126 
packers, as it had so often succeeded against the sports- 
men, the latter not organized and not capitalists. 
The result of the butterine law was curiotiS. Some of 
the large markets, backed by the big packers, have sold 
the tabooed article without regard to the law. These 
concerns the pure-butter men have been afraid to tackle, 
lor fear that they will take up a case and g^t the law set 
aside as unconstitutional, in which case everybody, both 
small and timid concerns as well as big and bold ones, 
would sell butterine instead of butter. 
Let us now imagine two large commercial interests 
arrayed against each other, on the one side the big 
packers of the Union Stock Yards, on the other the 
commission men of South Water street; on the one 
side butterine and deception, on the other pure butter, 
pure morals, a pure and upright heart determmed that 
the people should not eat butterine so long as the afore- 
said p. and u. heart could sell them butter. The public 
knew little of this hostilitJ^ There was not much noise 
or much smoke, but there was a good, big battle, which 
has been fought during the past fall and Avinter. 
During the past month, a season when the poultry 
shipments of South Water street to the East should 
have been at their greatest volume, many thoiightlul 
commission firms Jioticed an unaccountable shrinkage 
in their business. The choice farm hen, the husky tur- 
key and the succulent goose did not come in from Way- 
town as they formerly were wont. The reason for this 
was not known, but it was known, or might well have 
been known, by many freight agents situated on the 
opposite side of tlie city, at the great Union Stock 
Yards, formerly held sacred to quadrupeds alone and 
superior to all biped produce. For the past six weeks 
or two months in many cars of the dressed beef billed 
to New York there would be 500, 600, i,ooolbs. also of 
dressed turkeys or chickens or other poultry, which had 
been diverted from a market to which they almost be- 
longed by prescriptive right into a market which vv'ould 
once have scorned such cattle. The truth of the matter 
was that the big packers, Armour, Swift, Libby-McNeii. 
etc., had rolled out a few wheelbarrow loads of money 
and had sent out poultry buyers into the countrj'- upon 
which South Water street is dependent for its supplies. 
These men have already so far changed the nattiral and 
established market that before long we may expect TN'Ir. 
Armour to advertise fresh omelets in tin, or live spring 
chicken in canvas. This was retaliation. The packers 
were getting revenge for the close season on butterine. 
The climax of this pretty little commercial fight came 
the past week. Little b3^ little the business sagacity of 
the big packers, together with their money, edged iuto 
the stronghold of the commission men, Some members 
of the Produce Exchange were got hold of, and then 
others. This week the Produce Exchange is disbanded. 
The packers may be said to have won an initial victory 
over the pure butter, pure morals party which so long 
needed to be reckoned with on vSouth Water street, and 
which so long has said ha! ha! to the sportsmen of 
Illinois. 
The Produce Exchange of South Water street was a 
legitimately organized institution whose design was to 
further a certain line of trade. In so far as it clung to 
that purpose it was a worthy commercial body. Un- 
fortunately, its purposes and performances clashed di- 
rectly with those of the sportsmen, more especially with 
the Illinois State Sportsmen's Association, which usually 
took the initiative in legislative matters regarding game. 
Therefore, while it is no cause for exultation to see one 
commercial interest defeat another in a commercial fight, 
there remains for the sportsmen of this State an inci- 
dental cause for congratulation. The arch-enemy of our 
game is South Water street, and the Produce Exchange 
was its head and brains. If that acting force be paralyzed, 
even but temporarily, the game of this State and of all 
our Western States will not suf¥er, but will receive bene- 
fit. And if at the next session of the Legislature the 
packers need the aid of the sportsmen's interest, itself 
not omnipotent, but not inconsiderable, there may pos- 
sibly be a shifting and adjusting not without its interest. 
Personally I prefer butter to butterine, and I would 
rather superintend' the architecture of an omelet than 
to take it ready bt(ilt out of a tin can; but I would be 
willing to forego certain pleasures of the palate, as would 
many sportsmen, could we by this means get a working 
game law on our statutes, and could we so abolish the 
great Chicago freezers which are swallowing so steadily 
the game not only .q-i IlUrioiSj but of the West. 
The Interstate Game Law Convention. 
Interest grows very rapidly in the interstate conven- 
tion of workers and delegates which will assemble at 
Chicago next -Monday and Tuesday. It is likely that 
Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota. North Dakota and 
Illinois at least will have full and earnest representation. 
