346 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 4, 1895. 
headed man. who said that his days were nearly "played 
out" and that he could not die in a better cause, volun- 
teered to fire the fort. The whole force made demon- 
strations as if an attack was to be made in front of the 
house, and under cover of this feint the old man set 
the house on fire and escaped to a tree in safety. One 
of Sims's daughters came out with a bucket of water 
and extinguished the fire. She returned without being 
hit, but her clothing was riddled with bullets. 
For two days the seige was kept up, when a military 
company with a cannon was sent up the river from Mo- 
bile to the "seat of war." When Sims heard that the 
governor bad sent troops, he agreed to surrender, with the 
understanding that he alone was to be taken to the 
county jail and await his trial by law. To this the vigi- 
lantes agreed, but after getting possession they changed 
their minds. When the troops arrived they found five 
men— old Bob, his two sons and two others— hanging on 
one tree. 
The vigilantes spared Sims's wife and two daughters, bu 
hung all of the men found in the house. The hangiDg 
occurred on Christmas day, 1893. The vigilantes went 
home declaring that "it was the best Christmas tree they 
had ever seen decorated." Just before the old murderer 
was swung off he said, "Come up here and feel of my 
pulse if you think I am afraid to die." and turning to the 
leader of the vigilantes he said, "I phall return to this 
place and remain until I send you to ." The wife and 
daughters insisted that Bob would come back in seven 
days, but as Bob failed to put in an appearance, they sub- 
stituted seven weeks, and then seven months, and now 
they set the time seven years from Christmas, 1893. 
The day we arrived at Coffeeville a white man and a 
negro got into a quarrel over a yellow girl. Both "drew" 
and fired several shots at short range. The white man 
was wounded and the negro was killed. The average 
Tombigbee man will shoot any man that calls him a liar 
or a vile name. They appeal to gunpowder to redress a 
wrong. 
We saw twenty-one wild turkeys fly across the river; 
they were within gunshot distance, but as no gun was on 
hand we lost a. shot at them. They seemed quite tame 
and, no doubt, we could have bagged two or three if we 
could have gotten ashore. We often saw turkeys, geese 
and mallard ducks, but could not get a shot from the 
boat. 
One day the pilot saw a deer swimming across the 
river and steered the boat shoreward, cutting him off 
from the shore. The engineer shot several times and 
finally hit the buck in the neck. The yawl was lowered 
and the venison secured. We had deer meat for two days. 
We arrived at Pickens— a small village consisting of 
eight houses, one of which is a store, in which the post- 
office is kept. While taking on cotton at this landing, a 
sprightly, well-preserved old man, on the shady side of 
seventy, came on board. He was over six feet in height, 
lank, lean, but muscular and active. He wore the inevit- 
able "cowboy" hat and a suit of black, with a white 
shirt and turned-down collar, under which a black silk 
double bowknot was loosely suspended to a bone collar 
button. He was shaved smooth and clean, except a 
small, short, gray goatee. We looked him over and said, 
"A hard-shell Baptist preacher," and we were correct. 
We soon got into a conversation with the old preacher. 
He asked the usual questions, where we lived, where we 
were going and what was our vocation at home. He 
freely gave information regarding himself. He was 
born in Alabama, taught school in his younger days, 
later on married a planter's daughter, and after the death 
of his wife's father took possession of the plantation on 
which he had since lived. 
He was at Montgomery at the formation of the Confed- 
eracy, and was so firmly convinced that slavery would be 
abolished by the defeat of the South that he went home 
and sold his niggers and put the money into a fine piece 
of land. He worked his plantation with nigger help, 
which he liked better than white help. He had lately 
hired a negro for one year, giving him a small advance. 
The darky worked two days and skipped. He hired two 
niggers to eaten the delinquent, whom he tied on top of a 
pine log, and the ministerial hand laid on three dozen 
lashes. The culprit was released and promised three dozen 
more if he ever came on the plantation again. ' 'Of coui-se, 
he never came back again?" we said. "Yes, he did, and 
begged my pardon, and I haven't a better nigger on my 
plantation than he. The only way to get along with a 
nigger is to make them toe the mark." He was an ardent 
Populist and stumped his county, which went strong for 
Kolb. 
The cotton buyer and the preacher had a political dis- 
cussion, in which the preacher came out on top. The 
preacher drank moderately, chewed and smoked excess- 
ively, and talked politics as often as he could get an audi- 
ence. . 
