Tiea. 1896.] 
447 
of moving off to the aoutheaat, where the shooting was 
going on, I heard a crash in the bushes to the northeast 
of me and saw a doe dash out of the woods and start 
across the open. It did not take many weeks for my 
rifle to reach my shoulder, but "before I could fire a fine 
buck sprung out of the woods after the doe, running 
easily, but with long graceful bounds, which were making 
short wotfc of the distance to be covered. The instant I 
saw him I shifted my rifle from the doe without firing at 
her and let go at the buck. Changing my aim made a 
poor shot, for it did not take effect, It steadied me, 
however, and when the lever of my repeater had thrown 
a fresh cartridge into the breech my finger confidently 
pressed the trigger and down came tne buck. I ran for- 
ward, but seeing the deer struggling to regain its feet I 
fired twice more, the first piercing its neck and the last 
crashing through the poor beast's brain. 
Then I had time to look about me. The doe had made 
good her escape, for the stranger behind me had fired 
only one shot at her, which missed. Mr. Martens had 
been unable to shoot on account of the other stranger 
being in line of his aim. Had this not been the case the 
doe would have fallen to Mr. Martens's rifle and we should 
have had two deer to bring home. 
We waited half an hour, and, as no dogs appeared, we 
concluded that the deer had been "walked up" by some- 
body, thus giving us a clear title to our game. 
Little time was lost in carrying our prize to the station, 
but huny as we would, the morning train to the city had 
left, and I had to drive to Islip with the game, where I 
took a train for home, the others returning to the hunt- 
ing grounds. They did not shoot any more, however, 
though Mr. Martens heroically held his fire from a buck 
that loped along jusfc inside the preserve fence. 
As we had to carry our deer nearly two miles, we 
thought it must weigh at least SOOlbs,, but the scales 
brought our expectations down to a trifle over 200. The 
buck had a very pretty pair of antlers, however, and I 
am having the head mounted as a souvenir of my first 
Long Island deer hunt. B. F. Ellswobth, Jr. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Thanksgiving In Chicago. 
Chicago, 111., Nov. 28.— The weather was a dismal fail- 
ure m Cnicago on Thanksgiving Day, and the plans of a 
great many hunting parties were changed by the driz- 
zling downpour which prevailed over a good part of this 
section. Thanksgiving Day is the occasion of the annual 
hunt of a great many persons — elevator boys, newspaper 
men and the like — who go afield then to lay in their win- 
ter's supply of meat, Rtjports have not yet come in from 
many of the parties who went out into Wisconsin, Indi- 
ana and Illinois; but among them all there must have 
been some who enjoyed the season's abundance of small 
game. There are more quail, squirrels and rabbits in this 
part of the world this faU than tor many years past. For 
instance, I hear of two gentlemen, Mr. F, Teipel, of 
Grand Crossing, and Mr. L, Paul, of Chicago, who bagged 
180 quail within the week at Effingham, III , or rather at 
a point a few miles below there. They shot over a pointer 
belonging to Mr. William Werner, of this city, and not 
considering it outside of the ethics to shoot rabbits ahead 
of a good dog, killed a few sacks of rabbits incidentally. 
As earlier mentioned in these columns, that part of the 
State of Illmois is blessed with abundance Of quail this 
year. 
So far as I can learn every shooter in Chicago had a 
good Thanksgiving dinner except myself, and my escape 
from one rested upon circumstances which seem some- 
what singular. A friend had, a week or so ago, sent me up 
a fine, fat wild turkey for my Thanksgivmg dinner, and I 
felt sure that the presence of my turkey, at least, would 
make me welcome in almost any home of the city. Yet 
in this I was mistaken, for though I earnestly requested 
a number of my friends to ask me to dinner, tney all 
firmly declined, saying that they had other turkeys and 
other guests of their own. I felt quite sure that I could 
get Roll Organ to ask me to dinner with him, and I even 
allowed him to look at my turkey so that he might be 
sure of the bona fide character of my representations. Mr. 
Organ wavered for a moment, but finally declared that 
there were going to be eighteen or twenty of his own 
Eeople at his house for Tnanksgiving dinner, and that the 
igh class character of the attendance would bar me out. 
He suggested, however, that I might send the turkey 
with my regrets. Thinking that I might need the turkey 
in my business, I did not comply with his suggestion, but 
hung on to the bird as a sort of forlorn hope. At last, on 
Tha n ksgiving eve, not having been able to obtain any 
dinner invitation for the following day, I gave the bird 
away to another friend who offered to take it off my 
hands as an accommodation, and wandered forth into the 
streets of Chicago friendless, turkeyless and alone. 
