122 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Ato. 12, 18&8. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



[JPVom a Staff Correspondent.] 

 Wildwoods Extortion. 



MUKWONAGO, Wis. , July 8. — It is often matter of wonder 

 to the man of average honesty of purpose why it is that, 

 when a human being has established an inn for his feUow 

 being's comfort in the wilderness, he so generally by that 

 same token takes leave of aU conscientiousness, of all 

 charitableness of purpose and of all those kinship touches 

 which should bind the body general of humanity into one 

 harmonious whole whose sole thought should be a gradual 

 and concerted progress toward the stars. The wildwoods 

 hotel man bethinks him not of the stars. He remembers 

 only that his season is scant three months, and he governs 

 himself accordingly. He is never behind the door when 

 the time comes to charge for things. He values not the 

 stars, but to him unstreaked pork, sad beans and shame- 

 less coffee are pearls of great price. 



Long acquaintance with sportsmen has taught me to 

 believe that as a class they are free with their money, 

 good wanters and good buyers. Still more liberal than 

 usual are they, and still more liberal also is even the man 

 not to be called a sportsman, when the time comes to meet 

 the expenses of an outing trip. The most penurious man 

 becomes careless of cost when the vacation fever has 

 assailed him. The smell of the woods is in his nostril, the 

 miisic of the trees sings in advance upon his ear, and 

 while this is so he cares not whether breakfast bacon be 

 18 or 19cts. a pound. He is eager only that the market 

 man shall pack these things in his bag, and get them 

 down to the depot quickly. He asks for no prices and for 

 no bill until all is piled in a heap upon the counter, and 

 when the grocer asks what sort of coffee it shall be he 

 conditions only that it shall be the best. A trifle close 

 with his own family this same man may be at home in 

 the humdrum, but now that the day of liberty has come 

 he is liberal, even though his family be going with him to 

 the woods. 



This liberality of the buying sportsman is one great rea- 

 son why FOKEST AND Stbeam is, thousand for thousand, 

 so much more valuable than the ordinary journal to its 

 advertisers. Without doubt this journal sells more goods 

 for its customers than could a daily paper of ten times 

 higher rates and many times the circulation. The latter 

 goes to a mixed class. The class of sportsmen is not a 

 mixed one, and there is no other like it to be reached in 

 any line of trade. It is a class by reason of the personal 

 characteristics of the men who make it up. The sporting 

 journal sorts out of all humanity the liberal minded men. 

 It has its sifting done when it offei-s its columns to a 

 customer. 



The truth of the latter statement being well fixed in 

 my mind,, a connected idea occurred to me not long ago. 

 In view of the fact that a great many men go on camping 

 trips each year, and hence must necessarily use a large 

 amount of provisions, it seemed to me strange that no 

 firm in this entire country had ever gone in for that line 

 of sportsmen's outfitting which has to do with the purely 

 culinary side of camp life. Thousands of dollars are for 

 instance spent in Chicago every summer for camp supplies. 

 This score is scattered among grocers, butchers, bakers 

 or candlstickmakei-s, any one of whom might, by reach- 

 ing out his hand through Forest and Stbeam, centrahze 

 a large position of the trade and make a good thing of it 

 —far better than he could of a non-vacation, household, 

 dollar for dollar trade. It would be a great comfort to 

 many a tent dweller if he knew of some place where he 

 could give his order for everything he needed for his trip, 

 where he could get bacon, eggs, bread, coffee in canisters 

 for safe keeping, sugar in tins, canned goods, preserves, 

 fruits, and all those things which the camper of the usual 

 sort is bound to take with him. It would be a great con- 

 venience to the camper say, in Wisconsin, if he could 

 wire down the outfit man to send him up a fresh supply 

 of any article which had run short, resting sure that it 

 Avould come promptly as ordered, and sent by one under- 

 standing the needs of the customer. To the dweller in a 

 small town this would seem a needless attempt at differ- 

 entiation in the gTocery trade, but to the man who has 

 outfitted in a big city and spent a day in getting together 

 the stuff he needed for a week's trip, these wiU seem 

 words of wisdom. 



I was tradesman enough to see an opportimity in this, 

 and an opportunity not yet embraced by any one in Chi- 

 cago or any other city, and not having any shop of my 

 own, I resolved to let another man into the idea. I went 

 to the shrewd young man who manages a market where 

 they sell fish, beef, bacon, young radishes, sugar, tea and 

 all sorts of things good and bad to eat, tinned, in bulk, in 

 big or little, and I told him that, if he cared to work for 

 it by means of Forest and Stream, he could develop a 

 line of trade unique and valuable. The shrewd yoimg 

 man, not knowmg what the sportsmanship of even one 

 city signifies in these days, said ha! ha! and laughed me 

 to scorn. Him I rebuked by spending some doubloons 

 for sundry goods (which he delivered a day too late, after 

 the fashion of his kind), and him I shall some day further 

 rebuke by sending him the doubloons of some of my 

 friends, for his bacon, albeit tardy, was exceedingly good. 



