat buttoned up so tight that lie is out 

 of reach before you can make up your mind whether it's 

 a i"obin or not. 



The woodcock flight has. not arrived yet, but there is 

 a large self-appointed reception committee waiting im- 

 patienty to make their short stay with us as interesting 

 as possible. 



The opening day of the fox season, Oct. 1, as regulated 

 by the "Fur Company," was anything but an ideal one. 

 Very few of the fox hunters braved the disagreeable cold 



drizzle, and of these but one secured a brush. E. F. 

 Whittaker, with his hound Tilden, went out to Oakdale 

 the night before, and between showers the dog started a 

 fox which Ed. shot after a half horn's run. Not much 

 fox hunting has been done as yet, but about every one 

 who has gone out started a fox. The Fur Company are 

 already talking up the big annual hunt, and intend to 

 make it a greater success than any of its predecessors. 

 This year they think they must be about due for a good 

 day. We trust the clerk of the weather may deign to 

 smile on them this year. 



A pretty good thing, and one that is just "peaches" for 

 some of the fox hunters, has just come to light. The 

 president of the Worcester Fur Company (I think he still 

 holds that honorable office), early in the season, made it 

 known to the fox hunters that they were expected to 

 keep away from a certain territory, known as "Bonds" 

 and "Sewall Hills," until the time of the annual hunt, 

 and there was an understanding that these grounds were 

 to be reserved, as it were, for that occasion. The gentle- 

 man who was particularly instrumental in circulating 

 this request has been out several times since Oct. 1 , and 

 yesterday one of his party killed a fox. 



For some reason the man who engineered the hunt did 

 not show up at "Lisha's" last night with his report, but a 

 delegate from the hunt was there "instructed." He gave 

 a very minute and interesting account of the day's sport, 

 describing the spot where the fox was shot, "just back 

 of the old barn between Rattlesnake and Bailey HilJ." 

 Well, the boys listened with due respect for some time, 

 but finally they could stand it no longer, and when 

 Charlie Knight asked him if "the old oak tree had moved 

 from Bond Hill up on to Rattlesnake," every one gave 

 way, and the way they lit on that "instructed" delegate 

 was a caution to sub-liars. Si. Lovell had been into 

 "Lisha's" that afternoon and told the whole story of their 

 killing the fox right in front of his house. He lives just 

 at the foot of Bond Hill. 



The delegate weakened, but protested that he told the 

 story as he had been instructed to. "However," he said, 

 ' 'it's no earthly use trying to lie to a party of old liars, 

 and I might have known better." The chances are that 

 the "combine" won't be able to reserve any more fox 

 ground, to enable them to have a snap on it themselves, 

 under pretense of keeping it fresh for the annual hunt. 



An invitation to a coon supper took Uncle Nathan out 

 before he had time to express his opinion of this sort of 

 sportmanship, but remarks were pretty freely circulated 

 which tended to show that the boys had arrived at 

 some very definite conclusions in regard to "fox hunting 

 as she is foxed," Hal. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



C CHICAGO, 111., Oct. 2.— Writing under date of Sept. 12, 

 from Plainfield, Mass., Mr. Charles Hallock inclosed 

 to me some tickets, which invited the bearer "to be pres- 

 ent at the first annual chicken hunt of the Rising Sun 

 Game Park Association, beginning Sept. 15." The tickets 

 were signed by Valentine Hicks, director, Ashton, 111. 

 As I could not go down to the hunt, and as I knew very 

 little about this association, I wrote to Mr. Hicks, and 

 duly received the following reply: 



"I have handed your letter to our president, Mr. Sam* 

 uel Dysart, of Franklyn Grove, who will call on you next 

 week and have a talk with you about our object in this 

 hunting and game park-. It is run for pleasure and for 

 profit, and the two can go together as well as not, for 

 though we graze cattle and sheep, and sow timothy and 

 clover, the land raises all the more game for that, on ac- 

 count of the increase in insects, etc., and even when pas- 

 tured down to a solid blue grass sod, all the game needs 

 is a strip or so of timothy grass left for them to rustle and 

 nest in, and some wet oats, sorghum, Egyptian or Kaffir 

 maize, sunflowers and buckwheat. We use these and a 

 short, sweet corn or early ninety-day dent corn, which 

 will grow about four feet high. All these seeds fall 

 clown, and all winter long can be found by grouse, quail, 

 turkeys or wildfowl. We also have lime shells, snails, 

 etc., and gravel (thrown up by a steam ditching machine) 

 on a few localities. You should come down and see the 

 place. It is most perfect for all kinds of land and water 

 game birds and animals. It can be made a great place 

 for bass and pickerel, and I think by damming up some of 

 the streams from the cold springs which bubble up, all 

 pure soft water, we could make some special trout ponds 

 much better and cheaper than is done on Long Island, my 

 native home. 



