88 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
LJan. 30, 1897. 
This bunch is too small to follow. Down a ravine, up 
over a hill, across an old field, and the broad valley of the 
river — creek rather — or, as the natives of New Jersey 
would pronounce it, "crick." 
In the sedge and pine we find birds again, and one of 
them seems to have met with an accident, as he cannot 
keep up with the others, and Djnald sees it. "Never 
mind the dead ones, you can pick- them up; I will get 
that fellow." I half believe he will, The bird is lOft. in 
the air, and the dog, with leaps and rushes, almost reaches 
him. I whistie and call, No attention to me; he must 
have that bird. I blow and yell; finally lay down my 
gun, climb the fence and hill and, after a chase that ex- 
hausts my breath, catch that dog and lead him in no 
gentle manner to the place where he should have 
dropped. 
When I get through, the Professor, who generally has 
a camera along, regrets he left it behind this time. He 
would "just like to show that picture to my wife. I 
would have to buy a new dog, as Donald would never be 
permitted to accompany me afield again if she could see 
that." Dear old Professor, as though no one had ever 
seen you tan a dog. 
A brief stop at a spring and we go after the scattered 
birds, and find them. What an afternoon, and what a 
splendid ending to the old year and to our vacation. 
Before climbing into our upper berths of the sleeper on 
our way home that night, we congratulate ourselves that 
while we have birds to give away, we have no dogs for 
sale. G. B. 
THE SQUIRRELS, THE RIFLE AND 
NIGHT. 
Tupelo, TAies.— Editor Forest and Stream: While in 
this place I met Dr. M. F. Rogers, of New Albany, Miss., 
whose broad fame as a sportsman is so well known that 
to enlarge on it now would be to tell a twice-told tale. 
While we were talking over old times and new, and times 
which were of neither, he, in his engaging manner, said 
to me: "By the way, did you ever hear of Br'er Hough's 
schooling in MissisBippi as to the best manner of squirrel 
hunting in the night time? No. Well, it was a real good 
thing, but somehow Mr. Hough forgot to incorporate it 
in his charming sketches of the "Sunny South." How- 
ever, it was not treating the public right to leave out such 
an important incident, inasmuch as while using the pen 
of the historian-he should tell the whole history; but no 
doubt Mr. Hough's modesty restrained him from dealing 
with such incidents as would bring him too conspicuously 
and too perpetually in the center of the stage. I would 
have written this true tale myself to Forest and Stream 
save for the fact that I write but Uttle now for publica- 
tion, yet I tell it you not in confidence. 
"The scenb is laid in Bobo's camp, in the middle of his 
bear garden in Mississippi. Among the stars present were 
Bobo, Mr. E. Hough and Mr. Lamar Fontaine. These 
three are the heroes of the story, and it is not essential 
that the names of the others be mentioned, as if they 
were it might seem that they were stealthily introduced 
as witnesses. 
"Mr. Foataine is famous throughout the South as 
soldier, jurist, sportsman and poet. He is ingenuously 
versatile in any calling, but in poetry he achieved fame 
at one effort, for after unremittingly fighting the enemy 
three days and nights in the late debate at arms between 
sections which are now good friends, he sat him down on 
a log, laid gently the finger tips of his right hand on his 
brow, and thought deep and long, then returned calmly 
to camp, and by the flicker of the camp-fire, and to the 
music of cannon, he wrote that immortal masterpiece 
'Beautiful Snow.' Some of these accomplishments may 
have been his brother's, but it is to be assumed that he 
could have had them had he cared for them. As a prac- 
tical joker he has no superior in the world. His fertility 
in inventing cunning devices to inveigle his victims into 
his dead-fall jokes is surpassed only by his skill in execu- 
ting what he has planned. With the rifle he is a master, 
in practical shooting or the wonders of fancy, spectacu- 
lar performance, 
"Well, at the end of a hard day's hunting for bear, 
which was all the harder from the timorous, inoffensive 
little creatures doing their utmost lo avoid being blown to 
pieces by so many big guns, the whole party sat in con- 
templative and reminiscent mood about the camp-fire 
with the single exception of the mighty Bobo, who in 
negligee recline was engaged apparently in slumbering. 
"A moment of silence came wherein Mr. Fontaine arose 
from his seat, donned his hat, and then with the most 
nonchalant air picked up a .Sacal. rifle, tested its action, 
was satisfied, and started for the door. 
"Mr. Hough had been furtively eyeing the strano-e 
actions which no one seemed to notice other than him- 
self. His curiosity impelled him to ask Mr. Fontaine 
whither he was going. 'Going squirrel hunting,' was the 
sententious reply. 
