412 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[June 11, 1891. 



SIX YEARS UNDER MAINE GAME LAWS. 



Y III.— AN ASPECT OF THE GRATES CASE. 



THE murder of the two wardens, Niles and Hill, by- 

 Calvin Graves, in 1886, was the means of calling 

 forth a sympathy for the latter which to those not inti- 

 mate with all that had preceded must have seemed unac- 

 countable. I do not refer to the reckless talk of desper- 

 adoes and malcontents who delight in upheavals; but 

 sober-minded men of character and good repute, who 

 disapproved the act, felt and still feel a sympathy for the 

 actor. Anomaly as this is, it is what has happened 

 before often enough when the side which wielded 

 authority did not do it according to justice. 



Of course this murder has been extenuated in every 

 possible way on the one hand, and been intensified with 

 equal ingenuity on the other. It is beyond the province 

 of this paper to enter into any discussion of the case — 

 whether it was in self-defense or otherwise, provoked or 

 not, deliberate or the impulse of a fiery moment. It was 

 done — double murder. The courts bave investigated all 

 the facts pertaining and by their sentence expressed un- 

 qualified disapproval. There can be no reason for seeking 

 to differ from their decision and to discuss the case here 

 or seek extenuations would virtually be doing this. Yet 

 there is an aspect of the case which did not enter into the 

 trial in court that has had weight in producing the sym- 

 pathy which I find exists toward Graves. 



The trial was for murder. It did not therefore concern 

 itself with questions whether Graves at the time of com- 

 mitting this act was engaged or purposed to engage in 

 breaking the game laws. An authority so high that 

 investigation of the records seemed needless after his 

 statement, has told me that no evidence was brought on 

 to show that Graves was hounding deer. The only testi- 

 mony on the point, he said, was that McFarland, his 

 companion, went away wdth the dog and returned with 

 it about noon tied to his belt. The keen eye of the public 

 took note of this fact and the attempt has 'been made on 

 Penobscot waters at least to show that Graves was the 

 one attacked. Witliout in any manner pretending to 

 settle the point, indeed without considering it important 

 except as producing sympathy for Graves, we may ex- 

 amine the grounds of this claim: 



The place at which this deed was committed is a pecu- 

 liar one. Five lakes of the same chain— First, Second, 

 Third, Fourth and Fifth Lakes Machias— are arranged 

 almost in a circle, the head of Fifth Lake lying very 

 near to Fu-st Lake, with Fletcher Brook cutting off half 

 of the remaining distance, the whole inclosing a piece of 

 land nearly, if not quite, thirty miles in circumference. 

