88 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
IFeb. 4, 1899. 
owned by this company and is leased and occupied by 
their employees. Good sidewalks, clean streets, a fire de- 
partment and system of water works are here. No intox- 
icating liquors or cigarettes are Sold. All are happy, 
for all are employed, -The Mayor, Council and upper 
house are all embodied in one person, J. B. White, gen- 
eral manager. It is certainly an ideal municipality. Mr. 
White, by decision, firmness and kindness, has raised 
the standard of a mill town's morality until, as Caesar's 
wife should have been, it is above suspicion. Should a 
difference of importance arise between employees. Mr, 
White handles the matter in a manner which results in 
exact justice to the disputants. From this decision there 
is no appeal — this^edict once set forth is established law. 
He is unquestionably >an intellectual giant with the deli- 
cate sensibilities of a woman. 
As to the mills, the amount they cut, etc., that is a mat- 
ter of common statistics. Their workings, being so per- 
fect, the best description is tli£ shortest. A tree starts in 
one side and comes out on the other almost a house with 
a family living in it. I had hardly gone to bed, it seemed, 
when I heard a great, deep whistle, that fairly made the 
house shake. A few minutes after, looking out the win- 
dow of my room, I thought myself enchanted. A regu- 
lar will-o'-the-Avisp panorama met my gaze. I rubbed my 
eyes to see if I was awake. Yet, there they were, bob- 
bing here, there, singly, twos, threes, or more, seemingly 
a thousand lightning bugs at an early morning revival — 
in fact, about six hundred lanterns lighting the mill men 
to their work. Soon the hura-m-m of the saws wooed 
me to sleep again, and as I somewhat bashfully stepped 
into the deserted dining room at about half past seven, 
by way of a pleasantry I inouired of the waiter girl how 
late I could get breakfast, and was naively answered by 
the aforementioned lady that I could get it as early as 5, 
My meal was eaten in silente. Buying all the lumber — 
not that they had, but that we could pay for — I started 
hunting for Joe Bernardin's tame turkej^s. The cut of the 
saws called us further into the woods, where we watched 
the pines come crashing down, then saw them cut into 
logs, ready for loading. Some time since, wanting a few 
6x8x28, the reply was, "we book the order and have or- 
dered the logs cut for these special lengths." Soon after 
these timbers were sills in a Kansas house, that just ten 
days before were standing homes for squirrels. 
Quails were plentiful, and we had several days' splen- 
did sport; the old fields between the mountains are filled 
with them, and as they scatter and alight with a whir 
on the hillsides, the dogs mark them down. Soon the 
old gray fellow has them located, becomes staunch, the 
others back him, a person's liking grows into absolute 
love as they all four center on the covey, heads tip, tails 
extended, one foot raised, eyes glowing like coals. The 
nose, slightly twitching, pointing at the covered birds, is 
the only evidence of life. In a moment, with a rush of 
wings, they are off; as our guns crack, each dog, if we 
are lucky, comes laughing back with a quail in his mouth, 
and ofttimes finding a hidden one, with the dead bird still 
in his mouth he makes another stand that causes your 
blood to surge with the supreme enjoyment of the mo- 
ment. The other dogs, seeing him pointing, back him 
up, and there you have them a few feet apart, all stand- 
ing as a sort of a compliment to the first dog's intelli- 
gence. The old native we took dinner with that day had 
the usual quota of lean, lank, hungry hounds of the red, 
yellow, brown and pepper-and-salt varieties. Our setters 
got into a bunch, faced out, and with angry whines 
plainly showed their disapproval of native familiarit^^ Ii 
was funny to see the yelping pack go circling around the 
setters in almost battle arraj', snapping and snarling until 
the owner dispersed them with the kindly aid cf some 
stovewood. 
This house was really aristocratic. It had a floor that 
was mill-sawed, windows, doors with latches, the usual 
4ft. fireplace, with a cannon axle across the top. sup- 
porting the rock of which the chimney was made. The 
dinner was corn pone, wild honey and overland trout 
(bacon), with boiled turnips for dessert. 
After the dinner the spinning wheel was put in motion. 
