272 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



iSepT. 30, 1898 



A NOTSVERYgNATIONAL CONVENTION 



Chicago, 111., Sept. 31. — At its last annual convention 

 tlie Illinois State Sportsmen's Association appointed 

 committee to take in hand the matter of a call for 

 national convention of sportsmen, the same to assemble 

 at Chicago some time during the World's Fair, to discuss 

 and formulate plans for uniform game laws, etc. , in the 

 several States of the Union. The committee took due 

 action and gave wide circulation to a printed call asking 

 for a general meeting at Chicago on Sept. 21, Sportsmen's 

 Day at the Fair. Individual responses and sig2ia*"ures to 

 the call were received from some scores of sportsmen, 

 resident in 20 different States. It w.ip, therefore, fair to 

 expect tha.t there would materialize some support, and 

 that there would occur an event of some note. 



What actually did occur can be told briefly. The meet- 

 ing was called for 3 P. M. at the assembly hall of the 

 Agricultural Building. At 3:80 P. M. there were present 

 just six persons besides the ,,two representatives of the 

 sporting press. The six were as follows: Mr. W. N. Low, 

 president of the Illinois State Sportsmen's Association _ 

 Messrs. M. R. Bortree and F. S. Baird, of the committee 

 appointed to issue the call; Mr. E. H. Bisbey, of Datiphin 

 Park, Chicago; Mr. F. E. Pond, of Milwaukee, and Mr. J. 

 P. Barnum, of Prairie du Chien, Wis. All but two were 

 from Chicago, The representation being so small, discus 

 sion came up whether or not to t-ake any step toward 

 preliminary organization. At length it was decided to do 

 so. Mr. W, N. Low, of Chicago, was chosen as chairman 

 Mr. F, S. Baird, of Chicago, being chosen secretary. An 

 executive committee on preliminary work was appointed 

 -consisting of Messrs. F. E. Pond and J. P. Barnum, of Wis 

 consin; M. R. Bortree and C. P. Richards, of Chi 

 cago, and S. Northcott, of McGregor, la. The ques- 

 tion of raising working funds was left to this comniittee, 



The printed call for the convention was read, and s 

 -resolution setting forth objects and purposes of the move- 

 ment and deciding upon forulal organization of a "Na- 

 tional or American Sportsmen's Association" was duly 

 passed. Numerous letters expressing "hearty sympathy,'" 

 "ready cooperation" and "sincere belief" were also read. 

 A vote of thanks was passed for Mr. Pond for his labor 

 in the attempt to get together a convention. It being 

 thought that perhaps the World's Fair had hurt and not 

 helped this meeting, as had: been the case in so many 

 other events of the present busy season, it was decided 

 to make another attempt to hold a convention. The ad- 

 journment was therefore made tiQ Thursday, Nov. 3, at 

 8 P. M., at the Sherman House, Chicago. It was hoped 

 that, the Fair being then closed, a powerful source of 

 counter attraction would be removed, and that sports- 

 men in the city to see the Fair would, the Fair being 

 over, attend the convention. 



The resolution as presented names national organization 

 to prevent the extermination of fish and game, the de- 

 struction of forests, the unnecessary pollution of waters 

 and the killing of song and insectivorous birds, all of 

 which things are declared to^be "carried on or done in 

 many if not all the wild portions of the United States." 

 Probably the next meeting will give a fairer decision as 

 to the fate of such a movement, which is not new in th 

 history of sportsmanship in America. At present what 

 seems most necessay is a day when the lion and the lamb 

 shall lie down together, get up, separate— in short, 

 change in human nature. If this movement can slowly 

 work that change, it is a good one. That it will do so 

 would be better evidenced by a larger attendance than of 

 six persons. That the attendance at this national con- 

 vention was just short of half of a baker's dozen, remains 

 the mournful but undeniable fact, and in it lies the gist 

 of the news. The next meeting will have pleasanter news 

 if it has a larger attendance. E. Hough. 



