March S, 1891.J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



12B 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



CHICAGO, Feb. 21.— The Possum Club met last night, 

 tailing a change of venue from Werner's to French's 

 rcBtaurant, on State sti'eet. About fifty plates were laid, 

 but from various causes only about half that number of 

 members were i^resent. The Lexington quartette of gen- 

 tlemen singers entertained the guests very nicely with 

 melodies frequent and apjiropriate. 



Charlie Gammon was at the Possum Club, grand, 

 gloomy and peculiar. Charlie has eaten prairie chicken 

 numerously. Prairie chicken is now out of season. Mal- 

 lard duck isn't. Mr. Nicholls, chairman of the evening, 

 liad ordered mallard duck. Charlie Gammon arose and 

 said his'n was chicken. Then there was war, intermit- 

 tent to the end of the meeting. 



Judge Fields, late of the Indiana (Supreme bench and 

 now chief counsel of the Monon railway was present with 

 several friends from Crown Point, once his home, among 

 these Messrs. Geo. I. Maillet, M, T.Hart and Dr. Schwarz. 

 Judge Fields was called upon for a speech before he had 

 fairly gotten settled down to the business of the evening 

 and promised to talk better later on. Ben Dicks told 

 some weird incidents of the late Southern trip. Mr. 

 George Andrews, of the S^jorting Beview, thought the 

 Mardi Gras a farce. He was probably about right. Mr. 

 Anderson also thought the Southern men behind the 

 times in shootinj? matters. Dr. Schwarz had to speak, 

 and so did Rolla Heikes and Lee Hamline, and by and by 

 things got into pretty smooth working order and every- 

 body had to make a speech. Mr, Low and Sir. Organ 

 turned the talk in the right sort of a direction when they 

 showed the present crisis in game law matters and urged 

 the gentlemen of tlie club to be alive and earnest in the 

 work of getting better results in game protection. 



Charlie Gammon again rose. "Mr. Chairman," said he, 

 •'we wrong ourselves if we do not thoroughly investigate 

 the question which has arisen here to-night. We have 

 been offered illegal game, and under the circumstances 

 such action by Mr. French is nothing short of an insult to 

 our intelligence and our character as sportsmen. I move 

 you we withdraw our custom from this place." 



Mr. Hamline seconded. Discussion came iip. Mr. 

 Organ was certain he had been served prairie chicken. 

 Mr, Price thought it was duck. Mr. Pfeffer and several 

 others declared it was chicken. Mr. Nicholls once more 

 insisted on the explicit orders given Mr. French to serve 

 no illegal game. Mr, Gammon's motion carried. 



Mr. Low spoke on the outlook for Illinois sportsmen on 

 the pigeon law question, and mentioned the strenuous 

 efforts now making by the Humane Society to stop pigeon 

 shooting. Mr. Low highly eulogized Judge Fields, and 

 called upon him to speak. The Judge responded in a 

 humerous vein, and expressed his delight at having dis- 

 covered the Possum Club. "I am a shouter myself," said 

 he, "and have had to do with shooters. I remember that, 

 some years ago, when the Howe and Knickerbocker cases 

 were up, those well-known gentlemen having been 

 arrested on a test suit for carrying game out of the State 

 of Indiana, I was the magistrate before whom the suits 

 were laid, and it was my pleasure as well as my duty to 

 say to those gentlemen, 'Go, your liberty is no longer 

 restrained. The suits are dismissed.'" Judge Fields said 

 that after this any member of the Possum Club who trav- 

 eled down Water Valley or Cumberland way must come 

 to him and he would see that his tickets were of the most 

 desirable sort. He then started in and made a dignified 

 and able speech about the sportsman and the law, one 

 which ought to be given in full, but which must have 

 been heard to be felt fully, for there is much of the ora- 

 tor in this pleasant-faced and able-minded jurist. It is a 

 question if the Possum Club has soon a better or more 

 tnoughtful evening. 



