Dec. 4, 1890.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



395 



Your uncle Jo Card has been down at Toledo, 0,, again, 

 and has had a barrel of fun on the big club marsh near 

 there. He and his brother and another gun killed 128 

 mallard and black duck there one day, and they averaged 

 about seventy a day in the better part of their shooting. 



Mr. Cy. Clark, of Clark & Neltnor's place on Fox Lake, 

 was at Swan Lake Club, on the Illinois River, a couple of 

 weeks ago, and sent up about fifty ducks to his friends. 



From Fox Lake we do not- hear such very good reports 

 just now, but there otight to be some shooting there now 

 within the next few days. John Gillespie, of the Jenney 

 & Graham Gun Co., was up at the lake a week ago, but 

 says he only got one shot at a duck. Charlie Wilcox, 

 who does most of his shooting at Fox Lake, says he has 

 had poor luck lately, and awaits Ed. Howard's telegram 

 before going up again. 



Mr. V. Hicks, son of "Valentine Hicks of the Rising 

 Sun Game Park Association, near Ashton, about eighty 

 miles west of here, was in town this week. He says the 

 prairie chickens have been doing very well indeed this 

 year, and only last week he killed a dozen out of the 

 coi-n in one day. Young Mr. Hicks says they have been 

 expecting Mr. Mussey and the writer out for a fall 

 chicken hunt, but there are so many less pleasant things 

 to do that it is hardly likely we will see the big farm this 

 year. It is with the siocerest regret that we hear of the 

 death of old Mae, the old liver colored pointer that found 

 our chicken for us, the one we killed by moonlight. Poor 

 old Mac. He was a truly gritty hunter, and I hope he's 

 happy now. 



~M.r. C. McCammon, in company with his friend Mr. 

 Harry Sanborn, had a very pleasant little fall hunt out 

 in Dakota last month. They went to Huron, S, D., and 

 shot in the country thereabouts and around Oaks, further 

 south. They seem to have had better luck than the 

 average North Dakota party and found some sport, 

 although the very dry weather bothered them later. 

 They bagged 113 ducks in one day and got a number of 

 geese also, but say they were all native birds, the northern 

 flight not yet being down. Yet at one point in Dakota 

 Mr. McCammon and his friend saw a field so packed full 

 of geese and "tiger brant" that at first they thought it 

 was a tremendous flock of sheep. On this trip Mr. Mc- 

 Cammon was seriously hurt by being crushed between 

 the wheel and the bed of the wagon, and from this he is 

 by no means recovered yet. He had just alighted from 

 the wagon and was caught by the wheel as his attention 

 was engaged elsewhere. These two gentlemen say they 

 saw simply millions of prairie chickens, but they hunted 

 these birds very little. 



The Dakota shooting tourists unite in a loud complaint 

 against the rapacity of the natives around Devil's Lake, 

 and indeed pretty much all through the shooting part of 

 Dakota. Ben Dicks says that on their trip to Devil's 

 .Lake they had to pay $10 to get their guns and shells 

 hauled twenty-two miles. For a team they had to pay 

 $8 a day, and for a team and driver $8.75 a day. Mr. Mc- 

 Cammon says they had to pay any farmer at least $2 

 before he would hitch up and help move their decoys 

 from, one field to another. If a team came to take them 

 in to dinner, a mile and a half, it cost $2 and another $3 

 to get back to the field again. All this is pretty tough on 

 foreign shooters. A great big healthy, large-sized boy- 

 cott on just such localities is what is wanted. 



Reports come from Fort Smith, Ark., that the country 

 down there is fairly overrun with quail. Things are so 

 torn up in the Indian Nations just now that it is far from 

 advisable to cross the line this fall, unless one is careless 

 about losing his outfit to the military patrol. The land 

 and the game thereof will belong to the galvanized 

 boomers; but after all one cannot regret any action that 

 will keep outside hunters from shooting in the Nations, 

 and so give the little remaining game a chance. 



