280 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[April 9, 1891. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



SANDUSKY, Ohio, April 3.— In a hurried business trip 

 in tMs hurrying day and age of the world much of 

 the fact and incident of interest to sportsmen comes in 

 that shape called in the newspaper counting room "too 

 late to classify." It would be hard for me to malre a 

 story out of the past week's shillings which should fit 

 any one department very well, but still it would go hard 

 if one couldn't find some sort of news along the lower 

 edge of the Great Lakes, in a country qualified for a wide 

 range of field and water sports. For instance, there is 

 Detroit. That thrifty city is certainly favored by Diana 

 and Neptune alike, although authorities do say, she 

 doesn't recognize her mercies fulh^, and i^m't a red-hot 

 sporting town. At least, that is what the dealers say, and 

 the late suspension of the single retail siiorting goods 

 house of any consequence would seem to warrant it. In 

 the past, the spring trap tournament at Detroit was wont 

 to be one of the finest. This spring, as reported fully 

 elsewhere, the shoot was only a conservative success. 

 May be Detroit is conservative. If so, she must follow the 

 fate of the conservative, time through and the world 

 over, and lead only in decay and death. From a fate so 

 sad may she long be spared, for a more beautiful city, or 

 one more beautifully situated, it would be diflacult to 

 find. 



Doubtless by this time the duck shooting has assumed 

 big proportions on the flats above Detroit and on the 

 river below town. The most earnest efforts were making 

 in the Legislature of Michigan this winter to abolish 

 spring shooting, and let us hope that ultimately this 

 effort will reach success. The better of the ducking- 

 clubs of tliat region do not shoot in the sjjring now. 

 There was considerable sheoting on the Flats last week, 

 and as noted earlier, quite a flight of deep-water ducks 

 was on. Snipe had not yet made their appearance, and 

 snow lay on the ground, openly and unabashed, though 

 the days were calendared for spring. 



The coming season wiU be a great one in Detroit yacht- 

 ing circles. The yachting industry in the "West has 

 never been fully chronicled, exploited or apparently 

 understood. Some authorities say that the yachtsmen of 

 the Lakes will talk, but won't yacht. I do not believe 

 this, nor do I believe any one would think so who was 

 really familiar with the fresh-water seas. Chicago, it is 

 true, has no yachting, and probably never will have, but 

 Detroit, with her pretty inclosed and less dangerous 

 waters, supports quite a fleet. The Michigan and the 

 Detroit yacht clubs number over 500 members and own 

 over 50 sailers of all classes. The eummer races are good 

 events. This summer they will be better than ever. 

 The starting line runs from Belle Isle to the Park House 

 opposite, and the big river on a racing day has a very 

 nautical look. A great rivahy exists between the two 

 clubs above named. 



The Dati'oit Boat Worka lie just below the anchoring 

 ground of the yachts. I went in there and saw some 

 things I never saw before. This firm is building a sub- 

 marine boat for some Chicago fiend with torpedo on his 

 brain. The hull looks like a turtle set up edgewise. I 

 have never seen on the marshes around Chicago any of 

 the monitor or sneak-model boats which are in such gen- 

 eral use about Detroit, or any of the canvas-lined double- 

 enders for fishing use which this firm makes ; so perhaps 

 Chicago hasn't exactly all the ideas in the world after all. 



There are numbers of finely-bred hunting dogs in De- 

 troit, as we all knovv, but much as I love a setter, I 

 believe I would trade all the Detroit cracks for the big- 

 white Russian poodle Bob, which the trap-shooters of the 

 late tournament will remember so well. Bob's owner 

 had him out at the grounds. A more remarkable case of 

 animal intelligence than that of this dog was ijrobably 

 never seen. lie is descended of performing stock, and 

 though not a circus dog himself, he outclasses any tiained 

 dog i ever saw. The remarkable feature about his per- 

 formance, if so it may be called, is that he does not act 

 by rule, rotation or routine, but never gets puzzled or 

 tired or confused. Bob apparently understands human 

 speech. This is an old and common saying, but one 

 which will rise to the lips of any who may see him. 