Mr. Thomas Wilmarth was a friend of Mr. French, the 

 caterer who was alleged to have sinned. Mr. Wilmarth 

 had Mr. French bring in a pan full of dressed ducks. He 

 offered also to bring in sundry receptacles filled with hide, 

 hair and feathers, to prove' further that the ducks just 

 eaten were not chickens but ducks. Mr. French said, 

 "I would not serve illegal game to men like you. Of 

 course, I have to please the people, but I will say that as 

 long as my competitors don't serve illegal game, I will 

 not. I have to keep my business, but I wouldn't serve 

 chicken to you gentlemen." 



This lame and halting confession of faith from the 

 Chicago restaurant man was received w^ith no very polite 

 credence, and he had some very plain denials offered him 

 direct. The question was not settled. If that duck was 

 not chicken, then many of the Possum Club were sadly 

 mistaken. There was a good deal of a stir about it. 

 The gentlemen present were Judge Fields, guest of the 

 evening, Messrs. Maillet, Hart, Schwartz, Nicholls, 

 Organ, Low, Mussey, Ab. Price, Wells, Stone, O'Neill, 

 Cleaver, Andrews, Hamline, Ehlers, Place, Pfeffer, Dicks, 

 Gammon, Heikes, Smith, Wilmarth, Loveday, C. A. 

 Price, Stevens, Mr. R. B. Organ was chosen chairman 

 for the next meeting. 



Feb. l-f .— Word from V. M. Lincoln, at the Undercliff 

 Hotel, Lake Senachwine, dated yesterday, says that the 

 ice is out of the lakes and ponds, plenty of ducks moving, 

 and two good days of shooting have been had. The ducks 

 are coming. The season is opening. The winter is over. 

 The year of sport in the field began here Feb, 31. 



Feb. -U.—Mr. Lester is in from Tollaston Club. He 

 says the ducks were all over that mai-sh two days ago. 



Last week I described that dramatic struggle between 

 sentiment and money which transpired when the sports- 

 men's legislative committee ran up against Col. Bond 

 and Mr. Barrett, the South Water street game dealers' 

 committee. That hour was the time of the final sunder- 

 ing of all real or pretended alliance between these two 

 diverse interests. Perhaps it might as well come first as 

 last. Diverse interests will not blend, no sentiment can 

 stop the tide of trade. There is more to add about all 

 this to-day, lor the result of the open split has been that 

 the dealers have dug up the hatchet. On lastAVednes- 

 day the Produce Exchange held a meeting, and the deal- 

 ers took some action. Col. Bond and Mr. Barnett handed 

 in the following report: 



"Your committee met with the'Illinois Sportsmen's As- 

 sociation as invited members to consult with them in re- 

 gard to proposed changes in the game law. We went 

 there with the understanding that we were sent by the 

 exchange to represent its sentiment, with the order that 

 we were satisfied with the law as it now stands, as far as 

 game dealing is concerned, as we are now allowed the 

 Bame time in which to sell game as other principal mar- 



kets in the country, and that we had no change to make. 

 It was furtlier understood by us that the engrossing 

 clerk in the Legislatm-e made a mistake last year, and 

 instead of entering up 'the season shall open on Sept. 1,' 

 he inserted Sept, 13. 



"This meeting was held last Thursday and the law 

 question was thoroughly discussed. The matter of spi'ing 

 snooting of ducks was brought up and we stated that we 

 had no preference in the matter. The matter of the pro- 

 tection of English sparrows was introduced, and it was 

 decided that it was best for the country that the law 

 should not prohibit the killing of them. 



"We offered no objection to the opening of the season 

 for the shooting of game two weeks earlier, but when it 

 was proposed to close the season for selling game brought 

 here from other States twenty days earlier than the law 

 now allows we objected to any change and told them 

 that we could not see wherein they were interested in the 

 selling of game killed in other States. If the game did 

 not come to Chicago it would go to St. Louis or New 

 York, and we did not see how we could take any legisla- 

 tion to protect game in other States. 



"Trap-shooting of pigeons was discussed. They advo- 

 cated it and we strongly opposed it, believing it to be the 

 education of hardness of feeling and to be demoralizing. 

