388 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Dec. 5, 1889, 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



CHICAGO, 111., Nov. 24.— The Eustis-Donald special 

 car is back from the trip to Alliance, Neb., mention 

 of which was made in an earlier issue. It is probable 

 that the party was too late for the wildfowl, at any rate 

 they report but poor sport in that line, the most notable 

 day at that sort of shooting netting twenty- six geese. A 

 move was then made further east after quail, and at 

 Hazard, near Broken Bowl, and near Mason, on Elk 

 Creek, elegant shooting was had at the latter bird. An- 

 other move was then made to Oxford Junction, on the 

 Republican, and then they went to Cambridge, on the 

 Medicine Creek, in the extreme southwestern part of the 

 State. Here the quail shooting was found to be all that 

 any one could ask. It was mostly creek shooting, and 

 the bevies were everywhere. The party of five guns, Mr. 

 Eustis, Mr. Donald, Major Wells, Dr. Williams and Mr. 

 Griffith, made bags of 60, 70, 80 and 90 quail a day, bag- 

 ging in all 600 or 700 birds. The trip, therefore, though 

 not so varied and uniformly successful as it was expected 

 to be, was extremely pleasant as it was. Here seems an- 

 other instance of the story which has everywhere been 

 common this fall, the ducks are scarcer and the quail 

 more abundant than known before in a long time. 



Another one of these luxurious special car trips is re- 

 cently finished, having been participated in by Mr. W. L. 

 Pierce, his brother, and a third gentleman whose name I 

 do not get. Mr. Pierce will be remembered as president 

 of the Grand Calumet Heights Club. This party went to 

 Arkansas, and they struck it rich. They killed two deer, 

 several turkeys and all the quail they wanted. They 

 brought home" 160 quail with them, over and above what 

 they ate and shipped. 



More quail. The country seems full of them. Word 

 comes to me from Indiana again that the quail are very 

 numerous, and want to be killed. Mr. Hank Smith and 

 Mr. Frank Arrowsmith, conductor on the Chicago and 

 Atlantic, are lately back from a run down that line into 

 Ohio. I expect they shot 'em a flock at a time. 



Nov. 28. — Not less than six different parties wrote or 

 called on me, asking advice where to go on Thanksgiving 

 Day for such and such a kind of shooting, and I sent 

 them off, all over the country, with the devout hope that 

 they might be fortunate. It is mighty risky business 

 directing anybody where to go shooting, because if a bag 

 is not made the director is held responsible. Mr. H. S. 

 Smith wanted some squirrel shooting, and I thought he 

 might find it near Bureau Junction, this State. Later I 

 talked with Mr. G. W. Marshall, who was this fall up at 

 Lake Wauconda, Wis., after ducks. He said they got 

 but few ducks, but had all the squirrel shooting they 

 could ask. The squirrels at Wauconda are the fox squir- 

 rels, and they are noted for being the largest of that 

 variety found anywhere near here. A wagon ride of 

 several miles is necessary to get to Wauconda. If Mr. 

 Smith or other friends will go to Barrington, I think that 

 good squirrel and rabbit shooting can be had from that 

 point, though I cannot give the name of any local guide 

 to the best localities. 



It is probable, however, that all the Thanksgiving 

 hunters of this whole region had a cold, unsuccessful 

 time. The day was marked by one of the worst storms 

 known here on the lake, and it was hardly possible to be 

 comfortable while hunting. We found this the case at 

 Grand Calumet Heights Club, down on the bleak shore 

 of Lake Michigan, where a little party gathered to put 

 in the day becomingly. Among this number were Mr. 

 Alex. T. Loyd, Mr. J. E. Baggott, Mr. McCauley. Mr. 

 Stevenson, Mr. Young and wife and Miss Birdie, Mr. 