 This unfits it for hounding, because the deer when pur- 

 sued are quite as likely to run into one of the other four 

 lakes as into the one which is watched. All who are ex- 

 perienced in the use of hounds declare that it is one of 

 the poorest places in the State for that work. There are 

 deer enough within this region, but they cannot be ob- 

 tained with hounds. Yet Graves and McFarlaud were 

 hunting here on Nov, 8. Either they were not hounding 

 deer or they did not know their business, say those who 

 tnow no more of the circumstances than was published 

 in the newspapers. Not only is this section entirely un- 

 fitted for the use of hounds, because it is so surrounded 

 by water and devoid of natural runways, but there are no 

 boats on any of the five lakes except such canoes as the 

 Shaws of Lower Dobsy own and keep for their own use 

 on the further side of Fourth Lake. It is well known 

 that Graves and MacFarland had no boat. This greatly 

 diminishes the probability that they were hounding. They 

 were in a coimty where deer could not be dogged success- 

 fully, where they had not the ordinary means for pur- 

 suing them in the water, where there was little chance 

 that they could be posted so as to shoot at a deer on the 

 land because most of it is too flat to afford runways, yet 

 they had a dog with them. It is well kno-wm here that 

 there are dogs, rarely but yet sometimes found, which 

 are trained to keep close to their masters and by 

 whining when they catch the scent of a deer direct 

 the attention of the hunter to the right point. When 

 the deer is wounded they will keep the trail when 

 otherwise the animal might be lost. These dogs are 

 sometimes owned and used by still-hunters here, but 

 the practice is not general. Because the location in 

 which Graves and McFarland were hunting was so 

 unfavorable to the use of hounds in the usual way, 

 because also when they came back after an unsuccessful 

 hunt the dog was with them, which would hardly have 

 been the case if he had been put out after a deer and lost 

 him, it has been supposed by those willing to put the 

 matter in as good a light as possible that the dog was one 

 tx-ained to aid in still-hunting and that the men were not 

 engaged in hounding at the time. If this is true— and it 

 is purely a supposition— sympathy with the accused would 

 be the natural consequence; but it would follow equally 

 if the supposition were merely a probability. Having 

 seen enough of the ground myself to judge the matter, 

 and having conversed with those who knew it thoroughly 

 and also knew about hounding deer, there seems to be 

 nothing inconsistent in the theory, though it is probably 

 nothing more than an ingenious explanation of what 

 might have been true if events had been different. No 

 confidence need be placed in the truth of this supposition, 

 for its influence lies in its existence and the absence of 

 known facts to disprove it. It throws the burden of the 

 crime upon the wardens and partially exonerates Graves, 

 which is all that is desired. For, if this is true, though 

 when strictly construed such a use of a dog might be 

 found illegal, it is so different from ordmary hounding 

 that no one here would consider it a violation of the law. 

 Then to the illegality of attempting to take a dog from 

 its owner instead of fining the owner, is added this still 

 further complication of taking a dog which was supposed 

 to be used in a way not contrary to the statute, when the 

 owners, by the testimony given in court, were attempting 

 to carry it off to avoid a quarrel which the wardens them- 

 selves provoked. 



I give this not because it has any value as fact— probably 

 has none — ^but because it shows how keen people have 

 been to discover extenuating circumstances, how they 

 seized on the alasence of evidence to construct a defense, 

 how they have not ceased to continue to do this. How 

 revaJent this sympathy may be I cannot tel), having 

 eemed it unwise to discuss the matter more than was 

 necessary; but I never heard a woodsman or back-settler 

 speak upon the subject who did not feel less severe in his 

 judgment of the doer than of the deed. On Machias, 

 where the event occurred aad the men are known, a very 



different sentiment may prevail, but on Penobscot, where 

 personalities do not enter into opinions formed and the 

 knowledge of the facts is very likely limited, there is a 

 sympathy felt and expressed which must be recognized, 

 If the reports which I have received at second hand are 

 at all correct, the feeling is not by any means so limited 

 in its extent. 



Although not bearing directly upon the subject in hand, 

 I have deemed it important to speak of this sympathy 

 with Graves and this tendency to find excuses for his 

 deed, because a timely recognition of it is needed. The 

 excuses may be flimsy fabrications, but the sympathy is a 

 fact which must not be denied, and I do not find that in the 

 records that I have kept for the four years past there is 

 any material abatement of it. It is a dangerous element 

 in the present status— dangerous because the feeling is 

 divorced from the ethics of the case, and exists side by side 

 with condemnation of the act, dangerous because it does 

 not stand as staunchly by the decision of the courts as it 

 should, and also because it is shared by honest law- 

 abiding men with the dishonest and lawless. Yet it is 

 the inevitable result of certain given contitions. The 

 representatives of the law had been acting imlawfuUy, 

 and had alienated from their support a large body of 

 people. Some of them had gone so far that their lives 

 were in danger if they went beyond well understood 

 limits of both territory and action. The provocation was 

 great and long continued, of a kind very often most diffi- 

 cult to prove, highly exasperating to public feeling and 

 yet not sufficiently damaging to property to warrant re- 

 course to law in the cases where proof could be obtained. 

 Appeals to have the wrong suppressed were made and 

 the petitions were disregarded. The dangers feared with 

 sufficient evidence of what occurred under less irritating 

 conditions were detailed and rejected as visionary. There 

 was no redress of the wrongs, but they could not go on 

 much longer without being avenged, and it was only a 

 question of circumstances sufliciently provoking and a 

 man whose judgment or self control had deserted him to 

 decide where the inevitable event would occur. It came 

 like a great shock to one-half of the State, but to another 

 part it was an arrow sped which slacks the tension on 

 the bowstring and brings the bow back to its shape. The 

 hunters, the back-settlers, the people of the smaller towns 

 of eastern Maine were relieved from future fears and a 

 sympathy with the one who had removed from them 

 what might well have happened nearer home was 

 natural. That the deed seemed not to be prompted by 

 personal malice or x^remeditation removed much disap- 

 proval which would otherwise have been felt. That so 

 good excuses as the one already given could be con- 

 structed without violence to any known facts was con- 

 sidered an additional reason for allowing the impulse to 

 get the better of the judgment. 



