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CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
A "Forest and Stream " Dog. 
Chicago, III., Jan. 4.— If the copy for "Chicago and 
the West" should arrive in New York a little late next 
week, the fact may be explained by the fact that it was 
10 below zero here to-day, and that a lost dog was trying 
to face a genuine Chicago wind off the lake, than which 
no bitterer blast ever blew between the poles. 
The Forest and Stream stenographer came into the 
office with a moisture about the eyes — it was very cold 
walking — and gave the information that a "poor dog was 
freezing to death on the sidewalk just outside the door of 
the Security Building, and that it had been there half a 
day, and that no one would let it into the building to get 
warm." This happened on "copy day," and it was among 
the last hours of the day. None the less it was apparent 
that this dog had read or heard that the Forest and 
Stream office was located in the Security Building in this 
city, and evidently had come here for help in his sad con- 
dition. I do not know how it is with other folks, but to 
me one of the saddest of the innumerable sad sights of 
the city is that of a lost and homeless dog, either franti- 
cally looking for the lost master or humbly and patiently 
lying down to die — as this one soon must have died in 
such weather as that of Chicago to-day. The inhumanity, 
the brutality of civilization has few more painful mani- 
festations than this. Anyhow, it was too much for the 
Forest and Stream force here, who adjourned to the 
lower floor of the building and sought to provide the suf- 
ferer with better circumstances. The engineer of the 
building was found— a big, good-hearted man, it 
proved — and on being told of the situation cheerfully 
volunteered to break all the rules of the building 
and give the dog a warm corner by the big 
boilers. Then we went out to the poor fellow, 
who by this time could hardly stand on his legs, and with 
only the mOst feeble objection picked him up and carried 
him down-stairs into the engine rooms. When we got 
him thawed out we found him to be a chunky mongrel 
of a dog, of strong pepper and salt brindle color, evi- 
dently about half bull-terrier. He was too cold to say 
much, but after a while we got a faint wag out of his 
stumpy tail. Then we got him something to eat, and he 
began to look at us with a pair of good brown eyes, 
in which still lingered a deal of the suspicion he had 
learned of humanity. He wanted his master, and repeat- 
edly tried to get away up the stairs and out into the cold 
again, so he could freeze to death waiting for the master 
who was missing, and who, according to dog intelligence, 
should some time, before or after death had come, pass 
by that very spot on the corner where the wind swept so 
keen, but where duty seemed to place one. The engineer 
explained the folly of this sort of business, to him, and 
introduced him to the stray kitten which for some weeks 
has been living down in the engine rooms. We didn't 
know what to do with our dog, but decided to keep him 
till we could get him a home. I was once of a notion to 
send him down to Bobo to go a-soldiering with the bear 
pack, but when I looked at his jaws I knew how fooliBh 
he would be about getting too close to a bear, so I gave 
that up. Then I went to the colored porter of the Secur- 
ity barber shop and laid the case before him. He proved 
to be a better citizen than I am, a married 
man, and possessed of a home where he could keep 
a dog. A dog can't stand it the way I live, so I couhhrfc 
offer this one a home. After I had explained for a time 
what a nice thing it is to have a good dog, and what a very 
good dog Ben was— for we called him Ben at once and he 
answered to the name — the porter said he would take the 
dog home with him and give him a home and take good 
care of him. To-night Ben, now a thawed out and limber 
dog, with eyes no longer frozen shut, will go home to a 
warm bed and a square meal, and I hope will regain his 
joy in life and attach himself to a new master. Should 
his old master see this he can ask for him at 356 Morris 
street, care of George Weaver. Ben is a short dog, not 
beautiful, but a fighter I will warrant. His coat, as above 
mentioned, is a gray brindle. His muzzle is gray, but I 
should not take him to be over 3 years old. He is appar- 
ently a cross between a bull-terrier and pointer, He is a 
very quiet and sensible dog, and I should guess he might 
have been a wagon dog, belonging to some one who valued 
him. He had not been on the streets very long, and was 
still fairly plump. His tail was short and thick. By this 
time I hope it is wagging. 
Caribou Webs. 
Mr. FianK H. Risteen, of Fredericton, New Brunswick, 
writes in regard to the "sagging" of the web snowshoes 
mentioned in the current trapping story in Forest and 
Stream*. 