" 'Squirrel hunting I What, this dark night?' said Mr. 
Hough in astonishment. 
" 'Of course,' replied Mr. Fontaine in a tone of in- 
dulgent tolerance and an air as became one gentleman in- 
forming another of facts the latter should know, but 
didn't, 'our very best squirrel hunting is in the darkness 
of the nighttime at this season of the year, and the best 
weapon, in fact the only successful one for night hunt- 
ing, is the rifle. Don't you really know anything of this 
lovely sport?' 
" 'But how do you see to shoot?' 
" 'Oh, it has to be learned by experience,' was the 
laconic answer. 
' 'Mr. Fontain e then strode into the thick of the black night. 
The members of the party resumed their gaze into the 
camp-fire. Conversation flagged. A calm contentment 
pervaded the company save for one who seemed restless 
and alert. A rifle cracked in the woods. 'Tliat's a dead 
squirxej,' said one, 'Fontaine never misses,' remarked 
a,nother. Some minutes passed, when in another direc- 
tion the rifle was heard, craclc—craeh— crack. 'That fel- 
low was running,' said one of the company. 'It's dead 
now, anyway,' said another. 'Wonderful gift for a man 
to have,' said a third, 'and it is no wonder he was so 
famous for night work in the army.' 
"And so it continued for a half hour, when footsteps 
were heard approaching, and Mr. Fontaine, bunch of 
squirrels in hand, walked in with the matter-of fact bear- 
ing of the man who has done the deed so many times that 
he has ceased to think of it with any warmth. The party 
showed no surprise and but little interest, save 
Mr. Hough. He entered into the matter with much 
spirit. His admiration for so mighty a hunter could not 
be contained. He eulogized him, praised his skill and 
commended his success. The company did not show the 
responsiveness befitting the occasion, so he shook the 
mighty Bobo, saying, 'Awake, awake, and view the mar- 
vels of the night and the wonders our good friend hath 
wrought with his trusty rifle in the darkness. Behold 
this bunch of squirrels which fell to his nocturnal eye I' 
"Bobo awoke suspiciously easy, and said, 'Sonny, you 
have told us that you killed grizzly bears in the Eocky 
Mountains, killed ducks and geese in Texas, deer in New 
Mexico, shot all over Louisiana, killed buffalo, and fished 
all over the world, and yet you break in on my slumbers 
to have me admire a bunch of Equirrels which are cold 
and stiff and perhaps fly-blown, tor they were killed three 
days ago with a shotgun.' 
"A singular merriment thereupon pervaded the party. 
" 'That is a very good story,' I ventured. 
" 'That is not a story, ^ said the doctor in a tone of mild 
rebuke. 'That is a fact, lor Bobo told me himself. Ask 
Mr._ Hough about killing squirrels at night.' " 
The Chief. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Fatal Affray on the Tolleston Club Grounds. 
Jan. 22.— On the morning of Jan, 20 the daily papers 
of Chicago flamed with deep headlines descriptive of a 
sudden fatal affray that had occurred the day previous 
upon the preserves of the Tolleston Club, of Chicago, near 
Tolleston, Ind., where this well known and wealthy club 
has large holdings of marsh lands, used for the purposes 
of a duck-shooting preserve. 
At different times these columns have held descriptions 
of the determined efforts of the neighboring small land- 
owners, and other less worthy persons, to treat this pri- 
vate property as their own — efforts which the club has 
always successfully combated within its legal rights. In 
these troubles of the past two or three determined tres- 
passers have been roughly handled after refusing to leave 
the grounds. One or two suits for personal damages have 
been brought against the club, usually only to be dropped 
later. Suits have been brought to prove that the club 
marsh was open land belonging to the State of Indiana, 
and all sorts of trials have been heaped upon the silent 
and plucky clubmen who have tried to hold a little wild 
nature intact thus near to the city and to the hordes of 
unthinking and desperate men who wish to use as their 
own.that which belongs to others. At one time two men 
who had formerly been in the employ of the club as 
watchmen pursued a quarrel outside of the club grounds 
and away from the club jurisdiction, and were both shot 
and kUled by a man who was attacked by them, and who 
made a good case of self-defense, in which he was upheld 
by the club. Again, a year ago last October, two of the 
club watchmen who were crossing the marsh after dusk 
were waylaid and shot from ambush by unknown parties, 
whose identity the best detective energy has since been 
unable to discover. One of these men was Frank Whit- 
lock, head warden, who was concerned in the affray of 
this week, and who was shot in the breast and seriously 
wounded at that time, his watchman's star being dented 
and bent by the load of shot which struck him in the 
breast and knocked him down. The other man was 
named Treagar, and he also was badly hurt, though both 
recovered in time. This latter was the last of the serious 
ti-oubles upon this marsh, and it was enoua:h to put the 
watchmen upon their guard, and to teach them how se- 
rious might be an encounter with the class of men who 
make the common and most dangerous poachers upon 
that property. 