As all men know, Thanksgiving time is harvest season 
for the shooting gallery people, who at that season set in 
operation a base imitation of the good old turkey shoot- 
ing contests of our forefathers, ^ I wandered down the 
street with my hat pulled down over my eyes and my 
hands thrust deep into my pockets, in the manner of him 
who haa despaired, I heard the tinkling of a little bell, a 
summons which oftentimes I have found myself unable 
to resist. In a few moments I was one of the spectators 
at a Chicago Thanksgiving turkey shoot, Tne dmgy and 
smoky little gallery, redolent with the odor of kerosene, 
beer and tobacco, was packed with a noisy and more or 
less drunken crowd of men and boys, most of whom were 
engaged in the Grand Prix de Turkey, The shooting was 
not at the turkeys themselves, and hence was less cruel if 
less skillful than the sports of our ancestors. The range 
was 30 or 4S)it. in length, although through the smoke and 
flicker it seemed more tnan twice as long. The conditions 
were that in order to win a turkey one must pay some- 
thing like 2 cents a shot, and must hit a ^in. bullseye at 
least two shots out of five or six, the hanaicapping vary- 
ing as the fancy of the gallery people dictated, A very 
drunken man had more liberties allowed him than one 
who was comparatively sober, etc., all of which shows 
the fair-mindedness which prevails in this city. As I was 
entirely sober, the keeper of the salle auao armea imposed 
a rather severe handicap on me, 1 found that it was no 
Blight feat to hit the bullseye half the time with rifles 
sighted as these were, and in a light so utterly abominable, 
and I soon came to understand why so few turkeys were 
taken from the numbers which flapped and strutted in the 
windows as an advertisement for the gaUery, My eyes 
were watery, my face perspiring and my pocketbook less 
by some 60 cents coin of the realm when the keeper re- 
luctantly conceded that I had won a turkey. Under the 
code I was allowed to select my turkey, which of 
course was a live one, and accordingly I opened the 
slats back of the window and hauled out what seemed 
to me to be the largest and fattest fowl of the lot, one 
which was sttutting and puffing himself out in all the 
glory of conscious vigor. Alas I I found that to be the 
worst bluff of a turkey that ever was, and when I got 
him in my arms and smoothed his feathers down it 
seemed to me that he was not much bigger than a night- 
ingale. Whereby I learned yet more of the sapience of 
the shooting gallery man. Carrying my live turkey, I 
again wandered forth into the street, but not alone. The 
turkey proved of habits alternately social and rebellious, 
and although it was now well past midnight, so that the 
streets held few passers-by, I found that I attracted a 
great deal of interest and attention. Finding it difficult 
to carry the turkey, I put him down and tried to herd him 
along the street in the direction of my home, A rapid 
calculation showed me that I would get him there in 
about two years at that rate, so I chased him into a door- 
way, corralled him again, and paused for thought. I 
did not really want the turkey, as I had no place to eat 
him any more than I had for the wild turkey, and more- 
over I reasoned that I had no place in my apartments 
where I could keep him comfortably, since he was prob- 
ably not accustomed to steam heat and portieres. Just at 
this juncture there came along a little old woman who 
was probably a Pole or an Italian — all these sa wed-off 
foreigners look alike to me. I told her she could have 
the turkey if she could get away with it, and she fell 
upon it gladly with many oroakings. The two passed 
from sight down under the flaring line of gas lights, the 
woman so lean of body, so strident of voice, so loose of 
fluttering coverings that I scarce could tell which was 
she and which the turkey. And so farewell turkey 
No. 2. 
It might be thought that the experiences of the day 
would have given me sufficient of turkey, but not so. 
On Thanksgiving morn, as I wandered down town, I 
heard yet again the irresistible summons of the little 
tinkling beU, and turning I saw, in the dingy window of 
another gallery, still a few bedraggled specimens of tur- 
keys which had survived the contests of the night pre- 
vious. Much against my will I walked into this gallery 
also and sadly asked for a rifle and inquired for the rules 
and conditions governing the tire aux turkeys at this 
place. This time the light was better, the crowd absent 
and the rifle sights not quite so difficult. My turkey 
cost me 15 cents and again was delivered to me alive. I 
begged the gallery keeper to kill it, and he having done 
this I put it in my pocket and went on down town. 
There may be those who think that one cannot put a tur- 
key in his pocket, but these have never seen a Chicago 
Thanksgiving shooting gallery turkey. At my office I 
rapidly went through my mail, hoping that I should find 
even yet an invitation out to dinner, but fate was against 
me, and despairingly I gave away this turkey also to a 
friend, and went and bought my dinner in a restaurant. 