The Gist of It. 



This is apparently to Wander from the original idea, 

 about the extortion of wilderness and summer resort 

 hotels, but really the idea has only ramified and is lost 

 What I wished to say is first, that the sportsman on his 

 pleasure trip is careless of money and does not mind pay- 

 ing the biU of the resort keeper provided that the robbery 

 be not too fiagrant; second, that this robbery often is so 

 flagrant that the sportsman should not submit to it As 

 corollary to this I submit that sportsmen rather than be 

 robbed by inn keepers of the unscrupulous class should 

 become their own inn-keepers and camp out. 



An Instancelof Extortion. 



Forest and Stream carries the largest assortment of 

 advertisements of sportsmen's resorts probably ever col- 

 lected in any one journal. These stopping places are nm 

 by reputable men, and deserve the patronage of sports- 

 men. Should that patronage prove to ;be abused by the 

 owner of any resort advertised, it is hardly likely that 

 particular advertisement would have a very long life. 

 But these men are business men and follow business 

 methods. They expect to be in business at the same place 

 next year, and they are not so crowded for money that 

 they feel disposed to treat a man as though they neither 

 hoped nor wished to see l:im again. Such resorts there- 



fore, do not come within the scope of what I am saying, 

 and are not, indeed, what I mean when I speak of the 

 wildwood inn. 



I mean the one-armed coimtry hotel, with no conven- 

 iences and no cuisine, with no cleanliness and no godli- 

 ness, with no excuse, indeed, for being, except the acci- 

 dent of situation in some sporting locality, where a lazy 

 and unwholesome ' 'landlord" presides, unwilling to do a 

 favor to any one outside his own community, and eager 

 to bleed to the last penny the stranger from the city whom 

 chance has brought within his gates. A city man is the 

 prized prey of such a "landlord," and a city man is his 

 own ti-ue delight. For this sort of landlord, and this sort 

 of inn, I have got it in, now, to-morrow and forever- 

 more. 



There are many "hotels" of this sort in our north woods 

 coimtry here which has, indeed, hardly a single sports- 

 men's resort worthy of the name — but I have in mind one 

 which will do as the type for the class. It is now some 

 weeks since I saw the letters, painted in red paint on the 

 rough pine boards, which indicated that the shanty on 

 the right of the railroad track at Basswood, north penin- 

 sula of Michigan, was johnSon's hoTel; yet the game put 

 up by the said Johnson at the said hotel was such as to 

 linger long in my mind, and indeed to form the reason 

 and impelling cause for the remarks above on wildwood 

 hotel rates. 



There were in our little trouting party who visited the 

 Brule and the Paint Rivers on that trip five members: 

 Messrs. C. W. Norris, C. E. Corrigan, A. L. Hough and 

 Ole Petersen, of Florence, Mich. We had with us abmid- 

 ant supplies for camping, but concluded to put up in town. 

 The lower-case Mr. Jolmson lodged us in a shed across 

 the railway track, five in a room, and a small room too. 

 We gave him the only meal we had served us, also butter, 

 bread and other supplies to the value of far more than our 

 hotel bUl. This was fortunate, else we had had httle to 

 eat, for Mr. Johnson was not always successful in the 

 trout fishing, which seemed to form the main pursuit of 

 his life, his wife, a very pleasant and obliging young 

 woman, being apparently the mainstay of the family. 

 In view of om- own supplies being in use we got along 

 very well as to fife in a doUar-and-a-half hotel, for such 

 the local men informed us was the rate. We were catch- 

 ing plenty of ti'out and having a good time, and thinking 

 not at all of finances. When we came to depart, however, 

 we discovered the ti-ue function of the lower-case Johnson. 

 It was to do the charging. He charged us just $2 a day 

 straight, and 50cts. for cleaning one lot of trout. This he 

 didiin an easy, off-hand way, which showed no twinge of 

 conscience, whatever. 



"You only charge $1.50 a day as a usual thing, don't 

 you, IVIr. Johnson?" we asked, "Yes," he replied, naively, 

 "I can't charge these here lumbermen no more'n a doUar'n 

 half. They wouldn't pay it." 



We paid it, but we didn't like it. We paid him $20 

 and gave him $20 of provisions for two days ' 'entertain- 

 ment," in which he gave us the use of a board shed and 

 little else. Not one of us would have objected to paying 

 $5 a day for the sport we had, but we all knew thoroughly 

 that the charge was extoition and imposition, and we 

 felt the resentment any man feels when he knows he has 

 been imposed upon deliberately. Decent ti-eatment would 

 have made us disposed to send om- friends to Basswood 

 and to Mr. Johnson. As it is now, what could we say, 

 except to advise aU sportsmen to give the place a wide 

 berth unless they go prepared to camp out? 