From" the wild and woolly locality, Jackson's Hole, 

 Wyoming, reached via Kaintuck, Idaho, comes a letter 

 from Mr. S. N. Leek, whom I never met and don't know 

 anything about, but whom I envy right now at this big 

 game season. Mr. Leek writes as follows: 



"I take Forest and Stream, and noticing your writing 

 I thought I would write you for information if you will 

 be so kind as to give it to me. I am a resident of Jack- 

 son's Hole, on Snake River, directly south of Yellowstone 

 Park, between Teton Mountains on one side and Gros 

 Ventres on the other. This is a great place for game, both 

 large and small, and trout fishing is splendid. 



"I have been in the West about 15 years, and have put 

 in a good deal of the time hunting and trapping in the 

 mountains. I would like to get hunting parties to guide 

 through the mountains. Now what I want to know is 

 how to get them. I suppose there are lots of men in the 

 East that, if they knew a good responsible guide, would 

 like to come and have a hunt. If there were several par- 

 ties who wanted to come at the same time there are a 

 number of men here that I could recommend highly that 

 would like to act as guides, that could furnish all the 

 horses necessary, also camp outfit. We could meet par- 

 ties either at Eagle Rock on the Utah Northern, or at 

 Cinnabar, and come down through the Park. 



''I can give reference as to my character and experi- 

 ence if necessary. If it's not asking too much, I would 

 like to hear from you." 



I did let Mr. Leek hear from me, and told him non- 

 residents could not hunt in Wyoming. A good many 

 letters drift in from Western men who would like to act 

 as guides to Eastern tenderfeet at so much a per, but in 

 the lot there are doubtless many who would be trust- 

 worthy and valuable guides. For Mr. Leek I want to 

 say it is an almighty good sign that he reads the Forest 

 and Stream regularly. 



From Pasadena, southern California, comes word that 

 the coyote coursers of the Valley Hunt, of that burg, are 

 now leaning to the staghound, in preference to the grey- 

 hound, for coyote hunting. They s;an't have seen all the 

 greyhounds in the world, and when they speak so I am 

 . forced to remember a deer hunt in the Indian Nations a 

 few years ago, when a few of us saw the two strains tried 

 together, at least to a limited extent. The use of grey- 

 hounds in the chase is a sort of hunting without a gun 

 which sometimes results in meat, and a good deal of it. 



S peaking of guns. The whole tendency is to light guns 

 nowadays, as vre all know, but just how light does every- 

 body suppose double-barreled shotguns are made? There 

 are now in Chicago four shotguns of .44cal. One of 

 these was made to order for F. P Taylor, a Diamond 

 Daly, and I suppose he has it yet. That is a double gun 

 and a dandy. Mrs. R. B. Organ owns a .44 shotgun, and 

 shoots it too. This is a single barrel, and Mrs. Organ has 



killed a couple of dozen rail with it in a day. And now 

 I have just seen a pretty pair of little .44cal. double guns, 

 W. Richards, at Jenney & Graham's. These little guns 

 seem like toys, but they say they shoot quite hard. Col. 

 Felton, as is well known about here, shoots a very strong 

 pigeon race with a 20-gauge Scott, and we have just 

 heard of Mr. Turtle's use of a 16-gauge on ducks. 

 A has le ten-bore. 



Baked possum suppers are just now interesting our 

 Chicago sportsmen as a form of giddy and delicious dis- 

 sipation. And hereby hangs something, which Forest 

 and Stream is probably the first paper to get hold of. 

 The early organization is very probable of a social , game 

 dinner-eating, lie-swapping club of Chicago shooters 

 under the name of the Possum Club. The Possum will 

 go. It will be a success, and its history will be apples of 

 gold in pictures of silver. Wait till vou hear from the 

 Possum Club, for it will pale the ineffectual stars of all 

 the other Chicago clubs, gustatorial or shootatorial. The 

 list of members is not yet fully determined, and it would 

 hardly be best to publish the probable but uncertain list, 

 already formulated. 