On Sunday the captain would have no poker playing, 
but the bar ran wide open, and many a "schooner" went 
down while passing over that bar. The hot stove was 
kept hissing by the saliva from the chewers, while they 
told stories that drove the hard-shell preacher and some of 
the passengers into the ladies' cabin. 
At Demopolis we had a norther that formed ice an 
inch thick on still water. We steamed down the river 
and whistled for a railroad bridge. The bridge was 
opened, but before we passed the wind caught the bridge 
and blew it back with a crash, breaking the turning 
pinion. We were delayed all day and all night. The 
boat was tied up and all hands, from the captain down, 
played draw poker. The game proceeded all day, the 
players only stopping to eat dinner and supper, when out 
came the tables, cards and chips, and when we retired at 
eleven o'clock the eame was under full blast. 
We bribed a darky waiter, who procured extra blankets 
for our bunks, but we could not keep warm. In our cat- 
naps we dreamed that we were in an Iowa blizzard. The 
next morning the railroad company sent a large force of 
men, who with ropes opened the "bridge, and we at last 
passed through. 
The rural Alabamans are quaint, convivial and hos- 
pitable. From time out of memory they have manufac- 
tured nothing , and have bought all of their wares from 
the North, Since the war they have been too poor to 
buy anything new. The pictures, furniture, carpets and 
tableware that we saw in hotels and steamboats are of 
obsolete patterns and much patched and worn. They 
take us back to our youthful days, when a picture of 
"Washington Crossing the Delaware" and pictures of 
tihe ex-presidents were in rogue, 
A veneered settee and chairs covered with slippery 
horsehair cloth, much patched and worn, greet you in 
hotels, steamboats and boarding-houses. The dining 
table in the cabin of our steamer was set with casters and 
tea sets that were once plated with silver, but the dark- 
ness had long since scoured the silver off, leaving the 
ware black and untidy. The knives and forks were of an 
obsolete pattern, with bone handles riveted on the steel 
blades, leaving crevices that were filled with dirt and 
grease. The plates, cups and saucers were cracked and 
chipped. The tablecloths were red, a color best calculated 
to disguise the dirt, and the napkins were conspicuons by 
their absence. As we sat down to our first meal on this 
boat, St. Paul's words, "Ask no questions for conscience 
sake," seemed to fit the case. W3 tasted every dish that 
was brought on once, even to "gumble eye," a negro 
hash, and "gumbo soup," made from a little of every- 
thing, and then settled down to four or five kinds of food 
that the negro chef could not spoil by cooking, such as 
grits, boiled rice, sweet potatoes and eggs. The coffee 
wag simply vile, and we could not tell the tea 
from the coffee. There was no conversation at meal time 
Everybody ate as if at a railroad lunch counter, with only 
ten minutes to spare. Some one has said, "The Lord sends 
us the food, but the devil sends us the cooks." The negro 
cooking of the South will upset the average Northern 
stomach. Everything they cook swims in grease and is 
smothered in onions. 
We landed at Mobile, glad to get back to our boarding- 
bouse, kept by a Northern man, where we found a good 
table and a clean bed. 
If any of the readers of Forest and Stream are suffer- 
ing from indigestion, insomnia, or, worse than either, 
ennui, we would advise them to take a "round trip" from 
Mobile to Pickens, on the Tombigbee River. 
E. P. Bell. 
WAS IT AN INDIAN DEVIL? 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I had a very unexpected introduction to an Indian devil 
last fall, and while the result was not complimentary to 
me as a hunter, I would like, space to relate my experi- 
ence, in the hope that some one better acquainted with 
these prowlers will answer the question appended. In 
October last I camped with a party of friends at the out- 
let of Long Lake, 16 miles west of Fifield, Wis. To speak 
of the strings of black bass that came to our table out of 
this beautiful lake, and the juicy venison steaks that 
added their full share to the enjoyment of living in this 
wild region, would be a digression, so I will stick to my 
text. On the morning after our first night in camp I 
picked up my .33-40 Winchester and started out alone to 
look for deer. I had passed through a small chopping 
about a mile from camp, and stepped into an ungraded 
timber road, where my attention was attracted by a slight 
noise in the heavy forest beyond. ' While listening and 
watching I caught a glimpse over my right shoulder of 
some animal moving toward the road parallel with the 
way I had come and but a few paces distant. As I quar- 
tered around and brought my gun near my face, the ani- 
mal walked into the road and stopped just as I had done, 
seemingly attracted by something directly ahead, and un- 
conscious of my presence. It was an animal of the cat 
tribe, at least 20in. in height, of a dark brown color, and 
I saw no tail. I took it to be a lynx, though it was as 
large as a medium-sized panther, and I did not expect to 
find lynx so large in Wisconsin. In fact, I did not expect 
to find any at all, for I had not lost any, up to date. 
