Duo, 19, 1806.] FOREST AND STREAM, 4§S 
camp and go at it with some sort of system. Warren 
counted heads and said that the other ten waprons con- 
tained twenty-five men and with ours there were thirty 
ponies in the party. Amos seemed to be the leader and 
directed the movements. We camped near the mouth of 
a small stream on the north bank of the river; the 
wagons were arranged so as to form a corral to keep the 
live stock in at night to prevent a stampede by wolves or 
buffalo, but we had to enlarge the circle with logs. The 
oxen and ponies had been feeding while we were doing 
•this and then we gathered them in for the night; three 
guards were appointed to keep watch, one at a time, for 
fear of accident that might stampede our stock in spite of 
the corral and leave us in bad sbape. There was danger 
that some prowling band of Osages, Kaws or other 
Indians might do this, so an armed man patroled outside 
the corral while we slept. 
It rained in the night, but the morning was fair, and 
leaving ten men to see that the stock did not wander and 
to keep camp we saddled our ponies and started to look 
for the game. To a question Amos replied: "No, we had 
our guard all picked afore we started, and we don't ex- 
pect you boys to do any of it. Them ten men will take 
care o' things night an' day. I ast ye to come an' hunt, 
didn't I? Then what ye talkin' 'bout? There ain't even 
an ole bull in sight, but you can see where the herd went 
north toward the Smoky Hill Fork, an' mebbe gone on to 
the Saline or way up to Solomon Fork. But there's more 
— a heap more — an' if we don't strike 'em to-day why to- 
morrer's comin'. If it was dry ground we might see 
where there was a herd by the dust; there's an old bull 
now cff by hisself, but we don't want him. There's noth- 
in' good about him but his overcoat, an' that's on'y good 
for buckskin. Them old bulls get druv out by the young 
ones an' just herd by theirsplvea." 
We went north to the divide that separates the waters 
flowing into the Arkansas from those of the Smoky Hill 
Fork of Kaw River, which feeds the Missouri as far north 
as Kansas Oity. The Kaw River is spelled "Kansas" on 
the maps, but nobody called it anything but Kaw, after 
the tribe of degraded Indians who lived along its waters. 
Why this was so may be classed in Lord Dundreary's cat- 
alogue of "things no fellow can find out." It was near 
noon when our ponies were hobbled and given a couple 
of hours to graze and drink, while we ate, smoked and 
talked. There had been no introductions, such things 
were superfiuous in those days among such men, and we 
had scraped acquaintance and knew a few Johns, Jims, 
Bills and Joes. They were rough, ignorant men, frontier 
farmers, and as I was in that class we got along, but it 
was evident that Amos had exploited me as a magician, 
for they were curious about me after we made camp at 
night. They were satisfied that I was a Free State man, 
for that was the first thing that a man wished to satisfy 
himself on in those days; are you friend or foe? 
This curiosity became too strong to be controlled, and 
Joe broke out with: "Amos says you can see through a 
pack of cards and tell how they will deal; is that so?" 
"No; Amos says many things besides his prayers. 
Sometimes I make a guess at what cards a man holds, and 
if I guess anywhere near right he thinks it wonderful. 
Hand me that pack, and I'll make a guess on the hand 
you have after you have cut the cards," 
Tnis was a raah statement, for the pack was well worn 
and dirty, but my fame was at stake. Running them 
over in shuffling, I got the four aces and a king at the 
bottom of the pack, and then laid it on the blanket. 
"Now you cut the cards anywhere you like," said I, and 
he cut near the middle. Catching the eyes of the crowd, 
I put the "cut" back on top, and played the old trick of 
dealing from the end of the pack, giving him a card from 
the bottom and myself one from the top. When the deal 
was finished, I said: "It's hard to see through these cards, 
they're so dirty, but your hand beats mine. Keep 'em all 
together, don't spread 'em out; I can guess better when 
they're bunched. Let's seel I guess you've got four aces 
and a queen; no, it's a king, the king of spades, I think; 
it's a black one; no, it's the king of clubs." 
He showed down the hand as I called it, and those 
simple men were astounded. Both Warren and Amos 
told me that the hand was dealt from the bottom, but they 
had seen more of such things than the others. The com- 
pany of these men was no pleasure; they were men shrewd 
enough at a bargain, but children in everthing else; they 
had read nothing, could talk of nothing but their own un- 
eventful lives. Yet it was necessary that something should 
be done to relieve the monotony of sitting around a camp- 
fire and listening to the talk of men who could not talk. 