This is what I call wildwood extortion. If my friends 

 know of other ' 'landlords" who raise their rates for city 

 sportsmen, I should be glad to give those gentlemen a bit 

 of advertising which shall not cost them a cent. 



Larger Trout Thian Ever. 



There have been more large trout taken on Castalia 

 Cold Creek stream (that of the so-called ' 'upper club") 

 this year than ever before, most of the fish being brown 

 trout. On May 9 Andrew Englert, the club keeper, took 

 a 5flbs. fish, a fine specimen, in the inlet of the meadow 

 stream. This fish was intended for display at the World's 

 Fan-, alive, but unfortunately it got out of the live box one 

 day when the lid had been left open. The old fellow has 

 been seen since, but has gained wisdom. 



On Jime 20 Sir. H. L. Cross took a 2lbs. 5oz. brown 

 trout. On July 4 Mr, G. W. Oswald, of Toledo, took 

 one which weighed 31bs., together with a splendid lot of 

 others. On July 19 Andrew Englert, the keeper, was 

 again fortunate, and in "Robinson's Curve," at 9 P. M., 

 raised and killed a brown trout scaling 51bs. 4oz. This 

 was on a Jock-Scott No. 4 fly. On July 18, not counting 

 in this last fish, the total record for the season to date was 

 2,725 trout, weighing l,0941bs. There was not the least 

 apparent diminution in the abundance of fish. 



The King of Castalia. 



But I have kept to the last the mention of the fish which 

 has made the club prouder than anj'thiag else — the largest 

 trout taken in sport out of any preserved water of the 

 country so far as is known. This fish was a monster 

 brown trout, taken by Andrew Englert at 9 P. M. of Jime 

 16. It weighed 71b8. 6oz., and received the title "King of 

 CastaUa," being the largest fish ever taken in the stream 

 to date by either club, 



Andrew took this fish on an imitation Jock-Scott fly, 

 No. 4 hook, in the big pool between the raflroad bridges, 

 a deep water about 60x100ft. in extent. He was alone 

 when the fisli struck, and had no landing net. He did 

 not at first know he had on so large a fish, but left the 

 bridge and went to the bank, where he had to fight the 

 old fellow for over an hour. The fish never broke water 

 once during the whole fight, but just lugged down. 

 There are some more old lunkers in that pool, and the 

 members wish tliey were out of the pool and out of the 

 stream, for they have driven all its brook trout from their 

 habitat, or have eaten them up. 



Where to See the King. 

 Fit end for so royal a fish, the Eang of CastaUa has gone 

 direct to the place of aU others, which the anglei-s of the 

 countiy would name for him — ^to wit, the Forest and 

 Stream exhibit at the World's Fair. For this comtesy of 

 the members of the Cold Creek Sporting Club the thanks of 

 Forest and Stream, as well as those of the anglers who ^osit 

 the Fail', are certainly due. The fish has been handsomely 

 mounted imder the supervision of Mr. J. W. Oswald, of 

 Toledo, who made excellent fife-size photographs of it. 

 There is no more prized featm-eof the FOREST AND Stream 

 installation, and it ^viU give pleasure to very many who 



have read with the greatest interest of the wonderful 

 Castalia stream. This is the best the stream has ever done 

 — the King of Castalia. E. Hough. 



909 Seoubitt BtOLDiNG, Chicago. 



TROUT FISHING IN THE SKAGIT. 



Mount Vernon, Wash,, July 15. — The Skagit, a noble 

 river, flowing majestically from near the British line in a 

 southwesterly curve for a distance of about two himdred 

 miles, springs into life at the foot of one of ttie great 

 glaciers of the Cascades, and fed by innumera.ble mountain 

 streams and other rivers, empties into Puget Sound about 

 twelve miles below Mount Vernon, the county seat of 

 Skagit county, and a cheerful, bustling town, with a host 

 of good fellows in it. 



When the river passes there it is a little turbid, but cold 

 as ice, and abounding in three varieties of trout, with 

 plenty of salmon at different times of the year. The 

 salmon you can catch only occasionally with hook and 

 luie, and it is not often that the water is clear enough to 

 make a fly available for trout; but with bait you may take 

 the rainbow, cut-throat and DoUy Varden to your heart's 

 content. Fishing with salmon eggs is not artistic, but 

 when the salmon are ninning the trout scorn eveiy other 

 food, and if you care to hear an experience with that 

 sticky stuff I wiU tell it in my blundering way. 



One afternoon in the early part of this week four ardent 

 anglers strung themselves along a log that juts out into 

 the river, a few minutes' walk above the town, armed 

 only with the hghtest tackle, with no ga,ff or landing net, 

 and not at all prepared for the difficulties that followed. 