With regret I state that probably I was the only man in 
Chicago who, having three turkeys up his sleeve, yet 
failed to have a Thanksgiving dinner. But I had learned 
much of natural history. Also I had learned something 
of shooting galleries. At one of these galleries I discov- 
ered that the proprietor kept house back of the targets, 
where his wife had a cook stove and a few other culinary 
paraphernalia. It seems that the man and his wife 
lived and slept there, their customers having a habit of 
coming at all sorts of hours. Through the heavy parti- 
tion which acted as back stop for the bullets there was 
cut a hole about a foot square, through which shooters 
could shoot at the "long range target." The long range 
target hung over the cook stove, and the bed was back of 
the short range. I thought there might be danger in 
having part of the household under fire during the long 
range operations, but the gallery man said: "Oh, she 
don't work over on this side of the room when they are 
shooting on the long range target." The lady herself 
further assured me by saying: "I ain't afraid at all. The 
bullets don't come through very often." And I noticed 
that she was cooking turkey on the stove under the long 
range target. Always turkey 1 
The Close of the Duck Season. 
Nearly all the ducks — except a few lingering mallards 
— have left the country by this time. A few birds were 
on Thanksgiving Day seen along the Desplaines River 
near Willow Sprmgs, and of course there will be scatter- 
mg bunches of mallards along the open water of the tim- 
bered rivers for some time yet. 
Really, the closing of the duck season occurred during 
the first week of November, and that week showed the 
heaviest shooting of the season for this neighborhood. 
At Fox Lake, during two days' shooting, over 400 ducks 
were killed by Willard Champion, of Caicago; F. M. 
Lasher and Frank Fisk, of Elgin; G. L Tilden, Fred Til- 
den and A. B. Winne, of Fox Lake. Other heavy bags 
were made in lower Wisconsin at about the same time, as 
the last of the northern flight paused for a short time on 
these waters. 
A Trip to Koshkonong. 
On Nov. 7 and 8 the wildfowl began to leave their feed- 
ing grounds on Lake Koshkonong. There had been a 
heavy snowstorm in that vicinity, and the snow lay 16in. 
deep, though the lake still remained open. It being 
reported that the shooting would be good, Messrs, R. B. 
Organ, B. Dicks and myself availed ourselves then of the 
invitation of Eddie Bingham to go up to the old Bingham 
homestead on Lake Koshkonong, to properly and effi- 
ciently flnish up the canvasback season. We had a most 
charming and delightful experience in this little trip — not 
in the number of birds killed, but in the novelty of expe- 
riences enjoyed. The Bingham homestead is a famous 
place, well known to all shooters of Chicago. The land 
was entered more than fifty years ago by the father 
of the present generation of Bmgham boys, at 
a time when deer and Indians were common in 
all that country. The farm lies right along the shores of 
the lake, and has several points noted as shooting grounds. 
The best of these, known as the "Stone Blmd Point," has 
probably had more canvasbacks killed from it than any 
other point on the lake, and many and many are the 
thousands of fat canvasbacks which have there turned up 
their toes within the past thirty or forty years. Ira Bing- 
ham now conducts the old homestead farm, and his 
mother, Mrs. Bingham, a very old lady, still lives there to 
tell the modern duck shooters stories of the old days oil 
the lake, back in the Indian times when the family had 
just moved in. It is not altogethet an enviable position 
to be head of the Bingham homestead in these days, tot 
all sorts of claims are made on the hospitality of the 
family by shooters eager to bl-eak into the coveted 8hoot=- 
ing of Lake Koshkonong, which is the most celebrated 
ground in this part of the world for redheads and canVas- 
backs, it being the last of the wild celery waters of the 
North touched by the south-bound flight of these fowl-. 
Here the birds feed all the fall in the shallow lake, Well 
protected in these days by State laws and private pre- 
serves, and when the weather conditions are tight the 
shooting on Lake Koshkonong is something which nowa- 
days is news of national interest. 
At the time of our visit we found several gentleroeilj 
among these Mr, Southerland and Mr. McKinney, of 
Janeeville, also at the Bingham homestead for a little 
shooting. Mr, McKinney is an ardent pursuer of the can* 
vasback, and has this fall killed about 150 canvasbacks, 
besides redheads and other birds. There were four ot 
five of us in the Stone Blind most of the time. In front of 
this point a large fleet of decoys is permanently anchored* 
All we had to do was to pass the night in good beds, get 
up early and enjoy a splendid breakfast, and then walk a 
quarter of a mile or so over the hill to the blind, where 
abundant hay and horse blankets did all possible to allevi- 
ate the chill of the severe winter weather. We sat in the 
blind and visited much more than we shot; for though we 
could see countless thousands of birds feeding or working 
out nver the lake, their education had been such as to 
render them very shy of the Bingham point. At times a 
distant gun would be heard, and across the lake we could 
see a black mass of birds arise, hover and pass on to other 
grounds, perhaps returning in a few minutes and settling 
in a great broken swarm. The great bulk of these birds 
were canvasbacks and redheads, and rarely would one see 
a finer gathering of these choice birds. In addition, there 
were many bluebills and also numbers of marsh ducks. 