 We would recommend that this exchange combine forces 

 with the Humane Society and have trap-shooting of 

 pigeons stopped in this State." 



It is said that a copy of this report will be sent to each 

 member of the State Legislatm-e, and as soon as the pro- 

 posed amendment of the Sportsmen's Association comes 

 before the Legislature the exchange will have a commit- 

 tee present to fight it. Now here's a pretty kettle! It 

 seems to me that about all we can do is to sit down and 

 laugh at the whole state of affairs. So here was the out- 

 come of the friendliness of South Water street and the 

 Humane Society. Retaliation, reprisal and grim-visaged 

 war. White-winged peace is not in it any more. South 

 Water street suddenly righteous. Bless our hearts, what 

 a lot of fun we do have out here! * 



The result of all this was that I had to go to headquar- 

 ters at the seat of war, and therefore called on Col. Bond 

 yesterday. I told the Colonel that I was jumping on 

 him some this week, and had come down to get a chance 

 to do it some more. 



"Oh, that's all right," said Col. Bond, "that's all right. 

 I'm used to it, and rather like it. You can't hurt a Chris- 

 tian. .Tump on us all you like, if it amuses you. Our 

 shoulders are broad. Come and see us. Pall up a chaii- 

 and sit down." 



Well, now, what are you going to do with a manlike 

 that? You can't do anything, but sit down and listen to 

 him and try to get his side of the case, and see whether 

 maybe there isn't more to his side than you at first 

 thought. It really seemed that there was some justice in 

 the xjosition taken by the game dealers, of not wishing to 

 shorten their selling season by 30 days, although there 

 was nothing that could lead one to predict any ultimate 

 or permanent union between the dealers and the sports- 

 men. 



"We are out of it now," said Col. Bond, "and there 

 will be no more alliances or joint conferences between the 

 dealers and the sportsmen. We see no use talking with 

 the sportsmen, for they violate their promises and agree- 

 ments. From now on, we will hoe our own row. Person- 

 ally I do not care about seeing this pigeon bill carried. I 

 don't want to see trap-shooting stopped, but you may say 

 that we are going to fight this proposed amendment to 

 stop our selling season at Jatl. 1. We are going to fight 

 that, and we are going to beat it. 



"Why do I claim a breach of faith by the sportsmen? 

 I will tell you. Lucius Crocker is the father of the old 

 game law, and represented the sportsmen in framing it. 

 We met him at Springfield and held a conference. We 

 dealers agreed to give over the Illinois game to the sports- 

 men, to make what laws they chose for it. In return, we 

 were to have to Feb, 1 to sell game, thus enabling us to 

 get the very valuable shipments of mixed game and 

 poultry from other States, especially Missouri. We would 

 lose all this Missouri trade if we closed our market Jan. 1, 

 for St. Louis wotild gobble it, or Boston. We wouldn't 

 make so much on the game itself, but the poultry trade 

 mixed with it is very valuable. That was the arrange- 

 ment. We were to have the other States, aud the sports- 

 men of Illinois were to have Illinois. Now they kick that 

 all to pieces, and ask us to agree to Jan. 1, which we can- 

 not and will not do. The amendment they wish to pass, 

 changing the date from Sept. 15 to Sept. 1 on chickens as 

 it does, and closing the market Jan. 1, may properly be 

 called 'an act to slaughter more widely the game of Illi- 

 nois, and to protect the game of Iowa, Missouri, Dakota, 

 etc' Now, we will beat that amendment." 



I presume they wiU. What use to talk of alliance? 

 There is no common multiple. The shooter and the 

 seller are not alike. There will be no union. 