909 SfficUBii-Y Building, Chicago. 



SPRING REED BIRDS, 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Last May I attended a very swell dinnrr in a hotel on 

 Fifth avenue. New York, but not the one named after 

 that avenue, and well down on the menu were "Reed 

 birds with water cress." My code of personal game laws 

 does not permit the shooting of the tuneful bobolink at 

 any season, and a long cherished prejudice against their 

 tiny bodies being used as food has prevented me from 

 ever tasting them; therefore, you may imagine my 

 disgust at having them offered me in May. 



The birds were, of course, left untouched, but ^ 

 thought has just entered my thick skull, and in sloshing 

 around there the echoes seem to say, "Perhaps the birds 

 were European sparrows!" In this' if so, I did good and 

 evil came of it for the protection of the joyous bobolink, 

 no matter what the rice-planter may say of him, and the 

 extermination of the foreign sparrow are things to be 

 desired, by me at least. 



Another afterthought says that the birds should 

 have been pocketed for an examination of skeletons, but 

 the plate was indignantly refused and not even the bills 

 of the birds were noticed. I inclose you tlie menu card 

 that you may see just when and where the dinner oc- 

 curred, and you may print it if you wish. I may be 

 cranky on the subject of shooting birds that are not big 

 enough to eat, and I don't know of a songbird that is 

 large enough for me to take its morsels of flesh, the 

 muscles on each side of its breast-bone that move the 

 wings and try to think that they are food. As a boy, I 

 regret to say that I have killed robins, thrushes, little 

 sandpipers or "teeter-snipe," and this is my reason for 

 saying that no boy should have a shotgun until he is 

 ninety years old. To-day, at two-thirds that age, the 

 smallest birds that I wiU shoot are the "Wilson's" snipe, 

 the woodcock and the larger plovers, yellow-leg-s, etc. 



This is a law laid down by myself for myself, and 

 with which no man may find fault, but I despise the 

 shooter of songbirds, and if he shoots for market, will not 

 eat his so-called game. That the "reed bird" or "rice 

 bird," as it is variously called, may be destructive in the 

 winter when it visits Southern fields cannot be used as a 

 defense for its killing in the North, where it is a most 

 hilarious songster, nesting in the meadows and doing no 

 harm. If the rice-planter finds the bird a nuisance there 

 is no objection to his protecting his crops from injury by 

 any means in his power, but I earnestly protest against 

 the killing of this sweet singer in the Northern States 

 and back up my protest by refusing to taste of its morsel 

 of meat at any time of year. As a soldier I may. or may 

 may not, have killed men "in the trade of war," and 

 have felt no sorrow for it because they were shooting at 



me, but last week when I shot into a flock of European 

 sparrows that have wrecked my crop of grapes, and 

 among the eighteen dead found a robin, I could have 

 cried. I could only smoothe his feathers, and like Poor 

 Joe, saj^: "I didn't mean for to do it." 



It is said that the European sparrow is good to eat. I 

 hope it may be good for something, but it is entirely too 

 small for me unless, like the smaller smelts, they can be 

 eaten bones and a.ll. The city sparrow, with its sterco- 

 rarian habits, would seem to require a stercory dressing 

 to bring out its full flavor, but that will, naturally, be a 

 question of taste. Still if this ornithological pest can be 

 utilized to spare our bobolink, which should never be 

 killed in Northern States, it will have served one useful 

 purpose. Fred. Mather. 



Cold Spring Harbor, N. Y. 



IT WAS LONG AGO. 



Tarpon Springs, Fla.— Rain, rain, a regular old-fash- 

 ioned rainy day. The clouds hang low and heavy, while 

 an occasional rumble of thunder reminds us that the end 

 is not yet. The birds have hushed their songs and with 

 sodden plumage are vainly seeking shelter under the drip- 

 ping trees. My special pets, the mockingbirds, have de- 

 clared a truce with their inveterate enemies, the jays, and 

 are moping under the veranda, each as disreputable as liis 

 neighbor. Two mourning doves are sounding their dole- 

 ful call under the rose arbor, while the chickens are hud- 

 dled near, too demoralized to even scratch. 