"I send you a pamphlet showing our first move of 

 organization into a stock company. Come down and a 

 team will meet you at Ashton and take you to the club 

 house and back again when you like. You can shoot on 

 the club grounds within two miles of the house. 



"As you know, our law was up on last Sunday (Sept. 

 15), and town and club hunters were out in full force. 

 Mr. S. Dysart informs me they shipped at the express 

 station 113 prairie chickens. If it had been a warm, still 

 day instead of a cold and windy one the market-hunters 

 would have killed nearer 200 apiece, for they are good 

 shots. The birds are full grown, and fly a long distance, 

 hiding in the cornfields, where they protect themselves 

 much better than any land owner can protect them. 



"I sued one market-hunter Monday. He paid the costs, 

 $11.50, without standing trial, and promised to stop 

 hunting. I sued a club hunter yesterda}^, putting the 

 damage at $200, the highest sum allowed by the law. We 

 want this Nathan Roe to stand trial and test our power 

 as land owners to prosecute for trespass. We will now 

 sue any man who trespasses on any part of over 20,000 

 acres of land, which extent we mean to increase for the 

 next three years. Our friends, the adjoining farmers, 

 have caught our idea, and have posted their lands, warn- 

 ing off trespassers, and thus beat off the market and 

 town hunters. I stopped the whole shooting business 

 to-day over nearly ten miles square of country. I have 

 one more extra good shot, a renter, to sue. He is a great 

 liar, and he has often told my neighbors to go to a 

 warmer climate when they ordered him off, saying he 

 meant to hunt anyhow. He has begged me not to sue 

 him, but I must. He was on my farm. I am very busy 

 and will write more later, but you must come down and 

 bring a friend or two. The chicken shooting lasts all 

 October. V. Hicks." 



I turned with considerable interest to the pamphlets 

 Mr. Hicks mailed here, and found that the Rising Sun 

 Game Park Association was incorporated Deo. 24, 1887, 

 It is the theory of its originator that our game laws are a 



farce, and that in ten years our game will be gone. He 

 reflects with bitterness on the failure of a proposed 

 national convention at Chicago a year or so ago. to se- 

 cure uniform game laws, and says, "There were four of 

 us attended, and four Chicago sportsmen came, by our 

 coaxing them to be there at 8 P. M. , after business hours." 

 He hits a good idea squarely when he says, "The selling 

 of game should not fee allowed any more than killing 

 it, no difference whether it is a plover or a rabbit, or 

 a deer, or even a woodcock. Let October and November 

 be the only two months to shoot. The law should be 

 made strong enough so all would obey it to a certainty 

 by the complainer having all the" fine. This law 

 would save the game nearly twenty years longer, but it I 

 must go; the hunters increase faster thau the game." 

 He does not believe, however, in the efficacy of any law, 

 and thinks the only remedy lies in the park system of 

 increasing game. He thinks northern Illinois a good 

 country for such a park, on which head he says: 



It is very evident now,tbat the only hunters who will enjoy any ; 

 shooting worth mentioning, will be the sportsmen who are smart 

 and sensible enough to build up a park to hunt in. Ton years of 

 this decrease will settle the hunting in America, sure; no law can 

 stop it, because the hunters are bound not to agree on any uniform 

 system of belief and action, any more than the church, religion, 

 or the political parties. This evidence has shown that we can't 

 have any uniform protective game laws. The land-owner sees 

 that he is forbidden to trap game in his own way, and any loafer 

 that can shoot, has the right to kill it and bear no expense- of tax 

 or of feeding or protecting the game. It is no strange thing that 

 the farmer is down on the hunter shooting on h>s land, and takes 

 no pains to save the birds' eggs or young, and does not complain 

 of any violation of shooting, which he sees more thau any one 

 else; he says it is no use for him to get into trouble and make 

 enemies, wit h no pay or equal rights. ' We have in this country 

 the naturally greatest variety of game of any part of the earth, 

 and we have about destroyed it. The people are the law and they 

 interpret their different ideas of game laws to suit their tastes 

 according to location and convenience to a special few. The 

 minority make the laws against the majority's wishes, and can- 

 not get them respected because there is fun and money in break- 

 ing them. These, and many other causes, have shown that there 

 is no way left in America tor us to have game left for shooting, 

 without we adopt the park system in every good place, that will 

 increase game and pay its own expenses, so the poor can enjoy 

 shooting as well on a limited number of ten or one hundred dollar 

 shares in a stock company. The hunter must, now look out and 

 provide his own hunting grounds. 