 Wilde, Mr. Pittaway, Mr. Lauterbach, Mr. J. Gillespie 

 and wife, Mr. E. Gillespie, Miss Hattie and Miss Mabel, 

 Dr. Harlan and three children, Dr. Davis and Mr. Mar- 

 shall. Mr. W, T. Best, inventor and maker of the Chi- 

 cago tin pigeon, also came down by invitation to give the 

 boys a shoot, but the wind was so cutting that only a 

 few dared face the traps. Some idea of the force of the 

 wind may be had when it is stated that we gathered 

 many of the birds 80, 85, and even 95yds. from the traps. 

 It was hard shooting, but good fun, for when the birds 

 fell open to the shot — which they did very nicely — they 

 went fluttering off into the pine trees for all the world 

 like so many winged cripples. 



This sport was watched by the feminine and effeminate 

 portion of the crowd from the club house windows, from 

 which points also were watched the futile efforts of some 

 of the shooters to scratch down a gull or a bluebill from 

 the flocks which quite frequently passed close along the 

 beach. There were numbers of ducks flying over the 

 lake, but none were found on the river. Mr. Lauterbach 

 had bagged five ducks on the river the day before. Two 

 or three rabbits were also brought in. The telegraph 

 operators at Wilson Station are poaching on our Grand 

 Calumet rabbits, and this must be stopped. After dinner, 

 the weather being too wild and rough for outdoor shoot- 

 ing, a rifle range was cleared along the generous extent of 

 the club house interior, the target back being put up in 

 the locker room, while the firing was done from the foot 

 of the staircase in the gun room. This made a very d ecent 

 range for the .22-calibers, and the boys fell very amiably 

 to shooting for turkeys, twelve of which Mr. Harns, the 

 club superintendent, had on hand. We could not go into 

 this sport as Forest and Stream described it last week, 

 but our unique method afforded a lot of fun. We shot at 

 one-inch discs of tin. to hit one of which counted a turkey, 

 all ties shot miss and out. At 15 cents a shot, the turkeys 

 sold at a very good figure, after all. In this way Mr. 

 Baggott won two turkeys, Mr. Loyd won two, and Messrs. 

 Stevenson, Wilde, McCauley, Marshall and Hough won 

 one each. In one tie Mr. Loyd shot three of us out. I 

 never did like Alex. Loyd very much, anyhow. He can't 

 let a fellow win a paltry turkey to take home and feed 

 his dog, but he must come in and shoot him out of the 

 tie. Wears glasses, too! 



When we bid Mr. and Mrs. Harns good-bye at the club 

 house, it was generally understood that the season was 

 ended for the year. This morning was very cold and 

 there was a good deal of snow. On the beach there was 

 some lumber washed ashore, possibly the deck load of 

 some lake schooner. Last night was a woeful one on 

 the lake, and the morning papers were full of accounts 

 of wreck and fatality. 



The whole Calumet country noted as a region, of sport, 

 is also known to a few of its old frequenters as a region 

 of death and disaster. To-day I talked with a gentleman 

 who formerly shot at the old Florence Benner box on 

 Lake Oalnroftt. He said that he personally knew of over 



100 deaths by drowning in that shallow but treacherous 

 lake and the marshes near it. The lake is only about 5 

 or 6ft. deep, but when it gets a sea on, the waves run 

 high enough to drown the boldest swimmer. On one day 

 there drowned in Lake Calumet nine persons, also two in 

 the main Calumet Eiver and one in Fox Lake. All these 

 lower marshes are treacherous, and even when one cannot 

 push a boat it is often unsafe to step out and try to wade. 

 Once George Kleinman broke through the rushes, into a 

 new pondhole where we had marked a flight. He found 

 his spot apparently already occupied by a man who was 

 standing above his middle in the marsh. Seeing him 

 motionless, George pushed over to him. The man was 

 dead, having doubtless perished of exhaustion attendant 

 upon a struggle of no one knows what duration. His 

 boat was not found, and to-day this remains one of the 

 unknown tragedies of the marsh. 



On another day a Chicago barber was shooting near my 

 informant's blind. He disappeared, and his body was 

 found next spring. Some talk was made over this, and 

 it was reported he had run away and left his family, until 

 the finding of the body settled it all. Another time, three 

 boys in a boat stood up and shot at a flock of teal. One 

 was drowned. The others got out and informed the 

 Chittenden family, who marked the spot with a stake. 

