March i8, 1899.] 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
209 
bers at the Wisconsin clubs? Where have they gone? 
To Minnesota and Dakota, of course, to assist in the fur- 
ther preservation of ducks in these States. I will ask you, 
why is it that on Lakes Winnebago, Koshkonong, Fox 
Lake, Poygan, Puckaway, and, in fact, every inland lake 
and river in the State, that we vtry rarely see a flock of 
ducks in the month of September, or until the Northern 
ducks come from their breeding marshes in Dakota, 
when during the few years that the ducks were protected 
in this State we had good September shooting? 
"I may flatter myself somewhat by stating that I have 
had some experience in the matter of game protection in 
this State, as I am a resident member in good standing 
in more than one club in this State, where many of the 
members are non-residents, but I am sorry to say that too 
many of them are in favor of spring shooting simply for 
the reasons that I have already stated. "No use for fall 
shooting in Wisconsin. Dakota is the place to go, where 
we can kill ducks by the thousand." Now, but a very few 
of our Wisconsin members can avail themselves of this 
trip; they cannot afiford it; consequently we stand aronnd 
and look at our Illinois and Indiana members assist in 
preserving the ducks for us in the spring time, and in the 
fall months we take a crack at the few that get away from 
the secondarj" preservation in Minnesota and Dakota. 
"I will give you a brief illustration as to the dift'erence 
in game protection, and the open door or spring shooting 
folly. The Horicon Club, of which I am a member, is 
so forturate as to be blessed with a constitution and by- 
laws that prohibit any of the members from hunting (for 
any purpose) upon the marsh in the spring time, under 
penalty of expulsion. They must not fire a gun before 
sunrise or after sunset. They cannot use any gun larger 
than lo-bore. We keep watchmen during the spring to 
see that the birds are in no way disturbed. 
"Now, should one chance to come this way during the 
opening day, Sept. i. I will guarantee to show him more 
mallard and teal ducks that have been bred upon this 
marsh than are bred in the balance of the State. 
"In justice to this club I will say that it is under the 
control of the Wisconsin members. 
'T am also a member of the famous (for spring shoot- 
ing) Black Hawk Club, at Lake Koshkonong. the very 
best lake and marsh for breeding purposes oi any in the 
State. The rules of the club will not prevent shooting 
in the spring nor at any time of day or night. He can 
use any size gun that he can load into a flat boat. He 
can go to any portion of the lake and do about as he 
pleases. He can fill the club house with all the worthless 
Ijirds that he can manage to kill with his two heavy 
guns, and all tliat is required of him in return for this 
'wide open' privilege is that he shall bury or in some 
other manner dispose of his dead birds. 
"A few years ago I made a visit to this famous resort, 
and I must confess that I was compelled to hang my 
head in' shame for the men who would deliberately go to 
their shooting blinds or flat boats and unmercifully 
slaughter from fifty to one hundred poor, miserable and 
worthless birds, that were so tired from their Southern 
flight that they would eagerly decoy to anything from a 
bootjack to a sawbuck." 
Btfffato Specimen at the Stock Yard. 
The finest mounted specimen of American bison I 
have ever seen— not the head, but the entire animal — i.- 
to be seen at a street place near the Union Stock Yards, 
in Chicago, I had never heard of this specimen and was 
much surprised to run across it this week. It has almost 
no defects, excepting that the horns have had brass knobs 
screwed on the tips. This was done before the animal 
was killed. But where do you suppose this big bull came 
from? Certainly from the last place one would natu- 
rally guess — Pike county, low down in the State of Illi- 
nois. I could not learn who it was who raised this bull, 
or where he got it, but there is no doubt that it was a 
splendid specimen, as photographs ^^aken during life show 
very plainly. This bull was shipped to the stock yards 
four years ago and slaughtered there, when the hide was 
purchased by Mr. Backer and mounted for his place. 
Mr. Backer rather prides himself on his fine collection 
of heads and horns. He told me, however, that he would 
be willing to sell this mounted buffalo, as it takes up so 
much room. Here is a chance for some academy or in- 
stitute. It is not easy in these days to get a perfect speci- 
men of the American bison. 
Sallie at the Show. 
Speaking of the dog show reminds me of a conversa- 
tion I heard this morning between Sallie and her mistress, 
the talk being from a standpoint perhaps not strictly pro- 
fessional. 
"Mis' Mary Ellen," she said, "I declare to goodness I 
never was in such a place in all my born days! Such 
a-howlin' an' a-barkin, an' a-squealin' I never did hear! 
