so 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Jan, 14, 1892. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



[.From a Staff Coirespondent,.~] 



CHICAGO, 111., Jan. 6.— Next Wednesday afternoon, 

 Jan. 13, at the Sherman House, there will be held 

 the annual meetings of the Fox and Kankakee Fish and 

 Game Protective Associations, practically a joint meet- 

 ing, as the presidency of the two societies is conjoined in 

 one individual, Mr. Geo. E. Cole. Business of import- 

 ance will come up. It is safe to announce that about 

 half the men will be there who ought to be, or perhaps 

 one-fourth. A good many will forget the day, and a 

 good many will not remember it, and some will not think 

 of it, and several won't go anyhow, because they will be 

 too busy. But they will be glad if those who do go will 

 fix it somehow so that the fishing will be better next 

 year. 



Not long ago I was speaking with a couple of friends 

 here ou things in general, and one of them asked, "Don't 

 you think you give altogether too much space to protec- 

 tive matters?" 



The answer to such a question is like that which the 

 author of "The Lady or tne Tiger" once made to a cor- 

 respondent who asked him "which door really opened, or 

 which came out, th$ lady or the tiger?" "That depends 

 altogether upou what sort of person you are yourself," 

 said the author. 



It is easy to be bored by matter relating to the uninter- 

 esting details of protective work. Again, it is easy to be 

 interested in it. That all depends on the individual. 

 There are few unselfish acts which are not received with 

 a reservation or a natural sneer. The doctrine of the 

 world is selfishness pure, I tell my friend how to catch 

 more fish, or where to kill more game. He is rejoiced. 

 He loves me. I am his brother. I tell him he ought to 

 catch fewer fish and hedge in the supply, and lo! he has 

 cause of grievance with me. 



Upon the other hand, I don't say anything about it: 

 nobody does. No piper does. It is allowed to slip along 

 unmolested, this q uestion. After some years there are no 

 fish and the game is no longer to be found. My friend 

 comes to me. "Here," he says, "these sportsmen's pa- 

 pers have let this thing go along, hap-hazard, until now 

 it is too late. The game is gone. We can no longer find 

 any fish. These journals have been untrue to their con- 

 stituency. They have been unworthy of their name." 



Now, no newspaper can please everybody. Toe worst 

 sort of newspaper failures are made by trying to do that. 

 So that part of the question doesn't matter. The question 

 militant is, Which of these two friends one would rather 

 look in the eye when he appears with his grievance? So 

 far as my humble part is concerned, I would rather an- 

 swer the first man than the latter. 



The mere fact that a thing never has been done is no 

 reason why it should not be done. The fact that no 

 sporting journal ever took game or fish protective mat- 

 ters, in the West at least, until Forest and Stream did 

 so, can not be urged as conclusive proof that Forest and 

 Stream should not have done so and ought not to do so. 

 There is nothing Pharisaic in this, for very little has 

 really been doneby anybody: but it seems an easy guess 

 to say that the day will come when much of actual good 

 will be done on these same lines. It is the best paper 

 which in the retrospect of those days will be found in 

 line, and with a record of work and duty done. 



It is easy to lay down a few propositions about the 

 status of protective matters in the West. It is true, first, 

 that the game and fish are going; second, that the pro- 

 tective laws are inadequate, confused, ill-judged, obscure, 

 and of no similarity for States whose needs are the same; 

 third, that the public is very generally ignorant of the 

 laws such as they are. All "these premises are easy, so 

 easy that it seems hard to escape the conclusion that 

 upon the sporting press devolves the duty of making the 

 muddle more clear and of searching out a way for better 

 and more practical measures. This is a duty which takes 

 part of a paper's life, namely, its space. I have an idea 

 that already half will say it was the lady, and half will 

 say it was the tiger. 