 A shooter shot teal there all the afternoon, and the two 

 boys went on home. The poor boy drowned was not 

 found until long afterward. At another time three men 

 crossed the ice when it was not safe, and one broke in 

 and was abandoned to a slow death by exhaustion. He 

 could have been saved. A fool on the bank had a boat, 

 but was afraid to go out on the ice with it. "I wouldn't 

 have gone out there for fifty dollars!" was his reply when 

 reproached for his cowardice. He would have run no 

 risk. Some cowards are pitiful cowards. On yet another 

 occasion a man was lost on the marsh at night and was 

 found dead in his boat the next morning, it being cold 

 weather. Yet again, two men lost the channel, of a dark 

 night, within sight and hearing of the "bum-boat," where 

 their companions were camped. They spent the night 

 trying to go 200yds., and by" morning were barely alive. 

 I could tell numberless other instances, and could repeat 

 some of the accidents of the lake shore and of the Grand 

 Calumet, but this is enough to show why nearly all the 

 lower country clubs have in their house rules a certain 

 code of signals to be used by any one lost or in distress 

 upon the marsh. 



The high wind of yesterday blew sand in our eyes. 

 Acting on the advice of a wise friend we all found that 

 the best way to detach a grain of sand from the lid of 

 the eye was to draw that lid out and entirely over the 

 other lid. This was usually effective and is much better 

 than persistent rubbing. Does every shooter and traveler 

 know that? 



Lately I saw a gun rod, said to be invented by Billy 

 Mussey. At the upper end it is pierced to admit the 

 cleaning rags. The whole rod is of round iron, and the 

 lower end is sharpened and jabbed down into the floor. 

 The gun cleaning citizen rubs his barrels up and down 

 the rod. I don't think much of that. A good straight 

 hickory stick is good enough. A pointed rod with a little 

 screw-bead sticking out to make just such a long scratch 

 as I recently put full length in one of my barrels strikes 

 me as being the worst sort of cleaning rod there is. Mr. 

 Loyd, always busy fixing up some scheme in the art of 

 gunnery, on State occasions uses an iron rod fitted into a 

 carpenter's brace at one end. He screws the barrels, 

 well wrapped, in a vise and then everlastingly bores 

 away with his brace and rod. In this way he can force 

 a rag through his barrels which he could not budge by 

 hand. To protect the breech of the barrels he has a brass 

 shell cut out for the rod to pass through. This shell he 

 slips into the breech of the barrel, and the rod is thus 

 kept from touching the barrel at all, the rags holding it 

 at one end and the brass guide at the other. This is a 

 good way to polish a gun. if the work is done carefully. 



I have found the fibers of a frayed bit of twine, or 

 small rope, good to take the leading out of a gun. So is 

 a piece of shot-sack. A bit of very fine wire gauze is 

 good, but it must be very fine. Some will not use this, 

 but prefer a rag with a little "crocus powder," or metal 

 polish. The latter sometimes contains a bad acid. I 

 have known a shooter to use vinegar to cut the lead out 

 of his barrels, but don't know much about the advisabil- 

 ity of that. As to the mere cleaning of a gun, the shoot- 

 ing world is divided into two parties, the wet and the 

 dry. Personally, I rarely find it necessary to use water 

 in cleaning a gun; but plenty of people will tell you you 

 can't clean a gun without water. 



I saw a handy game-carrier, the other day, which was 

 the property and invention of Mr. C. E. Gordon, of Kosh- 

 konong Place, Lake Koshkonong, of whom I shall have 

 more to say later. This carrier was a strap arranged to 

 be passed over the shoulder and held in position by 

 another strap. Dependent from the shoulder, and hang- 

 ing under the arm out of the way, were the two ends of 

 the solid bit of leather l4in. long, into which ends were 

 let thongs of stout lace leather. The opposite ends of 

 these thongs were split so that a running noose could 

 easily be formed. Into such a noose the he^d or foot of 

 the bird to bo carried is thrust and caught, and it is held 

 firmly without danger of losing out. For those who like 

 any carrier but a pocket, this is a good one. 