As I brought my gun to my eye he caught the move- 
ment, and turned his big cat face toward me. When the 
ball struck his shoulder, making a rose in the fur, he 
bounded at least four feet in the air, turned over, and lit 
on his back. I thought I had him, but before I could 
think twice he was on his feet, whirled half round and 
sprung into the timber behind logs, and I had to be satis- 
fied with momentary glimpses of him as he departed. I 
did not think it prudent to rush after him. I walked to 
where he had stood — only twenty-four steps — and gath- 
ered up some bunches of hair, with flesh attached; but the 
most careful search did not bring to view the animal, nor 
even a blood trail, and I concluded that he had climbed a 
large dead pine that stood near and hidden in the hollow 
top. I inclose a bit of hair. Notice that the tips are dark, 
making the animal look brown. I would like to know if 
this was a lynx, and how I should have shot him. Also 
something of the animal's fighting propensities when 
wounded. I have pursued a wounded black bear, but I 
gave this fellow the benefit of the doubt. G. W. C. 
Portland, Ind. 
[The description and the hair which accompany it 
make it quite certain that the animal was a lynx, prob- 
ably L. rufus, which, in the shadow of the forest, might 
appear very dark in color. The proper place to shoot, if 
the animal was broadside on, was either shoulder or heart; 
and if the ball struck where you thought it did, the ani- 
mal probably went only a very short distance, for the 
lynx is easily killed. We should not care to tackle a 
wounded lynx with bare hands, for their claws are cer- 
tainly long and sharp, and their movements quick; but a 
small club and a cool head would be likely to dispatch one 
of these animals in short order.] 
Two Acres of Swimming Squirrels. 
Cleveland, O. — Editor Forest and Stream: My recent 
note in the Forest and Stream in regard to color vari- 
ation of the gray squirrel, while it did not bring me as 
many responses as I had hoped, yet it did bring me one or 
two very interesting letters. One of these, from a gentle- 
man now living in Illinois, gave an account of a very 
interesting experience of his which seems well worth 
recording. He says: "Forty-six years ago last Septem- 
ber, I, with three other persons, was hunting on the west 
side of Seneca Lake, in Yates county, N. Y., near the spot 
called Long Point. We had started in the morning from 
Dresden, and had hunted all the forenoon without seeing 
a single squirrel. While we were seated under the shade 
of a large oak on the shore of the lake, Mr. R. called our 
attention to something black moving in the lake. We 
waited quietly and were well rewarded, for to our surprise 
we soon saw that the moving mass was made hp of black 
and gray squirrels swimming from the opposite side of the 
lake, which is here five miles wide. To speak within 
bounds, there were two acres of squirrels in this lot, and 
others along the west bank of the lake as far as Watkins. 
We saw many more crossing the lake the same fall, and 
the next year the west side of the lake had plenty of squir- 
rels and the east side had none." F. M. Comstock. 
THE VERMONT RATTLESNAKE BOUNTY. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
You express a doubt concerning the wisdom of a Ver- 
mont law providing for the payment of a bounty on rat- 
tlesnakes. I as a voter who helped elect our Legislature 
to their office, consider it my duty to stand forth to defend 
in some sort an honorable body, most of whose members 
are too modest to defend themselves. 
A chapter on the rattlesnakes of Vermont might almost 
equal in brevity that celebrated chapter on the snakes of 
Iceland, but that fact does not affect the question at all. 
If there are no rattlesnakes in the State the draft upon 
the treasury will be unfelt; if there are a few, the bounty 
will stimulate search and result in the extirpation of the 
pest, a consummation devoutly to be wished, for no good 
citizen of the commoa wealth desires these reptiles to share 
it with him. 
Furthermore, the offering of a bounty is a guaranty to 
the summer visitor, whom we greatly desire, of our wish 
to make his life secure and his ways pleasant during his 
sojourn within our borders; or if he is adventurous, to 
offer him an opportunity to adventure; or if he be of a 
thrifty turn, to give him a chance to earn a dollar. To 
gain honor and wealth at one s roke might easily lure to 
the mountains one who hesitated between them and the 
seashore. 
