SIO 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Mat ^, 1891. 



quote the following to show what has been done in Ban- 

 gor in the name of the law : 



"Walter F. McPheters, plaintiif , called by Ms counsel, 

 testified: I shipped these deer at Costigan by rail to Bos- 

 ton, Nov. 5, 1883, Costigan is in the town of Milford, in 

 this county. They were checked ; I took checks for them. 

 There was nothing on them to indicate the direction or 

 the person to whom shipped, but the checks. I have the 

 checks now, I bought a ticket for Boston at the same 

 time I shipped the deer. I saw them put on to the cars." 



* " " '-The nest thing that came to my attention, I 

 heard the deer were taken in Bangor, I went to Bangor 

 to see about them soon afterward, i received no notice 

 from any officer or any court of any seizure. I went to 

 Bangor to see about the deer about the 35bh of November. 



* * * Cross Ex. — Did you have any trouble in get- 

 ting the road to take the deer? A. I did not. There 

 was no conversation to me or in my presence by any of 

 the agents of the company. I had bought mj- ticket 

 before I asked to ship the deer." 



The deer were seized by George W. Harriman, of Ban- 

 gor, a private detective, warden and special State licpior 

 constable. He admits taking one whole deer and two 

 saddles which had checks agreeing in every i^articular 

 with those which Mr, McPheters showed. He testifies: 

 "I took them at the Maine Central depot in this city. We 

 brought theoa to Mr, Page's market for storage. Mr. 

 May ville, Mr. Nickerson and myself were the men that 

 took the deer. We took them directly to Mr. Page's 

 market. I went with them. Mr. Nickerson was on the 

 wagon with me. We left tliem in Mr, Page's market. 

 Q. Did you ever see them or any portion of them again at 

 Page's market? ^.4. Yes, sir. We divided them; each 

 one of us took one." A little further on: '•(j7- What did 

 you seize them for; under what claim of right? Obj. 

 Admitted. A. We supposed we had a right to, as if ivas 

 vn'ong to shijo them out of the. State. Q. You did not 

 then claim to have any right of seizure except upon that 

 ground? A. That is what we sujjposed." The italics are 

 mine. The answer shows how little of the law some of 

 our wardens who have been longest in the business know, 

 and the kind of acts in which they will engage. No 

 evidence is brought forward to show that Mr. Harriman 

 used a warrant. By the testimony of himself and the 

 other two it is shown that they divided the deer among 

 themselves without appeal to any of the proper authori- 

 ties and without notifying the owner what had become 

 of his property. The same thing has been done repeatedly 

 in Bangor. I select this case from many others merely 

 because the testimony was given under oath and is a matter 

 of court record. Tiie suit itself, though won by McPheters, 

 is wholly indecisive, because it was brought against the 

 marketman who received the deer instead of against the 

 olficer who took them, on account of a technicality. 



The case of George W, Bennett against the American 

 Express Company, an action to recover the saddles of 

 three deer, is a test case. Tiie agreed statement of facts 

 published for the court, attested by the clerk of courts, 

 says that on Dec. 5, 1888, George W, Bennett delivered 

 at Newport Station on the M, C, B. R., a box containing 

 the saddles of three deer legally killed, to be shipped by 

 express to Boston; that the express agent was not at the 

 station when Bennett left, but delivered the box to the 

 express company's car, giving no receipt or bill of lading; 

 "that said saddles was seized by Thomas F. Allen*, a 

 game and fish warden, on said iifth day of December, 

 and removed by him from said express company's pos- 

 session at Augusta, Maine, without any search warrant 

 or other legal pi'ocess, and without objections from the 

 express company or their agents, and have never since 

 been delivered to said express company." It is also 

 agreed that the express comx^any had notified its agents 

 not to receive any venison for transportation, but that 

 they had done so previously, and that in this case no 

 questions were asked as to the contents of the box. Ver- 

 dict for plaintiff. 