It is coming to be thought here that we must have 

 vmiformity in our State laws, or all the laws will be only 

 as good as the poorest one. Much regret was expressed 

 that the dealers of Chicago would not make the start in 

 a movement to secure a general closing of the selling 

 season on Jan. 1. Uniform laws have been dreamed of 

 by sportsmen so long that they are for the most part now 

 regarded as a purely visionary scheme. They are that, 

 so far as sportsmen's accomplishment is concerned. But 

 what if our sturdy friends, the game dealers, do for 

 themselves what we can not do for ourselves, and secure 

 a practical uniformity of dates for the lai-ger markets? It 

 mil be startling news to hear that they are be2;inning to 

 work for this. Col. Judy, the big St. Louis dealer, has 

 written Col. Bond querying why not hold a general 

 dealers' meeting at some spot soon. Col. Bond showed 

 me a resolution framed by himself, which he will intro- 

 duce before an early meeting of the Produce Exchange 

 of Chicago. It reads thus: 



''Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to 

 correspond with the dealers in game in all the Eastern 

 cities, with the object of calling a meeting to be held in 

 Chicago or such other place as may be agreed upon, to 

 take into consideration the necessity of uniform game 

 laws thi'oughout the country," 



The uniform law which the dealers are after means 

 Oct. 1 to Feb. 1 for selling game. They will not agree to 

 Jan. 1. It seems to me that very much should be sacri- 

 ficed for the sake of uniformity.' The sportsmen of the 

 counti-y would be far better off with the selling date 

 fixed uniformly in St. Louis, Chicago, Boston and New 

 York at Feb, 1 than with a date of Jan. 1 in some 



markets, and no date at all in others. There never will 

 be a game law respected in this country until it is ratified 

 and upheld by the game dealers. When they all agree 

 on a date, be it Feb. 1 or May 1, and then shut down, all 

 at once, all over the country alike, the market for game 

 will on that day be closed, and there will be no induce- 

 ment to kill game for the market, and then, for the first 

 time in America, will the people, who rest behind any 

 law, begin to understand and to respect a game law'. 

 From this respect for any sort of game law will grow the 

 respect for a better game law. Under the uniform date 

 of Feb. 1, which would give the deadly trfl,pping month 

 of January to the game killer, our game will slowly dis- 

 appear. After a time the people will see it nearly gone, 

 and will resolve to protect it. Then the uniform market 

 date may be changed to Jan. 1. We can not change it 

 so now. Why fret and fume about it? It would make 

 little difference if we did change the date to Jan. 1 in 

 Illinois alone. The game would go. We must wait 

 upon the dollars of the dealers. They will make the 

 laws, or break them, or observe them if they like. Mean- 

 time, lucky the man who owns a preserve. We may say 

 this, and slill speed the agitation for a better state of 

 things. 



Feb. 28. — The first bags of ducks of the season have 

 come in and they are good ones. Rolla Heikes and 

 Charlie Gammon last Wednesday brought up 35 ducks, 

 mostly pintail, from Cumberland Club grounds. A party 

 of a dozen or so. including the above gentlemen, M(3ars. 

 McFarland, Robbins, Dicks, Freeloar, Dominico, Hof- 

 mann, Nicholls, Mattocks and Eich, went down to Cum- 

 berland Lodge to celebrate Washington's Birthday. They 

 had some trap-shooting, but noticing the heavy flight of 

 ducks soon quit that and went out on the marsh shooting 

 ducks. Mr. Heikes says he never saw ducks come in so 

 fast. The marsh was alive with them. By working for 

 it he thought himself and Mr. Gammon could have'bag- 

 ged 75 birds on Tuesday. There were a good many mal- 

 lards coming in too, A tidal wave of ducks seems to 

 have burst upon the country. Their ways of migration 

 are past finding out. 



I remember that we once had some talk about the regu- 

 larity of ducks in migrating along a certain parallel. A 

 gentleman in Nebraska thought the ducks went north on 

 one leg of a triangle and south on the other leg, I don't 

 know, but last night I heard a story, told by Mr. Thomas 

 Hudson, of this city, which is at least interesting, if not 

 conclusive, on this head. About fifteen years ago Mr. 