Nature has given in many places the wa ter for fish with the 

 natural place for land game. Lakes, ha ys, rivers, etc., will always 

 be public property, for fishing for any citizen, which law can pro- 1 

 tect, but the migratory game it cannot. Now I, with seven other 

 good men, who saw the need of the enterprise, have started in to 

 form a large, grand park, in a natural, good place, which can 

 yield a revenue much more than will be needed to bear the neces- 

 sary expense of the park and game increasing. I am the only i 

 one of the organizers that has been a practical game raiser and I 

 hunter. There are two that never hunt or fish and only two that! 

 are young enough to ever shoot much, if they get time from their 1 

 large farming and stock business. There is no speculation in I 

 stock shares by t his company, or land to sell at a high price or any I 

 salary expected for services rendered. I never expect to got any I 

 pay for managing the hunting and increasing of game; only pleas- J 

 ure and a plenty of good things to eat, and to have the satisfac- 

 tion of knowing that I have made some return for my long great 1 

 pleasure iu hunting without doing anything toward increasing. 

 As soon as I can find any young hunters capable of attending to 

 the management of the game and fish raising. I want the com- 

 pany to only let me look on and rest happy. 1 am sixty t wo years 

 old and naturally cannot have power to attend to a great park like 

 this will grow to be in a few years. 



When I had read so far as this I began to get a good 

 deal interested, and finally I just got down and read all 

 of the delightful, naive, rambling and absorbing little 

 book which constituted the first prospectus of this associ- 

 ation. It seems that Mr. Hicks is an old market-shooter, 

 and was "commodore" of the old Currituck Club in 

 Carolina before the war. He went West in search of I 

 new pastures, settled in northern Illinois, bought land, 

 slew ducks as thoughtlessly as ever for a time, and then 

 reformed and fell to th taking how he could bring back 

 to life again some of the thousands he had slain. Thisl 

 park, embracing large amounts of land under close wire 

 fence, and amply stocked with"game of all sorts, was his 

 solution and his dream. The project is stocked for the' 

 modest sum of $6,000,000, and books for subscription 

 thereto are placed in this and other cities. I do not 

 know what has been accomplished by way of actual suc- 

 cess in this project, but hope to find time to go over to 

 Ashton and investigate. It is very probable that some- 1 

 thing very interesting is to be learned there. There is. 

 some quaint and delicious reading matter in this samei 

 little prospectus, in which Mr. Hicks, now sixty-two! 

 years of age, sometimes makes reference to his past life J 

 as a coast shooter. He is a Quaker, and says of himself:! 

 "I grew up in the Hicksite Quaker church, where the! 

 women make the best preachers, Elias Hicks, the foun- 1 

 der of the Hicksite religion, was said to be the best shot I 

 that ever hunted on Long Island. He would always! 

 shoot at the hind bird in the flock so as to keep from 

 crippling the rest. This is more than I have ever done 

 to save game. I killed all the ducks and geese I could, 

 and never knew a man kill as many wild Canada geese. 

 Now I am appointed as a director and as an executive 

 officer to increase the fish and game, and I have a lively 

 business to attend to the balance of my active life." May 

 the balance of his life be happy, and may we hear more 

 of his park and his prospectus. From the latter I prom- 

 ise myself the pleasure of offering, at some future day, a 

 description of a day on Currituck in the old times, all 

 written just as its author gave it, and therefore simple 

 and delightful. 



Oct. 3. — I got a notion the other day that I could write 

 newspaper paragraphs, so I sent some to the Daily News, 

 of this city. The editor, Mr. John F. Ballantyne, very 

 promptly and wisely sent them back; but in the course of 

 his letter had occasion to say: 



"By the way, I saw something in Forest and Stream 

 the other day about albinos, and it reminded me that 

 Arm. Waugh (1 spell his name phonetically), of Henne- 

 pin, told me last spring that he had shot two white mud- 

 hens, and that he or somebody else there had shot a white 

 teal." 



Mr. Ballantyne is a member of the Hennepiu Duck Club, 

 and the inventor of a new style of duck boat which 

 George Cunningham, the club keeper, is going to con- 

 struct as soon as the plans and specifications 'are com- 

 pleted. 



Speaking of albinos, I am reminded that I saw in the 

 Zoological Gardens at Cincinnati, the other day, two 1 

 white squirrels, labeled "From S. Carolina." They were 

 in the gray squirrels' cage, and were of about the size of 

 the gray squirrel. In coat they were quite white. Were 

 not these albinos? Is there such a thing as a species of 

 white squirrels in this country? 



Very delightful is a visit to these animal gardens, 

 either at Cincinnati or St. Louis, and one never tires oi 

 seeing so close at hand the big creatures he has pursued 

 in a state of nature, In each of the above parka there. 