That prominent figure in Iowa sportsmanship, Mr. John 

 G. Smith, of Algona— by the way, president of the Iowa 

 State Sportsmen's Association — is evidence of the fact 

 that the sportsman may not be without honor, even in 

 his own country. Mr. Smith has been elected to the 

 State Legislature, and starts for Des Moines to-morrow 

 to attend his first session. I have an idea there will be a 

 bill introduced for the improvement of the Iowa chicken 

 law. . • > 



The following are the present officers of the Iowa State 

 Association: John G. Smith, President, Algona: A. J. 

 Zwart, Des Moines, First Vice-President; W. B. Leffing- 

 well, Clinton, Second Vice-President; Nelson Royal, Des 

 Moines, Secretary; C. O. Perkins, Des Moines, Treasurer. 

 Directors— C. W. Budd, Des Moines; N. S. Young, Bur- 

 lington; Geo. Converse, Des Moines; F. O. Davis, Daven- 

 port; Chas, Grim, Clear Lake. Law Committee— W. L. 

 Read, Des Moines; S. S. Sessions, Algona. 



Mr. C. W. Budd, of Des Moines, as aforesaid, writes 

 once more that he is anxious to come to Chicago and 

 tread the dark and bloody ground at Watson's Park with 

 almost anybody. It seems to me that one of these many 

 anxious men ought to take the trail for Chicago, and go 

 into camp here. Maybe some of the others would follow 

 along then. The Chicago men want to have some fun 

 with somebody, anyhow. 



Jim Elliott, of Kansas City, is also anxious, and is get- 

 ting anxiouser right along. He wants to know what 

 about that match which was made for him with Andy 

 Thomas. This match was never really closed on account 

 of the latter's sickness. I saw Andy to-day, and he was 

 looking mighty "peaked." 



George Kleinman, whilom sheet anchor of Chicago 

 hopes, has gone off his form, as see late trap scores. He 

 has a new sun, with which he can't hit a barn full of 

 pigeons. Ill fared it then with George when he let go his 

 famous $12 discount gun, that weapon which has inspired 

 more enthusiasm here, I fear, than the sword of Bunker 

 Hill. George could hit birds with the old gun; he can't 

 with the new one. This is intended as a bait to anybody 

 looking for a pigeon match; but I shouldn't like to give 

 it away. 



Mr. S. A. Tucker, the Parker gun evangel, left this 

 city after a short visit, starting on Sunday for the East 

 and to the works. Mr. Tucker has plenty of friends who 

 hope that his shadow will never grow less. I don't be- 

 lieve it ever will, now. 



Mr. Harvey McMurchy, paternal uncle of the L, C. 



Smith gun, is announced to glide upon the horizon here 

 to-morrow, and will doubtless shed intelligence in the 

 matter of ejectors as a class. 



Mr. Fred. Kimble, of the Peoria Target Co., was here 

 last week, and taught Rolla Heikes a new tune on the 

 banjo. Not that Rolla needed any new one, but that Mr. 

 Kimble knew one which Rolla didn't. 



Mr, Paul North, of the Cleveland Target Co., is due 

 here this week on a business trip, as I learn from a letter 

 of late date. The 1st of January thaws out all the busi- 

 ness people. 



Mr. F, C. Damm, of the new U. S. Pigeon Co., left 

 yesterday for Kansas City, after a pleasant business trip 

 here. I understand that Von L mgerke & Antoine are 

 to handle this target here. 



Mr. Alex. T. Loyd is in Washington, D. C, getting out 

 some patents, several of them on sporting articles. He 

 is all right, because he has sent back to his banker here 

 several times for more money. 



Mr. Wolfred N. Low is just back to-day from his long 

 stay in Mexic >. and starts almost immediately for New 

 York. He will probably return soon to M-xico. He is 

 mixed up in an awful good chanca to rn ike about a 

 wagon load of money, and no one deserves two wagon 

 loads more than he. 



