FOREST AND STREAM. 



[bEC. 16, 189B. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



[From a Staff Corres^pondentSi 

 Arkansas. 



Ohioago, 111., Dec. 1. — ^About the game supply in Ar- 

 kasas, Mr. Jos. W. Irwin, of Little Rock, Ark., writes: 

 "We have had the greatest flight of ducks this year that 

 has ever been my lot to see, and every man in the State 

 that could rustle up a gun seems to have done so and gone 

 duck shooting with good success. 



I have just returned from a day's quail shoot with a 

 friend. We found the birds very plentiful. From 9 A. 

 M. to 4 P. M. we put up no less than sixteen fine bevies of 

 full-grown, strong-flying birds, and if our shooting had 

 been first class we had chance enough to have made a 

 very large bag. As it was we left plenty of them for a 

 good many days of just such shooting. Young Mr. Du 

 Bois, of Cincinnati, could find good quail shooting in that 

 country and mallards too, unless the winter is much 

 colder than usual. 



Spring Lake Preserve. 



Lately I stated to an inquirer that, so far as known, 

 the duck grounds of )Spring Lake, 111., remained open to 

 the public. Last week I learned that a club or company 

 has been organized to control these grounds also. Mr, 

 A. H. Fahnestock, of Peoria, 111., prominent in the Dtick 

 Island or Beebee Lake Club, is interested in the new 

 move, and he or Mr. Chauncey M. Powers, of Decatur, 

 111., could give information. I learn that a cabin boat 

 will still furnish quarters to hunters, and there is talk of 

 the sale of shooting permits, though on all this my infor- 

 mation remains vague. 



Plenty of Rabbits. 



If one liked to shoot cottontails, and there are worse 

 sports, he would do well to stay away from Bicknell, Ind., 

 for there the rabbits are too numerous for sport. Two 

 guns could kill two hundred in a day. Parties have gone 

 out there and killed a wagon box full in a day. In our 

 quail shooting near that point we often saw several rab- 

 bits moving about at once, and they were fairly a 

 nuisance, men and dogs tiring of them. 



Field Ethics. 



QuaU shooting, over good dogs, is the best and prettiest 

 sport America affords, as one may have earlier recorded 

 his belief. But quail shooting, even over good dogs, may 

 be a pleasure or not, just as one has or has not a pleasant 

 shooting companion, or rather one who observes the 

 ethics of the field. The man who wants to make a big 

 bag, the man who wants to beat somebody else, the man 

 who is a "claimer," and the man who kicks— all of these 

 should go into the sportsman's prayer book as things from 

 which to be delivered by Providence. Any one of these 

 can spoil the prettiest autumn day that ever shone. 



My httle quail shoot at Vincennes was very pleasant, 

 and that to even the last degree, for we not only had 

 plenty of birds and good dogs, but I had a pleasant com- 

 panion, and one who appreciated the ethics of the field, 

 and did not let go by the little courtesies which do so 

 much to make or mar a day afield in company. When the 

 dogs pointed he always found it my turn to take the shot, 

 and when, as once in a while occurred on a bird that took 

 a flight midway between ua, we both fired into the same 

 bird, his call was always quick, "Your bird, sir," though 

 often I knew it was not my shot that killed, but his own 

 far more regular work. Qualities like these one does not 

 always find even among his best shooting friends, but 

 when they are found, a day behind the dogs does not de- 

 generate into a scramble or a hunt for count, but remains 

 a pleasure unalloyed and a bit of dignified and gentle- 

 manly sport. W heref ore I hope Mr. Balmer will forgive 

 my saying anything about it. 



By the way, my friend writes me to-day about the 

 quail: 



Yesterday I went out to tlie ground where Adam and you had your 

 last day's hunt. Hitched at the Nigger's shanty, and found the first 

 bevy just over the hill. (I had Duke and Gwen only). Got two birds, 

 right and left, on the first rise, and following scattered birds, got two 

 more. Here a change came over the scene. The farmer who occupies 

 the house with the coat in place of a window, came out to greet me, 

 carrying on his shoulder a 36in. double-harreled muzzleloadJng shot- 

 gun. He recognized the dogs and wanted to go hunting with me. 

 That was enough; I was hoodooed. I don't know whether it was the 

 fact that I was looking down those 361n. barrels all the time, or the 

 fear that I could kill a bird on the wing once in a while; anyhow, from 

 the time he joined me until the time he left I was completely para 

 lyzed. In crossing a fence I would lose all control of myself and just 

 roll over it any way. He took me a long cast away above the pond, 

 where he reported "skads" of birds (that were not there), and after 

 spending the Dest part of the day tramping we returned to the old 

 grounds. Here he left rae to refresh the inner man, and soon as his 

 back was turned I found a bevy and immediately regained my accus- 

 tomed form. I had good shooting for 15 or 20 minutes, when the fellow 

 again returned and spoiled the remaining hour of the day. 