The case is so important that it is worth while to quote 

 some of the authorities which were cited at its trial, 

 1890. They settle conclusively the whole non- transpor- 

 tation question, as it was under the laws previous to 

 March, 1891. (Italics my own): 



A delivery ia always sufficient if the proper servaiits of the 

 company accept the goods to carry, whetlier any bill or entry in 

 the books of the company is made or not. (Redfleld on Carriers, 

 Sec. 101, page 82, and the cases < ited.) 



Common carriers are insurers of all property intrusted to 

 them, except against an act of God or an enemy of the frovern- 

 ment. (Plaisted vs. B. & K. Steam Nav. Co., 37 JVle., 132 FiUe- 

 brown vs. G. T. Railway Co., .55 Me., ■16^.) 



The American Express Co. did not restrict their liability, as no 

 notice was brought home to the plaintiff, or was assented to by 

 him, (Fillebrown vs. G. T. Railway Co., 55 Me., 462; Bucland vs. 

 Adams Express Co., 97 Mass., 125.) 



Neither can they so restrict as to release them from liability 

 for loss occasioned by their own neglig-ence. (Sager vs. Ports- 

 mouth S. & P. & B. Railroad Co., 31 Me., 228, and the cases therein 

 cited; True vs. International Telegraph Co., 60 Me., 13.) 



The American Express Co. surrenderedlthebox of deer saddles 

 to Thomas F. Allen without demanding his authority and wichout 

 objection on their part or by their agents. (.Statement of Fact«). 



Carriers are compelled to solve claimLints' right at their peril. 

 (Eedfield on Carriers. Sec. 244, page HOT). 



On service of a legal process lie mav surrender goods into the 

 custody of the law. (3 Pars. Cuntr., 207). 



Allen had no right or authority to sejze the deer saddles, as he 

 had no warrant or other legal process. (Oonstiiutlon of Maine, 

 Art, 1, .Sec. 5. U. S. Constitution, Art. 14, Sec. 1 [and other cases! ). 



The saddles were Hot i?i t/ie possession of Hie American Express 

 Co, within the '.meaninfj of Sec. 13. Cluri)'. so. R. S. As a common 

 carrier has only an insurable interest and a lien for his freight. 

 (Redfleld on Carriers, Sec. 80rf, page 226, and cases cited). 



Also such could not be the fact because it would be in violation 

 of the Inter-State Commerce Law. (U. S. Consticniion, Sec. 8. 

 Spec. 3.) 



Common carriers cannot select what they may ca/ ry nr what they 

 may refuse. Imt are tMund to talie all ivhich u(fcr. (Redfleld on 

 Carriers, Sec. 100, page 82 [and several cases].) 



When the box of deer saddles were taken by the defendant 

 company for transportation out of the State, and transportation 

 hegan, they became subjects of commerce, and were governed by 

 the laws of the U. S. (Coe vs. Enol, 116, U. S., 517. 10 Wall, .W-Ses, 

 ISFed.Rep. 10.) 



Commerce with foreign countrios and among the States strictly 

 considered, consists in intercourse and tratHc, including in these 

 terms navigation and transportation and transit of persons and 

 property, as well as the purchase, sale and exchange of com- 

 modities. To regulate it, as thus defined, there must be only one 

 Style of rules, applicable alilje to the whole country, which Con- 

 gress alone can prescribe. (Various references.) 



That is the Bennett case, decided last year— a conclu- 

 sive demonstration of the colossal humbug of non- trans- 

 portation in open season. Strangers and citizens alike 

 have given up their property to those who showed no 

 right to seize it, who had no right, either legally or mor- 



* Thomas F, Allen, of Bangor, formerly a policeman, now a 

 private detective and game warden, the partner of Harriman 

 above named. For some years Mr, Allen has been the leading 

 game warden of this eection, 



ally, and the authorities have never once come out to tell 

 us what our rights were nor to stop the depredations. 