Serious as had been these earlier troubles on the club 
grounds— troubles which the club has always deplored, but 
could never avoid — the affair of this week was at once 
seen to be the most important one that has ever occurred 
there. Four men were reported to have been shot, two 
with probably fatal results and the others seriously. 
_Three of the men acting as wardens were arrested, or 
rather gave themselves up at once; the fourth, Frank 
Whitlock, being then and now still at large. The pris- 
oners wt-ra taken to the jail at Crown Point. It was at 
first reported, and indeed is asserted now, three days after 
the affray, that a mob was forming in the neighborhood 
determined to lynch the watchmen and then to march 
upon the Tolleston Club buildings to destroy them with 
dynamite and fire. This latter is a sample of the lawless 
and incendiary talk common intkiat neighborhood, where 
hostility to the "city sportsmen" is a part of the creed of 
life. Of course nothing will come of that. Meantime 
the Tolleston Club has engaged the services of W. A. 
Foster (the attorney who defended the Anarchists here), 
and has taken prompt steps to see the thing to a speedy 
legal end. Numbers of arrests are now being made 
among the poachers who were engaged in the fight, and 
the result will probably be that all the parties engaged in 
the affair on either side will be apprehended and held in 
custody until the matter can receive attention in the 
courts. The cases will probably be removed from the 
seat of local prejudice and tried in the courts of La Porte, 
in the same county. 
The facts of the case as developed by careful investiga- 
tion seem to be as follows: A party of men living near 
the club grounds— numbering in all fourteen or fifteen 
men — banded together and went upon the club grounds 
for the ostensible purpose of spearing muskrats. Just 
why so large a body of men should go together for the 
hunting of muskrats they can themselves perhaps better 
tell. It looks rather as though they were expecting or 
looking for trouble. At any rate, they were seen by the 
club watchmen, ordered off and refused to go. In the 
subsequent fight, in which the four watchmen were en- 
gaged with three times their number of trespassers, fire- 
arms were used, it is alleged, freely on both sides, with 
the result that one of the watchmen's party, John Black- 
burn, was slightly wounded in the head, while three of 
the trespassers — Frank Koster or Costick, Theodore Pratt 
and Alvin Both well — were shot. Koster was shot with a 
rifle in the hands, it is alleged, of Frank Whitlock, head 
warden, Pratt was shot seriously in the legs with a shot- 
gun in the hands, it is said, of Barnum Whitlock, son of 
Frank Whitlock, who also shot Bothwell with the second 
barrel of the same gun, injuring him about the legs, 
though less seriously. The poachers assert that the men 
were all running away when they were fired upon by the 
wardens, but the latter testify very differently from that. 
At latest reports it is stated that Koeter will die, and that 
Pratt's life is also despaired of; but all these reports lack 
confirmation, for there is obvious effort to work up locai' 
feeling and to array the resident population against! 
the club men. It is likely that not more than one 
fatality will result. This, if the result should 
be so unfortunate, will be admittedly at the, 
hands of Frank Whitlock, who was himself shot' 
and nearly killed by men of this same stripe about a 
year ago, as above mentioned, (The poachers say it was 
Blackburn, and not Whitlock, who shot Koster.) Whitlock 
certainly had license to feel a bit timid and a bit vindic- 
tive toward the trespassers who have so long harassed the 
wardens and members of this club. It has been no un- 
usual experience for wardens and members to hear rifle 
bullets singing near them when they have been out upon 
the marsh. It is commonly known that it is dangerouS' 
for a warden to go out upon the marsh alone or unarmed. 
Threats against the lives and the property of the club men 
have become too common to be noticed. It may be said, 
therefore, that when Whitlock saw this large body of men , 
who had evidently come for trouble, he had every seasoni 
in the world to go armed suitably for such trouble as his' 
duty seemed sure to bring upon him, The facts asi 
recounted by the club superintendent do not indicate that 
the watchmen acted hastily or in hot temper, or thatj 
they were too early with their fire. While the poaching 
element say that they had no weapons but their rat 
spears, and inflicted no wounds except with those! 