I dared not count my birds in his presence, but waited until I got 

 home, when I fished 19 quail out of tbe folds of my old hunting coat. 

 These, with three or four rabbits that the fiend received from me made 

 my bag for the day. I hunted from 10:30 till 4 o'clock. The day was 

 perfect, but no man living could make a bag under tne circumstances 



I will not hunt in Illinois any more this season, and feel that there 

 ought to be some birds left over. 



P. S.— I don't think that long gun was loaded, for he made no 

 attempt to shoot. If I had only been sure of this! 



Mr, Balmer met the same "hoodoo" which his brother 

 and I encountered at the same place a few days earlier, 

 but he got off: better- than we did. There were two of 

 the young farmers who followed us, and they were so 

 kindly in trying to show us the birds that we could not 

 think of leaving them. They kept close up with us, and 

 had us so nervous that we went to pieces altogether in 

 our shooting, and simply made an exhibition of ourselves, 

 although our occasional kill of a bird highly pleased and 

 astonisUed the spectators, to Avhom the knocking over of 

 a rabbit on the run seemed a marvel of skiU. With such 

 an attendant our friend is to be congratialated on his bag, 

 which was a good deal better than either of ours. Our 

 main source of happiness was that we didn't bag on j of 

 the countrymen, they clung so consistently to the line of 

 fire. 



Billy's Lounge. 



Visitors at the Himters' Cabin at the Fair will bear in 

 mind the great seat of honor which stood before the fire- 

 place within the cordon which barred back the too in- 

 quisitive public. This piece of furniture was made by 

 "Billy" Hofer, the Rocky Mountain man who had the 

 cabin in charge for the Boone and Crockett Club. The 

 construction was of young pine trees for legs and frame, 

 the seat being made of a full-size beef hide put on raw 

 and dried on tight as a drum. This great lounge is far 

 longer than any man, a.nd wide proportionate. It has 

 been conch, settee and divan in general for many a visitor 



of note. Here Billy curled up and read papers when 

 business was slack, and before it he sat on the skins by 

 the fire and told stories betimes when business was good 

 and the seat of honor had a fair occupant. The big raw- 

 hide lounge became a sort of landmark, and a good many 

 persons wanted to buy it when the cabin efl'ects were dis- 

 posed of at the close of the Fair. It could only of natural 

 right go to but one place, however, and there it has gone, 

 namely, to the Western ofiice of Foeest and Stream. 

 Here it stands, as solid, as comfortable, as wide and wel- 

 coming as before, and will remain so after the White 

 City itself has disappeared. Come up and sit on it. It 

 won't cost you a cent, and all you have to do is to admit 

 that Billy Hofer built on honor when he made the big 

 rawhide settee. "I didn't want that thing to go jtist any- 

 where," said Billy, "and I did want it kept somewhere." 

 It will stay a long time where it is, a fixture of FOKEST 

 AND Stream, and I hope will come to be again a fixture of 

 sportingdom as it was at the other cabin. 



Princess of China. 



In some reminiscences of the Fair, comment was made 

 on the vision which broke the record at the record-break- 

 ing Forest and Stream corner, and in regard to this a 

 writer in the "Society Chat" columns of the Lexington, 

 Ky., Daily Leader has something to say. It seems a 

 certainty that the vision lives somewhere around Lexing- 

 ton, and the Leader on the data afforded has instituted a 

 search in behalf of the recorder of the record-breaker, 

 stating among other things that it wtts probably the 

 Princess of China whom the Forest and Stream men 

 saw illuminate the carpet sweeper, and to whom they 

 gave a sample copy of the paper. I have been through 

 Chinatown in San Francisco and other places. 



While I don't know who or what this vision was, I al- 

 low it wasn't any Chinee. Thank you very much, and 

 none the less, good friends in Kentucky, and' if you locate 

 the vision, as I hope you will, kindly learn if possible, 

 whether any of the gentlemen of the family remain un- 

 supplied with sample copies of the greatest paper on 

 earth. 



A Great Season South. 



Continuing the dive into the mail box I find the follow- 

 ing from the Forest and Stream correspondent "Ai-od- 

 nac," who writes from Welsh, Louisiana: 



"Never in my days have I seen as much game as m 

 the past two weeks. I arrived at this place yesterday 

 evening and at the hotel met several kid drummers who 

 wanted to go shooting ducks. We had but one mile walk 

 to the rice field from the hotel, and arrived on the grounds 

 at half after four and shot until dark. Tho result was 

 my three dude drummers had exploded seventy-five 

 shells and killed four mallard ducks. I shot thirty-seven 

 shells and killed thirty-one ducks. The time we had to 

 shoot was one hour and twenty minutes. I had agreed 

 with them to kill only greenheads, as the ducks were so 

 numerous one could pick and make a fine bag. I suc- 

 ceeded in making all drake mallards but two, which were 

 pintails. Is there any place else that you know of where 

 this could be done? 