Messrs. T. Banton Loiter and W. H. Haskell are about 

 due back from Iowa, where they lately went ou a visit to 

 Mr. Leiter's farm for the purpose of shooting. Rabbits 

 only. 



ftir. Joel Kinney was down in Arkansas after quail this 

 winter, and had some fun, though unfortunately without 

 a dog. 



I don't remember whether I ever said anything about 

 the Joei Kinney rail story or not, although almost every- 

 body here reminds that gentleman of it occasionally. 

 Joel i3 very fond of rail shooting, and is about the only 

 member of his club, on the Kankakee, who pays much 

 attention to that bird. One day, when the rail were all 

 over the wild rice in the marsh, Joel loaded up.300 shells 

 and determined to make a big killing. He ordered his 

 pusher to take him about eight miles up the river, and 

 resolutely refrained from firing a shot until he got to the 

 coveted position. Then he fired two shots, and that was 

 all; for, alas! he discovered that he had forgotten to put 

 any shot in his shells. Sadly he headed the boat for 

 home. "An' all the way down the river," said the 

 nusher, "them there rail-birds were a holleriu 'Kinney, 

 Kinney, Kinne-e-e-e! Oh, Kinney!'" 



Jan. 8. — Mr. Harry Dale, who was brought up in the 

 grass near Rice Lake, Ontario, tells some weird stories of 

 sport in that locality, where ducks, bass and mascallonge 

 seem abundant as heart could desire. "We never shoot 

 flying over there," said Mr. Dale, "there's a rule in the 

 club against it. I did kill one duck on the wing once, 

 but it was an accident, and I regretted it. A fellow usu- 

 ally goes out into his blind in the morning and sits awhile. 

 Maybe he gets one shot, maybe two. Then he sends out 

 an Indian to gather his birds, and he goes in and sits by 

 the stove with the other fellows, 



"There is only one spoon-hook in that part of Canada," 

 continued Mr. Dale, "and it belongs to old Hayes, who 

 gave seventy- five cents for it before the war. One day 

 Hayes was out trolling, and he snagged his spoon, thirty 

 feet down in the ice cold water. He couldn't lose the 

 spoon, so he stripped and dived for it. Somehow, in 

 trying to loosen it from the log, he got one of the hooks 

 caught through his nose, and climbed into the boat 

 with things in that fix. Of course he couldn't stop fish- 

 ing, so he cut the hook out of his nose— not a very good 

 job, piece of nose left on hook— and went on trolling. 

 He caught a load of 'lunge, and said he never saw them 

 rise better. You can see where Hayes took a chunk out 

 of his nose, and he was always mad because it never 

 grew back in again. 



"You can't come over to Rice Lake with any fly-book," 

 said Dick Cox, Mr. Dale's side partner, taking up the 

 story. "We don't fish with anything but white card- 

 board over there. A gentleman by the name of Clark, 

 from New York, first put me on to that. We were in a boat 

 one evening and he started to casting with a piece of vis- 

 iting card for a fly. He would put on a new piece when 

 one got soaked tob much. I never saw bass rise better. 

 They were all big-mouth bass, and were taken in the 

 dusk of evening. We never take any bait but a pack of 

 cards over there when we go out fishing. Small-mouth 

 bass won't rise to anything but aces. I have caught 

 slough bass on a pair of threes" (I think Mr. Cox's mind 

 was wandering). 



"You know how to paddle?" he said, waking up from 

 his reverie. "No you don't. There don't anybody know 

 how to paddle a canoe but a Rice Lake Indian. It makes 

 my back ache to see a greenhorn try to paddle, clawing 

 away forward with his paddle, and sweeping it away 

 behind him before he recovers. A paddle wants to be 

 just long enough so that the left hand, holding it by the 

 top, just comes even with the chin in paddling. An In- 

 dian paddles with a very short stroke. He don't reach 

 very far forward, and he bears downward on the paddle, 

 pushing down aB well as back. He never brings the 

 right hand any further back than the thigh in the stroke. 

