Sept. 3, 1898.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
185 
ptendly manner. These performances naturally led the 
fcmversation to the dogs, and many anecdotes illustra- 
|ve of their intelligence and tales of their curious doings 
Irere recounted, greatly to the wonder and delight of our 
loung friend, who appeared thoroughly to enjoy each 
Irell-told tale, and fully understand each quip and joke 
■5- well as sly innuendo that were frequently cropping out 
la our conversation, and so rapt was his attention, and 
§0 evident his pleasure, that we all were impressed by 
It, and laid ourselves out to spread before the young 
fellow a feast of good things that he would not soon 
ferget, and with the inspiration born of this resolve our 
leance soon became deeply interesting, even to the 
lid campaigners. Finally Sabin related an anecdote 
If Mr. George Ashmun's dog Trump, about his watch- 
ing a boy who had chased a cat into the mouth of a 
■rain and then procured a meal bag, and fastening the 
■fen end over the mouth of the drain stamped on the 
■■round above until the cat ran out into the bag, when he 
rrabbed it and whacked it on the ground until the nine 
l#es of that cat were but a fleeting dream of the past. 
■ rump had stood some little distance away, with gently 
■raving tail, evidently greatly pleased with the per- 
fcrmance, and was joined by his master, who saw what 
pas going on and tried to prevent it by shouting to 
■he boy: but that boy's blood was up; the bag was 
•Winging in the air, and before anything could be done 
p> prevent it that cat had met its fate. The following 
ay Mr. Ashmun was surprised to see Trump come into 
ps study dragging the same bag that the boy had used, 
Ind as he took it in his hand the dog so intelligently 
Indicated his desire that his master should accompany 
»:im that he followed him, and was led directly to the 
■Gat hole" that had been cut in the door of the wood- 
■hed, when, as plainly as could be done without the aid 
t* speech, Trump asked him to fasten the bag over the 
■ole. Upon examination a strange cat was found in 
lie building, which the dog had probably driven in 
through the hole and then sought his master to help 
mi bag the game. Before Sabin was nearly through with 
riis tale I saw come over the countenance of our young 
riend the "that reminds me" expression with which we 
re all so familiar. So when Sabin had concluded I 
Isked the boy if his dog had ever displayed intelligence 
If this nature, as I thought that perhaps something of 
pis kind had been brought to his mind. Now he had 
ot spoken except to give us good evening when he 
Ljme in, and all of us had somehow formed the opinion 
pat he was only a green country lad, and none of us 
lnticipated that my inquiry would result in anything 
liore than a simple negative, or at the most some com- 
monplace little anecdote; and Ave w r ere therefore greatly 
fur prised when in finely modulated tones and a mu- 
sical voice and with excellent English in response to 
liy question he gave us this: 
I "No, Plato never did anything just like that, although 
lie is very intelligent. But the manner in which that 
<oy caught the cat in the bag brought to mind a little 
Idventure that I had last fall with a skunk. I have 
I tinted skunks for three years, and killed a great many, 
Ind the oil and skins bring me in considerable money. 
I also hunt rabbits, for Plato is a good rabbit dog, and 
/lien he holes one I place a bag over the hole and run 
In a long stick, and if I can reach him he runs out into 
pie bag. This day I was over by the reservoir, and 
pent to a spring to get a drink, and then I sat down near 
he bank of a deep gully and waited to hear from Plato, 
ffho was searching for rabbits. I had been there a short 
i'nne when something down the gully attracted my at- 
tention, and I soon saw a skunk waddling along in the 
Iiottom of the gully coming toward me. So I kept 
luiet until he had passed me and was out of sight, when 
slipped down the bank and set the bag in a narrow 
Vilace and propped it open with a couple of sticks and 
jvaited for him to come back, as I knew he must, for 
■here was no other way for him to get out. After a 
■hort time I saw him returning, and he went all right 
|mtil he was within a foot or two of the trap, when he 
(topped; but I gave a loud whistle, when he popped into 
the bag, and in less that a second I had grabbed it and 
tad him safe. I could not very well climb the bank with 
[ny load, for he was a big one, so I followed down the 
tully two or three rods to the banks of the reservoir. 