The old lady would take a string of wool, fasten it to the 
spindle, give the wheel a whirl, hustle back a few steps 
as she drew the yarn out, then shuffle forward, spit 
snuff into the fireplace as the yarn wound itself into a 
ball, all the while droning a mournful sort of a chant, 
keeping time as an accompaniment to the rasp-like voice 
of her assistant. Both work about three days for a dol- 
lar's worth of yarn. Every house has the largest deer 
hide, and they recount with a glow of satisfaction how 
they killed "that air" buck. The regular Missouri chair, 
hickory back and rounds, and untanned deer hide bottom, 
was there. The seeds for iJpring planting were suspended 
from the ceiling in dirty, fly-specked sacks, and are the 
only household ornaments, excepting the photograph of 
the family group. 
Our driver had taken Joe Bernardin, Charlie Carter, 
Jim Lane and W. Eddy Barnes out quail hunting a few 
days before. They hunted two days, "Did they kill any 
quail?" we asked. "They said they killed five, but I did 
not see any," was the answer. "Sometimes the Hocks 
were so large that they obscured the sun for a moment 
when they flew up," he continued. The next day they 
were hunting turkeys. Bernardin and Carter were walk- 
ing along an old tram, when Carter pointed to a large 
flock of wild ttirkeys in the edge of the woods and told 
Bernardin to shoot. "Oh, no," says Joe, "you don't get 
me to shoot some farmer's turkeys." In a moment, they 
had flown. 
Sturdy, thorough sportsman, George Despain, head 
filer, added greatly to our enjoyment with his hard hunt- 
ing and keen shooting; and the thoughtful kindness of 
Chief Clerk Clarence E. Slagle rendered pleasant every 
moment of our stay. 
The scenery is beautiful; clear creeks, deep-running 
river, big, stately pines crowning the summit of grand 
old hills. The sides of most of the liills are covered with 
a curious formation of rock that in the distance looks 
exactly like a flock of sheep lying down. Snuggled amid 
the ills are the usual log huts, some with the holes daubed 
lull of mud; others without, and chimneys built on the 
outside of nothing but sticks and mud. Generally it a 
a long building, with the family huddled together in one 
end, the horses or mules in the othexj while the open 
space between serves as a sort of a shelter for chickens, 
geese aoid razor-baek hogs,, whose incessant snuffling and 
grunting would mal<e a deaf man congratulate himself on 
his misfortune. 
A person who sees this for the first time and loves 
nature forgets the people, and is almost lost in admiration 
of the grandeur, the magnificence, of the handiwork of the 
Ruler of the Universe. The towering hills, the beautiful 
green-topped pines that gently wave to and fro and seem- 
ingly bow their heads in reverence to Him who rules all 
things, make one realize among these hills how infinitely 
insignificant is man, what pygmies we arc, and how, 
when life goes out, it is no wonder we are not missed. 
Our last day's sport was a deer drive, and a great deal 
of chaffing was indulged in the night before. Warren 
was master of ceremonies and arranged all the details. 
We were to be off at 6. The night before you are to 
get up very early, it invariably happens that something 
keeps you up later than usual. Our whist game lasted 
longer than ever that night. 
Warren came stormmg through the halls jixst as I fell 
asleep, shouting : "Get up, you lazy devils. It's 8 o'clock 
and we were to start at 6." 
Horace Barnes came into each room singing the 
reveille : 
"Get up, you sons of witches. 
And put on your bieetclies. 
And give your poor horses some hay." 
At 8 o'clock ten horses stood before the hotel. Old 
man Hidlebridle was astride a piebald horse, with six 
deerhounds sprinkled around him on the ground, looking 
confidently up in his face, barking unitedly. Rand, the 
other driver, was mounted on a big black mare, and 
four big, sober hounds stood expectantly ahead in the 
road. 
Parker and Barnes, the traveling salesmen of the lum- 
ber company, had good mounts; Warren, head book- 
keeper, rode a tall claybank; Deacon Jones, salesman, 
cho.se the most notoriously rough-riding horse in the 
county, and we helped him aboard ; I got the last horse, a 
wicked-looking, vicious, but strong pony, which proved 
the best horse of the bunch before the ride was over. 
Ten started, eight "green 'uns," two hunters. As we 
went galloping off, winding across the ridges of those 
flinty hills, we looked like a vigilance committee in hot 
pursuit of a criminal. The wiry little horses fairly 
made the sparks fly. The pace was a hot one, De Spain 
leading on his powerful iron graj^, and I was "plenty glad" 
when I reached my stand. 
The landlord presented each rider a nice package of 
lunch, we swung astride our horses, threw the rifles across 
the pommel of the saddle, and were off on a hard gallop 
of ten miles to our stands on the river. 