 You can bet that's the easiest way to paddle or an Indian 

 wouldn't do it that way. A Rice Lake Indian will send 

 one of those teetery canoes along as easy as a bird, and 

 you can't hear a sound from the paddle. That's the way 

 to go trolling for mascallonge. A big 'lunge will tow 

 one of those canoes. One time a feller — " 



"Do you think you can get over 38 out of 50 selected 

 birds, Dick?" interrupted a fellow citizen about then. 



"I do think so, deep and plenty," said Mr. Cox, forget- 

 ting about the 'lunge. 



"Fifty?" 



"Fifty. That makes sixty I've made to-day, §10 in 

 my business and $50 in this match. 1 guess I'll go home 

 now." 



It would seem that the intelligent compositor who runs 

 the tick-a-tack machine can cast her shadow in even such 

 Joigh regions as the general offices of railways. This 

 morning I. am in receipt of a letter from one of the lead- 

 ing lines inquiring, formally, and after blank No. so and 

 so, as to the "bona-fied" circulation of this paper. I am 

 afraid I shall have to leave that for the office to answer. 

 Yet another road speaks darkly of a "right-up," whatever 

 that may be. 



The Amateur Revolver Championship contest, which 

 ha* for some time been progressing under the auspices 

 of Forest and Stream, for the distinguished Winans 

 trophy, has attracted much attention, Chicago is, of 



course, not to be left out of anything of the sort, and it 

 may be in the cards that Chicago will win the trophy. 

 Shooting is now progressing in thi3 contest at the gal- 

 lery of Geo. McCune, 146 South Halstead street, with the 

 prospect of a very good competition for this point. For 

 tho^e who may not be posted on the terms of this com- 

 petition, it may be well to state the conditions briefly: 

 For the Winans silver cowboy, open to amateurs, 30yds, 

 off-hand, any pistol under 10m., 30 .shots, or 5 scores of 

 0 shots, best 3 scores of the 5 scores to count, and string 

 of the 18 shots selected to make the record. Forest and 

 Stream adds $50, $30 and $20 for first, second and third. 

 Smith & Wesson add a best quality revolver for first. 

 Finally, there is no entrance fee. Anybody can shoot. 

 Forest and Stream even furnishes the targets, one tar- 

 get for each shot. The pistol shot who won't go into 

 this contest, under terms such as the a.bove, must be of 

 a truly cautious disposition. Fuller details can be 

 learned for this city at McCune's gallery. 



The Garden City'Rifls Team meets weekly at McCune's 

 place, Tuesday evenings. Their condition^ are 25yds., 

 25 shots per man, open sights, off hand, Massachusetts 

 target. The scores of this and future weeks, and also de- 

 tails of the revolver contest, will be found in the proper 

 columns of Forest and Stream; and nowhere else. 



It should be borne in mind by those who live down 

 Ewt, or in other foreign parts of the world outside of 

 Ciicago, that the trap scores sent in by "Ravelrigg" from 

 Watson's Park, usually headed "Burnside, III , are really 

 Chicago scores, as Burnside is the suburb where the Chi- 

 cago shooters meet. 



Jan. .9.— The new Forest and Stream is at hand. She 

 struck twelve. E. Hough. 



NEW YORK STATE CONVENTION. 



THE Oaondaga County Sportsman's Club inaugurated 

 a movement at its monthly meeeiing last evening 

 that will result in the holding in this city early in Febru- 

 ary of a convention of sportsmen to consider the subject 

 of the codification of the game laws of the State. Sports- 

 men have felt for years that the State game laws were in 

 a bad suape and they have made many tfforts to get them 

 into some sort of shape that would not be a disgrace to 

 the intelligence of the men who fish and shoot through- 

 out the State. Their efforts, however, have failed mainly 

 because the men who wanted the game laws amended 

 were fighting each other. The fellows down on Long- 

 Island wanted to shoot ducks with batteries and hunt 

 woodcock in July and August. These notions were re- 

 garded as barbarous by the shooters in central, northern 

 and western New York, and when they all got together 

 at Albany they did little but fight among themselves. 