I would not wish to over-estimate either the amount or 

 the extent of this feeling, too common anywhere, far too 

 much so on Penobscot. It will do no harm at present, 

 but with the recurrence of conditions similar- to the old 

 ones its power will be felt as a serious obstacle to the 

 course of justice. Just how this will occur need not be 

 described, but there is a way already suggested by some 

 which makes it seem better to avoid than to incur the 

 lisk. For this danger to the laws and their action seems 

 to me a more serious evil than the loss of life which is 

 also to be feared. Concerning the latter there will be dif- 

 ferences of opinion; but the ones to underrate it will be 

 those who know least about it and those who know most 

 will not be likely to tell all they know. In eastern Maine 

 there is continual risk that a'repetition may recur, and 

 there is a fear and distrust lest the old conditions may be 

 renewed, thus precipitating the danger. It is not expedi- 

 ent to say why it seems necessary to speak of this sym- 

 pathy for Graves further than what has been said, but 

 I have heard too much on the subject without seek- 

 ing it, and been forced to read too far between the 

 lines sometimes when little has been said, to consider 

 the matter one of light import. If local, restricted to 

 comparatively narrow limits, it will spread fast enough; 

 if of wider range it is still worse; but as a fact it 

 must be faced and considered. There is no excite- 

 ment on the subject now, and this is the time to 

 prepare for the eradication of such a sentiment as this 

 and the protection of our higher forms of administering 

 justice, by a just and equitable enforcement of the game 

 laws by men who will be respected for their personal 

 worth as well as for their ofi&ce. Otherwise there is 

 danger. A careful study of sociological conditions here 

 and a good acquaintance with the history of the woods 

 for the past sixty years have left no doubt in my mind 

 that murder has been historically much more common 

 than most suppose; that it still is likely to occur at any 

 time when personal revenge or a rude but extra-legal 

 sense of justice demands satisfaction; that it may be com- 

 mitted by men who are not dishonest and who would 

 scorn to do a mean act, and that if the man who does it 

 has borne a fair reputation previously and acts in a way 

 for which any possible justification may be found, he will 

 obtain a sympathy which will liinder the cause of law 

 or largely annul the effect of the sentence. Under our 

 game laws, administered as they have been for the past 

 few years, tliis is sure to happen in event of another 

 Graves case; for the public conscience has gone wrong 

 and we who have grown up under this strained and dis- 

 torted condition where officers of justice have been 

 unjust and rights have been made wrong, hardly know 

 what right is and what wrong is in game matters. 



Fannie Pearson Hardy, 



Northampton, Mass., lovely for situation, and famed 

 as the seat of Smith College, is a center of culture and 

 learning and refinement," but at Barr's, its principal 

 restaurant on the main street, they serve quail on toast 

 in the month of June. If there is a gun club or a game 

 association in Hampshire county, we commend them to 

 secure a revision of the Barr bill of fare. 



TouKiST Tickets.— The Chicago & Northwesteni Railway Co. 

 has placed on sale tourist tickets at reduced rates to principal 

 resorts of the West and Northwest, including Colorado, Wyoming, 

 Idaho, Montana, Utah, California, Oregon and the Puget Sound 

 country. Many of these escursion tickets give the holder privil- 

 ege of going by one route and returning by another, and the 

 favorable arrangements in the matter of return limit, ston over 

 privileges, etc., commend them to the special attention of the 

 tourist visiting the West and Northwest. Full information can 

 be obtained at any ticket ofBce, or by addressing W. A. Thrall, 

 Gen. Pass. & Ticket Agent, O. & N. W. R'y, Ctiioago, 111— Adv. 



The full texts of the game fish laws of all the States, 

 Territories and British Provinces are given in the Book of 

 the Game Laws, 



ON THE NORTH SHORE.— VII. 



lCo7itinued from Page 390.'] 



ABOUT 10 o'clock the steam tug arrived, bringing 

 Hon. Aaron Turner, the publisher of the Grand 

 Eapids Eagle, a fishing comjjanion, and also a naphtha 

 launch, which was in tow and which had just been pnr- 

 chased in the East by the veteran editor, and I might 

 also add angler, especially for the outing he was now 

 taking. I have no desire to make any disparaging re- 

 marks about the use of a naphtha launch on Lake Supe- 

 rior for a trip of this or any other kind ; but simply state 

 that since the Atlantic has been crossed by a single man 

 in a smaller boat, there is a prospect that this naphtha 

 launch, which is about 20ft, long, might with safety 

 operate here. But I will assuredly cling to the Mackinac 

 sailboat as the safer of the two. I hope Mr. Turner, who 

 is an old friend of mine, may have many a pleasant trip 

 with his launch, which, in justice to the little craft, I 

 must say steams along o'er the gentle waves like a bird 

 on wing. 



The Turner party camped in our immediate vicinity, 

 and in the afternoon, accompanied by Capt. Ganley, 

 took the naphtha launch and went to the other side of the 

 bay to try for trout, but returned in the evening without a 

 scale. 