' 'Speaking of the web snowshoe, there is only one kind 
that is worthy of the name — namely, those that are strung 
with caribou skin. I imagine the pair you had, and 
which sagged in soft snow, were strung with plain, every- 
day cowhide. Moose hide is still worse. Caribou hide if 
well seasoned and tightly strung will not sag in wet 
snow, and will last for years. A good pair costs $5. 
"The ski would be of no use in a thickly wooded 
country like New Brunswick, though it might be pleasant 
on some of the long river stretches." 
The shoes worn by our party were all of caribou string- 
ing, or at least sold as such by the Montreal house making 
them. We paid $6. 25 a pair for them. The cheaper shoes 
are admitted by dealers to be of horse hide lacing some- 
times; but ours were as good as we could buy, and my 
trapper friends claimed a long acquaintance with the snow- 
shoe market. Canada and the cold North should of 
course be the home of the snowshoe of utility as well as 
the snowshoe de luxe, but maybe they don't ship their 
good ones. I would like to see a pair that wouldn't sag 
in wet snow such as we had, or a pair which will last a 
Wisconsin trapper much more than a couple of years 
under hard work. We can't buy that sort here. The 
webs act all right when the snow is good, and most folk 
only go shoeing for fun when the snow is good. When 
you go every day and all the time it is a different proposi- 
tion. 
Mr. Risteen also makes the following inquiry, which I 
hope we can answer satisfactorily: 
"Do you know any man in Chicago who can furnish 
me with a copy of that beautiful poem in blank verse 
called the 'Kekoskee Fish Story?' I read it a good while 
ago and then lost it. I doubt very much whether it has 
any equal in our literature, and if you could place me in 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
the way of securing a copy I should be greatly obliged." 
The "Kekoskee Fish Story" seems to be reluctant to let 
go of the rattling grooves of time. This was always a 
singular thing to me, that about the truest thing I ever 
wrote should have such a reception as a banner fish lie. 
Now, if I should really write a fish lie — but I shudder to 
think about that. 
Been South. 
Messrs. W. H. Miller, of Chicago, E. D. Pyatt and J. 
McGill, of Jacksonville, 111., with Dr. Cree and Mr. 
Shoemaker, of Griggsville, 111., have returned from a 
hunt near the Rio Grande River, in Texas. The party 
killed six deer and ten antelope, or rather the cowboy 
guides did. The riding was too rough for "States" men, 
and most of the animals killed were chased down into 
box cafions in very rough country. 
Going- South. 
Messrs. J. W. Lyke and J. C. Burfeet, two gentlemen 
long prominent in Fox Lake protective matters, 3tart 
next week for eastern Arkansas on a hunt for ducks and 
deer. 
Wants to Go South. 
Mr. T. H. Carrier, of Watauga, Tenn., asks for infor- 
mation as below: 
"I see you have made several trips to the South, and 
would appreciate information as to good deer country in 
the Southwest, say Arkansas, Louisiana or Texas. I 
thought probably you could give me the names of good 
localities and guides, etc." 
I have never gone after deer in the South, but of course 
have heard much of them. At San Antonio, Tex. , one is 
near good deer country, if he knows where to go then. 
West of Memphis, fifty miles into Arkansas or less, more 
especially southwest of Memphis, there are a good many 
deer this year. 
The above are specimen letters of a sort often received 
these days. The sportsman traffic South is something 
already large and it is growing. Nearly all inquirers ask 
in regard to guides. I cannot give such information, for 
almost without exception there are no regular guides to 
be had in the South, and I am mighty glad that this is so. 
I hope it will be a long, long time before anybody can 
get a hired guide anywhere in the South, for when that 
begins the end of the Southern game will soon be in sight. 
The customs of the South,as I have often remarked before, 
constitute a very effectual protection for its game. The 
gentlemen whose names are mentioned above will believe 
my wish to be of service to them when I say I am sure 
they will agree with me perfectly about the matter of 
guides. It is better to travel in the South with invitations 
of friends, but this is not a necessity. If I were in Mr. 
Carrier's place I should not be afraid, for instance, to start 
at once for San Antonio. A little casting about there 
would almost certainly result in getting out with the 
right party in a very delightful country. The Southern 
men are the most kindly people in the world, and I hope 
that all Northern men who shoot in the South will meet 
kindness with justice and not kill all they can of the 
Southern game. 
Dead Park Elk. 