Days like this are all too rare in Florida, and are prized 

 accordingly. They give one a chance to overhaul old 

 record, review the past, and speculate on the future. To 

 read our old book, to remember our old friends, and to 

 recall those red-letter da,ys of boyhood, when we caught 

 the big fish or shot the cock grouse on his drum log. My 

 Forest and Stream library is a never ending source o'f 

 enjoyment to me on rainy days. To-day I have been with 

 "Sam LoveF'and "Antwine" on the Slang, What a world 

 of meaning to us old fellows there is in the closing sen- 

 tence of "Sam Lovel's Camps:" "Care-free days of youth 

 once spent are gone forever." True, but we can live them 

 over again and again, and when my memory fails to bring 

 back the days and scenes of boyhood, may I go over the 

 river. 



Reading of Drive's encounter with the fox bitch re- 

 minds me of a little episode of my own, or rather. Buff's 

 and mine. It happened a good many years ago, when I 

 was not more than eight or ten years of age, but is re- 

 membered as if it were but yesterday. 



As a scholar I was a failure; lessons I could not abide: 

 the air of the schoolroom stifled me. But I knew where 

 the biggest chestnuts grew, where to find the reddest 

 apples, and the sweetest wild grapes. The birds and 

 squirrels were my friends. I could tell where every brood 

 of partridges was hatched, every woodchuck's ho'le, and 

 every hollow tree that held a woodpecker or a high-hole's 

 nest. Red-breast robins were my special care. Nothing 

 pleased me better than to watch the home-making of the 

 old bu-ds, count the eggs as they were laid, and, when the 

 young were hatched, it was fun to see the old birds bring- 

 ing food. 



I often used to supplement their care by stopping the 

 little gaping mouths with ripe berries or fat worms till 

 they could hold no more. No doubt I often killed witli kind- 

 ness, but the intent was good. The old birds never feared 

 rne when I climbed up to look at their treasures (which I 

 did every time I went near their nests); they would sit on 

 a near branch, their bright eyes watching me, but never 

 screamed or made any fuss. But this is not the story 

 First I will introduce Buff. 



Buff was a little wire-haired dog, with no particular 

 characteristic save his unswerving devotion to his mas- 

 ter, and his indomitable grit. In fact his courage was 

 much better than his judgment, and often got him into 

 serious trouble, as well as myself, for I could never see 

 him in a scrape without takiug a hand. We shared alike 

 our dinners, our bed and our fights. 



In the northern part of my native town, among high 

 rocky hills, lies a small pond. The outlet runs throuo-h 

 a deep narrow cut in the hills called the Gulf. One day 

 in the long ago Buff and myself were scrambling along 

 the steep rocky sides of the Gulf. We came out on an 

 overhanging ledge of rock, beneath which was a small 

 level space, where the wash from the hill had gathered 

 enough soil to support a scanty patch of grass, with a 

 few stunted bushes. Back of this space and umler the 

 ledge was a fox den. The old lady was at home with a 

 family of cubs. 



As we approached the edge of the ledge she appeared at 

 the mouth of her den, snarling, and with every hair on 

 end. I leaned over to get a better look. I leaned a little 

 too far, and the loose rock giving way under me I fell 

 eight or ten feet, landing on my back directly in front of 

 the fox. She made a charge toward me, which brought 

 her into sight of Buff, who was peeping over the cliff. 

 Buff never knew what it was to hesitate where an enemy 

 was concerned, and with a fljang leap he joined the pro- 

 cession. Then there was a circus. Dog and fox were 

 about equal in size, and neither was lacking in disposition 

 for the fight. Catching up a dead branch I joined in the 

 melee, but they were so mixed up that poor Buff got hit 

 quite as often as the fox. My club soon broke, and not 

 finding another, I joined the fight with bare hands. Making 

 a dash, I caught the fox by the neck, but so far back that 

 she jnanaged to set her teeth into my wrist. Ttiis created 

 a diversion which Buff took advantage of by fastenino- to 

 her lower jaw. Yelling to the dog with all my might I 

 danced around trying to find something to strike with. 