 The fishermen were John Munch, who knows aU about 

 chemistry; Dr. Henderson, whose surgical instincts are so 

 strong, he thinks the way to remove a fish hook from your 

 finger is to amputate your arm and then cut out the barb; 

 Key Pittman and your relator, lawyers in name, who show 

 their iDrof essional traits by their unwillingness to throw 

 away even the infernal buUhead. 



Well, these fellows were out as much to doze on a log 

 in a shady place as anytliing, but they had hardly swung 

 then- legs over the water before M.s reel went off Uke an 

 alarm clock and scai'ed him so he could'nt move. We 

 scrambled to our feet and gave him all the room we could 

 — ^he was on the inside and there was no way to get off. 

 The way that fish tore up and down, round ."and round, 

 made our hair stand on end. The rod was a light steel 

 one, and it stayed doubled up just for one hour, while M. 

 chased us up and down the log. It was the same old 

 story but ever new to the actor. Nearer and nearer he 

 came to the surface : more and more he fell under control 

 of the rod. At the end of an hour and five minutes a man 

 paddled up to the log in an Indian dugout, and into it 

 carefully cKmbed M. and the Doctor; skillfully they guided 

 the big fish up to the sloping bank and into a little channel ; 

 he was played out ; four hands grabbed him and bore him 

 in triumph out on to the grass. He was a DoUy Varden 

 and weighed six poimds and f oiu oimces. 



While this was going on and B, was watehing the per- 

 formance in the canoe, his rod was nearly jerked out of 

 his hand, and the line sped out at a Stamboul gait ; it 

 was red hot for about ten minutes^ — too hoi; — at the end of 

 that time the tip of the rod flew up with a broken hook at 

 the end of the leader. The log trembled with rage in 

 sympathy, and B. wept scalding tears. Then P, hooked 

 one just as M. and the Doctor were getting back on the 

 log and his rod made a complete loop, but it was managed 

 in good shape : then the Doctor gave M. his rod to hold 

 while he went into the canoe business again ; immediately 

 M. gave an Indian yeU for some one to take his rod ; an- 

 other whale had seized the Doctor's hook. That did settle 

 it. How in the mischief were we to keep those fish apart ? 

 It was settled in this wise ; M.s fish made a break while 

 he was trying to get as far away as possible ; the rod and 

 tackle got into that straight Une that gives the fish a dead 

 puU and off' went the trout with part of the leader. But 

 P. exhausted his fish, and getting into the canoe, the cap- 

 tive was piloted ashore, B. hooked another and hooked 

 him fast, and in due time he lay alongside of the others. 

 Then the Doctor had his turn and braced himself for the 

 struggle, which resulted in bringing up a quarter pound 

 rainbow trout caught in the belly, at which the Doctor 

 was disgusted. P.s hook was swallowed by one that be- 

 longed to the 400 and he was rescued. B. thought he had 

 one, but he only stayed a moment and then we saw him 

 skipping out toward the middle of the river. The Doctor 

 fastened himself to another of high lineage and after a des- 

 perate struggle conquered him. 



By that time we were getting exhausted. Suddenly 

 the Doctor's line shot up stream; the reel sang like a knot 

 saw, but the fish was too swift; he got a staraight line and 

 away he went with hook and leader, and the Doctor 

 nearly fell overboard; we all assisted with expressions 

 forcible and appropriate to the occasion. We concluded 

 we had had enough. The sawmill whistles proclaimed 

 the supper hoiu-, but the proclamation wasn't needed. We 

 hung 28lbs. of trout to a pole and there were only seven of 

 them. The photograph is not a very good one but will 

 show you how they looked. The five we lost must have 

 weighed twice as much; they always do. 



Later in the summer we will go up the river about forty 

 miles, where we will find lakes and streams in every direc- 

 tion; where silver and rainbow trout lie with then- heads 

 out of the water waiting for us. We wUl fish for them 

 with flies, and they know their business; they'll give u& 

 all the sport we want. No mosquitoes, gnats, moose fliea 

 or anything else that is objectionable, except that the 

 underbrush is a little too thick for a good cast sometimes. 

 Snow-capped moimtains will tower above us, and a 

 solemn stillness fill the woods that are too dense to harbor 

 feathered songsters. Still, if we want music very much, 

 the Doctor will cheerfully break out; but up to this time 

 we have never wanted it enough for that. 



C. K. Bonestill. 



A Fish Parasite. 



An infusorian parasite made its appearance in the fresh- 

 water aquaria at the World's Fair, and during the month 

 of July caused the death of many fish. The catfish were 

 first affected and afterward the grayling and trout. The 

 afflicted fish were covered with minute white specks, and 

 as soon as their giUs were attacked death resulted. The 

 only practicable remedy was found to be salt, but this 

 killed only the adult parasites, and not the free-swimming 

 young stages. 