All the fowl were uneasy, but would not work inshore, so 
we got no shooting. At times we could see a flock come 
high over the water and drop down, and these we took to 
be travelers coming down from the North. The weather 
was now very cold, and the men about the lake said that 
either on that day or the next the birds would nearly all 
leave the lake for their Southern migration. They usu- 
ally begin their Southern flight just before sundown, 
going straight up high into the air and then striking off 
on no man knows how long a course to the Southern 
waters. It was' a pleasure merely to sit and watch the 
habits of the wildfowl on these favored grounds, and all 
in all we got quite enough birds to repay us for our freez- 
ing. My friends Organ and Dicks had been lucky enough 
to get a pair of canvasbacks before my arrival, and Mr. 
Dicks killed another during the afternoon. From time to 
time, at long intervals, a flock of bluebills or a scattering 
bunch of redheads would come by, and from these we 
took an occasional tribute at long range; so that gradu- 
ally the little pile of ducks, each frozen stiff as a wedge, 
grew behind the Stone Blind until we had twenty or so 
between us, including half a dozen redheads. 
Tricks of Shoottnfir> 
The wind was not in the right direction to float our 
ducks ashore when we killed them, and Mr. McKinney, 
who is an old Koshkonong hunter and as much at home 
in a " sneak boat" (the sort that is now forbidden by law 
on these waters) as a duck is in the water, kindly acted 
as retriever in general for the party. The waves were 
running pretty stiff, but he handled the little paddling 
boat so skillfully as not to ship any water, and picked up 
all our dead birds before they were lost in the hazy line 
which marked the mingling of the sky and water on our 
brief horizon. After a time Mr. McKmney left the blind, 
and Messrs. Dicks, Organ and myself were left alone. 
One of us kiUed a duck, and it became a grave question 
how we were going to get it, both my friends vowing 
they hadn't lost any duck under the circumstances. In 
this I am inclined to doubt their sincerity, as the sequel 
will show, but at any rate they persuaded me that I was 
the man to go out in the boat after the duck, and this I 
did, Tney overwhelmed me with compliments of a very 
suspicious sort when I came back m, and I noticed they 
seemed very much pleased over something, though I did 
not kno w what it was. We lay around in the blind quite 
a while after that, nothing occurring to break the 
monotony, until finally, as it happened, there came swim- 
ming up for a sociable interview with our decoys a 
solitary bluebill, which passed at about 50yd8. 
from the blind and took a look at us. Organ 
suggested that I sit up in the bUnd and kill 
the bluebill on the water, and as the shooting 
was poor, and the chance a tempting one, I readily 
agreed to this. "I won't do a single thing to that duck," 
said T, as I slowly got upon my knees and covered the 
bobbing form. I did not mean to take any chances about 
it, so I allowed for the wind, and waited for several mo- 
ments for the duck to show on the top of a wave before I 
fired. Meantime I heard something like a suppressed 
giggle behind me, but was too much interested to pay any 
attention to that. At length I pulled trigger. This 1 say 
advisedly, and do not say that 1 fired at all. The fact is 
I did not fire, but only got a snap. Thinking the gun had 
missfired, I tried the other barrel, and it too snapped. 
Excited at this, I broke open the gun, finding two empty 
shells in the chambers. "Well, I thought she was loaded," 
said I, and hastily slipped in two good shells and then 
took my chance at the duck, which by this time was too 
far out to kill. I never suspected I had been victimized 
till my two friends broke into a shout of laughter. It 
seems they had sent me out in the boat so that tney could 
fix up my gun on me, counting upon much pleasure 
when I should snap both barrels at the next fljck that 
came in. They calmly told me that they considered the 
solitary bluebill as a providential matter, and both assured 
me that they had all they could do to keep from shouting 
when I sat up and announced that I wouldn't do anything 
to the duck. They both said too that the long wait for 
the shot was almost more than they could stand. "I 
thought you never were going to shoot," chuckled Dicks, 
"and it looked as though the joke was on us." 
A Bag of Buckwheat Cakes. 
I have said that the position of head of the Bingham 
family is a trying one because of the number of guests 
who are always bothering about in the shooting season. 
The family does not lease any shooting, and does 'not ac- 
cept pay for board, so that the place in no way is a public 