The day's sport was that morning's ride. One of the 
natives, who wanted to be good the evening before, 
wagered a dollar that some of the party would bring in 
at least a fawn, basing his hope, I think, on the two old 
hunters, but just as we were starting I saw him hand over 
the dollar, saying it was unnecessary to await our re- 
turn ; the sight of those white collars, ties and starched 
cuffs was enough. 
It's shamefully easy to kill a d^er ;on stands^ They 
told us just to stand quietly on the rnnA\ay. and in a half 
an hour the hounds would run the deer right to us. The 
hounds are taken back a mile or two in the woods, put on 
the track of a deer, and the frightened animal immediately 
runs to the river, invariably taking a runway. The deer 
was quickly started, the hounds followed its trail, silence 
soon brooded over the hills, and one more deer, which 
"invariably" followed a runway, had crossed the river 
sorfiewhere else, and ten disappointed souls went home. 
Fr.\nk Hedgks. 
Kansas. 
The Disappearing Woodcock. 
Hamilton, Ont., Jan. 26. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Knowing well the great interest your paper has shown in 
matters pertaining to Ihe preservation, increase or de- 
crease of our game birds, I desire to direct the attention 
of yourself and readers to the greatly diminished num- 
ber of woodcock found this season in the Niagara penin- 
sula of Ontario, before and during their fall flight. 
In covers which for years have yielded fair bags not 
more than a bird or two were found. I have wondered 
if this has been the experience of sportsmen in the ad- 
joining portions of the United States, especially in those 
portions directly south of us, and in line of flight. If 
this has been the case it would be interesting then to find 
ont if this has been the experience in Quebec, New 
Brunswick, Nova Scotia and the portions of the United 
States adjoining. 
If this scarcity has been local we may believe that some 
temporary cause has diminished the number ; but if com- 
mon from the seaboard to the western limit of the Great 
Lakes, we may fear that the belief of many cock shooters 
that this is "a bird of the past" is but too well founded. 
Thirty-five years ago men I have shot with here used 
to kill between 200 and 300 cocks each season ; last year 
my bag in this neighborhood was eight, and I have been 
told that I was the only person fortunate enough to 
secure one. I know full well that in the older settlements 
the breeding grounds are being continually cut down, but 
surely others to compensate in some degree are brought in 
by the opening up of new farming territory. 
I fear the cause lies in over-shooting. In Ontario the 
cocks are well protected, as the open season does not com- 
mence till Sept. 15, when the birds are moulting and scat- 
tered, and most of them have left by Nov. i ; but in the 
States they are or have been shot from July 4 to May i — 
ten months out of the twelve. Ontario early stopped 
spring shooting, and during the past thirty years has time 
and again shortened the season, and I feel sure we would 
agree to stop all cock shooting for some years if our 
friends acro's the border would agree to do the same. 
Old Reader. 
Mf. Riordan's Cariboti. 
Our illustration is of Mr. Chas. R Riordan's thirty- 
nine point caribou. It was killed by him on Nov. 13, in 
the northwest Mirimachi country, New Brunswick; in 
the barrens between the north branch of the Sevogle and 
the headwaters of the Northwest Miramichi, 
The Forest and Stream is put to press each week on Tuesday', 
Correspondence intended for publication should reach us at the 
btest by Moaday and as raucb eariier as practicable-. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
The Wild Pigeon. 
Chicago, Jan. 21. — Every now and then we hear of the 
appearance in parts of the North of the passenger pigeon, 
a bird thought to be nearly or quite extinct. Of course 
it is impossible in many cases to verify the reports of such 
occurrences, and usually I presume it safer to doubt them, 
barring testimony of a competent ornithologist. I have 
just come across over in Michigan, however, of some 
positive testimony on this head, through which it can 
be proved that the passenger pigeon has actually been 
seen and killed in this region within the past year^ In- 
deed, the proof of this may be seen at the city of Grand 
Rapids to-day, in the shape of two specimens of the 
bird, which were killed and mounted in the month of 
July, 1898, and are now in the possession of Mr. Otis 
Watson, of Grand Rapids. The birds were killed about 
four or five miles west of Grand Rapids,, on Mr. Wat- 
son's farm. 
Five years ago a number of pas>senger pigeons were 
found in the market at Grand Rapids by Mr, D. G. 
Henry, of that city. They were even then so great a 
rarity that Mr. Henry purchased a pair of them and 
made from thetn a painting. 