, neantime contriving how I should kill my captive. 
Finally I decided that I would whack him against a 
01 k; so when I came to the mouth of the gully I 
ttarted for the big rock nearly at the head of the 
eservoir, and as I came to it I secured a good foothold, 
Ind taking my end of the bag in both hands I swung it 
round my head two or three times, and when it had 
obtained sufficient headway 1 brought it down with 
ill my force upon the rock. But just before it struck, the 
IQttom gave way and that skunk went sailing through 
■he air more than 30ft., and struck the water within 10ft. 
If the opposite bank, and before I could get there he 
lad paddled ashore, and I was out about a dollar and a 
pall I did not care so much for the loss of the money 
Is 1 did about my wounded feelings. But the worst 
i-f the whole was to see that confounded skunk when 
Be was paddling ashore turn his head and give me a 
Iroad grin. That makes me mad every time I think of 
I His manner of telling the story took us completely by 
•form. Never before had we seen so well portrayed 
Ir listened to better told tale. He was a born actor, 
ind every little detail and incident was acted out to the 
te. and we could almost see that skunk waddling down 
lie gully, and note the inquiring look it gave when it 
•topped in front of the mouth of the bag, which changed 
lo a look of fright as it darted into the trap; then we 
jaw the actor's eyes light up as he dropped into the gully 
Ind seized the bag, and the look of delight that spread 
ver his expressive countenance as with labored effort 
ps carried his prize down to the end of the gully to the 
■ock, upon which he gazed with a look of satisfaction, 
Irhich changed to one of fierce determination as he 
wung the bag around his head and savagely brought 
E down; then as his intended victim went sailing through 
•he air it was something wonderful to see the fierce ex- 
ression upon his countenance change to one in which 
•under, surprise and disgust struggled for mastery, while 
lis eyes fairly bulged from their sockets; but the climax 
lame when he turned his head partly over his shoulder, 
Ind while imitating the paddling of the skunk he gave 
us that sardonic grin. This broke me all up, and I doubt 
if his. best effort upon the stage— for he is an honored 
member of the profession— ever brought him more sin- 
cere or merited applause than greeted his well-told tale. 
Shadow. 
[to be continued.] 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Chickens, 
Minneapolis, Minn., Aug. 26.— So far as brief in- 
quiry has enabled me to judge, I should say that the 
chicken crop is good enough to promise sport for a 
good many guns this fall in this vicinity. Around Fair- 
mount there are some birds, and all the way down to 
the Iowa line from a point not many miles south of 
the Twin Cities there are more or less birds — usually 
less, of course, when you come to get there, but enough 
to make a little shooting. I was told that at Dodge 
Center, below here, there is a big Norwegian settlement 
of farmers who do not hunt a great deal, and the coun- 
try is open and no objection is made to shooting. Last 
year and two years ago this point had a good many 
birds, and I should not be surprised if it were a good 
location now. 
Mr. J. E. Robbins, of Fargo, N, D., tells me that 
the season for North Dakota opened with a very hot 
day in that neighborhood, so that the. dogs could not 
work very well, yet himself and friends bagged some 
ninety birds. He thinks the crop in North Dakota is 
better this year than it was last. 
Our friend Gokey, of Dawson, so says Mr. Robbins, 
reports a great many more grouse this year in that 
part of North Dakota than was the case last year. 
Mr. John G. Smith, of Algona, Iowa, tells me that 
there are a good number of birds yet in his part of the 
country, and he does not yet see the end of the world so 
far as chicken shooting is concerned. He does not 
think that the field trials at Emmetsburg are in just 
the best chicken country, as the land there is all under 
fence and closely cultivated. Further to the northwest 
it would be more open, and the birds more abundant, in 
his opinion. 
South Dakota has a pretty good crop of birds this 
fall, and good points named for that State are Water- 
town, Troy, Revillo and Waverly. At these points one 
might hope to get a run for his dogs, if not for his 
money, and that is about all that is certain of any 
chicken tip in these days. South Dakota can still boast 
that she does not freeze out the non-resident, but this 
boast may not be a permanent one, for there is going 
to be a strong attempt to frame a new law similar to 
that of North Dakota, with a non-resident license clause. 