The big bull elk of the Lincoln Park herd here died this 
week of congestion of the lungs. This animal was very 
vicious and had been dehorned for killing one of the cows 
of the herd. There is no bull elk left in the herd now. 
Election. 
Lake Poygan Club elected officers at the annual meet- 
ing in Chicago this week: President, James Pease; Vice- 
President, S. M. Meek; Secretary, R. M. Simon; Treasurer, 
S. A. Goss. Directors, R. R. Clark, E. W. Murphy and 
James Pease. Membership Committee, F. D. Porter, E. 
N. Elliott and E. Z. Mason. 
The club's grounds are located thirty miles west of Osh- 
kosh and comprise 4,400 acres. 
National Association. 
It is requested that all members bear in mind the 
change in date of the annual meeting of the National 
Game, Bird and Fish Protective Association, which was 
postponed from Jan. 9 to Feb. 12, at Chicago, Sherman 
House club rooms. 
[Riz. 
Mr. H. R. Willis, the best rifle shot in the Mississippi 
Valley (I say this because he always can beat me), is in 
the city this week carrying the usual chip on his shoul- 
der. Mr. Willis lives at Alton, but is connected with the 
Hoyt Metal Co., of St. Louis. This year his card reads 
"Second Vice-President," from which I see he has riz. 
Still he appears willing to talk with plain people, espe- 
cially with people who think they can shoot a rifle. 
About Spanish. 
A gentleman writing to another paper says he has ar- 
rived at San Antonio and found it to be a land of "many- 
ana." He said it the way it sounds, but his dictionary 
would have spelled it "maflana" — with the Spanish "n." 
Yet Mr, Charles Hallock, if he will allow me to mention it, 
lately wrote about Mexican "hackels." He said it the way 
it sounds, but the right way to spell it is "jacals." All of 
which recalls the old jest in New Mexico about the Irish- 
man who "wouldn't live in a country where they climbed 
a tree for water, dug in the ground for wood and spelled 
'hickory' with a 'j'." 
The Daily Reporter. 
My friend, the daily reporter, took a long whiff at his 
pipe the other morning and did the following for a morn- 
ing paper here: 
"An interesting incident on South Water street was 
yesterday the receipt by Lepman & Heggie of 500 brace 
of English pheasants. The fowl stood the long transit 
well, arriving in the market in fine order. A consign- 
ment of three live buffalo and thirty or forty live deer was 
also received from the West. While on the way here six 
deer escaped from the car and were shot." 
Inquiry developed the facts to be that all the pheasants 
(which are regularly imported here by many firms) were 
dead. There were no buffalo nor deer whatever con- 
signed to this firm or any other firm in Chicago, and no deer 
had escaped, so far as known. There was a carload of 
live deer, however, which passed through Chicago en 
route East, and in the same lot were three live buffalo. 
These came from Montana — presumably from the Charlie 
Allard herd of the Flathead Reservation — but the desti- 
nation was unknown. 
The daily reporter who works up the "good things" in 
the sporting department of the Chicago Inter-Ocean has 
discovered that the Panhandle of Texas (the dry Llano 
E3tacada) is a paradise for chickens, quail, turkeys, rab- 
bits, ducks, geese, deer, antelope, squirrels and railbirdsl 
The Colorado jack rabbit drive of 6,000 hares is made into 
12,000, and located in the Panhandle, which is described 
as a lovely timbered country. The reporter gravely 
announces: 
"Such famous sportsmen as Police Commissioner Roose- 
velt, of New York, and the late Mayor, Carter H. Harri- 
son, of this city, have each said that, in his opinion, the 
variety of game to be had with rod and gun in the extreme 
northwest part of the big Lone Star State is nowhere to be 
surpassed in this country, expansive as it is." 
And now comes the daily reporter who does the sport- 
ing specials for the Baltimore (Md.) American, and 
describes canvasback shooting as she is done on the 
Chesapeake: 
"All decoys used on the flats around Havre-de-Grace 
are made of wood, as experiment has proven that it fur- 
nished the most serviceable material, Cork is too .yield- 
ing and iB easily torn up by the heavy buckshot, while 
canvas and aluminum suffer the same fate." 
"The market men use their decoys in a purely scientific 
manner," says the reporter. "Killing duoks with them 
is a business, and they employ every method possible to 
bring the ducks within the range of their guns. They 
work in squads, and this mutual co-operation brings about 
good results. A double sinkbox will be placed in some 
good spot on the flats and surrounded by about 400 decoys. 