Mr. Gordon had also another invention for the sports- 

 man's ease and comfort, in the form of a combination 

 carrying-strap, dog leash, gun sling and hitching strap. 

 This strap is composed of two sections, each 30in. long, 

 which buckle in a flat buckle, which latter lies upon the 

 top of the shoulder when the strap is used in carrying a 

 valise or the like. At each end of the strap is a common 

 harness snap, easily slipped on to any hook or loop. 

 Above the snap, a distance of I6in., or just far enough to 

 make a good dog collar, there is let into each leg of the 

 strap an iron ring, or rather an oblong, into which the 

 snap can be caught, thus instantly forming a dog collar 

 at each end of the strap, so that the latter can be used as 

 a lead for a brace of dogs; or it could be used as a collar 

 and chain for a single dog. But this is not all. Into the 

 harness snaps at the ends of the strap are let two little 

 leather rings, which open with buckles. One of these 

 rings is just big enough to buckle around your gun bar- 

 rels, and the other fits the grip of the gun stock. Thus 

 adjusted you can sling the strap diagonally across the 

 shoulders and so carry your gun much more easily at the 

 close of a long day than you could if you had no strap. 

 " I might go off on a trip without my dog, or perhaps 

 without my gun." said Mr. Gordon, " but I would nevnt 



go without my Btrap. You can pretty near keep house 

 with that strap, and there are dozens of ways in which 

 it comes handy. It is not a patented article, and any 

 sportsman who wishes can make and use one." 



Nov. 29.— Mr. Dan Merritt, a well-to-do citizen of Mar- 

 quette, Mich., on the south coast of Lake Superior, and a 

 hearty sportsman with a special leaning toward big trout, 

 was in town last week. Mr. Merritt owns a mile of 

 splendid trout fishing on the south shore, to which he 

 does not direct the general public, although one or two 

 friends of this city have been out with him and can testify 

 to the excellence of the sport. Mr. Merritt during a talk 

 said that he this year completed his record kept since his 

 stay in the Superior country, and that he had now caught 

 just an even ton of brook trout ! 



Mr. Ruth ven Deane and Mr. Stafford, of the West Side, 

 had a rather strange experience near English Lake one 

 day this last fall. They found splendid snipe shooting 

 on a dry upland which had no water about it. They took 

 off their rubbei boots and walked in the sheepskin "moc- 

 casins" worn indide the rubber boots. Thus shod, they 

 had good fun and good success at snipe shooting with dry 

 feet. The snipe were everywhere in this country this fall. 

 Mr. G. W. Marshall complains that this column "gave 

 away" his private snipe grounds near Englewood, and that 

 on the following week there were seventy-five shooters 

 on the ground which he and a friend or two were trying 

 to keep quiet. There are several readers, if not more, of 

 Forest and Stream in this city, it seems. 



By request of several sportsmen of this city, I offer for 

 publication the following list of officers of the Illinois 

 State Sportsmen's Association for 1889: F. C. Donald, 

 President, Chicago; Thos. Laflin, Vice-President, Milan, 

 111.; J. M. Hutchinson, Second Vice-President, Chicago; 

 W. L. Shepard, Secretary-Treasurer, Chicago. Board of 

 Directors — Abner Price, chairman; Chas. S. Burton, W. 

 W. McFarland, A. M. Hoffman, H. C. Buechner, all of 

 Chicago. Law Committee — Wolfred N. Low, chairman, 

 Chicago; Hon. John Lyle King, Chicago; Hon. Lucius B. 

 Crooker, Mendota, 111. The regular directors' meeting 

 was held at the Sherman House last Tuesday night, and 

 preliminary arrangements made for the annual trap 

 shoot. 



Reports from the English Lake Club state that thous- 

 ands of mallards were on the marsh last Wednesday, 

 doubtless driven down by the great storm. Mr. Ab. 

