270 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



to keep from telling so good a thing as the Kekoskee fish 

 story of Horioon country. 



Chicago, 111., Sept. 31.— The record on ducks has been 

 broken for this neck of woods. Percy Stone last Saturday 

 bagged 103 birds at the Horicon marsh, on Diana Club 

 grounds, almost all the birds being teal. He stopped 

 shooting at 11 o'clock in the morning. This remarkable 

 flight was at a point where on the day before the same 

 shooter had killed only 10 birds. Mr. Stone says he never 

 saw birds come so fast in all his life, and they drew by 

 within 30yds. When he went into his blind he lit a cigar, 

 and before it was burned out he had 11 dead, birds on the 

 water in front of him. 



Verily, this marsh comes to shoot itself well, as we say 

 in French. A week before Percy's big bag, the club 

 keeper, Yorgey, killed 81 ducks in one day. Since the 

 opening day, Sept. 1, the total average of ducks to the 

 gun has been over 35 a day. Messrs. Hamline, Merrill, 

 Dicks and others have gone over 20 on some days. Mr. 

 Stone's brother killed 40 the same day the big bag was 

 made. In fact, nearly everybody has had good shooting. 

 Dick Merrill is just back from Minnesota, and says he 

 iiilled more ducks in one day on Horicon marsh than he 

 did in two weeks out there. 



Naturally, this news has sent the Diana man hurrying 

 north to the club. Messrs. W. L. Shepard, W. P. Mussey 

 and George Holden started yesterday. Messrs. F. C. 

 Donald and C. S. Burton left to-day. Messrs. L, M. 

 Hamline, C. B. Dicks, C. L. Hunter and Dr. Buechner 

 start Friday. Tbere is not a great deal of shooting done 

 on this marsh, and the above number of guns will not be 

 enough to keep the birds moving well. 



Percy Stone is the best amateur duck shooter I ever 

 saw on a marsh. He is a good pusher and a good shot, 

 wiry and strong, and "sandy" enough to go clear through 

 to where he starts for. I fancy the club will be glad it is 

 he who had the "big day," for it is to his stalwart hus- 

 tling that much of the success and smoothness of the 

 club's affairs are due. 



The only other bag approaching this during the time I 

 have reported these matters here was that made four 

 years ago by C. E. Willard, who bagged 101 mallards on 

 the Kankakee. This was in a little feed hole on a small 

 creek. The mallards could not be kept out, and most of 

 those killed were shot at less than 25yds. Of course the 

 mallard bag would be preferable, but in either case the 

 shooting was fast and furious. 



OTHER A.CCUMULA1I0NS. 



Messrs. Eddie Bingham and A. W. Knox made a brief 

 trip to Koshkonong Lake, Wis., this week, and made a 

 tidy little bag of 35 birds. The deep water ducks are not 

 down yet, and it is the general opinion that the teal 

 flight is not yet in, though I am inclined to think it is, 

 partly, at least. 



Mr. W. Y. Wentworth, keeper of Black Hawk Club on 

 Lake Koshkonong, writes me that he wants me to come 

 up and have a go at the canvasbacks when they get in, 

 and adds that he will wire me when that auspicious 

 moment arrives. 



Mr. Wentworth informs me — what I did not know — 

 that he is no longer State warden of Wisconsin, the pres- 

 ent incumbent being Mr, D. W, Fernandez, of Madison. 

 All gentlemen wishing to remit fines by mail for game 

 law violations in vVisconsin will please cut out this ad- 

 dress. A change in the political complexion of Wisconsin 

 caused Mr. Wentworth to make his adieux. He will now 

 have more time for business. This is the same gentleman 

 who advertises the wild celery seed for sale. A couple of 

 years ago I described how they rake the seeds up from 

 the bottom of the lake. 



Mr. J. McKay, of English Lake Club, had two very 

 pleasant days with the ducks in the front end of the 

 season, bagging 33 the first day and 38 the next. These 

 were mostly young local wood ducks. 



Messrs. E. A. Turtle, Sam Booth and C. L. Halden are 

 just back from a trip after prairie chickens in Illinois. 