weapons, the testimony of the wardens is directly con-' 
trary to this, they claiming that the men who came on 
the marsh all, or many of them, had revolvers in their 
pockets, and that they used them. The circumstances of 
the shooting are given as follows by the club superintend- 
ent, Wm. C. Kuaert, in his report to the club officers, 
written immediately after the affair: 
"Tolleston, lad., Jan. 19 — To E. F, Daniels, Presi- 
dent, and officers and members of the Tolleston Club, of 
Chicago: Dc-ar Sirs — This 19th day of January, 1897, the 
attention of Frank M. Whitlock and Barnum Whitlock 
was called by me (Wm. C. Kunert) to a large crowd o£ 
poachers in the center sloughs, so Mr. F. M. Whitlock did! 
not think thas it was safe to go up to a big crowd ot 
poachers and attempt to order them off. So they asked, 
John Blackburn, Charles Blackburn and Albert Taylor to 
go along also. George Hacker and I were spearing in thei 
center sloughs; the rest of the boys were on the north 
shore slough. I assisted the boys over the river in 
my boat, and they went toward the place where the 
poachers were. There were but very few words passed 
between the poachers and the boys when the poachers at- 
tacked the boys with their spears, and a few seconds later 
one of the poachers drew a revolver of ..SScal. out of his^ 
overall pocket and shot John Blackburn in the head^ 
making a scalp wound about Sin. long, Barnum, having 
a 10-gauge shotgun, shot this man who shot Blackburn. 
Then another poacher had a ,32 Winchester pointed at 
Charles Blackburn's breast when 13ft. away from Black- 
burn. F. M. Whitlock, seeing this man pointing the Win- 
chester at Blackburn, threw a shell in his Marlin Rifle and 
shot the poacher in the hip. Then the poachers agreed to 
get off and take their wounded companions along. I was 
about fifteen rods from where this took place, and to the 
best of my knowledge, and seeing how it was done, the 
boys were justified in doing what they did or they wouldi 
all have been killed, for those poachers have made their 
threats right along, 
"On Jan. 12, 1897, Charles and John Blackburn were 
spearing in the center sloughs and came across six poach- 
ers. They bid the poachers the time of day and asked 
them if they did not know that they were trespassing on 
the Tolleston Club's property, and then the poachers threw 
off their belts and wanted to fight. Furthermore, they 
always have some boys along to carry a shotgun or a rifle 
for them, and as the two Blackburns were insulted by the 
poachers, without a word to the boy, he had hia shotgun 
in readiness to shoot. And the same six that insulted the 
two Blackburns were in this large crowd to-day. Also 
was Wm. Lohman. Lohman came across to where Geo.' 
Hacker was spearing, and Geo. Hacker told or asked him 
(Lohman) what he was doing on the marsh, and Lohman 
told him (Hacker) that he was going to have everybody 
arrested who walfis on the marsh in Sections 19 and 20. 
"It is quite a sad affair. The boys thought life was 
worth fighting for, and they were right; for I was close 
enough to see the fight from beginning to end." ■ 
Kunert says the man Koster was shot in the hip.! 
Really he was shot through the shoulder or upper part of' 
the chest, and when the ball struck him his hand feli 
down and struck upon his hip, so that Kunert though^ 
he placed his hand upon the wound. The report as given 
above does not show chat Koster was shot while endeavor- 
ing to get away. Young Whitlock seems to have been 
careful to fire at the legs and not at the bodies of the men 
engaged in the affair, and this he says he did not do until 
he thought it was to save the life of the others, among 
whom was his father. Out of all these conflicting storiesj 
the slow process of the law will later sift thf approximate 
truth. In any phase the matter is deplorable enough, to 
none more so than to the club members who have so long 
stood silently the opprobrium of an unpopular enterpriBe, 
and who have sought to hold their rights only by due and 
careful process of the law. 
History of the Tolleston Club. 
Probably no sportsmen's club in the United States hafl 
been called upon to make a hotter fight to uphold the 
trespass law than the Tolleston Club, of Chicago. ItSi 
membershijp is made up among some of the wealthiest; 
men of Chicago, mostly middle-aged or old business men' 
fond of an occasional day afield. The club property is 
fairly at the door of the city of Chicago, and is sur- 
rounded by a loose population not always of a worthy^ 
description. The conservative and intelligent methods of 
the club have always kept these marshes well stocked 
with game. The methods of the general public have 
long ago entirely depopulated the marshes outside the 
Tolleston marsh, and the shooters who believe in the right 
of all men to the wild game have for years been en- 
deavoring to kill off the game of the Tolleston marsh, 
also. It is impossible to tell how much trouble this has 
cost the club, or how much money it has expended in the 
continuous tight against this lawless element. The mem- 
bers of the club are very proud and quiet, and little gets 
into the public ear about the club's doings unless some 
case of especial prominence comes up. Really there ha 
been enacted here for some time the beginning of tha 
great fight which will eventually have to be settled i 