 There is another old saying, that such and such a dog 

 could ''do anything but talk." • Well, Bob can talk, dis- 

 tinctly and unmistakably. True, his vocabulary is lim- 

 ited, consisting of only two words; but whenever his 

 owner says to him, "Bob, can't you say 'Oh, no'? ' Bob 

 at once remarks in a hoarse, but distinct whisper, "O-o-o, 

 no-o-o!" The poor fellow would unquestionably like to 

 talk, and to this extent he unquestionably does, It sounds 

 uncanny. 



Coming down from Detroit to Toledo I saw eleven 

 meadow larks, a pair of turtle doves and one sparrow 

 hawk. The road ran along the lake shore for a distance, 

 and it seemed remarkable how many marshes, dull creeks 

 and lagoons back from the lake there were all through 

 that region. We must have passed close to the grounds 

 of the f amous Toledo Ducking Club, whose privileges are 

 80 valuable that a share of the stock is worth $3 ,500 to-day. 

 There were no birds visible working over the marshes, 

 but the country seemed naturally a great one for water- 

 fowl. What regret rises in one's mind when he thinks of 

 the magnificent past and the possible future of this whole 

 country in sporting matters. The waste, the greed, the 

 butchery of the rabble of half-breeds or no breeds who 

 make most of the shooting population of what is now 

 called America! 



Toledo is something of a yachting point also. I am 

 told there are forty boats there under the fiag of Commo- 

 dore Ketcham, and some of them flyers. Will the com- 

 modore detail a clerk to tell Fokest and Stream all 

 about the Toledo fleet? 



From Toledo to Sandusky. Sandusky-on-the-Bay. 

 Sandusky, which might have been Cleveland, but wasn't 

 and never can be now. Sandusky, the biggest fresh- 

 water fish market in the LTnited States, they say, and 

 certainly the biggest, quietest and comfortablest dormi- 

 tory in the world. It is too early in the season for San- 

 dusky yet. In the summer months it is said to be lively 

 here. Of course, everybody knows that Sandusky is the 

 entry port for the bass reef fishing of the islands, Pelee 

 Island club traffic, the W, 0. A. ca,noe meet at Ballast 

 Island, and all the motley summer travel of the Put in- 

 Bay, Peninsula and Cedar Point resorts. Excursions, 

 and not exertions, are what keeps Sandusky alive. A 

 quaint, quiet and very pretty place is Sandusky, and 

 sometime one of our American novelists will find a new 

 and pleasant field here for a story. Quite a place, too, 

 naturally, for field aports, m remams to be iuvestigated 



and chronicled by an enterprising journal of the field, 

 videlicet Forest and Stream. For instance, there are 

 the trout clubs of Castalia Stream, only six miles or so 

 from here, which certainly deserve a good and thorough 

 study and a careful story of that. I remember how sur- 

 prised and delighted I was seven years ago, when I dis- 

 covered trout in the Castalia Stream. Let no man dis- 

 pute it, I was discoverer as much as though I had seen 

 tlie first trout that ever swam there. It was in the dead 

 of winter, and a cold one, too, but as I passed over the 

 bridge below the never-freezing pool, I saw the dart of a 

 fish which I knew must be a trout, though I had then no 

 idea that there was a trout in any Ohio stream. Excited, 

 I told my news, and learned the history, or part of the 

 history, of the Castalia Stream. It was part of my 

 mission here to get a good and pprfect history of this 

 singular little stream and the clubs which own it now. 

 To do this I found it necessary to go on to Cleveland. So, 

 still skirting the shore of pretty Lake Erie, and crossing 

 a lot more of lovely duck marshes, I ran up to Cleveland. 



I shall not soon forget my few days' stop at Cleveland, 

 for never so clearly in my life before did I realize the 

 actual truth of the common saying about the brother- 

 hood, the freemasonry of sportsmen and of sportsman- 

 ship. I cannot call Cleveland less than delightful, nor 

 any man there born of any but blood royal of the crown. 