 They were gone four days and brought back 90 chickens. 

 They do not seem anxious to tell where they got their 

 shooting. 



BIG C4AMB. 



Mr. J. W. Schultz, the successful Rocky Mountain 

 guide whose name has often appeared in these columns, 

 wired me from Blaciifoot, Mont., on the 18th: "Just 

 returned with the Philadelphia gentlemen. We had lots 

 of big game. I wish you would send me out a party for 

 October. Will guarantee shots at elk, mountain sheep 

 and mountain goats, or no pay." Mr. Schultz's address is 

 Plegan, Mont. 



Gray wolves are unusually abundant in northern Mich- 

 igan and Wisconsin this fall, and were so all last winter. 

 The deer hunters at Giiylord Club, on Coleman Lake, 

 constantly met their tracks when they were out on the 

 snow last winter, and in the logging country the hands 

 would not venture out alone in the evening. The fore- 

 man of one gang was treed by a pack within 300yds. of 

 the camp. Elsewhere I heard of a teamster in the Brule 

 country, near Saunders, who was followed several miles 

 by a pack. Deer hunters of that section this fall will do 

 well to hang their dead deer up pretty high. 



OLD FRIENDS. 



This is a very small world, and that part of it outside 

 of Chicago does not amount to a great deal. If you want 

 to meet any man you ever saw, go down and wait at the 

 corner of State and Madison, and by and by he'll be along. 

 I have just discovered that there is living within two 

 blocks ox me a man I first met about a thousand miles 

 from here. This is Mr. D. Hugh Halliday, late of Great 

 Bend, Kan., whom 1 used to see out there every fall. Mr. 

 Halliday has with him the two English setters Mack and 

 Lady, which I selected three years ago from Mr. T. G, 

 Davey'd kennels at London, Ontario, at the request of 

 Mr. W. W. Carney, then of Great Bend, but now of Port- 

 land, Ore. Mr. Carney owned Lady, but when he left 

 for Oregon sold her to Mr. Hallidav, who owned Mack. 

 Now, here are both dogs, hardly a gunshot from where I 

 live. It is much like meeting old friends. I shall re- 

 member a very pleasant day I put in at the Kansas quail 

 with Lady in company with Master Charlie Carney, some 

 account of which trip I believe I made at the time. All 

 we need now is Mr. Carney and Charlie, and doubtless 

 they will step in from Portland before long, so that 

 we can all go out shooting together. Meantime Mr. 

 Halliday and I forthwith agreed that we must take 

 the dogs out for at least a try at a corey of chickens ! 



somewhere near the city, if we can get out of town 

 for a day before it is too late. 



Something more of interest attaches to this same set- 

 ter Mack. When I saw him at Great Bend last fall he 

 was suffering from an injury which bid fair to destroy 

 his usefulness, if not to end his life. Some wretch had 

 shot him with a rifle, the ball striking him right at the 

 apex of the lower jaw, breaking the jaw bone entirely 

 off there, and also breaking it off well back in the left 

 jaw. The whole half of the jawbone hung loose, and the 

 wound did not heal. The dog suffered a great deal and 

 could eat nothing but milk. When he left, Mr. Hallid iy 

 was contemplating having the entire loose bone removed, 

 an operation which would have left the subject a pretty 

 bad cripple. To-day Mack has a solid, firm jaw, with 

 all the bone in it, and no disfigurement except a pro- 

 truding tooth and an unhealed opening below the jaw. 

 The successful operation was performed by Dr. Castle, 

 a dentist of Great Bend. The dog was put under the 

 influence of chloroform, and the flesh dissected back 

 from the injured bone. The ends of the bone were then 

 drilled and bound fast together with silver wire. The 

 incision was closed and the proj)er dressing and band- 

 ages having been applied, the whole head of the dog 

 was inclosed in a large and heavy muzzle. For a time 

 Mack was fed through his closed teeth by means of a 

 syringe, but he can eat now all right. The bone seems 

 to have knitted and the jaw is firm. Mack is now fat 

 and hearty, and I know he wants to go out hunting 

 because he told me so this evening. I may close this 

 odd little story by saying that the man who is supposed 

 to have shot Mack was taken sick and died not long 

 after the act. The dog was always perfectly harmless 

 and friendly. He and Lady make a very lovable brace 

 of bird dogs, and I am glad their owner has them where 

 I can see them often, for I have sort of taken a shine 

 to them. 