 Some thin pieces of rock I had broken off in my fall lay 

 near. I seized the largest I could find and with all my 

 strength went for that fox. Buff had a good hold and 

 kept it, and I soon got in some heavy blows, which 

 decided the battle. We won the fight, but honors .'were 

 easy. Buff was bleeding from a doz'^n wounds, blood was 

 flowing from my wrist, while my clothing was hardly in 

 condition for Sunday school. 



But we got the fox, and the glory of it. Shall I ever 

 forget how proud I was as I tugged home that fox. And 

 Buff"! Buff marched at my side, head and tail erect, say- 

 ing to all we met, as plain as a dog could say, "See what 

 we have got." 



Well, well; I am older now. but I wish I could feel half 

 the joy I did then, and could have the confidence in my 

 friends of to-day that I used to have in Buff. Poor Buff! 

 like "Nessmuk's" Pete, he had no pedigree. Good bye 

 Buff, "Once spent, gone forever." S. D. Kendaxl. ' ' 



A RETRIEVER ON TWO LEGS. 



On Sept. 15 I assisted Mr, Enos Hawks, of this plact 

 in formally opening the shooting season on timber grousi 

 locaUy known as partridges. Hawks is a noted do[ 

 breaker and trackman. He once owned the trotting hon 

 Hardware, who had a record of 3:30, or better. His shoo 

 tng wagon has a convenient case for his gun built in( I 

 the body fore and aft, and his whole outfit is in man I 

 respects ingenious. He is a good hunter on foxes an i 

 game birds. 



We two drove out east about three miles from Hadlej I 

 first working a choice bit of alder and latirel covt i 

 betwixt here and Amherst, where Hawks thought tliei I 

 might be woodcock. We put up two birds and Hawl ' 

 got one; the other got away. Afterwai'd we struck inl ' 

 a piece of hardwood forest, not too dense, intersperse 

 with pines, where trees are now being cut and sa wed b 

 a logging firm which measure from 80 to 80in. in diamt 

 ter at the base of the trunks. This is worth mentioniu | 

 as occm-ring in Massachusetts at this day. Sticks, fo , 

 sooth, are being cut now on the headwaters of the Cor 

 necticut and driven down the river to the saw mills belo' 

 Northampton which are but hop-poles in comparison f( 

 size. J 

 This exact bit of woods had a pretty fringe of unde j 

 brush, interrupted with tangles of blackberry vines an 

 rose bushes in seed, which bordered the very best far^ 

 ing lands in this section. Few in Dakota surpass thei 

 in fertility and superlative cultivation. Corn fields an 

 apple orchards flanked the forest on each .lide. Thel 

 were some tamarack thickets which were traversed by 

 small run of clear bright water that headed in a sprin 

 pond two rods wide, which was inclosed by a barbe 

 wire fence, perhaps to prevent incautious gunners froi 

 falling in and getting mired. Clematis and the brig) 

 crimson berries of the "bitter-sweet"' clustered about i 

 borders. Grape vines of two kinds climbed to the tops c 

 the birch trees and hang out their bunches of purple f rui 

 All this in a region that has been settled since 1651! Y( 

 this was always a crack region for game. It is on recor 

 that wild turkeys were killed on the Holyoke range nes 

 here as recently as 1851. One cleft in the ridge bears th 

 significant name of "Turkey Pass" to-day. Deer w6i; 

 always numerous up to the beginning of the presei! 

 century. 



Partridges in Hampshire county seem ineradicabld 

 Broods are everywhere, on the bottomsand among the hiUf 

 On the Sunday before the law was off, I flushed a bevy c 

 twelve close by the roadside in some cut poplars. A h^ 

 mile further on I bounced an old cock from a stone wal, 

 He was all by himself. That was twenty miles fror 

 Hadley, however, up in the hill country. 