Therefore, to relieve myself from the dreadful situation, 
ten times more lonesome than if no human being had 
been within 100 miles, I "opened my box of tricks," 
learned in the idle moments of schoolboy life, and 
amused myself and companions with the few simple bits 
of legerdemain which I could call to mind. Later in life 
many such situations have occurred, when if you wanted 
any fun you must make it yourself, and it is my mature 
opinion that such a crowd have so little humor that they 
don't appreciate anything except practical jokes or the 
wonders of the magician. The humorous story or the 
witty repartee is wasted on them as much as it would be 
on a Digger Indian. Yet that is the state of mind of over 
half of the people of the United States, taking them "by 
and large." It is safe to say that outside what may be 
called the educated classes few appreciate a joke unless it 
is in its roughest costume. Refine it, put it in evening 
drees, and it "is caviare to the general;" but the few who 
can and do enjoy it are those for whom it was intended. 
Jests are of so many kinds that some are offensive. 
Bacon, in his Essays, says: "As for jest, there be certain 
things which ought to be privileged from it, namely, 
religion, matters of state, great persons, any man's pres- 
ent business of importance, any case that deserveth pity." 
This definition is "funny" — to this generation. 
It is funny because "matters of state" are the subject of 
political cartoons in almost every illustrated paper of 
to-day, and as for "great persons" — they are the fellows 
who get it! A young friend at my elbow, who is fully 
abreast of the current idioms of the day, says: "Yes, 
an' they git it frequent, right where Alice wears her 
pearls." 
"Johnny," I asked, "what do you mean? What has 
Alice and her pearls — " 
"Why, they get it in the neckl See? O, I forget, you 
wasn't alive last week. Say, that was a big scald on 
Senator in last week's Scolder. Did you see it?" 
This is the sort of interruption that comes to a man who 
writes of old timea when hia surroundings are not con- 
genial. After removing Johnnie I tried to get back by a 
jump of forty years from the present to the day when the 
buffalo grazed from Oregon to Texas. ' 
On our way back to camp we saw a few solitary bulls, 
and some time in the night there was an alarm that 
turned us all out with our rifles ready for action. One 6f 
the herders had gone off to the eastward and struck a 
small bunch of buffalo and had killed a calf. He had 
brought the dressed carcass and the skin back, and had 
stretched the latter between two trees just outside the 
camp, and some wolves had torn it down and were fight- 
ing over it. A few fire brands settled the dispute, and 
the torn skin was brought in the corral in the interest of 
harmony. 
The next morning was rainy, but the ponies had their 
corn and we our buffalo veal, and off we wen t. In less than 
an hour we saw the whole prairie covered with buffalo, 
grazing and going south. From a knoll the entire earth 
seemed covered with them as far as we could see. There 
might have been a million, or a hundred million, or as 
many figures as you please to add to the guess. I tell you 
in sober truth, and I ask you to believe me, I don't know 
how many buffalo were in that herd. Warren said: 
"Betcher there's mor'n ten hundred millonsl" You may 
take Warren's estimate or mine, as you prefer, or you may 
go there and try to count the tracks of that great herd, I 
don't care; but I will assert that — that — there was a big 
lot of buffalo ou t there in the open air of that Kansas 
prairie one day in the fall of 1898. That herd was too big 
for a few men on ponies to stampede, and we put in the 
spurs and got up alongside. Those on the outside took 
the alarm and pressed on without other effect than to 
cause the others next them to think they were pressing 
for better forage. Amos had told me to pick a barren 
cow if I could find one, a fat young cow that had no calf 
of five or six months old near her, and to keep a sharp 
eye in the rear and not get mixed in the herd, or there 
would be a dead man and a dead pony. 
There was then the spice of danger in this hunti It be- 
gan to be more interesting. I had thought it would be 
sufficient to make the trip and study the types of men, 
see a herd of buffalo with its flankers and rear-guard of 
wolves ready to capture a weak straggler or a calf that 
strayed too far, but now that there was danger there was 
a promise of sport. Hotspur truly says: 
"The blood more stirs 
To rouse a lion than to start a bare." 
Our party had stretched out over two miles on the flank 
of the herd, which was moving slowly in the mass, but 
more swiftly near the hunters, and an occasional shot was 
heard. My pony would not take me too near; he had 
evidently seen a herd of buffalo before, and 1 only feared 
for the rear. It was getting to be interesting, and after 
I had singled out my game and tried, to get alongside it, 
with no other buffalo intervening, it wa8 exciting. 
Unconsciously I gave a whoop as the picked animal 
came in plain view, and the pony didn't need spur nor 
whip to quicken his pace to get alongside; he understood 
it all. Once alongside the galloping beaat, a new diflSoulty 
appeared; she was at my right hand and I feared to twist 
in the saddle, not knowing how the pony would act, and 
I had never shot from my left shoulder. I did, however, 
shift the rifle to my left arm and flred. The pony never 
swerved and the huge beast dropped. The shot caused 
the animals near me to crowd away and I circled about and 
shot again as the animal was about to rise; a few strug- 
gles and I had killed a buffalo. 