Two expert gunners are assigned to the sinkbox, while 
the rest of the crew man a schooner that is anchored to 
the windward about a quarter of a mile from the sinkbox. 
The men- remain lying in the sinkbox, and never raise 
their heads until they get a signal from the schooner. 
From the nature of the signal they can tell in which 
direction the ducks are coming and about the altitude 
they are flying. Thus informed, the gunner has only to 
rise in the box in the proper position and bang at the 
ducks as they fly over his head or attempt to settle among 
the decoys. Nearly all of the gunners are equipped with 
two guns, and they rarely fail to get four out of the flock. 
A boat is sent out from the schooner, the dead ducks 
gathered up and the decoys rearranged, if they have been 
shot away from their moorings." 
We don't shoot ducks by note out here yet, but it is a 
pleasure to learn what is going on in the great world of 
sport as mirrored by our daily papers. The conviction is 
irresistibly borne in upon one that Forest and Stream 
ought to secure the services of some of these young men, 
so that the public can learn about the how and where of 
sport with the rod and gun. If the paper would import 
talen t of that sort, the rest of us wouldn't have to work 
so hard. E. Hough. 
909 Security Building, Chicago, 111. 
Stocking Lake County Waters. 
Mr. W. B. Mershon, of East Saginaw, writes to 
Editor Pace, of the Lake county, Mich. , Star: 
"The Pere Marquette Fishing Club last week success- 
fully transferred from Saginaw Bay to the lakes along the 
western division of the F. & P. M. over 2001bs. of small- 
mouthed black bass and lOOlbs. of pike perch, more com- 
monly known as wall-eyed pike. These were large fish 
and would be ready to spawn whenever the proper season 
comes around, as they ran all the way from half a pound 
to 31bs. each. There were very few of them lost in tran- 
sit and we think this plant will be a great addition to the 
fishing interests in your neighborhood, as the small- 
mouthed bass are far gamier than the large-mouth, and 
as I understand it there are no small-mouthed bass in any 
of the lakes up there now. Pike perch, if they thrive, 
will be especially desirable, as they are gamy and often 
weigh from 5 to 151bs., and in the markets bring pretty 
nearly double the price that lake trout do. Now that we 
can reach Star Lake by rail arrangements have been 
made to make a large plant of pike perch in that lake, 
and they will breed this year or next, so that it will not 
be long before it is thoroughly stocked. If our friend 
Carpenter or any one else there will guarantee to receive 
them at the station and put them in proper waters, we 
can get quite'a good many more of these fish, and a line 
dropped to Geo. M. Brown, Saginaw (E. S,), Mich., will 
meet with a proper response. 
"The brook trout fry from our club waters Jwill !be 
ready for distribution now soon, but we only took about 
half as many this year as we hoped to take owing to the 
breaking into the breeding pond by some unknown van- 
dals who had no respect for law and decency or the rights 
of their fellow-men. I am glad to see that the sentiment 
of the people of Lake county is to enforce the game and 
fish laws. It will not take long to demonstrate prac- 
tically that our game and fish can increase right along, 
and at the same time in season, and by lawful means fur- 
nish not only a good food supply, but plenty of sport for 
all of us." 
One of the Pleasure Spots of Life. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Though a constant reader of the Forest and Stream 
for a year and a half only I am beginning to feel as if 
your regular correspondents were real acquaintances and 
in fact old friends of mine — friends whom I can silently 
observe and from whom I receive untold enjoyment. 
Personally and for hundreds of others I want to thank 
them for their rare entertainment, and as a faint encour- 
agement to continue their graceful writings. The good 
and inimitable Robinson, the classic Morris, the pathetic 
El Comancho, the entertaining Hallock, the moralizing 
and poetical hermit Ransacker, the irrepressible, though 
gentle, Hough; all writing in the current meaty number 
{Dec. 28), Hosts of other unmentioned but not forgotten 
contributors are equally self-denying and entertaining 
when relating their rich experiences afield. Their oppor- 
tunities the majority of us can only long for and rarely 
enjoy, and were it not for their facile pens and the.FoR- 
est and Stream we would miss much enjoyment. I look 
forward weekly to the receipt of your paper and regard 
its reading as a pleasure spot in my life.; A. H, 
Chicago. 