 Hugh E. Steele, of the firm of Steele & Worth, was run- 

 ning the rolling mills at Laurel, near Coatesville, Pa., 

 which are now run by Worth Bros. Mr. Steele had had 

 a fine old place, and Mr. Hudson used to visit there. On 

 the place was a pond, where Mr. Steele had a flock of 

 ducks he was fond of feeding. One day he saw a wild 

 duck, a mallard, hovering over the flock of tame ducks, 

 and finally it alighted among them, and staid on the 

 pond for weeks. It grew so tame that it came up to be 

 fed with the other ducks, and ultimately Mr. Steele could 

 take it up in his hands, like any of the flock. One day 

 there came the report of a gun, and the wild duck sprang 

 straight up into the air and flew away. It was not seen 

 again until the next year, when it returned. It came 

 back in this way for six years, always solitary. On the 

 seventh year it did not reappear, and was supposed to 

 have been killed, no one knows in what corner of the 

 world. This bird migrated regularly, and on the same 

 parallel without question. The case is authentic, and the 

 facts such as to make mistake impossible. 



On Feb. 24 bass were taking the minnow fairly well in 

 the Fox River near Aurora. 



Some splendid bass are being butchered now, or were 

 while the ice held, by the ice fishers of the Fox Lake 

 district. The men I mentioned earlier have been doing 

 it, I suppose. At any rate, many bass have been sent 

 down weighing 4 and olbs. The leading game dealer to 

 whom these fish are sent, told me he didn't care for this 

 trade for what money there was in it. "It takes a lot of 

 bass to bring much money," said he. "Those men will- 

 make maybe $40 or $50 during the winter at this fishing, 

 and kill more bass than all the anglers will catch next 

 summer. They are verv short-sighted and unwise. I 

 wish they would stop it." 



Mr. Sheldon I. Kellogg, long at the head of the cartridge 

 department of the Shelby Smelting & Lead Co., of San 

 Francisco, writes me that he has associated himself with 

 his brother-in-law, Mr. Hall. The new firm, Kellogg & 

 Hall, will conduct a business as manufacturer's agents in 

 general sporting goods for the Coast. The wide ac- 

 quaintance and genuine merit of these gentlemen will 

 stand guarantee for a good business without delay. 



Mr. S. A. Tucker, the widespread man of popularity, 

 or man of widespread popularity, was in town this week, 

 and it is thought he came to explain to Captain Anson 

 the way he handles his new Parker gun. By the way, 

 this Parker, made to order for the blonde baseballist, is 

 the Rift of that always Avide awake and generous firm, 

 the Jenney (S: Graham Gun Co., of Chicago. I don't see 

 what made them give Anson any gun. He can't shoot to 

 mention. After Mr. Tucker has taught him to hit a barn 

 door at 40 paces, he, Mr. Tucker, will start out West on 

 his regular big trip, going to Helena, Seattle, Portland 

 and San Francisco. Mr. W. S. Perry, of Worcester, Mass., 

 a very warm friend of Mr. Tucker's, thinks of taking his 

 wife and making part of the trip in company with him, 

 revisiting some of the scenes of the old lolanthe triumphs 

 on last winter's LT. S. Cartridge Co.'s tour. 



Mr. Harvey McMurchy, the urbane diplomat who 

 represents the L. C. Smith gun in foreign parts, will be 

 back here now shortly and will stai't within the week on 

 his annual trip to the Coast. He has promised forty ladies 

 to send each a horned toad ora "resurrection plant'' from 

 the Gila plains, aud if he don't forget it he may send 

 one or two. 



Mr. A. S. Comstock, of Evanstown, has invented a 

 tent. He put a little advertisement, one inch long, in 

 the columns of Forest and Stream a few weeks ago. 

 To-day he told me that the first week brought him in- 

 quiries from fom-teen different States of the Union. 

 Forest and Stream is well spread and well read, and it 

 is a good thing to talk into its telephone I should think. 



E. Hough. 



Forest and Stream. Box 3,832, N. Y. city, has dessriptlve lllus- 

 crated circTdars of W. B. Lefflngwell's book, "Wild Fowl Shoot- 

 ing," wtilch will be mailed free on request. The book is pro- 

 aotmced by "Nanlt." "&loan," "Dlok Swlveller," "Sybillene"'and 

 othar competent authorities to l3« the beet treatise on tbe subjeot 

 sztaat- 