"I am sure that any one, a fair shot, who would take 

 the trouble to make a blind, and use decoys and be will- 

 ing to wade in water 4in. deep, could kill 100 to 150 of a 

 morning only a mile from the hotel. I shot in n\y Sun- 

 day clothes. 



"Several years ago there never was known to be but 

 very few ducks in this vicinity, but the cultivation of 

 rice here has brought them in by the milhons, not 

 thousands. The shooting, unfortunately, does not last 

 but until Dec. 10. As soon as aU the loose and fallen 

 rice is eaten up the ducks leave for the sea coast, about 

 twenty-eight miles south of here, and there they are hard 

 to get, yet numerous. 



"Mallards can be bought almost anywhere at 8 cents 

 apiece. They are chea,per than meat, in consequence of 

 which the butchers suffer. 



"The quail season will be good." 



Plasa Rod and Rifle Club. 



The Piasa Rod and Rifle Club, of Alton, 111., sends in a 

 handsomely lithographed roster of the club membership, 

 showing on one page the portraits of all its oflicers, and 

 on another those of the remaining members. Glen. E. H. 

 Lahee is president, and Mr. H. R. Wills vice-president, 

 Mr. G-. R, Hewitt filling the secretary's chair, and Mr. 

 G. A. McMillen that of treasurer. Mr. Wills, from his 

 portrait, one would not take to be a rifie shooter, but he 

 is, as I have learned in many hard-fought matches here, 

 involving the championship of Halstead street. He isn't 

 near as innocent as he looks, and neither is Mr. Lahee. 



May Move. 



Dr. 0. Stewart Bamber of Rochester. N. Y., a lover of 

 that noble animal, the dog, is in Chicago for a few days, 

 and says that he may move West this far, as the shooting 

 about Rochester doesn't altogether suit him. There is 

 shooting of almost any sort, one way or the other, out of 

 Chicago, if you go far enough after you start. 



Hard Year for Quail. 



Chicago, Dec. 9. — The quail season in Illinois being 

 now at an end, and the Indiana season being also i)rao- 

 tically closed, it is possible to review with accuracy the 

 question of the supply of birds. There is no longer any 

 question that the severity of last winter was almost ruin- 

 ous to the qtiafl. in all of northern Indiana and Illinois. 

 Around Warsaw and other points where last fall we had 

 excellent shooting, there were this fall next to no birds at 

 all, a party of three guns getting only 9 birds in a day 

 over the choicest of the covers in an exceptionally good 

 section of country. Such bevies as were found were 

 small. Last year was the great quafl. year for this region, 

 but this year is the reverse of that. It will take the best 

 of nursing and years of good weather to bring the birds 

 back in such abundance as that of the last two or three 

 years. It is good counsel to all Chicago shooters and 

 those who are accustomed to shoot in northern Indiana 

 not to fire another gun this fall, and to go further South 

 for the shooting next faU if the birds at that time con- 

 tinue scarce as now. The sportsmen of Warsaw intend 

 to stock their country heavily with quail this coming 

 year. Their preserves should be respected until the bu-ds 

 have again taken good hold, and the shooters of any 

 locality could not do better than imitate so good an 

 example, besides trying to feed and shelter such few 

 bevies as may be left this fa,ll. 



It is probable that this will be another hard winter for 

 quail in northern lUinois and Indiana. Very heavy snows 

 have fallen and there has been much alternate melting 

 and freezing, so that poor Bob White's daily bread must 

 be hermetically sealed away from him by an impervious 

 coating of ice. Unless there should be a general thaw 

 and a passing away of this icy covering, we can hardly 

 hope for less than a further slaughter of the innocents. 

 You can hardly destroy the quail crop in thirty days of 

 legitimate wing shooting, for the little fellovv.s are wonder- 

 fully fit to take care of themselves; but when they are 

 weak and starving there is no fun in the thought of try- 

 ing to bag them. Therefore let us all leave the famine 

 belt alone for a while in our shooting. 



In the lower half of the two States mentioned the 

 weather was not so severe last winter, and the birds were 

 more abundant this season, but even there they were 

 more scarce than is usually the case. Even so far south 

 as Tennessee it was a "bad year." The worst enemy quail 

 have is the weather. Let us hope the present winter will 

 grow milder and not worse. 



Trip is Off. 



IVIr. Wilbur Dubois, of Cincinnati, writes that his shoot- 

 ing friend, Mr. Peabody, will be unable, on accoimt of 

 increased duties in business, due to his recent promotion in 

 railroad work, to take the contemplated shooting trip to 

 the South, and that therefore the dates are off all aroimd. 

