MA.Y 29, 1897.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
We called it the duck pond, from the flight of wild ducks 
that visited it. My father and some friends seined it once 
about thirty eight years ago, and caught, in addition to sev- 
eral baskets of suckers, cat and sunfish, eleven pike that 
touched the ground when I took on my shoulder one end of 
the pole on which they were strung; with a rope while a man 
carried the other end on his shoulder. The place is a corn- 
field now. 
And now I come to the little hill where my grandfather, in 
1830, made his last clearing; but I must not tarry here, for 
yonder is the crossroads, near which was the round log 
cabin with its puncheon floor, split from ash trees, and mud 
and stick chimney. One room, one door, one small window, 
and a great big, long-eared, silky haired hound, on whose 
back T would climb and ride around in the yard. There 
were trees, too; great big trees that swayed to and fro, and 
whipped each oiher while the storm lasted. There is grass 
with weeds there now. And here a rabbit has been playing 
along the fence. What has possessed him to come here, 
where there is absolutely no shelter? I will look him up 
after dinner. Dinner comes at early noon here. We of this 
section eat three square meals each day. And I drive in just 
as I did twenty-five years ago when I brought home my first 
deer. It's a bluff, I bave only rabbits now. "What was 
that you said, .John? [John is my sister's husband ] You 
were expecting me?" Now why should they be looking for 
me. and what led me to think they were? 
After greetings and caring for Dolly's comfort I mentioned 
the rabbit tracks, and wondered if I had time to go and look 
for that rabbit before dinner. My sister said that she could 
wait dinner. She would ring the brll when she had dinner 
ready. Ring the bell? Oh, yes, I had forgotten the bell, 
but now I remembered it. I had heard it when that sister 
was not as old as she is now ; heard it when there were 
others to gather with us around that board, and as I mechan- 
ically took my gun and hunting coat from the buggy I kept 
back that word that wa uppermost — that name our baby 
lips learn first to speaic. John said he would go along, and 
went in and got his .3.2 40 Marlin. We pnssed through the 
field where once we made a dismal failure of riding two 
bucking mules, walked over the spot where I first breathed 
the breath of life and into that 7jart I can remember as 
woods _ Here were rabbit tracks. Bunny had been having 
a picnic Some splendid Polen-Chinas came grunting 
around me. I remembered that once we had what 
we called razor backs and elm-pelers, only gho.sts of 
what hogs are now. And I remembered that here I 
■would in childood'ij days cut down bushes and hide be- 
neath the leafy boughs, and climb saplings, and eat black 
haws, and gather wild plums; and later, when left to run 
the farm that a team that 1 was breaking ground with be- 
came frightened at the snapping of a rail as I got down off 
the fence after giving the horses and myself a breathing 
spell and dashed off as if possessed of Satan, the plow flying 
high in ihe air, then striking the ground, only to rebound 
far above the hqrses backs— "Look out"! It was John's 
voice and yonder went a rabbit for the fencp just as fast as a 
rabbit can run. And little wonder, for John would have 
stepped on him, in fact his foot was over the rabbit. He 
was clearly out of range, but I threw a load of shot at him 
and then wished for my Winchpster. He ran up the road 
and across into a weedy field. I followed and sat on the 
fence and watched his maneuvers. He thought he was hid- 
den in the weeds, poor fellow, but the shelter was not suffi- 
cient and 1 could .see all his movements. He back tracked, 
and doubled, and skipped about, every now and then sitting 
upright to look for me. No doubt he thought he was giving 
me a great game and could laugh at me from some sate 
retreat while I bothered my head over his multiplication 
table. 
After dinner we started for the old covers. The first field 
— how the bluebirds once swarmed over it and nested in the 
holJow stumps, and I once saw a neighbor's dog run a deer 
across that field, and I shot many a squirrel there when that 
was woods. There was now nothing but sheep in that field. 
Nothing for a high-minded bird to light on. A weasel could 
not find a hiding place there. The second field was a cop}'^ 
of the first, and now we come to the orchard on an adjoining 
farm. There is a remnant of a peach tree, whose fruit years 
ago did tempt me and I did eat; and here is the brick house, 
once the comfortable home of a thrifty farmer. The house 
is a ruin, though I remember when it was built The barn 
is falling down, and the fences rotting to the ground. Bick 
of the barn a flock of wild geese once settled in a wheat field, 
Etnd I shot one with a rifle at a distance of 103 paces. ' 
Down through the center of the f ai m I follow a large ditch, 
where once there was a cieek, every step bringing up memo- 
ries of the past. Here my little dog once followed a musk- 
rat into its den 10ft. from the entrance and came out minus 
one eyelid. And yonder stands an old elm from whose fork 
one dark night I shot a coon with, my rifle while my big 
brother held a torch back of me. Now we come to the back 
field surrounded by woods that would be called timber on 
the prairies; but 1 don't see any of those tops that mingled 
with the clouds forty three years ago. I must have lost 
John, or he must have lost me; at any rate I was lost to the 
present until I essayed to cross my little creek where I used 
to catch sunfish and little catfish the size of a man's finger, 
where my foot slipped and went under the edge of the"ice 
into the water anil the ice cut my shin; and then I was both 
cold and hot, and remem bered tliat I was hunting rabbits, 
and as I sat on a sycamore log, and removing my rubber shoe 
wrung the water from my Mackinaw socu, I said : "Con- 
found the ditch! I crossed here a thousand times when that 
waterway was a decent little babbling brook, and I loved 
that brook, but I don't like your new fangled ways." 