DR. THOMAS ONCE MOKE. 



Rev. Dr. H. W. Thomas, whose three summer deer made 

 the text for long mention last week, has written a let- 

 ter in reply thereto, which I take pleasure in offering 

 in full, with comment, which will be, perhaps, sufficient 

 to close extended reference to this singular and inter- 

 esting case. The letter follows; 



E. Hourjh, Forent ami Stream: 



One wlio preaches should be willing to be preached to; and in 

 this spirit I have read with patience and interest your sermon on 

 the duty of the citizen to obey the laws of the land, and the great 

 offense of killing a deer out of season. 



Obedience to the law is healthy teaching, and in this no one 

 agrees with you more perfectly than myself; but 1 must still claim 

 that the intent of a law should govern its interpretation and ap- 

 plication, and that these as understood by the people when the 

 Jaw obtains become the rule of confcience and conduct for the 

 sojourner in their midst. Nor are the peopl'? in this instance 

 "poor devils," afl you call them, but intellleent law-abiding citi- 

 zens, who feel that they are not violating the intents of the statute 

 in killing deer out of season, for use. And it seems quite too 

 severe to characterize it as "stealing from the State" or from 

 "these poor devils" when one goes into their midst and without 

 concealment and with their knowledge and consent does the same 

 ihing. Our party left more money in that region than woixld pay 

 for the deer, and the penalty for killing them, too. The people 

 feel— and I think they are correct— that the State does not intend 

 to prohibit a reasonable right to the use of the game about them; 

 and they concede the same privilege to those who for a time are 

 their guests. 



There is little danger that tho few who may spend a month in 

 the tummer in that sparsely-settled region, that cannot accom- 

 modate many, will seriously lessen the amount of game. Your 

 object in writing you say is, "not to preserve these animals for 

 myself, or my sporting friends, or the public; I want these 

 animals preserved for their own sake;' and then patheticaUy, 

 "they are going, Dr. Thomas does not know how fast." If the de- 

 sire is to preserve deer "for their own sake," why permit ihem to 

 be killed at all? If the ptirpose of the law is to regulate the kill- 

 ing, to limit the public hunting season to a certain time, that is 

 well; but why not regulate the numbsr that any one hunter shall 

 kiliy I was told that individual hunters comiug from other parts 

 of tue country and from other States have killed thirty, forty, 

 lift y, and one eighty, deer in one season: they come in and kill 

 them for profit, tor sale, and ship them out of the State. 



Is it strange that the few who live there all the year feel that it 

 is not wrong to kill a mouth or more before the authorized hunt- 

 ing season, for their own use? I should favor a law limiting the 

 number that any one non-resident sportsman should be permitted 

 to kill say to ten or fifteen. In some such way the fearful slaughter 

 may he prevented: but not by any severe interpretations of the 

 statute as to the few killed out of season. In such a reasonable 

 enforcement of the law as it is, I am "with you;" but if it is to he 

 accounted "stealing" when one does a little modest shooting, as 

 In my case, or if it must be done in secret and denied after it is 

 dene, and then in "season" all the world rush in to kill and ship 

 off, then I agree with you that one should "preserve his selt 

 respect;" but fail to see how the destruction you lament is to be 

 prevented, even "for the sake of the animal." H. W. Thomas. 



CuiOAGO, Sept. 20. 



In reply to the above, I took the liberty of writing to 

 Dr. Thomas, and I sent him a letter chock full of good 

 advice. I am always ready to lend a helping hand, espe- 

 cially to ministers. It occixrs to me, however, that there 

 were some things left out of that letter which ought to 

 go, and as Dr. Thomas is likely never to write to me any 

 more, I suppose I shall have to advance these things here. 