In view of my visit to Cleveland Mr. Geroutd, of 

 Spalding's Chicago house, had fournished me with a 

 letter to Mr. C. W, Burrows at Cleveland. Mr. Burrows 

 I found eager to assist in the hunt for bed rock facts 

 about the Castalia clubs. He stopped writing and set the 

 telephone into a serious tintinnabulation, calling up mem- 

 bers of the two different clubs. Mr. Harry Brown was 

 absent that day, fishing on that very stream. Mr. Inger- 

 soll was expected back that day from a similar trip. Mr. 

 Scott Robinson was sick. Mr. Clark T. Hasbrouck was 

 absent. So on through a great list of sick or absent. At 

 last Mr. Burrows took up his hat. "Come with me," he 

 said. We visited Judge Eanney's ofiice, but the fishing 

 member of the fia-m was absent. We met a dozen men 

 on the street, and got a dozen futile dii'ections to mem- 

 bers of the clubs. Mr. Rollin White we almost caught, 

 up at the White sewing machine oflices, but he eluded 

 us. Then we went to the Clerk of the Supreme Court, to 

 the Lord High Custodian of the Ouspidore, and a lot 

 others. Finally we went to the Mayor's office. Here is 

 where we ought to have gone in the first place, because 

 here dwells that veteran and most amiable sportsman, 

 Hon. George W. Gardner, Commodore of commodores, 

 known by every one in Cleveland, known and beloved of 

 every yachtsman on the Lakes, and fixst in the hearts of 

 all his canoeing countrymen, from Ballast Island to Chi- 

 cago, anyway. All readers of the fine-print end of For- 

 est AND Stream will remember Mr. Gardner's presence 

 and address at the banquet of the W. C. A. at Chicago 

 last January. 



"So you are of the Forest and Stream family, are 

 you ?" said Mayor Gardner— or perhaps I ought to call 

 him by his first and highest title, and speak of him as 

 Commodore Gardner. "Well, I am glad to see you." 

 Mr. Bm'rows then explained our errand. 



"You want to call on Mr. George J. Johnson if you 

 want anything about the Upper Club of Castalia," said 

 Mayor Gardner, "and for the Lower Club you would 

 better see Mr. Lee McBride. Either of these men will 

 tell you all you want to know. They are both in town, 

 and neither of them is ever sick, so you are all right there. 

 Now come here and let me show you some of om" boats." 

 And he brought us to where the picttu'es of the old Mari- 

 etta and of the more recent Wasp hung upon the waU 

 with others, including Mr. Ketcham's Toledo yacht, the 

 Speranza, and a print showing the Puritan-Genesta race. 



"Our yacht fleet here," said Mayor Gardner, "is a large 

 one, and one whose success deserves special comment. 

 We are not favored here by nature as a yachting town, 

 as Detroit or Sandusky, for instance, for our shores here 

 are very bluff and rude, and Lake Erie in the open is the 

 most dangerous of all the Great Lakes. For this reason 

 I believe our sailors are the most daring and adventurous 

 of any on the Lakes. They stand out in almost any 

 weather. We have little 16 and 20ft. cutters here which 

 go out when it alarms even the old Lake captains to look 

 at them. I must show you some of our boats. You see 

 this water-color here ?'" pointing to a small canvas on the 

 wall, "this is a view of the shipping in the Old River Bed, 

 as it is called, and was presented to me by the Cleveland 

 Art Club. You must come up to-morrow, say at 2 o'clock 

 in the afternoon, and we will make a trip among the 

 shipping. Do you know that w-itliin the last two years 

 Cleveland has built more tonnage than all the ship-build- 

 ing towns on the whole Atlantic coast? Well, that is a 

 fact. Another thing, we are building a yacht here now 

 which for elegance and for truly modern equipment will 

 sm-pass anything now on the Eastern coast. Do me the 

 favor to call on Mr. Coffluberry, the president of the 

 Cleveland Ship Building Co., this evening, and ask him 

 to tell you about the steam yacht they are building for 

 Mr. J. H. Wade, Jr. V>rait, and I will give you a letter 

 to Mr. Coffinberry." And this letter was duly received. 