The law in North Dakota has proved in the minds of 
many a desirable measure in its practical working ef- 
fects. 
Wisconsin has a few chickens yet unshot not far from 
Berlin. This is also a good place to bear in mind for 
ruffed grouse in season. 
• Around Oshkosh, Wis., there were good numbers of 
chickens a few days ago, but the numbers are growing 
steadily less under the guns of the early shooters, which 
are also killing off the young local ducks to such an 
extent as to arouse the ire of decent shooters of that 
city of sportsmen. 
Henry Pool, Robt. Witte and Frank Kemball, of 
Milwaukee, Wis., went out last week to get a few 
chickens ahead of the season. They got the birds, and 
the warden got them. 
A Game Country. 
Among other letters asking for good shooting loca- 
tions I have one from a Maryland correspondent, to 
whom I have written telling him I feel sure that if he 
will go to Dawson, N. D., on the N. P. Railroad, he 
will not be disappointed, though he should not expect 
to get chickens, ducks and geese all at the same time, as 
the geese do not come down until later, and the best 
duck shooting is a little later than the best chicken 
shooting. I have also told him to write to Mr. J. J. 
Gokey, of Dawson, whom I know to be a good guide. 
It is safe to say that if Gokey takes out the party they 
will all be pleased. It seems odd to come from Mary- 
land out to Dakota to have a duck shoot, but yet it is 
true that these gentlemen- will be able to kill more can- 
vasbacks in Dakota than they could around the Chesa- 
peake country. I hope they may have a pleasant trip. 
I used to hear so much about Dawson that I was very 
unbelieving regarding it, on the usually safe grounds 
that a much-touted place is a good one to stay away 
from, but I was out there last fall and saw enough to 
convince me that it could show sport good enough for 
anv man, and better than I had seen anywhere for many 
a long time. 
Illinois Early Birds. 
State Warden Loveday called at my office the other 
day, and he said that the state of affairs in regard to 
chicken law violations in Illinois this year can not be 
exaggerated in its bad features. He thinks that Judge 
Ramsey, of Whiteside county, has done the State an 
irreparable damage in his decision that the law was 
invalid, and that any who cared to could shoot after 
Aug. 15. In view of this advice, a big party of so- 
called sportsmen banded together at De Kalb, 111., early 
in August, and declared that they would go out shoot- 
ing on Aug. 15, and would defy and resist arrest. News 
of this came to Warden Loveday, and on- Aug. 15 he 
was at De Kalb and drove all over the country there- 
abouts looking for the invasion of armed scoffers at the 
law. He had his trip for nothing. A recreant deputy 
— the same man who wrote saying he thought he ought 
to shoot ahead of the day if the "sports" did — gave the 
tiling away, and not a shooter went out, so far as 
could be learned. Perhaps I need not add that that 
particular deputy is now serving his country in another 
channel of activity. 
Warden Loveday has long been giving heed to the 
many complaints from Galesburg, where he was sure 
there was a local market for illegal birds. This week 
he ran down to Galesburg and "pulled" the warehouses 
of Weinberg Bros., at that city, and seized a ship- 
ment of birds just made ready for Chicago market. 
He has brought suit for $975 worth of tines against this 
firm, and has his eye on some others in that city. 
It is a curious thing, in view of all the damage that 
Judge Ramsey, of Whiteside, has done — a damage great- 
er than he will ever live long enough to make up to 
the people of Illinois— to learn that Judge Ramsey has 
changed his mind. He has revised his notion of the 
law, and has in effect reversed his own decision, though 
this time in private, and where it will not be so public- 
ly known. State's Attorney Steger, of Sterling, was 
the means of converting Judge Ramsey. He went over 
the law with Judge Ramsey, and the latter freely ad- 
mits that if he had to do it all over again he might look 
at it differently. So Warden Loveday advises me. This 
is curious news, but we might wish it had come to hand 
before the decision which sent out so many early and 
illegal guns in Illinois this year. It will be years be- 
fore this thing can be corrected. You may pass a 
dozen new game laws, but a dozen years from now you 
will find fellows out shooting in July who will say they 
think they can shoot legally" then, because Judge Ram- 
sey said so. This is a sort of rule which never seems 
to work both ways. 