 That at first this was done in ignorance is possible, 

 though no excuse. That the authorities should have 

 remained ignorant all these years, requires faith amount- 

 ing to credulity to believe. That the railroad and express 

 companies should know so little of the laws on which 

 their charters were founded as to have done this ignor- 

 antly, is inconceivable. The fact that such an imposition 

 should have been allowed to go on year after year does not 

 greatly iitcrease the credit which will be given to any 

 explanations that can now be made by those who allowed 

 it or who first schemed it. It is said here that it was done 

 to stop market-hunting, so that the deer might be saved 

 for sportsmen, attracting them hither and increasing the 

 travel on the railroads. A small ol^ject to gain when ob- 

 tained by the suppression of both law and right, the 

 toleration of a scheme of systematic robbery against 

 which jnivate redress was hard to get, the transforma- 

 tion of a people that were over- trustful toward those who 

 managed theii- affairs into a people hard, bitter, suspi- 

 cious, accusing, Any one who has not lived near enough 

 Bangor to know what has been done there these last seven 

 years does not know the long story of fraud and oppres- 

 sion and downright robbery which I could tell in all its 

 particulars past the possibility of doubting the recital, if 

 I were to go into the individual cases which I have 

 known. No possible excuse can be offered by any one 

 engaged in such actions, but no good could come of tell- 

 ing more than has been told; it is enough to know that 

 the wrong has been done and that it will not be soon for- 

 given. 



We hope now, since the past is past and the future 

 always has some gleam of brightness, that a better order 

 may begin. We have a new law this winter which we 

 understand. It is the same law that we have been drilled 

 on these seven or eight years in advance, which has been 

 enforced before it was on the statute books and declared 

 to be, while as yet it was not. It reads: "Sec, 13, No 

 person or corporation shall carry or transport from place 

 to place any moose, caribou or deer or part thereof in 

 close time, nor in open time unless open to view, tagged 

 and plainly labeled with the name of the owner thereof, 

 and accompanied by him imder a penalty of forty dol- 

 lars; and any person, not the actual owner of such game 

 or i^art thereof, who, to aid another in such transportation 

 falsely represents himself to be the owner, shall be liable 

 to the penalties aforesaid," 



We understand this law. It does not depend upon 

 doubtful interpretations. It will be respected as long as 

 it is fairly executed. If we had had this law eight years 

 ago, or had had the one then existing executed accortling 

 to its obvious meaning, there w^ould be less reason for ex- 

 plaining how Maine people have come to say hard 

 things of the game laws. On this point of non- 

 transportation in open season, our legal right, we have 

 been so harassed, so often called j)oachers and law- 

 breakers when we were doing nothing contrary to law, 

 that we are more lenient than we otherwise should be 

 against actual transgressors, and toward those who have 

 done this injustice, are — not boisterous nor vindictive, but 

 very stern, Fannie Pearson Hardy. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



If a perfect history of the travels and transactions of 

 the sportsmen in the entire Moosehead Lake region could 

 be fully brought to light by an impartial investigation, I 

 am satisfied that it would completely demonstrate the 

 fact that the cases cited by Miss Hardy are only excep- 

 tional ones. On the other hand, she does not represent 

 the "residents" of Maine as a whole. She is speaking 

 only for a fractional part of the citizens of this State, as 

 I firmly believe- Neither does ehe voice the sentiment of 

 a majority of those residing near the great wilderness 

 country frequented by sportsmen, I can recall cases 

 which have come under my own observation where 

 several hundred dollars have been paid into the treasury 

 of Piscataquis county for fines for violation of the game 

 laws by residents of other States, 



I know that during the past three years we have suf- 

 fered by a lax enforcement of these laws, I know fur- 

 ther chat as bitter complaints on account of this have 

 come from backwoodsmen and guides in the Moosehead 

 section who are during every summer season largely as- 

 sociated with the sportsmen, and necessarily influenced 

 more or less by them, as from any other source. 