"How is the canoe editor of Forest and Stream?" 

 asked Mayor Gardner as we turned to go. "Tell him I 

 still have the old canoe he built for me more than a dozen 

 years ago and she is as staunch and sound as ever. I 

 have traveled over 2,000 miles in her and she is good for 

 3,000 miles more if I ever get the time. Now you go and 

 see Mr. McBride and Mr. Johnson and Mr. Coffinberry, 

 and come back here to-morrow, and we will meet Mr. 

 Will Huntingdon, one of the liveliest members of the 

 Ohio State Fish and Game Commission, and he will take 

 us up the old channel in his steam yacht." 



Now, that's the kind of a Mayor to have. Forest and 

 Stream doesn't go into politics, but I am satisfied that if 

 Commodore Gardner woxild come out to the much-vexed 

 city of Chicago the paper wouldn't object to the hojB 

 starting a large sized boom for him as Mayor for life. 



It was evening, about the dinner hour, when I arrived 

 at the elegant residence of Alv. Johnson, on that world- 

 famous residence street, Euclid avenue; yet Mr. Johnson 

 was accessible and soon enthusiastic over the Castalia 

 Trout Club, and for nearly an hour the atmosphere was 

 fishy, while the dinner maybe waited. Mr. Johnson said 

 — hilt I am not going to tell what he said, for there is not 

 room now for the story of the club. 



Mr. Lee McBride, well known hereabout as one of the 

 great iirm of Root & McBride Bros., dwelt a little further 

 up the avenue, He was more fortunate and had dined 

 before the butler served on him the relentless eummom 



to come forth and talk to a stranger about fishing. Mr. 

 McBride was as genial as Mr. Johnson. "We had a long 

 talk about the Castalia stream, and he said — ^but no mat- 

 ter what he said just yet, for ail that is part of the history 

 of the lower stream., for which we have not room at 

 present. But on the following morning, calling by re- 

 quest at his place of business, he gave me further data 

 from his desk (he is secretary of the "Lower Club"), pre- 

 sented a letter to Mr. C. W. Sadler, at Sandusky, and 

 said: 



"You must meet Mr. Sadler. He will go down with 

 you to the stream, and though Mr Sadler is not a member 

 of our club, he is an angler and an enthusiast. You must 

 both take your rods, and I hope you may have good luck. 

 I want to get away and meet you on the stream on Satur- 

 day, The fish seem to be rising well. Mr. Harvey Brown 

 yesterday took a 151b. basket, the limit, in a few hours, 

 and they averaged well." 



Now. what could be nicer than all this? What Aladdin's 

 lamp charm lies between the covers of Forest and 

 Stream? 



It was dangerously late in the evening now to call, but 

 I sought out Mr. Coffinberry's apartments at the August 

 Stillman, on Euclid avenue, and sent u» Mayor Gardner's 

 letter, resolved, if need be, to have Mr. Coffinberry out of 

 bed but what he should be interviewed about the new 

 yacht. But like all the others, Mr. Coffio berry was 

 smiling and pleasant, and as full of courtesy as of fact. 

 Mr. Coffinberry said— but that also is another story, and 

 I shall not spoil it by telling it here, for Mr. Coffinberry, 

 the designer and builder of the new yacht, has promised 

 photographs and a full technical description of lier as 

 soon as she shall be completed. She will be the most con- 

 siderable craft of the kind ever built on the Lakes, 

 although her owner, Mr. Wade, deprecates all heralding 

 of her excellence, and her builder speaks very modestly 

 of all that himself. She will cost between $100,000 and 

 $200,000, and will be a strong sea-going steam cruiser, 

 not so fast as thoroughly safe and comfortable. She will 

 be steel frame and steel plated up to the windows, with 

 plain steel bulwarks and very strong decks for heavy 

 seas, the total effect being that of a rather high-riding, 

 plainly-finished boat. Lighted throughout, from search 

 light to hold, by electricity, heated by steam throughout, 

 with hot and cold air fans, a large refrigerating machine 

 of the ammonia process sort, an elaborate distilling plant 

 equal to 1,200 gallons of fresh water daily, and a dozen 

 other extensive and expensive projects for comfort, she 

 should warrant her builder's description as a "floating 

 museum of conveniences." The expensive character of 

 her woodwork, the original plans for the quarters of pas- 

 sengers and crew, and many other details, make her 

 a marvel for this country, and it is tliought that she will 

 eventually open the eyes of many down-East folk who 

 do not think that the yachting or yachts of the West 

 amount to much. 