Mr. Frank Rodgers, prosecuting attoriiey of Kent 
county, in which county Grand Rapids is located, told 
me that last year he saw two passenger pigeon.s. about 
eight miles west of Paris, Mich., where the State fish 
hatchery is. It was in early summer. The two birds 
were perched on a tall pine stub near the road. Of 
all the above, the tw^o stufl'ed birds are the most recent 
and available proof, and it seems sure that the wild 
pigeon is not altogether extinct, or at least was not last 
year. 
North Dakota Game. 
My friend Clint Smith, of Fargo, N. D.. writes'me enter- 
tainingly about the sport which is present or possible 
in his far-off Northern country. I say far-off, bitt really 
it isn't far-off if you live there, but on the other hand 
this part of the country would in. that case be far-off. Wt 
are apt to think that folk who live in the West dor^'t 
have as good time as we do, and we suppose they have 
to sit up nights twisting hay to keep the baby warm. 
As a matter of fact, they don't burn any hay in Fargo, 
and as for fun, the man who lives in a good live West- 
ern town li-ke that gets more out of life than a dozen 
men do who live in the grind of city life, which is about 
the poorest way to live that ever was devised. I never 
could see why city people get stuck on themselves. Any- 
how, this is" what Clint Smith says about it: 
"It has been many moons since I saw you last — do 
you remember where? It was at Scheik's. in Minneapo- 
lis, where you ate a whole prairie chicken, the game war- 
den got away with a lobster and your humble servant did 
his best with a dozen fried and a steak. We have had a 
fine winter, not a great deal of snow and not very much 
cold weather. We have had some great sport with the 
greyhounds, chasing foxes; thej' never were so plenty 
as they are this winter. At the present writing we have 
taken the pelts off of forty-one of them. We started to 
make it fifty, but now we have got bloodthirsty and want 
to make it one hundred. And I think we will if we have 
good luck and good weather. We have six hounds, and 
let two or three go at a time. The sport is great! We 
have got the greatest killers you ever saw; they simply 
chew them up and get chewed some themselves. 
"Forty-one foxes less in the country will help the 
chicken crop some. Chicken prospects are good. A 
good many are wintering here. One day when we were 
after foxes we saw four large bunches of chickens, and 
they looked fine. If we can get a law through the Legis- 
lature this winter, changing the law to Sept. r and 
shorten the season, having it close Nov. i, and if a few 
more foxes are killed, there will be no reason why we 
shouldn't havp chickens for years to come. And now 
I will close hi giving you an invitation, which, if it is a 
good ways off, Is meant just the same. Come and have 
a chicken shoot with us next season. The black pointer 
Nance is gone, but we have got more; not quite as good 
maybe, biit they can find birds. I want you to come 
and make my house your home while here. And myself 
and wife will do our best to entertain. My pacer will 
be at your disposal, so you can ride around, see the 
sights and not ride behind." 
How they do it in Nebraska. 
Mr. George L. Carter, of Lincoln, Neb., secretary 
of the Lincoln Gun Club, and a law-abiding sportsman, 
writes me fully and interestingly regarding the game and 
the market-hunters of Nebraska. It would seem that 
those generous corporations, the express companies, who 
are always anxious to help the game wardens, have about 
the same methods in Nebraska that they do in Illinois 
and Wisconsin. It is well known that there is as big 
a game "fence" at Omaha as there is at Milwaukee. I 
know of no remedy for these matters unless it be to put 
the facts in the hands of every citizen of the State of Ne- 
braska. There are few States which have suffered more 
at the hands of the petty game thieves than this once 
magnificent shooting State. Mr. Carter's letter tells its 
own story directly: 
"The season for the killing of prairie chickens and quail, 
iust closed in our State, brings the sportsmen of Ne- 
braska to a realization of the real condition of things, and 
should result in an effort for a remedy. Birds, especially 
chickens, were so thoroughly shot out a few years ago 
that market-hunters did not find their business so profit- 
able as in former years, and the traffic was reduced to a 
minimum, with the result that, aided by good seasons, 
both chickens, and quail have increased wonderfully the 
past two years. But I am sorry to say that, with their 
increase, comes also the increase of the ever-despised 
market-hunter, and shooting for the market was carri*id 
on to an alarming extent the past season. We have a 
law in this State prohibiting express companies from 
- carrying game, btit having only the regular elected offi- 
cers of the State to enforce these laws (in which they 
have no particular interest) they are of but little value. 
Not that the express companies openly violate the laws, 
but they do carry great numbers of birds for these un* 
scrupulous parties under fictitious labels, such as 'but- 