Now, if these sportsmen as a class were as destructive 

 of game in intention or in practice as Miss Hardy avers, 

 it goes without saying that they would impress their 

 ideas upon the guides. That they do influence them to a 

 great extent is undeniable, and the fact that they do not 

 as a general rule countenance or aid infractions of the 

 laws while guiding, but that many of them are among 

 the staunchest and most sincere supporters of the code, 

 is to my mind positive evidence that the great mass of 

 their employers have done everything in their power to 

 educate them up to this standard, 



I hope that as Miss Hardy has opened it, the Forest and 

 Stream will give both sides of the question. I do not 

 feel competent to give the other side, but I hoj)e others 

 who are will join me, 



I feel, as do many in this section, that we are, as resi- 

 dents, and as real backwoodsmen, being misrepresented 

 by her. .J. F. Sprague. 



MONSON, Me. 



Puzzled Geese,— Springfield, Mass., April 20.— Last 

 Wednesday morning about 10 o'clock a severe thunder- 

 storm passed over this city, taking its way down the 

 valley into Connecticut. An hour later the air was filled 

 with strange and distressful cries that for a moment 

 made the wicked tremble. The city was filled with wild 

 geese in small flocks of frotn two or three to twenty, 

 which had probably composed one or more large flocks 

 that had met the storm and become scattered, and were 

 finally attracted here by the electric lights. For hours 

 they flew in every direction, probably searching for theu- 

 lost mates, and uttering an unusually mournful honk, 

 which told that they were in trouble. The electric lights 

 evidently attracted and bewildered them, and probably 

 every light was visited once or more by different flocks; 

 and they flew so low that they barely cleared the trees 

 and buildings, and the "swish" of their wings could be 

 plainly heard. It was only after the electric lights were 

 shut off that they rallied together and took their depart- 

 ure for the north in fairly good order.r— F. L, B, 



ST. LOUIS NOTES. 



ST. LOUIS, April 25,— Spring shooting has been a fail- 

 m-e in this section, say all of our hunters. The early 

 spring was so dry that there was no water on favorite 

 grounds, and then came cold and wet weather, which put 

 a damper on all sports. The flight of ducks was small, 

 and the snipe for some reason did not stop to sample our 

 Missouri and Illinois worms. But perhaps 'tis well. 

 Sprmg shooting should be abolished all along the line 

 from the Gulf to British America. 



The angling season opens auspiciously and some good 

 catches are reported. The water at the various club 

 grounds is reported in good condition. Angling is now 

 to the front and shooting goes to the rear. 



The trap-shooting season was opened last Sunday by 

 the Carondolet Gun Club, in which a large number of 

 clubs participated. 



The Gilham's Lake Hunting and Fishing Club has fin- 

 ally obtained its coveted property, and has completed its 

 organization. The membership is limited to thirty. The 

 grounds are located near Wanda, Madison county, 111, 

 The club controls about 1.200 acres. The officers are: I. 

 F. Burke, President; Albert Eawlings, Vice-President; 

 Wm. Dooly, Treasurer, and Chas. E, Wise, Secretary. 

 The shooting in season consists of duck, snipe and quail, 

 while the angling, the secretary says, consists of "dog- 

 fish" at present. 



Our revolver shots are discussing the championship 

 event and are getting ready for taking part, which will 

 be duly recorded. 



Among the enthusiastic salmon angler's of St, Louis 

 may be mentioned Henry Hitchcock, E. A. Hitchcock, E. 

 T, Allen and Mr, C, B. Burnham, In conjunction with a 

 few other anglers of Chicago and Boston these gentlemen 

 lease the Nipisiquit River in New Brunswick. The water 

 is controlled by the Government and is known as Govern- 

 ment water. The gentlemen have a lease for five years, 

 and the river affords very fine salmon and trout fishing. 

 Another prominent St, Lotiis salmon angler is Mr, .James 

 Richardson, who fishes in the Restigouche, Aberdeen. 