Se far as I am advised, the idea of this convention 
originated with Senator J. Herbert Greeil, of Milwaukee, 
who has been very prominent in good game legislation 
in Wisconsin. At the last session of his Legislature he 
introduced and gained the passage of a, resolution 
for the appointment of a committee to act with 
the warden and the fish commission in the direction 
of uniform legislation in the group of States men- 
tioned above. On his action other State Legisla- 
tures have appointed similar committees, all of whom 
will sit in the central city, Chicago, the coming week. 
• Senator Green has been sending out letters ajnong 
some of our Chicago sportsmen asking for expressions 
of opinion. Col. C. E. Felton, of this city, was thus ad- 
dressed, and has given me an inkling of his reply. His 
position I have ofterj frankly criticised before, and did 
so again to-day. Col. Felton believes in the marketing 
of game and thinks it can be protected by gettmg after 
the man who shoots it and not the man who buys it. 
In other words, he believes you should destroy a rank 
and lusty weed by snipping its top branch a little, and 
not by digging out its root. Let us hope his letter will 
have courtes}^ but not credence or credulity, shown it. 
■Senator Green, in a journal of his own city, says: 
"The opinion prevails in several States that the open 
season for ducks, partridge, prairie chicken, quail, snipe, 
woodcock and geese should be deferred to Sept. 15 of 
each year, or fifteen days later than the season now 
opens. In some States prairie chickens are killed Aug. 
15, but sportsmen tell me that the young birds are un- 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
able to fly much at that early date, and a month later 
would provide much better sport. I am also unalterably 
in fav6r of stopping the shooting of ducks in the spring, 
and if Illinois can be prevailed upon to join with Wis- 
consin in this movement, there is no question but tliat 
the practice now indulged in can be stopped by legisla- 
tion. 
"The deer laws of Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota 
should also be identical in order to afiford the deer better 
protection. The length of the present season is all right, 
but a better license system should be devised.'' 
Agent FuUerton, of Minnesota, has been interviewed 
on this subject by a journal of his city, and has the 
following to say: 
"I see no reason why we can't agree on a uniform 
season for the shooting of all classes of game. The 
chickens mature in North Dakota about the same time 
they do in Illinois, in the average year, whatever people 
may say to the contrary. What will apply to the one 
State will to the other. Our season here in Minnesota 
is Sept. I. In order to reach an agreement it may 
be necessary for us to concede two weeks, although to 
my mind Sept. i is early enough to shoot chickens any- 
where in the territory covered by the interested States. 
A closed season at occasional intervals is a great aid to 
the increase of game, and 1 hope we can come to some 
arrangement that will include this feature. They have 
it now in some States, and it is said to work very suc- 
cessfullv. 
"In the matter of a license law, I think something 
ought to be done to equalize conditions. Wisconsin and 
some other States now charge a license fee on foreign 
hunters, and the revenue from this source is considerable. 
We follow the free-trade policy in this State. Certainly 
something should be done to even up matters between 
the States in this respect. Then I approve of a small 
gun license, say 50 or 75 cents. This will enable the fish 
and game authorities to keep a register of all hunters, 
and aid greatly in the suppression of illegal shooting." 
I believe the gun license idea is apt to receive promi- 
nence, and undue prominence, at this convention. With 
all respect to those who believe in it — and it does have 
certain specious advantages as a theory — I must believe 
that such a measure is something which could never be 
put upon or kept upon the statute books of any Western 
State. The farmers would go into riot first, and no one 
can prophesy what the revulsion would be agaitist such 
game laws as we have. If we are to try for uniformity, 
let it not be with anything so radical and dangerous as 
this gun tax notion. 
Michigan, by its representatives, Warden Osbarne and 
F. Chamberlain, will propose the following platform, 
good in some points and bad in others: 
"A uniform law prohibiting shipping game outside the 
State in which it is shot; also a law making it a misde- 
meanor to ship any game or fish unless tagged as such, 
the tag to contain also the shippers name and address, 
the penalty to be visited on both the shipper and the 
railroad receiving the shipment; a uniform law allowing 
the wardens of the States to seize game coming into their 
State from another in the name of that State; the pro- 
hibiting of spring shooting of all classes of game; a 
uniform open season for game of all kinds, and \yith a 
closed season every five or six years; a uniform license 
fee of $25 operative upon all hunters going from one 
State to another, with a small gun license in each State." 