Summing up the shooting situation for the immediate 

 present, more especially in regard to duck shooting, the 

 fact must be reached that the season has been a rather 

 poor one. Above, mention has been made of what would 

 seem to be a good number of very fine bags, but it should 

 be remembered that it is only the good ones we hear from. 

 Only success gets chronicled, and meritorious effort 

 receives not half the reward it should. Our ducks are 

 not with us to any tremendously alarming extent. The 

 situation reminds me of the remark of the North Side 

 Hebrew that Billy Mussey tells about. The Hebrew in 

 question was pondering over the dull times, and with a 

 sigh finally remarked, "Veil, if pizness vasn't any bedder 

 last veek as it vas nexdt veek, I'm a sonn of a gun, dot's 

 all I hope!" 



We hope for better business next week. 



Nov. 30. — The quickest sort of an amendment ought to 

 be made to what I said about the Possum Club yesterday. 

 The lapse of a day has covered a year of event. History 

 moves fast with the Possum Club. Yesterday afternoon 

 the Possum Club was still in the air, and its probable 

 membership was not yet fair news to publish. This 

 morning the Possum Club is fully organized, its charter 

 members are enrolled, and provisions are made for doub- 

 ling the list at the next meeting. The Possum Club will 

 make swift history in this city. In many ways it will 

 repay watching, and a brief synopsis of its sudden growth 

 ought to be given. 



A week ago the first movement of the Possum Club be- 

 gan. Billy Mussey, George Andrews and W. S. HaineB 

 went down that Saturday evening to a possum supper at 

 Billy Werner's restaurant on Michigan avenue. Billy 

 Werner is Kinsley's old chef, and he made Kinsley's rep- 

 utation, and staid with him till Kinsley began to serve 

 too much illegal game, and then he left. Billy Werner 

 can cook a boot leg so it tastes good, and as for possum — 

 well ! 



These gentlemen were the very first movers of the club. 

 They came back to Billy Mussey's hall exuberant. They 

 had revelled in optimistic possumistic possibilities of 

 which they had never before dared dream. When Billy 

 told the boys about it — all the boys are at Billy's Saturday 

 night, and most all of them on any other night— his eyes 

 fairly glared through his glasses and his hair stood up all 

 over his head. 



Then some one said, "Why not start a possum club?" 



Seventy-five voices yelled, "Possum club!" The thing 

 was done. It was a song that carried the French revolu- 

 tion, a revenue^stamp that carried the American revolu- 

 tion, a cow's kick that burned Chicago. It is the little 

 thing that impinges sharpest, and the pointed idea that 

 sticks in the face of possibility. In the heart of each man 

 present there was a certainty that the Possum Club was 

 destined to success. 



Last night the Possum Club held its first meeting for 

 organization, and at Billy Werner's board there sat down 

 the following charter members: W. P. Mussey, G. W, 

 Andrews, W. S. Haines, W. N. Low, C. E. Felton, C. B. 

 Dicks, L. M. Hamline, P. F. Stone, F. A. Place, J. P. 

 Hayde, E. Copland, Fred Pfeffer, A. H. Harryman, E. 

 Hough, Billy Werner being chosen charter member ex- 

 offlcio. 



' The first thing the club did was to eat some possum. 

 Then they ate some possum. Thei*e were "sweet 'taters" 

 too, and English muffins and possum, and some glasses 

 and possum. Then everybody ate a little possum, and 

 settled down a little to the necessary business. Just 

 about this time it was that Col. Felton came in with 

 champion Jim Elliott, who is at present the guest and 

 protege of Chicago, and who was thought to be lost some- 

 where in the wilds of Washington Park. The club gave 

 Jim Elliott an ovation which made him blush, and then 

 offered him some possum. 



Mr. Low was called to the chair. It was decided not 

 to complete any iron-clad organization, and not to recruit 

 the club necessarily from shooters only. It was thought 

 best to elect a permanent secretary, and Billy Mussey was 

 chosen, but it was voted to elect a chairman for only one 

 meeting at a time, each time in advance of the next 

 meeting. Mr. Low will preside at the next meeting. 