What a lovely country that is at this season, with al 

 the foliage aglow with autumn tints! Torches of crlmsq 

 flaming at intervals on all the hillsides. Rilgs of old gold 

 russet and bronZe, with dead green mottlings, spread ou 

 over the pasture lands which slope to the forests, j 

 yellow flush suffusing all the landscape, which looks ii 

 the rain as if it were burnished richness and ripenes 

 bursting out in a ruddy glow, wherever the eye rests. 1] 

 the low river bottom at Hadley there is not so mucli coloi 

 The summer fades out in a somber sort of way and dlsau 

 pears hke a stream in the desert sands, leaving only din 

 browns and yellows — which may be all quite satisfactory 

 to the thrifty tobacco planters here, but lovers of m 

 autumn hues worship in the high mountains. 



The record of om- grouse hunt, which I commenced b 

 write of, has not yet crystallized into public memorabilia 

 and the result may possibly never appear in print. Bu 

 no matter; it was not my speciflc purpose at the outset t 

 set fortli our prowess as shooters, but simply to tell of ai 

 adventure which befell our dog, involving a remarkabl 

 canine exploi*^^, which indicated great pl'esence of miti( 

 and promptness in expedients. His name was Winkle 

 out of respect to Mr. Pickwick. He was a massive live 

 pointer, wuth broad forehead like Daniel Webster's, atK 

 an expansive chest and muscular loins. Exercise o 

 his inventive faculty doubtless Saved his life. Hawk 

 had him on chain under the wagon seat, whor«: 

 he usually lay passive and expectant. The chain hat 

 about six feet scope. As it hanpf^ned, the pace of th; 

 horse had been rather too rapid for my comfort and equa 

 nimity, and I was speeded somewhat under protest. Re 

 monstrances were more e.^pecially emphasized when thi 

 turns in the road were short. There were several of thes' 

 at crossings, and at one of them the dog must liave beei 

 thrown out, unobserved by uaatthetime. Meanwhile, Iha< 

 the i-epeated assurance of my driver that he was an olc 

 trackman, used to the sharp curves of the racecourse, and 

 not to be uneasy. All this must have been small consola 

 tion to the dog, if at all intelligible to his comprehension 

 for we suddenly discovered that he was missing from thf 

 wagon box, and on looking behind we found the brav( 

 fellow with his forepaws and breast over the axle, run 

 ningon his hindfeet alone, without an audible whimper 

 and keeping up to the three-minute gait without visible 

 distress. He must have grabbed the axle as he went out. 

 and thus saved himself from being dragged or choked by 

 the chain. Bringing the vehicle to an abrupt stop, the 

 good dog was permitted to come down on all fours, as he 

 was naturally built to run, and after a brief respite for 

 pulling himself together, he gallantly leaped into hia 

 place in the wagon without help, clearing the rim of the 

 box without toucliing it, as neatly as an acrobat. The 

 "devil on two sticks" couldn't have done better. Tout 

 cela. 



Mr. Editor: You may put this commun ication down as 

 a hunting sketch or a dog story. It will serve my pur- 

 pose in either class; but one assertion I venture to make, 

 to-wit: No one ever before heard of a pointer dog making 

 a mile in three minutes on his two hind legs. 



Veracity is the Spice of Life. 

 Next week I go up to the delectable hills again for an 

 open liunt with Tim Lyman, of Goshen, and Charles E. ; 

 Gabb, of Cumington, who have dogs with good reputa- 

 tions as hunters, if not as roadsters. If likely to interest 

 your readers I will send you a sketch of the outing, and 

 a brace of grouse, if we get them, and they should fall 

 to my personal allotment in the division of game. 

 Hadley, Mass. CHARLES HaLLOCK. 



Iowa Prospects. 



AxGONA, la., Sept. 18.— The prospects for the fall duck 

 shooting hereabouts are very unsatisfactory. For a long 

 time the weather has been hot and dry, an4 I look for 

 poor shooting for ducks this autumn. S. 