On one great point the Michigan delegation is solid: 
"If we can agree upon a matter of prohibiting the 
shipping of eame, the battle for the preservation of 
game in Michigau is as good as won. That is the most 
important action that could be taken. Take away the 
incentive to shoot from the professional hunter, both 
Indian and white man. the game problem is solved. 
When the professional hunter's occupation is gone the 
game will take care of , itself." 
Close of the Selling Season. 
To-day, Feb. 5. is the last day of grace for the game 
dealers to get under cover with such game as they had 
on hand before Feb. i. Warden Loveday has been out 
almost day and night since Feb. i, watching for ship- 
ments of a late and illegal nature. He seized seven bar- 
rels of illegal game in the possession of the Chicago, 
Burlington & Quincy Railroad, billed for shipment to 
a New York house, and caught here in Chicago en 
route. The case was brought not against the consignor, 
but against the carrier, and the case was decided against 
the ra^ilroad, the latter losing the game and being as- 
sessed for costs in the action. There is likely to be 
quite a grist of cases yet this month. 
Several decisive cases were tried in central Illinois this 
past week, and I must again of¥er Warden Loveday the 
congratulations of very many sportsmen for his brilliant 
season's work. At Mt. Vernon the prominent citizen, 
Joseph D. Norris, of Waltonville, earlier arrested, was 
on Jan. 28 convicted of illegal shipping of quail, and 
fined $400. Mr. Norris made a big front, but was landed. 
He has been postmaster of Waltonville and also justice 
of the peace. We have thus had one sheriff, one deputy 
game warden and two justices of the peace convicted this 
season in Illinois for breaking the game laws. It has 
been a campaign of education. 
W. A. Griiifith, of Rose Hill, and J. C. Raef, of the 
same county, were arrested for shipping quail, and fined 
$107 each. E. Lord, of Willow Hill, was fined $29.25. J. 
T. Nex, at Marion, 111., was on Jan. 31 fined $50 for ship- 
ping quail. 
Freak Legislation, 
Encouraged by their success in knocking out the rabbit 
law, the fanners of Ohio have come forward with some 
twenty new measures tinkering with the game laws. Of 
all these the chainpion specimen of freak legislation is 
the bill introduced by Mr. Bell, of Madison county. This 
is a sure enough farmers' quail law, and if it is passed 
it will make the farmer kjng and the man with a gun 
his humble and cringing slave. The press dispatches de- 
scribe it as follows: 
"Its title is as unique as its provisions, for it is headed: 
A bill to protect the rights of the farmers and the game 
and the birds of the State from the gunners and gun 
club exterminators of the game and birds.' Acording 
to its provisions, owners of land are given property rights 
in all birds, game, fish and game animals upon their 
land, and each hunter is required to secure the permis- 
[Feb. 12, 1898. 
sion of the farmer upon whose land he hunts in order 
to proceed with the chase. The hunter is further re- 
quired to inform the farmer who grants him permission 
to proceed with the chase what birds, fish or animals 
he intends to capture or kill, and as an evidence of good 
faith he must return after the hunt and exhibit to the 
iarmer the result of his sport. The penalty for infraction 
of the provisions is, as stated above, the forfeiture of 
gun or rod to the farmer. If the bill passes, every 
farmer's house will not only be his castle, but his own 
court as well." 
Wouldn't Mr. Bell's nerve freeze you? 
North Dakota and Non-Residents. 
Last September Mr. E. C. Cook, of E. C. Cook & 
Bros., this city, one of the oldest of our old-time sports- 
men, went out to Dawson, N. D., on a duck shooting 
trip. A prairie fire broke out near where they were 
shooting, and although they turned in and did all they 
could to check the fire, a farmer some distance beyond 
them and at one side suffered loss of property by its 
means. The Chicago :';:en were twice tried, or different 
members of the party worf^itried under diiJerent charges, 
before two different judges, one of whom was Judge 
Gokey. Both judges dismissed the cases, taking them 
from the jury with the remark that no evidence was 
shown connecting the defciidants in any way with the 
fires. (Mr. Cook personally assures me that he and his 
party were innocent and ignorant of the cause of the 
fire, which broke out half a mile distant from them.) 