l|I went on through the woods, but I could not help count- 
ing the tree- tops that encumbered the ground, and I looked 
in vain for my old friends, the oak trees, from whose top- 
most boughs wild pigeons were wont to send forth their un- 
musical note. Y(rader by that fence I once saw a stump 
dog, not 80 bad as a stump bear, but bad enough for my 
years of inexperience. I watched that stump dog for fully 
fifteen minutes and then climbed the fence nearly to it before 
I was assured it was harmless. Yonder adjoining wood lot 
is a wilderness of tree-top and brush. It was a near neigh- 
bor to my old home and a splendid squirrel woods. And 
then I turn toward the house, and as memories come thick 
and fast, I try to think that everything is for the best; that 
if my old friends, the trees and streams are no more, it was 
onlv the way of this world, and I too would soon be no 
more, and possibly the next generation would not care if the 
fpre^ta were dettroyed and the streams dried up. 
G. W. CuJiJ^rNOHAitt, 
IN A JACKSNIPE PASTURE. 
Holland, Mich., May 17.— One Sunday afternoon this 
spring, while sauntering through the fields with two of my 
friends, we came upon a wet pasture in which we flushed "a 
dozen or more jacksnipe. As I had not had my gun from 
its case this year, and here were the real birds rising with 
scaipel smipe! in all directions around us, and although I do 
not think it good policy to shoot in the spring, my desire to 
bag a few could not be suppressed. 
Before returning home, I went to my office, took down 
my shooting coat from its hook, and in the pockets found a 
dozen shells loaded with No. 83. Mounting my wheel, I 
rode out into the country three miles to friend B.'s home, 
and asked him to join me in a little hunt in the morning. 
He was willing to go, but could find no more shells than I 
had. 
Early Monday morning. April 36, I rode to my ofiice, 
donned shooting coat and boots and waited for B., who soon 
arrived on his bike. Strapping our guns to our wheels, we 
rode out of the city, and followed the side paths to the 
pasture. We had to leave my pointer at hoine, owing to a 
sprained shoulder. 
As the road bisects the pasture, we laid our machines flat 
on the ground to reduce the chances of a stray shot punctm-- 
ing a tire. 
Hardly had we entered th.e west side when, with Uiany 
scazpeSi three jacks flushed before us. As I shot hurriedly, 
my first shot failed to score, but quickly manipulating the 
old "pump-stick," I grassed the bird with the second shot. 
B. also bagged one, being unable to fire again, owing to my 
poBition between him and the bird. The bird which escaped 
flew across the road. 
We hunted this side of the pasture over carefully, but could 
flush no more birds, 
Crossing to the east side, we had worked over two-thirds 
of the ground, when suddenly scaipe! s'caipe! scaipel three 
more birds arose, making noise enough for a dozen. Choos- 
ing my birds, t easily scored a double. B. shot his, and 
began looking around in the air for more. "Where are the 
rest of them?" he exclaimed. "They're all dead," I replied. 
Picking up my two, I showed them to him. He had not 
heard my second shot, which was fired at the time he shot; 
he supposed more had flushed. The expression of his face 
when he was looking for more snipe was amusing. 
Only two more jacks were flushed ; one rose wild out of 
range, the other B. bagged after we each had fired two ineffec- 
tual shots at it. Tying the bunch of birds to my handle 
bars, we slowly pedaled home. Six birds bagged out of 
eight flushed we did not consider bad, and were well satisfied 
with our hour's sport. 
My desire was gratified, and the gun was put away until 
the fall or an occasional day at the traps. 
Arthur W. BACMaARTEL. 
A DEER HUNT IN THE PENINSULA. 
It was a bright, sunny day in December, when a small 
party gathejed in the palatial station of the Chesapeake & 
Ohio Kailroad in Richmond, Va., bound for the Peninsula 
in quest of deer. 