The following afternoon the appointment was kept 

 with Mayor Gardner, though Mr. Huntingdon was not to 

 be found. 



"We will go down and get the city fire boat," said the 

 Mayor, and this indeed is what we did, pausing for a few 

 moments at the neat quarters of the fire boys, near where 

 the Superior street viaduct towered 60ft. above us. Mr, 

 Dickinson, the fire chief, was not on hand, so Lieut, 

 Campbell, after some fruitless telephoning, went aboard 

 as skipper, and the J. L. Weatherly with two passengers 

 and the full crew of the river fire force, turned around 

 on her heel, gave a kidney-crawling whistle or two and 

 started down the river. 



I do not know that thia is just in the line of any one 

 department of Forest and Stream, but I do not know 

 of any more interestmg little trip than this down the old 

 channel of the Cuyahoga, the "Crooked river" of the 

 Indians. It would certainly open any one's eyes to see 

 the magnitude of the shipping interests of the Lakes. 

 W^e passed whole lines, two deep, of fine modern steel 

 ships, all of which take any weather in their traffic with 

 the Upper Lakes, and saw also any quantity of the old 

 wooden ships, barges, iceboats, lake freighters, tugs, fish 

 boats and what not else. The big steel ships, averaging 

 3,000 tons burden, were in the majority. We passed the 

 mouth of the new river and saw on the pier the club 

 houses of the Cleveland Yacht Club and the Cleveland 

 Canoe Club. Then we saw the big i^assenger boat, 

 the City of Cleveland, twin to the ill-fated City 

 of Detroit, which was sunk last Monday night; 

 and near by us saw, too, the schooner now 

 called the Col. Cook, but once known as the Augusta, 

 which years ago collided with and sunk the Lady Elgin 

 on the Upper Lakes. The Cook is a rough- looking, hang- 

 dog sort of a craft to-day, and doubtless has a bad con- 

 science and an unlucky record. Not far from here were 

 two yachts in dock, the Say When, owned by W. J, 

 White and calked with Yucatan gum, and the Winni- 

 fred, owned by Dan Peels. The former boat is a Herres- 

 hoff yacht, and just gob in last fall after a long cruise to 

 the Gulf of Mexico. And then we came up with the 

 skeleton of a new boat, to be the largest passenger steamer 

 on the Lakes, now on the ways in one of the largest yards. 

 And so on, and so on, past the great ore, red with the 

 rusty treasures from the Superior country, past one slip 

 after another crowded full of noble shipping, and tij) to 

 the vast dry dock, the largest in the country, where ends 

 the first chapter of the Old River Bed. It would take 

 Dickens to do all this river life rightly. Out of it all, I 

 do not know that we saw anything much prettier than 

 two little baby cutters, deep, sturdy little fellows, about 

 fifteen feet in length, which we found hauled out at one 

 yard along the bank. 



■'You have seen only a part of the shipping," said 

 Mayor Gardner, as we said good-by at the end of a hur- 

 ried walk to catch a train, "and you can as yet tell 

 nothing of the yachts and canoes we have." This is 

 true, and it is unfortunately true also that only a part 

 can be told of what we did see. 



And so back to Sandusky, with some talk with Messrs. 

 A. C. and A. L. Moss, treasurer and secretary of the 

 "Upper Club" of Castalia, and by courtesy of the former 

 gentleman recipient of a card to the rooms of the Sun- 

 gendeand Club of Sandusky, where, I am informed. For- 

 est AND Stream is kept and read religiously. There are 

 many pleasant sportsmen in this city also, and indeed — 

 well, this is a pretty good sort of a world, after all. 



Mr, Sadler I found here easily, and he at once agreed 

 that we should go down to Castalia together on Satur- 

 day, at which time I will go over the stream and dig into 

 its history aa much as posBible. 