I was so 'fraid o' fleas I couldn't be right happy for a 
long time; I jes' lift' up one foot after the other, right 
high, when- I walked down them alleys. They was all 
sorts of dogs, more'n I ever thought there was in the 
whole world. First thing I did, I goes and looks at them 
little fox dogs, same sort as Maudie is, you know, but 
law! I didn't see ary dog there ez good ez Maudie— lot 
o' no 'count dogs, somebody was a showin' off. They 
was a tryin' to sell them dogs, too, an' askin' all sorts o' 
moneJ^ I heard one man say one of them dogs sold for 
$28, er else that was what they asked fer it, I don't know 
which. Then there was a white, bull sort o' dog that 
' had a gold tooth — a man made him open his mouth and 
I took right hold of the tooth my own self; yes'm, 'deed 
I did. All them_ men was mighty good to me. Mr. 
Gould, he showed me round to all his St. Bernards, and 
I declare. Miss Mary Ellen, one of them there dogs was 
this high! (measuring about 6ft. on the wall). 
"Then there was a dog that fit through the wah, and 
two little Japanese baby dogs that was borned over to 
Maniller. right on to Admiral Dewey's ship while he 
was a-fitin' the Spaniards. I didn't know whether I 
would rather have one of them, or the dog with the gold 
tooth. Then there was some little, low-down, chunky 
dogs, with their face all drawed in — bulldogs, was them. 
Miss Mary Ellen? They locked to me just like a' ole- 
time rusty nigger, too low and homely to be fitten to live! 
Then there was some more funny lookin' dogs, long, 
slim ones, with a long, sharp sort o' bill for a head — I 
don' know what sort of dogs they was. In one place 
they had a whole row of right little, black, sawed-off 
dogs — weepin'-willow dogs, I reckon they call, for their 
hair hangs down just like a weepin' willow intoe a grave- 
yard. They had monkeys, too, and a sort of show, like, 
where the monkeys and dogs sort of performed. I come 
away then, tor some of them dogs didn't act nacherl. 
'Deed, Mis' Mary Ellen, they was a-plenty of dogs there 
that didn't look nacherl, nohow; not to say like a real 
dog. Twenty-eight dollars for a dog — why, pshaw! they 
ain't no dog wuth that money! I'd rather have Maudie 
than any dD.g in the show, and she ain't worth more'n 
about $3, But you ought to go there and see them dogs. 
The policeman at the door, he lets you right through, and 
all them men they show you the dogs. It was right fine, 
I tell you." 
A Shootbgless Shooting Trip. 
We have all heard of the songs that were never sung 
and things of that sort. I am thinking of writing some- 
thing about the shoots that were never shot. At least, I 
am but recently back from a shooting trip in the South, 
which was perhaps the most shootingless shooting trip that 
ever was. Mr. W. R. Sims, of Memphis, Tenn., writes 
to me tmder recent date with the purpose of communicat- 
ing to me what he considers to be information not al- 
ready in my possession. He says : 
"I have some sad news to tell you about our mutual 
friend, Mr. Divine. He is at his old tricks again, borrow- 
ing 'fine dogs and losing them, I thought the 'exposure' 
you gave him some time ago would have cured him, or 
be a warning to all not to loan him their dogs. But you 
know what a persuasive tongue he has, and the nice 
promises he can make. One day last week he borrowed 
the best and finest pointers in the county for 'just one 
day's hunt,' but alas ! for the owner, Mr. Divine came 
home with that same old tale, 'I lost him.' As good dogs 
are scarce, and in demand, he must have lost him for a 
good price. I never did get my dog he lost." 
As I missed Mr. Sims during my brief visit at Mem- 
phis a couple of weeks ago, he perhaps may not know that 
I was particeps criminis in the loss of this last dog. Mr. 
Divine told me to come to Memphis and he would take 
me out shooting, saying that we could easily kill sixty or 
eighty birds apiece anj' day that we liked, and giving me 
also to understand that he had at his disposal a great many 
fine dogs. In this latter statement he was entirely correct, 
for without the least difficulty in the world he borrowed 
two fine dogs as one ever saw, a setter and a pointer. 
Perhaps I need not mention the names of the victims who 
owned these dogs. We brought the setter back. What 
Mr. Divine did with the pointer I never could tell, but I 
presume he tied him up somewhere out in the woods 
some time when I happened to be out of sight, and that 
the next day he went out and got him. I know we 
hunted all over the countrs^ to find the poor fellow, but 
were forced to go home without him, I thought it was 
safer to leave town about that time, so I deserted Mem- 
phis, and I have always been afraid to write Tom Divine 
since and ask him whether he ever returned the dog. I 
hope he did, and if he did not. I am in for half his value, 
for' I was seen riding on the public streets with Mr. 