E. Hough. 
120u Boyce Building, Chicago, 111. 
In Old-Time Wisconsin. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
"My First Chicken Shoot" in the last issue of Forest 
and Stream has waked my memory up on past delights, 
and now I think I'll see that man and go him one bet- 
ter. 
Once on a time, when this world was younger than it 
is, and "me too," I lived in the wild and woolly West, 
and game was. so plenty everywhere that it had to get out 
of the way to keep from being trodden on. I was in 
Madison, Wis., just before the big boom began, and 
everybody seemed to have nothing to do but try to 
sell lots at any price. 
I had no lots to sell, but I had lots of time on my 
hands, which I principally used in feathered sport. 
In some high meadow grass not far from town I killed 
sixteen woodcock one day, and I had some duck shoot- 
ing that makes my mouth water even^now. At the hotel 
table one day the subject was duck shooting, and a mill- 
er, whose mill was about a mile up the lake, remarked 
that ducks flew over his head into the lake nearly every 
evening as he came to supper. 
Tha£ was thin enough for me to see through, but I 
"sawed wood" and said nothing, and the others failed to 
catch on. I was full enough of duck lore to known that 
they had been feeding down in the swamp and flew over 
into the lake to roost, and as he said they flew over the 
little bridge at the brook I was on that little bridge next 
evening with my dog and gun, and had not stood long 
before I saw a wood duck coming, and he was so tired 
that he fell. Then they kept coming one and two at a 
time till nearly dark, and not a single bird escaped. 
Sometimes the second one would fall in the lake, but 
I had a fine retrieving setter, and every duck was piled 
up at my feet -without my speaking a single word. 
I have had shooting galore of nearly every kind, but I 
have always looked upon that as the most enjoyable bit 
of sport that ever fell to my lot. 
But to the chickens — which are worthy of a wilder 
name. They were as thick as bees all over that part of 
the country then, and as they were so easily killed I 
^ared very little for the sport of shooting them; but a 
farmer living some miles out was in town one day and 
fairly begged of us to go out and kill off some of the 
chickens, for they were so thick that they were destroy- 
ing all his grain. 
There was an English money-lender there who owned 
a good dog and was very fond of shooting, so we agreed 
to go on a slaughtering expedition next day. We found 
them as thick as meat in a mince pie, and as they were 
still in coveys four birds would fall at every rise for a 
while, but at last my English friend began to get a little 
tired or unsteady, and kept missing more and more, and 
ejaculated more damns than I could find use for. At last 
it came to pass that he swore "by the gre't horn spoon" 
that he wouldn't shoot at another bird till I had emptied 
both my barrels, the consequence of which was that 
I had nearly all the shooting to do from that time till 
the close. 
I do not think our birds were counted, for we did not 
care enough about them to take that trouble, but we 
had a double team box "buggy" heaping full, and every- 
body whom we met in town got all he wanted after sup- 
plying the hotel. 
How about the business up there now? Then it was 
grain preserves, and now it is game preserves, and the 
difference in conditions saved us from the charge of 
being game hogs. Didymus. 
St. Augustine, Aug. 2'2. 
The Dead River Region. 
Reports from the lower Dead River region of Maine 
indicate that the fishing during the summer has been un- 
usually good, and that the number of visitors to the 
section has been very good. Big catches of trout have 
been made, and others are likely to be befor; the 
hunting season opens. 
Ducks, rabbits and squirrels are now in season, and 
the ruffed grouse shooting opens Sept. 20. September is 
a good month to be in the Maine woods, on account 
of the small game shooting, and also because- the 
fact that fishing is not yet over. If one stays a few 
days in October there is a chance of getting a deer. 
Mr. J. G. Harlow writes us that in three days' travel 
not long ago he paddled an angler up to three big- 
moose and forty deer, all of which were within good 
shooting distance. Besides this they caught 160 trout, 
most of which were returned to the water, though 
eight, which weighed I2lbs., were brought home, besides 
what the party ate. 
It is thought that the prospects for big game are 
better than for some years. _ r 