"Come on! kill some more," yelled Warren as he 
passed, seeking a fresh victim; but I had cooled down and 
was content to watch the herd as it turned off to the 
right up the river, looking more like a sea covered with 
rolling porpoises than anything I can liken it to. I sat 
on my pony gazing on the wonderful sight while my 
companions followed the herd and thought only of kill- 
ing. To-day it seems like a dream. Where we rode be- 
side that great herd the locomotive shrieks and a genera- 
tion of men has been born who may occasionally plow up 
a hone or a horn that tells of an extinct race of great 
animals. 
It was well along in the afternoon before all had gath- 
ered at the camp, and the rain still fell. The guards fed 
the ponies and we made a big fire to dry ourselves by, 
and by the time supper was over there was a rainbow in 
the east. Amos came over to our wagon and wanted to 
know how I liked buffalo hunting. 
"Well, Amos," I replied, "it's a good deal like goin' 
into a barnyard an' shootin' cattle; just galloping along- 
side of a steer an' pluggin' him with lead until he drops. 
I'd a heap sight rather shoot woodcock." 
"Woodcock! What's them? Them air big woodpick- 
ers 'at drums on trees fur grubs? Why, they ain't good 
to eat an' it takes as much powder an' lead to kill one on 
'em as it does to kill a bufliir that weighs over a quarter 
of a ton. Wal, that's all right, you can shoot woodpick- 
ers ef you like, but when I shoot I want to see something 
worth shooting at." 
I hadn't the courage to explain what a woodcock was, 
it wouldn't have helped the matter in the least, nor the 
disposition to argue the case of sport verms meat; that 
would have been equally hopeless. So I said: "Won't 
the wolves spoil the skins and the meat to-night before 
we can save both in the morning?" 
"Yes, some on 'em," said he, "but it's the best we 
could do, an' if we're short we'll kill some more. We 
allers kill enough for ourselves an' the wolves too, there's 
plenty of 'em." 
After Amos left us Warren said: "Betcher didn't kill 
any more bufiidr 'an I did. Honest, now, how many?" 
"One." 
"Is that all? Why, what joo do all day? Betcher I 
killed half a dozen and put my mark on a lot more; I 
come out here for fun, I did, an' now the gang's goin' 
back as soon as they skin an' load up the meat." 
There was no use in talking to this man. I began to 
feel myself out of touch with the rest, holding opinions 
which I did not care to expose to ridicule by expressing 
them, so I turned the talk in another direction. We 
could hear the wolves howl and fight as long as we heard 
anything, and when silence came morning came with it. 
"Camp was broken, and the oxen were hitched up and 
the wagons scattered to do their work. Guards and all 
hands went to the labor of skinning, and from inquiry 
afterward I learned that nearly 100 buffalo had been 
killed by seventeen men! But they were not all choice 
beeves, and then only the f orequsu^ra with the bump 
rib were to be taken back, for those and the tooguei 
were the choice parts. If time permitted, they would 
all be skinned and the wolves would put a polish on the 
bonea. 
I had been greatly impressed by that pigeon slaughter 
which Cooper relates in one of the "Leather Stocking" 
tales, where the people loaded a cannon and brought 
down hundreds at a shot, while Natty protested, killed 
one pigeon for his own use and went his way. That's a 
good thing for a boy to read; it had its effect on me all 
through life. It's the fashion to sneer at Cooper, and say 
that there never were any such Indians as his. That may 
be so, but it's the fault of the Indians. I like Cooper's 
Indians, but the real thing, with the dirt and vermin- 
laden blanket; "Faugh I an ounce of civet, good apothe- 
cary, to sweeten my imagination." 
We will pass over the disgusting detail of skinning and 
loading up. Six skins fell to Warren and me, and several 
forequarters and tongues. That's all there is of our hunt. 
The party was a most uninteresting one, devoid of intelli- 
gence and conseqaently of humor. Amos and Warren 
were the only two whose company was endurable on this 
my first and only buffalo hunt. If my friend of later 
years, old Nessmuk, had been there he would have 
agreed with me, and in his fondness for parody might 
have said: 
"Better fifty shots at woodcock 
Than ten tons of buffalo." 
I learned that the hide of a buffalo bull was not worth 
taking because the hair was thin or absent on the hind- 
quarters, and that their beef was worthless; but that the 
tine robes came from the cows, and that the hump rib 
of a two-year-old heifer was a fine bit of beef. 
On the wall of my den hangs a pair of buffalo horns 
saved from the slaughter of that day, -Below them are a 
pair of snowshoes and the sword of an officer of the line. 
Sometimes an old man rests his eyes upon these relica 
until the present is forgotten; the rushing bison with 
their thundering tramp and grunting snort go by in count- 
less herds, which somehow change into battalions of 
armed men with glistening bayonets and ragged colors, 
which afterward fade into the brown of tbe forest and 
the stillness only broken by the fall of the snowshoe, 
until he is aroused by a soft hand on his shoulder, and a 
soft voice by his side says: "Hadn't you better get ready 
for dinner? You've been asleep," Feed, Mather, 
PENNSYLVANIA ASSOCIATION. 