Dr. Thomas's letter is lame, very lame, one of the lam- 

 est things that ever came up, even in excuse of violating 

 game laws. If Dr. Thomas will look in his library, he 

 will find a dusty little book, "Principles of Logic." 



If Dr. Thomas will carelessly turn the leaves of this 

 little volume, opening it almost anywhere, he will find 

 useful and intere.S)ting reading. He may learn, for in- 

 stance, that a lot of detached assertions don't prove any- 

 thing. They must have some sort of relation before they 

 can be premises in a syllogism. He may learn also, in 

 substance, that a syllogism with a faulty middle in its 

 anatomy is no good on earth. He may learn also that 

 you cannot jump from particular to general, and from 

 general back to particular, just any way you like when 

 you are framing premises to prove your propositions. 



If Dr. Thomas will now close the well preserved little 

 book and read the letter shown above, he will know in 

 his own heart, just as everybody who reads it will know 

 in his own mind, without any logic, though perhaps 

 without knowing how to get at the sophistry of it, that 

 there is nothing whatever left of his letter. 



The law of a State is made for each citizen and every 

 citizen of that State. The courts construe intent, the 

 citizen cannot. If the citizen may construe the intent of 

 the game law, he may as well construe the intent of any 

 other law, and so pervert it to his own wishes and pur- 

 poses, as was done here. We can not pick out for our- 

 selves the laws whose intent we wish to construe. This 

 conclusion is known as recluctio ad absurdum. It is 

 sort of awkward to run against. If we followed Dr. 

 Thomas's argument, and took the matter of intent in our 

 own hands, we could excusably construe ourselves into a 

 very decent state of red anarchy, with a little arson, 

 rapine, pillage, fii'e and sword on the side. 



To pay my "poor devils" of the woods a lot of money, 

 and then to ask their opinion about the intent of the law 

 as to summer deer— that is what the logic book calls the 

 argument ad, hominem, isn't it? In other words, the 

 natives are apt to practice summer killing, and your 

 guide is mighty apt to feel just the way you do anout 

 that question. He can't afford not to. Dr. Thomas 

 asked these few men about their idea of the intent of the 

 law, but these few men did not own the deer. The 

 people of Wisconsin owned those deer. To the people of 

 Wisconsin, therefore, as represented in their courts of 

 justice, organized expressly for that purpose, he should 

 go and ask for an expression of opinion as to the intent 

 of the law protecting deer. He will very quickly find 

 out the intent, and also certify himself about the spirit 

 and the letter of the game laws. This is good logic, but 

 it rises above the realm of logic. It is just plain, hard, 

 horse sense. Everybody knows it is true. Incidentally, 

 doesn't Dr. Thomas-? 



Dr. Thomas commits the logical fallacy of confusing 

 the general and particular when he seeks to tangle me up 

 over my statement, "I want these animals preserved for 

 their own sake.'' He could have read further on the 

 statement that the sportsmen were trying to get better 

 laws, so that all might have an equal chance to kill some 

 deer, under wise restrictions, which would keep the deer 

 from being destructively pursued. He asks the question. 

 "If the desire is to preserve deer 'for their own sake,' 

 why permit them to be killed at all?" He errs in this be- 

 cause' he loses his premises. (1) These are not my deer, 

 and my wish is merely a personal one. (3) I do not 

 make tho laws, and cannot change them. I cannot per- 

 mit or forbid the killing of deer at any season. The 

 question is baseless, and has no argument in it. I don't 

 mind saying, however, that if I did not have the making 

 of these laws, as Dr. Thomas is good enough to suppose, 

 and if I could enforce them, there wouldn't be a deer 

 killed in the United States for 10 years, and not one after 

 that in the summer time, and never one for sale. We 

 certainly would have deer. But what has that to do with 

 this case? 



As to the (juestion whether more deer are killed in 

 summer or in legal season in Wisconsin, neither Dr. 

 Thomas nor I can decide. In the summer the deer take 

 to the water and are comparatively helpless. It is not 

 difiicult to kill one then. Unquestionably, more deer are 

 killed then, illegally, than are killed in the legal season 

 by the only legal method, the difiicult art of stalking. 