The leader, the Colonel, was a prominent member of the 
Richmond Bar, and had, according to his own statement, 
been deer hunting in the mountains on divers and sundry 
occasions. The others were novices, although feeling great 
confidence m their shooting ability to hit an object, if suf- 
ficiently large and not moving at too great speed. These 
were the Honorable Secretary, also of Richmond, a genial 
soul with true sporting instincts; the Baron, commonly 
known as the "smoothest pebble on the beach," whose good 
nature was inexhaustible, and who appreciated to the ut- 
most a good story, a goad dinner, and a bottle of the right 
temperature, and the Man from Boston, whence the Baron 
also came. This equal division of the party, one-half from 
old Yirginia and the other from cold and puritanical Massa- 
chusetts, made a combination that assimilated exceedingly 
well, for notwithstanding the difference in their habitations, 
a greater one than mere distance implies, they had m&ny 
tastes in common, believing fully in Martin Luther's famous 
saying. 
The party was landed late in the afternoon at the "Burnt 
Ordinary" station on the C. »& O, , and were welcomed most 
hospitably by an old acquaintance of the Colonel's, and in- 
stalled at the near by tavern. Here and throughout their 
stay all realized the oeneflt of the Colonel's companionship, 
for was he not one of those silver-tongued orators of the 
late political campaign who stumped this part of the State, 
and by his arguments and logic confounded his opponents 
on the platform and routed them horse, foot,, and artillery? 
Result: every man we met, in either the village or wood, 
beauied on our Demosthenes and clasped him gladly by the 
hau'l. Our landlord and his wite were hosts par excelleyice, 
who looked diligently after the Welfare of then' guests and 
fed them on the fat of the land, At each meal we feasted 
on York River oysters, Old Yirginia ham, roast turkey or 
duck, wild or domestic, home made sausages and corn bread; 
think then it you can that we decreased in girth during our 
stay. As it was then hog killing time and with not much 
doing on the farms, the whole-souled residents of the 
neighborhood joined us in the hunt, offering us dogs, horses, 
a deep knowledge of wood lore and their fellowship.' 
Tnere was the Squire, an ex-cavalryman, and looking 
the picture of a raider as he came loping through the forest 
on his iQECparable bay horse. There was Rich, our "driver." 
tireless and indefatigable, bearing the horn to whose blast 
the houuds so quickly rallied; his two brothers equally 
enthusiastic in tne chase with himself; Carleton, former 
private .secretary to the Colonel, but now turned from the 
error of his ways and tilling the soil; and last, the State's 
attorney, easy tempered, long of limb, and of great capacity; 
not over anxious to exert himself, but always ready for fun.' 
The weather during our stay was perfect; bright, with 
just enough ciispness in the air to make our blood tingle and 
cause us to feel that life was worth living, and if during a 
long wait on a stand by a runway, listening intently for the 
distant voices of the dogs, one felt at all chilly he could 
always find one or the o!;her of his neighbors provided with 
an mfallible preventative against the cold. It was the first 
time some of us had heard the music of the hounds in chase, 
and music indeed it was. 
The varying tones a5 the dogs were trailing, here recogniz- 
ing Jackson's clarion voice and then the deeper note of Lee, 
then to hear them all blending together, when the deer was 
up, into one continuous swell, now rising, now falling, but 
never ceasing and always tuneful, would stir the mosf'slug- 
gish blood. Although the net result of our four days' hunt 
was one spike-horn buck, still the deer were there, the dogs 
starting three or four every day, and the renewed vigor the 
fresh air filled us with amply repaid us for our journey. 
An amusing incident occurred on the second dav when 
Willie and the State's Attorney were placed on adjoining 
stands that were not thought especially desirable. The 
Attorney being of a social disposition, left his nost to call on 
his neighbor, and while they reclined on the dead leaves on 
the bank, chatting, never thinking of deer, as no dogs were 
within hearing, a sudden rustle of the leaves behind startled 
them, and behold a full-grown deer leaped over their heads 
to the middle of the roadway, at the next bound disappear- 
ing among the trees on the other side before either gaping 
hunter had gained his feet or recalled his scattered senses. 
Another happened on our last drive, when the Colonel, 
wishing in his generosity to give his friends a chance, placed 
the Secretary and the Man from Boston next each other on 
the two best places. As the dcgs were heard approach- 
ing, the Colonel ran to his Boston friend, warning him to 
keep a sharp lookout and then hurried back to the Secretary, 
who stood on guard giving an illustration of a man about 
to shoot a deer. , 
"If he comes through this opening," said his Honor, "I'll 
kill him sure, and should he come there," taking aim over 
his gun, "I'll pill him." 