THE WAYS OF SNIPE. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In your issue of April 23, Mr. H. Austen, of Halifax, 

 N. S., claims that the snipe does its booming (T take it 

 he means di-umming) with his voice, and not as supposed 

 with his wings, and that this noise is only made at dusk 

 or long after dark. If Mr. Austen will go out to any 

 good snipe ground when these birds are in, especially in 

 the early j)art of May in the spring or September and 

 October in the fall of the year on a dull overcast day, he 

 will find numbers of snipe in the air circling and soaring 

 abotit and drumming to their heart's content, when he 

 will be satisfied (or I am much mistaken) that the noise a 

 snipe makes when drumming or booming is made with 

 his wing. 



In the same letter Mr. Austen writes; "All the sound 

 that I have ever heard in the daytime has been their scaipe 

 exceipt that on Aug. 11, 1885, when shooting on the 

 marsh, I heard about and arotmd me icho, ivho, who, 

 only not in very loud notes, and for quite a while was 

 puzzled until I found running about at my feet three 

 tiny young snipe, which must have been a very late or 

 possibly secontl brood," If Mr. Austen will go out where 

 these snipe breed, during the mating season, that is with 

 us in the month of May, he wiU find that snipe sing, 

 twitter and call. During this season snipe call one an- 

 other jjefe, j)eie, pete. The cock bird springs into the 

 air, flying 20 or 30yds. before lighting again, with his 

 tail and head up, singing and twittering much like a 

 bobolink. One could hardly think that these tame fool- 

 ish birds were the wild, swift-flying, hard-to-hit birds of 

 the previous month. 



The snipe and woodcock both drum with their wings. 

 Woodcock drum about dusk, letting themselves dovvn 

 from an elevated position plump on to the ground, with 

 wings set edgewise. Snipe generally drum on dark and 

 dull days, letting themselves down from a high position 

 with wings set edgewise, fifty or a hundred feet, imme- 

 diately soaring up again to circle around as before. This 

 they repeat for hours together. Years ago when snipe 

 were plentiful on the Holland marsh, a few miles from 

 here, I liave seen upon a dull day fifty or sixty snipe in 

 the air at one time circling and drumming; in fact, 

 every snipe on the marsh appeared to be up in the air, I 

 need hardly say that on such occasions the bag was small. 

 In those good old times I remember in the month of 

 October making a bag of 105 snipe in one day, the day 

 was a bright warm still day. 



Old Bleacher, the dog I used in those days, was a black 

 and tan, out of a liver spaniel bitch, by a black, white 

 and tan foxhound dog. Strange to say, in appearance he 

 was a very handsome spaniel and a dog I never was 

 ashamed to be seen with either on the street or in the 

 field. All my dogs now have the bluest of blood in their 

 veins, but 1 would gladly give them all for old Bleacher 

 and the abundance of game of his days. 



W^hat a pity it is that both the Government of Canada 

 and the United States do not pass a law prohibiting the 

 exposing for sale all and any game. It seems deplorable 

 to allow our game to vanish before our eyes, when by a 

 simple enactment, such as the above, it could be pre- 

 vented, Henry B. Nicol, M.D. 



CooKSTOWN, Canada, 



California Seasons,— Since I wrote you last, our 

 Legislature has adjoiu-ned after amending the game law 

 as follows: Extending the close season for quail up to 

 Oct. 1, instead of Sejit. 10 as it has been in the past, and 

 making it unlawful to kill deer, elk, mountain sheep or 

 antelope for the next two years. This has been signed by 

 our governor, and ia now the law. This is good, gentle- 

 men, excellent! Even if our Legislature did adjourn with a 

 very unsavory smell of "boodle" clinging to its garmeut8,it 

 did pass some meritorious laws, and this is one. The bill as 

 originally introduced protected the deer for six years, but 

 was amended so as to cover only two. The former period 

 was just about right, but the latter will do a great deal of 

 good, and "half a loaf is better than no bread." And, 

 besides, if we can ever get the average legislator to grant 

 half of what is asked and needed, we do well. And it is 

 useless arguing with them, for Mit der Dummheit 

 kdmpfen Gotter selbst vergebens. Which in English 

 means: Against ignorance even the goda battle in vaini 