 Mr. Dubois adds: 



"I have not yet had my annual shooting trip, and want ■ 

 to run off somewhere for a shoot of ten or twelve days. I 

 am uncertain where to go, and hardly know whether it 

 would be advisable to try so far South as Louisiana, and 

 avail myself of your courteous card of introduction to your 

 New Orleans friend. 



"I congratulate you on your courage in denouncing the 

 slaughter of ducks, in Forest and Stream of Nov. 25. 

 Wise words bravely spoken." 



Mr. Dubois will do well to get pretty well South for his 

 shoot, though possibly he can get good enough country in 

 Mississippi or Arkansas. It is a delightful change to leave 

 the blizzard of the North and be out for a time in the pleas- 

 ant strawberry weather, which in the South they dignify 

 by the name of winter. 



For Fish Warden of Iowa. 



Hon, J. G. Smith, the veteran shooter and long-time presi- 

 dent of the Iowa Association, is out as candidate for State 

 Fish Commissioner under the new regime. Mr. Smith is 

 well versed in the way of legal work, is a rational and 

 earnest sportsman, and his appointment would be a fine 

 one. It would be finer yet if the State would give him a 

 decent appropriation with which to work. Granted that, 

 and the abused waters of Iowa might once again have a 

 little of their old tirne supply of fish life. If Mr. Smith is 

 appointed I hope he will, just for the sake of auld lang 

 syne, place some fish in old Skunk River, where I used to 

 fish when I was a boy, and where the netters and dyna- 

 miters have since made it impossible for anybody to catch 

 a fish. That was once a glorious bass stream. 



Speaking of Bass. 



Speaking of bass, a good one indeed was that taken this 

 season by Mr. Frank Lawrence of Chicago — a fish taken 

 in Green Lake, Wis., weighing Tibs. 2-koz. Mr. Lawrence 

 is showing it, nicely mounted, at Spalding's store. If he 

 had only laid his plans right he .might be wearing 

 diamonds in the Natchaug competitio n. 



She also Shoots, 

 Mrs. Kate F. Miller, the bright little newspaper woman 

 who edits the Industrial World, Chicago, is not only a 

 journalist but a shooter, and at chicken or even quail can i 

 kill a mess of birds all right. Mrs. Miller favored this 

 section of Forest and Stream with a very pleasant call 

 this week, and we talked over many things, including 

 the wanderings of the "Saginaw Crowd," with most of 

 whom the lady is well acquainted. 



Moved In. 



The clean and gritty publication Sports Afield this week 

 changed its place of publication from Denver to Chicago,^ 

 and its bright young editor, Mr. Claude King, is now ■ 

 busily squaring himself around in his new and bigger 

 home, fii-st taking time to come and talk fraternally with 

 the Western part of Forest and Stream. 



Memoriam. 



On Tuesday morning, Dec. 5, Mr. Vilroy Q. Paxon, 

 since 1889 in the employ of Mr. E. S. Rice, general agent 

 of the DuPont powder, this city, died after a brief illness. 

 Mi. Paxon was, during the late war, a sergeant and first 

 lieutenant in the loth Infantry of Illinois. Since the 

 war he was for twenty years in the service of the Adams 

 and American express companies, later going in with Mr, 

 Rice. In all capacites he was faithful, cheerful and effi- 

 cient. He was a sportsman of the ti-uest sort and leaves 

 many friends. E. Hough. 



909 SECtnuTY Building, Chicago. 



Stocking Methods. 



MiLFORD, Conn., Dec. 7.— There have been scarcely a 

 half-dozen quail killed in this neighborhood since the 

 opening on Oct. 1. This is in marked contrast with the 

 experience of former years, and the better class of hunters 

 have determined to take some steps to remedy the evil. 

 It is proposed to begin by attempting to restock by buying 

 West Virginia or Tennessee birds and in the late winter 

 pairing them off as far as practicable in separate coops or 

 inclosm-es and then turn out in March. An unique plan 

 was tried last winter by a Long Island shooting club and 

 resulted very successfully. It consisted in fixing a num- 

 ber of empty barrels with long axis pointing east and 

 west about the stubble near cover. The open end is cov- 

 ered with large mesh wire netting, allowing the quail 

 entrance and egress, but keeping the larger vermin out. 

 By baiting up to these barrels the quail became used to 

 them and in cold weather and snow use them for shelter. 

 I am informed that during the very severe weather of last 

 winter the supprintendent of this club found a flock of 

 quail in almost every barrel. The Hammonassett Club, in 

 eastern Connecticut, have ordered this plan to be tried 

 during the coming season in order to preserve if possible 

 the large number of birds which will be left over. This 

 club has stocked for two years past and as a consequence 

 there are many birds there settled for the winter. Almost 

 every patch ot "died down" buckwheat within a mile or 

 two of the club contains a large flock. Incog. 