 The great bulk of the heavy killing reported by Dr. 

 Thomas was in every probability done by the destructive 

 and illegal method of hounding. Of course it is wrong. 

 Of course, it ought to be stopped. Of course, there ought 

 to be a limit set. Of course, every sportsman ought to 

 lift voice and hand against this sort of butchery also. Of 

 course, every shooter who admits he has broken the law 

 in this way ought to go and pay his fine, just as Dr. 

 Thomas ought for breaking it in his way. But granted 

 that, what has all that to do with this case? Does the 

 legal or illegal killing of one or many deer in the fall or 

 winter excuse Dr. Thomas or any other man for the 

 illegal killing of deer in the summer time? This is a very 

 bad sample of logical reasoning, and we have a right to 

 expect far better from Dr. Thomas. Suppose I am a 

 member of Dr. Thomas's church, and I commit the sin, 

 say, of breaking the Sabbath, Dr. Thomas comes along 

 and says: 



"Here, this is never going to do, see?" 



"Well, why not?" I ask. "Didn't I see seventeen of 

 the other members committing the sin of theft? That 

 lets me out, sec?" 



"Well, no," Dr. Thomas replies, "I don't see," And he 

 can study a long time before he ever will see. .He will 

 see the soundness of the argument of his letter at about 

 the same time. 



If Dr. Thomas will now lay down his little book on the 

 principles of logic, and pick up a bigger and better Book 

 on the principles of right and wrong, he may find a little 

 parable, ending, '-First cast out the mote out of thine 

 own eye, and then thou mayest see clearly to cast out the 

 beam that is in thy brother's eye." 



It is wonderful how roughly some of these plain, 

 homely shoes fit on the soft corns of our daily lives. 



Sportsmen know the laws could be improved, and 

 know they are ill-enforced. But sportsmen want better 

 laws. They want more respect for the existing laws. 

 They want a beginning, a rallying point for this increas- 

 ing of the respect for the law. They have it here, and 

 they should insist upon their chance. If a case like this, 

 so prominent, so widely advertised, so openly admitted, 

 so badly excused, and so surrounded with every sensa- 

 tional feature to give it notoriety— if a case like this can 

 escape censure and penalty, then what right have the 

 sportsmen to hope for any restraint whatever upon the 

 killing of deer, now or at any time, under this or any 

 future law? This case would be used continually as a 

 pretext. Dr. Thomas does not stop to reflect that in kill- 

 ing his three deer be perhaps killed dozens or hundreds 

 of other deer. He does not reflect that dozens or 

 hundreds of law-breakers may seek refuge behind the 

 cloak of excuse held up by him, which we most sorrow- 

 fully caU all too ill-made and flimsy. Upon the other 

 hand, take this case, nail it, establish it, record the fine — 

 and these three deer may have been well sacrificed. 

 They may save dozens or hundreds from a like fate, for 

 this case has attracted more attention than any similar 

 one in the West, and it will be followed to the close by 

 the public. 



Much of this may sound rough, but I do not mean it so, 

 and I firmly believe the sportsman's position in this is 

 right. I shotild like to see a fine recorde'd in this case, 

 because I believe it wou^ld do as much good as twenty 

 fines in other cases. There is a compliment to Dr. Thomas 

 in that. I should not like to see the fine higher than the 

 lowest amount of penalty named, and believe the warden 

 of Wisconsin would urge fine for only one deer in this 

 case. Dr. Thomas should ride straight. He should pay 

 his fine. He should square it. When he has done that, 

 I think he will find the sporting press as free with praise 

 as it has been with censure. He is no deliberate law 

 breaker, but a good and innocent man, overjoyed and 

 exultant at the pleasure of a trip in the woods, and tak- 

 ing up too readily with the easy customs of a country 

 which should be taught and should not teach. Many 

 happy days to him in the woods, and before these are all 

 past, he wdll see much of this from the sportsman's stand- 

 point, I am sure. E. HoUGH. 

 ITS MoNKOB Street, Chicago, 