 The Forest and Stream representative was called on to 

 recount the history of the club's origin, and pointed out 

 the three who first set the ball rolling. Mr. Low then 

 spoke on call, and said that he could see how the club 

 could unite all the clubs, and indeed bind together all the 

 craft of sportsmen in Chicago, shooters, anglers and all 

 others. He did not think it a wild thought to prophesy 

 for the near future a great meeting room and a great body 

 representing the best of Chicago's sporting fraternity, and 

 he could see the place and the means whereby, on such an 

 occasion as a visit of Kansas City to this city, an enter- 

 tainment could be offered which should make the 

 Possum Club a name synonymous with the hospitality 

 and generosity of Chicago. He saw in this movement a 

 building better than we all might know at present. It 

 meant a unification of Chicago sportsmen, the wiping 

 out of every clique and faction, and the nucleus of what 

 might be a mighty movement in the matter of more in- 

 fluence for sportsmen as a class, for better game laws and 

 better enforcement of them , for better relations with 

 other States in such matters, for a better and a higher 

 standard yet than even that high one which is now neces- 

 sary to be attained before one can be accepted into the 

 guild of the sportsmen of to-day. 



Col,- Felton. moved -that all the sportsmen of Kansas. 



City should be honorary members of the Possum Club, 

 the honorable guest, Mr. Elliott, first on the list. Car- 

 ried with cheers. A question: "Is Macalester in it?" and 

 shouts of "Not in it with Jim." 



It was moved and carried that at the next meeting each 

 member should propose the name of one gentleman, who 

 should be chosen a member thereupon: further increase 

 of membership to be considered thereafter. All such 

 names were to be handed in to the secretary a week in 

 advance. 



Mr. Mussey was called onto say what he thought of the 

 Possum Club, anyhow, and said he thought it was all 

 right. It would be a better idea than most of us here to- 

 night would probably imagine. 



Mr. Fred Pfeffer, of baseball fame, was ordered up, 

 and said he would feel proud to see others of his profes- 

 sion besides himself members of the club. Mr. A. H. 

 Harryman, editor of the Sanitary News, said he could see 

 a national reputation in store for the Possum Club. The 

 name would soon be as famous as that of the Beefsteak 

 Club of New York, as the Gridiron Club, or any other 

 club. Messrs. Haines and Place and Mr. Copland, gen- 

 eral freight agent of the Santa Fe road, also made felicit- 

 ous remarks. Col. Felton thought the club should be as 

 informal as possible, as that would constitute its chief 

 charm. He did not wish to see names of members men- 

 tioned in reports of the club from guests, or long formal 

 speeches. It was the sparkles of the sportsman reporter, 

 the brightness of the table talk, that had made this even- 

 ing so truly enjoyable. The reporters solemnly promised 

 not to say a word. And indeed it w r ould be impossible 

 to chronicle the beginning of all the bright and apt say- 

 ings that abounded through the evening. 



It was determined that the next meeting should be two 

 weeks hence, on Saturday evening, at Werner's. It is 

 very probable that these game dinners will be given 

 throughout the winter season by the club, that being its 

 ostensible and immediate reason for existence. It is no 

 merely complimentary belief , however, to think seriously 

 that there is in this red hot little meeting the beginning 

 of quite a noticeable movement. The Possum Club is 

 going to unite Chicago sportsmen in a way they never 

 knew before. It will hold the cream of all the shooting 

 clubs, the most active and prominent sportsmen of the 

 city, and will wipe out every clique and faction, every 

 jealousy and little fear. It will leave us a people united 

 and inseparable, whose platform shall be sweet potatoes, 

 and whose creed shall be baked possum, beyond which 

 there shall be no discussions, and over which there can 

 be no quarrel. 