Ned was pleased to meet with the old veteran guide of 

 the Nepigon, John Borshea, whom Mr, Turner had 

 brought with him from the "Soo." They related many 

 reminiscences of angling on that famed stream which 

 deeply interested me. John stated that he had been 

 upon the Nepigon early this season with a party from 

 Pittsburgh, who found the trout more plentiful than ever, 

 owing, he thought, to the low stage of water that pre- 

 vailed. The men went poorly provided for comfort, 

 having thin blankets and rather slim commissary stores, 

 and were, therefore, soon sick of the trip. The Turner 

 party came over to our camp about sunset, and when 

 they looked into our tent and saw our mattresses in beds 

 of balsam a foot deep or more, our heavy blankets, mos- 

 quito bars, inviting pillows and the like, were high in 

 praise of our thoughtfulness, and declared that we had 

 made camp life both a charm and a delight. Ned and I 

 being old campers and on the shady side of sixty, had 

 made somewhat of a study of camping, believing that 

 comforts never came amiss in an outing of this kind, 



Ned received by the boat a bundle of papers and some 

 books, which were sent by his thoughtful wife from the 

 ''Soo," These were very acceptable, as the papers gave 

 us the first news from home since being in camp. The 

 afternoon had been exceedingly bright and beautiful, and 

 as the evening approached cloud fleeces of orange pushed 

 up over the edge of the west, while a fragrant breeze 

 caressed the lake, sending lilac shudderings over the 

 gentle ripples which soon smouldered into smoky gold. 

 The evening being cool, as they always are in this lati- 

 tude, a roaring camp-fire was built, around which gath- 

 ered the Turner party, Capt. Ganley and his brothei', and 

 the swarthy boatmen, and then story telling and discus- 

 sion of varied topics, from law to theology, were indulged 

 in till a late hour. 



Capt. Ganley announced as he departed that the tug 

 would leave in the morning at 6 o'clock sharp, and ad- 

 vised us not to tarry over our tea and trout if we desired 

 to take passage with him, as he was a decided railroad 

 man as far as the time-table was concerned. "We im- 

 pressed this fact duly upon our boatmen, and then we 

 tui-ned in to court "tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy 

 sleep." 



Ned arose early in the morning and awoke our boat- 

 men, who did not seem to relish the idea of going up 

 the lake. We, however, hurried them with the break- 

 fast and the packing, and just made the boat as she 

 was leaving the dock, Joe did all he could to have us 

 left, but being up to his contemptible tactics he did not 

 succeed in his efforts. 



We ran along a coast replete in bluffs and cliffs that 

 was every minute increasing in picturesque beauty. Ar- 

 riving at Mamainse, where Mr. Turner and his party 

 diseni barked, and where they expected a most delight- 

 ful time in the pleasant recreation of coaxing from his 

 watery Ian- with dainty fly the peerless pruice of the 

 spotted robe. The Easaine brothers have a large fishery 

 here, which has been carried on at this place for the last 

 thirty-five years, having descended from father to sons — 

 the present proprietors. 



It is a lovely place, and just before the veteran angler 

 left the tug he took a sweeping glance with an admiring 

 eye at the massive bulwarks of rocks that lined the abrupt 

 shore, and then turning to the verdureless islets gleam- 

 ing in aged gray, remarked: 



"These things delight me beyond power of expression." 



It was evidently a landscape that any lover of grand 

 and sublime nature would rave over. 



"For all is rocks at random throNvn, 

 Black Avaves, black crags, and banks of stone, 



As if were here desired 

 The summer's sun, the spring's sweet dew, 

 That clothe with many a varied hue 



The bleakest mountainside." 



From Mamainse onward the character of the shore 

 changes. Instead of the low sandy islets, we now passed 

 among isolated rocks of greenstone, rising abruptly from 

 deep water, generally bare, but sometimes covered with 

 a tuft of trees at the top. The rock which about Gros- 

 Cap is sandstone, often unaltered, now becomes more' 

 highly metamorphic. But the larger islands and the edge 

 under the cliffs continue of sandstone, and are flat and 

 low for some distance to the northward. The line of the 

 cliffs is continuous, rising at a distance of a quarter of a 

 mile at most from the water, with an average of 200 or 

 800ft. The whole surface, down to the very beach, was 

 covered with trees; indeed, I may say once for all, that 

 with the exception of some ancient terraces of fine sand 

 and gravel, and a few summits of bare reck, the entire 

 shore of Lake Superior as far as we went is continuously 

 covered with forest. The trees continued the same, ex- 

 cept that the white pines and maples had disappeared. 