PHILADELPHtA, Dec. 12, — The regular monthly meeting 
of the Pennsylvania Fish Protective Association was held 
Saturday evening, Dec. 13, at the rooms, i020 Arch 
street, Philadelphia. 
The Association has long had under consideration the 
subject of effecting State organization, in order to secure 
concurrent action in behalf of the fishery interests. It 
has fostered and assisted in the formation of local organi- 
zations of kindred character throughout the State with 
this object in view. 
Those efforts have been most gratifying, until at this 
time there are sufficient local clubs to warrant the belief 
that this desirable object can be accomplished. 
Two propositions were submitted: Club membership, 
and the advisability of issuing a call for a convention for 
the purpose of forming a State league. 
The latter has its drawbacks and was once tried with- 
out success, in view of which it was finally decided that, 
as this Association was the oldest charterdd organization 
of its kind in the State, covering the entire Soate in its 
work, all the purposes of a State league could be accom- 
plished by the creation of club membership. Suitable 
amendments were adopted at the meeting. 
The amendmentB provide for. first, active members, who alone shall 
own and control the assets of the Association; seond, contributing 
members, who must reside outside oC the city of Philadelphia and 
counties contiguous thereto, and who shall have all the rights and 
privileges of active members, save only any participation or owner- 
ship in the assets of the Association; third, corresponding members, 
who sball have a voice but no vote in the meetings of the Association; 
fourth, honorary members. 
Sec. 3. "All applications for membership must be in writing and 
recommended by a member of the Association, who must be person- 
ally acquainted with the applicant aad vouch for his or its good char- 
acter; and every application for membership must give the name, 
residence and occupatioa of each individual, and the name and loca- 
tion of every club being a candidate. 
Sec. 3. "The election of active and contributing members shall be 
by ballot at the next stated meeting after proposal, and three black 
balls will be deemed suSlclent to cause the rejection of any candidate. 
A name, once rejected, cannot again be pre&ented within six mouths 
thereafter, except by unanimous consent. 
Sec. 4. "Any person or cluo, upon being elected, must pay the dues 
prescribed before being admitted to the privileges of membership. 
Sec. 5 "Any duly organized club or association which may now or 
at any time hereafter be organized 'for the purposes named In Article 
I.' by at least five citizens of this Commonwealth, may be ehgible to 
either or any of the memberships designated m Sec. 1 of this article, 
upon election in manner and form as is hereinbefore provided." 
We are now ready for the whipping-m process and pro- 
pose to draft lengthy circulars outlining the plans, copies 
of which will be sent broadcast through the State. 
A resolution was adopted tendering the use of the 
rooms of the Association to the State Fish Commission in 
the event of their holding a meeting in this city at any 
time they may elect. 
A special Committee on Legislation was appointed to 
keep in touch with all bills presented to the Legislature 
affecting the fishing interests, and urge the passage of all 
measures designed for their improvement, as follows: 
Dr. B. W. James, Howard A. Chase, B. L, Douredoure, 
Wm. E' Meehan and M. G, Sellers. 
The members of the State Fish Commission were unan- 
imously elected honorary members of the Association. 
Communications advising the progress of local organii- 
zations in several counties of the State were read and con- 
gratulations extended. 
A special committee was appointed to confer with. th©» 
State Fish Commission in an effort to have placed in all 
the public schools of the State charts containing the col- 
ored plates of fishes, spawning season, etc., as contained 
in the report of Pennsylvania Commission. 
We find much to do as a public educator; though we 
fought hard to establish a public aquarium in this city, we 
sometimes think New York stole our thunder; however, 
we are still at it. Tbe above may lead up to it, and we 
are looking after the rising generation. 
The nominations were as follows: President, Edwin Hagert; Vice 
Presidents: Dr. Bushrod W. James, Geo. T. Stokes, Wm. P. Thomp- 
son, Howard A. Chase (three to be chosen). Becording See'y, Marlon 
G. Sellers; Corresponding Sec'y, J P. Collins; Treasurers: Alfred 
Hand, Wm. 8 Hergesheimer. Ex. Com, (nine to be chosen): Geo. T, 
Btokes, H, A. Chase, Wm. P. Thompson, Wm. H. Burkhardt, Dr. W. ' 
W. McClure, Wm. E. Meehan, Edw. a. Seliiez, Robt. M. Mackay, Cha8. 
H. Thompson, Alfred Hand, B. L. Douredoure, Wm, P. Ogelsby, S, E. 
i;dkndls. Trustee three years), H. O. Wilbur. 
M. G, Sbllsrs, 