The following will be nominated for admission at the 

 next meeting: Mr. W N. Low will nominate Mr. Chas. 

 Kern, treasurer of this county ; Col. C. E. Felton will nom- 

 inate Mr. M. J. Eich, Mr. W. P. Mussey will nominate Dr. 

 J. M. Hutchinson, Mr. W. F. Pfeffer will nominate Mr. 

 Fred C. Donald, vice-chairman of the Central Traffic As- 

 sociation; Mr. E Copland, Mr. J. A. Hanley, freight 

 traffic manager of the Santa Fe; Mr. J. P. Hayde, Mr. R. 

 B. Organ; Mr. C. B. Dicks, Mr. H. D, Nichols; Mr. L. M. 

 Hamline, Mr. Geo. Hoffman; Mr. G. W. Andrews, Mr. C. 



E. Wiilard. Mr. A. H. Harryman, Mr. C. S. Burton; Mr. 



F. A. Place, Mr. W. W. Foss. Dr. N. Rowe will also be 

 nominated, and Mr. Haines and Mr. Sloan will name ' 

 their friends later. 



The only thing harsh about the club is the fact that 

 the possum dinner is very hard upon the colored waiters, 

 who were nearly in a state of insubordination when the 

 banquet closed last night. "Mistah Wernah," said the 

 head waiter, "Ef these all men keep comin' heah an' 

 eatin' possum thissher way right befo' mer eyes, I done 

 got to "sign mer job, that's all I got to say!" This is the • 

 only complication which has thus far arisen. 



E. Hough. 



A WINTER CLUB. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I am asked by a number of readers of Forest and 

 Stream to elaborate my ideas concerning the organization 

 of a winter club, to which I referred in my former com- 

 munication, and I trust you will allow me to trespass 

 your columns for then information. 



I would organize a club with a paid up capital of $25,000, 

 to be divided into twenty- five or fifty shares. With this 

 money I would purchase a plantation with a large, roomy 

 house, capable at once of entertaining a large number, and. 

 which could be easily enlarged to accommodate all the 

 members. This plantation should have tenant cabins for 

 negroes as well as servants quarters and other outbuild- 

 ings already standing. It should be located near a rail- 

 road station, and also steamboat navigation with New 

 Orleans. It should be in the midst of a region where 

 quail, woodcock and ducks are plentiful, while larger 

 garne like turkeys, deer and bear should be in easy reach. 

 Now this may seem an ideal location, yet I know just 

 where to buy such a plantation. It can be done now at a 

 low price, but every year is curtailing such chances. 



I will give illustrations of the abundance of game in 

 this proposed locality. I have had three deer driven to 

 my stand in one morning, and this within half a mile of 

 the house where I was then stopping. I have in one 

 morning's shooting in the fields about the same house, 

 without bothering after coveys that took long flights, 

 brought in 36 quail, and stopped only because I had more 

 than I needed. I have seen in January, February and 

 March mallard and woodducks more plentiful than any 

 Northern sportsman ever sees them except at the greal 

 feeding and breeding grounds. Annual bear hunts are 

 carried out once a year in the canebrake with great suc- 

 cess. This plantation shall be on the edge of a tangled 

 wilderness hundreds of miles in extent, such a wilderness 

 as only exists in the South, and yet in a country of good 

 roads and good people, though not many of either. The 

 winter climate is delightful, but not warm enough to be 

 enervating, and the land upland, high and dry the year 

 round. 



Such briefly are my notions, and although they may 

 seem strained, I know what I am talking about, and it 

 can be done. I am ready to take a share in such a club 

 and to go ahead and acquire the property, but I shall not 

 give away my knowledge except to a club. 



Arthur M. Valentine. ■ 



JANESvmLE, Wis., Nov. 27. 



A Book About Indians.— The Foeesx and Stream will mail 

 free on application a descriptive circular of Mr. Grinnell's book, 

 "Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-Tales," giving a table of contents 

 and specimen ilrastratipns from the volume.— 4.(i8, 