 The legislators, who were not all sportsmen, did not 

 know what to do with such conflicting claims, bo they 

 did nothing. 



Now it is proposed to hold a convention of the shooting 

 and fishing men in this city, have them fight out their 

 differences in the conventio'n and when they are tired 

 fighting agree upon what they want, and then go to 

 Albany and ask the Legislature to give it to them. Gov. 

 Roswell P. Flower is a mighty sportsman and he would 

 be with them for a decent arrangement of the game 

 laws. Senator John A. Nichols of this district is a great 

 duck hunter and his assistance at Albanv can be counted 

 on. Judge I. G. Vanu and Gen. D. H. Bruce of this city 

 are strongly in favor of the convention and were among 

 the first to suggest it. Horace White of this city, Pres- 

 ident of the New York State Sportsman's Association for 

 the Protection of Fish and Game, thinks the convention 

 idea is a brilliant one, and he brought it before the Onon- 

 daga County Sportsman's Club last evening, Mr. White 

 said that he had received a large number of letters from 

 sportsmen all over the State urging the sportsmen of 

 Syracuse to call 6uch a convention. The writers of these 

 letters felt sure that the convention would be largely at- 

 tended by men of influence. Mr. White said that he had 

 conferred with members of the Anglers' Association, and 

 they were heartily in favor of the convention being 

 called. Ex-State Senator Donald McNaughton of Roch- 

 ester had written Mr. White that he would attend such a 

 convention and many others had written to Mr. White in 

 the same strain. Mr. White suggested the appointment 

 of a committee to confer with a committee from the 

 Anglers' Association in regard to calling the convention. 



W. S. Barnum, C. H. Mo wry and others endorsed Mr. 

 White's convention idea and upon motion of Mr. White 

 this committee was appointed to act with a committee 

 from the Anglers' Association : Horace White. W. E. 

 Hookway, H. M, Chase and James Nolan.— Syracuse 

 Standard, Jan.JL 



MAINE GAME. 



VENISON is a drug in the Boston market, and the 

 price is very low. Shipments from the West have 

 been heavier than usual thus far this season , besides 

 more has come through from Maine. Both sportsmen 

 and those who buy the game of sportsmen find very little 

 trouble in getting it through under the provisions of the 

 new law, provided they do not attempt more than three 

 deer to a man. But the close season is now on in Maine 

 on big game, and it is hoped that the shooting will cease. 

 A Lawrence Falls, Me., report s*ys that A. B. Douglas, 

 of Eustis, passed through the town a week ago last Fri- 

 day with a party of Boston sportsmen. They had with 

 them a magnificent specimen of a ten-year-old moose, 

 weighing, dressed, some 7501 b3. The moose was shot by 

 one of the party after Mr. Douglass had been following 

 his trail for eighteen days. The head is reported to be a 

 magnificent one. I have made considerable inquiry, but 

 am unable to find out the names of the sportsmen, if the 

 report is true. This is about the only moose reported 

 killed in the Dead River section of Maine this season. As 

 showing that the days of fur hunting in Maine are not 

 yet entirely over, it is worthy of mention that a Farming- 

 ton, Me,, fur dealer has a collection of twenty bear skins 

 that have cost him from $10 to $25 this year. He has also 

 eighty fox skins, thirty beaver, with nearly as many 

 fishers. He has also about 1,000 mink skins, with nearly 

 as many skunk. He has purchased ovor 2,000 muskrat 

 skins this year. Indeed the most of the fur is reported 

 to have been purchased within a couple of months. 



Special. 



The Buffalo in Georgia.— Tonio-Chachi & I at his 

 Desire go out tomorrow to hunt ye Buffaloe as far as the 

 utmost extent of his Dominions towards Augustine.— 

 Letter of Oglethorpe to the Trustees, 16 March, 1736. 