Not satisfied with this, certain disgruntled parties took 
up the matter in the Circuit Court, getting service on the 
Chicago men before they left. Mr. Cook tells me this 
week that a judgment amounting in all to over $1,000 
has been rendered against himself and party, and that 
they have already spent over $600 in defending the case. 
He was just back from a trip to Steele, N. D., the 
county seat where the case was tried, and he laughingly 
assured me that he didn't know where all this was going 
to end, but he thought it was pretty rough. 
The Dawson Times, a local paper, led the fight on 
Justice Gokey and the Chicago men above mentioned. 
Hundreds and perhaps thousands of dollars have been 
spent annually by sportsmen in the little town of Daw- 
son. There is no just computation possible of the dam- 
age this town does itself by such inhospitable, high- 
handed and sour-spirited an injustice to non-residents as 
that above recounted. 
The Winter and the Game. 
The season of 1897 was one unusually good for game, 
especially quail, partridges and other small game. In 
Indiana, Illinois and Michigan the shooting was excep- 
tionally good. Until the past two weeks our winter 
here in Indiana was very mild, and it was fair to sup- 
pose that the game would winter well. The heavy 
storms of last week and this week have changed this 
situation very materially. Upper Indiana, I can per- 
sonally say, is largely sealed up with ice and crusted 
snow, in all a foot or two deep, so that the quail must 
suffer. From Michigan Mr. W. B. Mershon writes me 
the following discouraging news: 
"We are having more snow during the last two weeks 
than I have seen any winter for eight or ten years, and 
I am afraid it means death to the quail. While there 
has been no crust yet, the snow is very deep, and it has 
drifted badly. Too bad, isn't it? 
"I have a letter this morning from A. B. Paine, a 
farmer, in the direction where we were hunting last fall, 
which reads as follows: 
"Do you know that mink are killing all the quail in 
this part of the world this winter? On this place three 
flocks have been wiped out. My attention was called to 
the mink by trouble in my hen-house, I was told by 
trappers when I described the hole in the neck of the 
dead fowl that it was the work of mink, and I was very 
skeptical tmtil I killed one and put a stop to the trouble 
for a little time. Since that it is no rare thing to find 
mink tracks leading into a thicket, and a bunch of quail 
feathers tells the story. Mink skins sell for cash. Can 
you not .start a good man up our way with his traps, 
and do himself, farmers and hunters a good turn?" 
Mr, Ruthven Deane, of this citj% writes me that on 
Jan. 20 fourteen mallards were seen at Enghsli Lake, on 
the Kankakee River, Ind., and three of them were 
killed. He adds: 
"There were also seen at same time a few buffle-heads 
(butter-balls). Last Sunday, Jan, 30, Lake Michigan was 
covered with ducks off the Lake Shore drive, on the 
north side, probably scaups. I presume the recent bliz- 
zards and icy winds have turned them a little further 
south. A good many geese were seen last Saturday, 
Jan, 29, flying over Washington Park, Chicago." 
At Maksawba Club, on the Kankakee River, Feb. 2, 
we heard that a good-sized flock of mallards had been 
wintering on the river, and had been seen within the 
week. 
Beware the Camera. 
It is a human weakness to be photographed in con- 
nection with a string of fish or bunch of birds. On Aug. 
2, last summer, it is alleged, G. A. Dubois, of Neenah, 
Wis., went hunting in Price county, and killed some 
illegal ducks. He went to Park Falls and had himself 
and the ducks photographed. It chanced that Gustav 
Frellson, of Green Bay, and Dr. F. W. Stewart, of Wau- 
watosa, had been out fishing, came along about that time 
and also stood in the photograph. Now comes Deputy 
Warden Frank Bissinger, of Green Bay, secures a copy 
of the photograph and arrests the whole outfit for shoot- 
ing ducks out of season, as see the testimony of the_ 
camera. This sort of Dog Tray guilt is enough to teach 
sportsmen to beware the camera and its possibilities. 
-s*;-*^ Minor. 
My old friend Billy Griggs, the king of the market 
hunters, did not go to Galveston to shoot canvasback 
this winter. He is engaged in fishing for the market 
at Greenville, Miss. 
Mr. Hunt, of Burlington, la., has introduced a bill 
in the Legislature making doA'es a game bird, with an 
open season from July 15 to Sept. i. A similar move- 
nient is probable at the next Illinois Legislature. 
The Peace River buffalo herd again crops up in a 
vague newspaper paragraph quoting "a Canadian trar- 
I 