There may be a few old fogies who do not quite relish 
being crowded out of their beloved, secluded haunts by 
strangers, and have a selfish idea that the birthright of the 
native is entitled to some consideration ; but our legislators, 
the press and the people at large have a constant eye. with 
a seductive wink, to the summer visitor. They first legis- 
late to make good roads for him, though they shall lead 
him to no pleasant places, for it does not matter how the 
forests are laid waste or the banks of the streams are de- 
nuded of their beauty. For him they protect the pike 
perch two months beyond its spawning time and for him 
jealously guard the bass, our gamiest, but in point of I 
supply our least valuable food fish, while they almost 
ignore protection to our really most valuable food fish, the 
plebeian bull pout. 
Perhaps, too, our prohibitory liquor laws are made for 
a seductive purpose, for they have a highly moral sound 
even if they accomplish nothing but perjury and hypoc- 
risy. The press publishes without comment fabulous 
tales of game invading farms and gardens and running 
at large in village streets, and the people look and long 
for the weary Bummer visitor that they may take him in. 
We elect our best and wisest men to our Legislature, the < 
press is the palladium of our liberty, and, snakes or no 
snakes, our people are all virtuous if they are not all 
happy. Awahsoose. 
An Adirondack "Wolf." 
Gloversville, April 1R. — Editor Forest and Stream: >. 
In the town of Bleecker, Fulton County, there have been 
f ound within the last two weeks the carcasses of 21 deer 
which have been killed by a pack of wolves which in- 
habit the mountains near what is called the Pinch Moun- 
tain. It would seem that the number of these wolves is 
not very large, as some of the deer found only had a small 
hole eaten out of their hind quarter, with hardly a scratch 
on their bodies beside. A number of hunters are in that 
locality hunting for the wolves, but find it difficult on ac- 
count of the depth of snow, which is said to be about 3ft.in 
the woods. This is what makes it so easy for the wolves 
to catch the deer and pull them down, as some of the deer 
weTe scarcely four rods from their yard when killed. 
There were only five bucks killed out of the 31, which 
makes it worse for the game supply in that neighborhood, 
as most of the does were with fawn. 
Edward Kobusky, of Bleecker, killed one of the wolves 
April 11, and it is hoped by all concerned that they will "be i 
exterminated soon. J. E. G-. 
[On receipt of this letter, we wrote our correspondent; 
asking him to send on to us for examination the skin 
of the wolf referred to in his letter as having been killed 
in the town of Bleecker. This he very kindly did at once, ' 
with the further information that the wolf had been 
identified by the supervisors of the tow n and also by seve- 
ral residents of the town who have seen wolves there 
years ago. He mentioned also that the State bounty had 
been paid on the wolf. An examination of the skin, 
which, it must be said, is without skull or feet, and has 
only part of the tail attached, makes it evident that the 
animal was not a wolf at all, but a yellowish gray dog,' 
apparently a sable colly. Traces of the white collar so^ 
often seen on sable ^collies are to be seen on the skin. In 
order to confirm our opinion in this matter, we submitted 
the skin to Dr. J. A. Allen, the eminent mammalogist 
of the American Museum of Natural History, in this city, ' 
whose verdiot is the same as our own. We should be glad 
to take a contract to supply the county of Fulton with 
wolves of this sort until we had at least plumbed the 
depths of the county treasury.] 
The Scarcity of Spring Birds. 
Framingham, Mass., April 21. — The paucity of spring 
arrivals of the birds in this section is something unprece- 
dented. I certainly recall no such instance in an experi- 
ence of forty years. 
The conviction is forced upon us that the extreme sever- 
ity of the winter at the South has proved fatal to a large 
percentage of the migrants, at least of the smaller and 
weaker species. This idea is confirmed by letters from' 
South Carolina and Florida, mentioning the finding of 
large numbers of dead birds, especially swallows and 
bluebirds. In this vicinity, so far, it is quite a note to see 
one of these two species. 
In fact, with the possible exception of the blackbirds 
and robins, no one of the species that usually enliven oun 
woods and fields in April is to be found in any numbers. 
We hope to hear through your columns from observer 
iu other Northern locations ill corroboration or (ui 
be) the reverse, , F, C, B-»» ! 