As he strutted up and down thirsting for innocent blood, 
the hoofs wei^e heard of a deer coming, leaping between the 
trees, headed directly for his would-be slayer. His last 
bound landed him within JiOft. of the gun, but never think- 
ing to pull the trigger the Secretary stood aghast, and when 
the deer having turned and gotten safely away, tlie Colonel 
asked, "Why, oh. why didn't you shoot?" he replied with 
much dignity, "Do you take me for a target for a battering 
ram? One more jump, and he would have struck me in the 
stomach." 
Well, that hunt is o'er, and nothing remains but pleasant 
recollections to bear us up, and glowing anticipations of an- 
other to come in the autumn. The Man fbom Boston. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
New Warden for Illinois. 
Chica<Jo, 111., May 22.— At 4 P. M. of May 19 Gov. 
Tanner signed the commission of Harry W. Loveday, of 
Chicago, as State game warden for that city. Mr. Loveday's 
friends, especially Mr. H. D. NichoUs, of the House, have 
labored faithfully for his appointment, and he has won in a 
contest of singular warmth over several other applicants for 
this position The position itself is no sinecure if handled 
as it should be, and there is no one man in the entire Western 
country who can be of more service to the sportsmen of the 
West than the State warden at Chicago. The real work 
which lies before him is not the prosecution of the individual 
violators of the law in the narrow hunting grounds left in 
this State. The real work lies with the wholesale violators 
of the laws, the game dealers of South Water street. The 
late warden, Mr. Blow, strictly left this branch of work 
alone, hence whatever eft'ort he may have made during his 
term of olfice may be measured exactly by the extent of the hole 
left in a bucket of water after one pulls his finger out of it. 
There is no instance in his record of a single victory of any 
import gained in the furtherance of game protection. If Mr. 
Loveday during his term of office shall gain but one single 
victory of tliat nature, that is to say, one victory in this fight 
of the sportsman against South Water street, he will have 
done enough to cause his administration to stand out in shin- 
ing contrast to that of his predecessors. Even within what 
are now the legal lines of action the game dealers of Chicago 
can continue a vast havoc among the game of the West. 
When they exceed that license, as in the past they have con- 
tinually done, and deliberately hold out premium for violation 
of the laws of this and other States, the havoc which they 
create can have in view but one limit, and that the extinc- 
tion of our Western game. If Mr. Loveday in his respon- 
sible position— a position which is far more responsible and 
far more conspicuous than it was a few years ago— will lead 
the war into what is really the enemy's country, he may feel 
sure that he will be followed by the sportsmen of the better 
class without distinction of clique or faction, and he may 
reckon upon the support of all the thinking press. 
In person Mr. Loveday is well fitted for his work, should 
that work determine it'^elf into the quality of police investi^ 
gation. He is over 6ft. tall, and m build powerful as a 
giant. In business Mr. Loveday is a photographer, and his 
address is at the Schiller Building, Chicago. Mr. Loveday 
is one of the old time members of the Cumberland Club. 
His favorite sport is duck sliooting. 
Growing Strictness of Came Laws. 
The new Minnesota game law is a good instance of the 
rapidly increasing strictness of game laws in this part of the 
West. Mention has already been made of certain radical 
changes in the game laws of Michigan and Wisconsin. Min- 
nesota has long been practically a model in game law mat- 
ters, and has now gone a step further in the line of modern 
legislation for the protection of fish and game, the State 
seeming being apparently cognizant of the fact that her 
heritage of wild creatures is one which should be appreciated 
and preserved. In the new Minnesota law the Forest and 
Stream plank, "Stop the sale of game," has found a place. 
It is forbiddep to expose for sale within th.e State any ruffed 
grouse or black bass. The deer season is cut down to ten 
days, from Oct 25 to Nov. 5. The moose law is still more 
severe. Only five days of open season are allowed on moose, 
from Nov. 1 to Nov. 5, and this not until 1898, which will 
end the five years close season on that animal, These figures 
certainly do not appeal to the non-resident sportsman, as 
perhaps it was not intended that they should. Should the 
law be generally observed, Irotvever, there is no question 
whatever of the result on the supply of game. Such laws 
would mean that this sort of game is forever to remain un- 
exhausted in the State of Minnesota. 
The action of the State of Minnesota on game matters is 
of exceptional interest, from the reason that the upper part 
of that State is now for the first time coming into general 
prominence as a sporting ground for that part of the public 
which formerly went to Michigan and Wisconsin, In its 
supply of deer, moose, mascallonge and bass, Minnesota has 
very much more to offer than Wisconsin at this date. This 
summer and this fall will see dozens and hundreds of sports- 
men crowding into Minnesota who have never been there 
before, but who will follow the indication of a new sporting 
country just opening up. I mentioned last fall the sudden 
wave of non-resident deer hunting tratfic which swept into 
upper Minnesota on account of the mis up in the Wisconsin 
law. This coming fall there will be a more deliberate and 
premeditated movement into the covers of that State. The 