 Price went down to the club, but his success is not yet 

 known. This storm must have made shooting some- 

 where. 



Dec. J.— It is probable that another strong organization 

 will be added to the many shooting clubs which are 

 reaching further and further out from this city. The 

 name of the proposed new club will probably be the 

 Partridge Lake Club, and its membership will doubtless 

 be made up in this city and in Milwaukee. The projector 

 of this club is Mr. C. E. Rollins, a prominent insurance 

 man of this city, who has come back from the territory 

 in question much impressed with its beauties and its 

 desirability as a location for a sportsman's club. He 

 thinks Gill's Landing or the Wolf River the best spot 

 for the location of the club house, and he has already done 

 some preliminary work looking toward an organization. 

 In regard to this the Milwaukee Morning Sentinel has the 

 following to say : 



"This point is on the line of the Wisconsin Central 

 road, and Mr. Rollins has enlisted the services of Eirsi 

 Assistant General Passenger Agent Louis Eckstein to as- 

 sist him in agitating the question among sportsmen of 

 Milwaukee and the State. Mr. Rollins promises that he 

 can secure at least fifty members in Chicago who are 

 anxious to effect the organization, and more if necessary, 

 but it is desirable that a fair proportion of the members 

 be residents of this State. Mr. Rollins went out to Gill's 

 Landing a week ago and spent several days looking over 

 the ground and getting figures relative to the enterprise. 

 He says that there is a tract of land comprising about 

 2,000 acres, which takes in nearly all of Partridge Lake 

 and the marsh adjoining, as well as on both sides of 

 Wolf River for some distance up and down, and what is 

 known as the Big Bayou, which was formerly the bed of 

 the Wolf River. This land is mostly low and marshy, 

 with the exception of 150 acres of high ground on the 

 banks of the stream and the Big Bayou. The owner of 

 this land will lease to the club about 1,500 acres, which 

 will take in all the most desirable portions of the tract 

 with the exception of a small strip on the south side of 

 Partridge Lake, containing about 250 acres, which can 

 probably be leased at a very reasonable figure. The 

 owner of the large tract wants $200 a year for it, and will 

 make a lease for as long a period as is required. On the 

 banks of the Big Bayou, on a bluff, there is a very fine 

 mineral spring, and a fine location for a club house. All 

 Milwaukee hunters are probably familiar with the place 

 described, as it is one of the best known hunting spots in 

 the State. Mr. Rollins states that while he was there he 

 saw thousands of ducks of all kinds except canvasbacks. 

 Partridge Lake and Wolf River furnish aboat the best 

 fishing in the State. The natives of Fremont, Mr. Rollins 

 says, take large quantities of black bass every winter 

 through the ice with the spear, which is clearly illegal. 

 Last winter one man speared 178 bass in one day. If the 

 club was organized it would see that this illegal method 

 of taking fish was stopped. Partridges are to be found 

 in great plenty and a hunter for jacksnipe generally bags 

 twenty-five or thirty of them a day. Steps will be taken 

 to push the project in this city, and if the Wisconsin 

 sportsmen do not take kindly to the idea the organization 

 will probably be completed in Chicago. All the local 

 sportsmen who have heard of it so far express themselves 

 much pleased with the plan and promise to assist in help- 

 ing it along." 



The above is a good move, and the Milwaukee paper never 

 was more correct than when it said Chicago would finish 

 this club if Milwaukee couldn't. Are there any readers 

 of Forest and Stream interested in this? These organ- 

 izations of sportsmen all help. They show the trend of 

 modern sportsmanship, and presently the shooter who 

 dees not belong to a club will be out of luck at least. 

 Chicago men realize this, and they are all the time get- 

 ting hold of good sporting preserves, of which this one 

 is doubtless a good sample. It is to be hoped we may 

 have^ater good news from this club. E. Hough. 



The Adirondack Shooting Lodge, which is adver- 

 tised in this week's issue, is known to us to be in a most 

 desirable location. It is a rare opportunity to secure 

 excellent sporting headquarters. 