Divine, and with the two dogs in the carriage. 
But leaving aside Mr. Divine's criminal practice, there 
were certain operatic features to our hunt which entitle it 
to consideration. It is usually the custom to describe only 
those hunts which result in large bags of game, but you 
could carry all the game we got on this hunt in one coat 
pocket. The participants in the hunt were Mr. Divine and 
myself, with two Others, if the latter might be said to 
participate, when most of the time they were picking burrs 
from their skirts. It was expressly stipulated and agreed 
that the man who missed the first shot was to buy the din- 
ners that night for the party. The first shot fell to my- 
self, and as I kicked the bird up from under the dog's 
nose, I felt sure that the dinners would not be on me 
that time. I had in a load of No. 10 shot, which I had 
gotten from my friend, Mr, "Bliss, over in Michigan la.st 
fall, and I was using my scatter gun, with which no man 
ought ever to miss a bird at all. This particular bird 
went off over a little gully, and I hit him very hard with 
the No. 10, so hard that he nearly went down at once, and 
I refrained from tucking in the second barrel. Yet the 
bird wabbled on and on, and finally dropped at the edge 
of a little thicket. Here we hunted, but could not find 
it! At this Mr. Divine loudly protested that I had lost 
the dinners. On the other hand I set up the claim that I 
had not missed the bird, but had killed it. We carried it 
up to the Supreme Court of the Others, who remanded 
the case for a new trial. 
After a while the pointer n\ade a nice point on a single 
in the woods. Mr. Divine told me to shoot, and as the 
bird rose, I again felt sure that I would not be lost at 
that dinner party. There was a sudden whirr, an agoniz- 
ing pause, and a soft yielding feeling under my trigger 
finger ! It is one of the peculiarities of my scatter gun 
that it does not always cock when you open it, tlie old lady 
being whimsical in this regard, this was one of the times 
when she went on strike. In my surprise I forgot again 
to use the second barrel, and the bird sailed off unhurt. 
Again we referred the case to the supreme court, Mr, 
Divine claiming that I had missed, and I claiming that I 
had not shot. This time the decision was against me, but 
Mr. Divine was asked to take the next shot. In a few 
moments he put up a bird and fired twice at it as it crossed 
through the woods, the bird passing on apparently un- 
touched. I said ha! ha! to Mr. Divine in a loud and 
harsh manner. All at once there arose excited callings 
from beyond the wood at the foot of the hill, where we 
had left our colored boy with the carriage. 
"I reckon I've killed the nigger," said Tom; "but that's 
a heap better than not killing anything, the way you do." 
We went on over toward where the boy was calling, and 
he pointed to a spot "where he said he thought a bird had 
fallen dead. Sure enough, the dog pointed, and 
we picked up the bird stone dead! I protested 
that there was no proof that Mr, Divine had killed 
this bird, and pointed out that it might have been 
the bird which rose before me, and which had 
later dropped dead, either through fright or perhaps 
through its Southern courtesy. The supreme court ruled 
against me, however, and I had to buy the dinners that 
night. This was pretty much all the story. Awlaile later 
I put up a bevy, and killed one bird all by myself. We 
marked the singles badly, but approaching one it rose 
wild and I knocked it down with a long shot. As the dog 
went to retrieve, a bird rose in front of him and Mr. Dj- 
vine killed it nicely, but we never got my bird, and con- 
cluded that it had got up again and was the one Mr. 
Divine killed. This ended our hunt, net results three 
quail, and this was all the shooting I did on my shoot- 
ing trip of a week. Shortly after this we lost the pointer, 
and a little after 2 o'clock left the fields. Mr. Divine said 
he had walked all he wanted to, and didn't believe in 
walking anyhow. So we took it out in just enjoying the 
sunshine and the warmth, and the Southern scenes, which 
were so new to at least one of the Others. A party of 
negroes who were hunting rabbits along the grassy gullies 
gave us plenty of amusement.* We drove in from our hunt 
in a leisurely way and that night I settled for the dinners. 
They were good ones, too. ' 
I proved to my own satisfaction that a shooting trip 
can be a great success without any shooting in it. Indeed, 
I took great comfort in lying in my room at the hotel 
and looking out at the squirrels playing in the beautiful 
little Memphis park. At last, with one of the Others, who 
was present at the hunt, I folded my knapsack and slipped 
still further South, landing in dear old New Orleans, 
quaintest and most lovable of all American cities. Here 
we spent some delightful days in plain sight-seeing, most 
of our time being spent in the pawnshops and grave- 
yards, which, as is well known, are among the main at- 
tractions of that city. I should not omit to mention 
certain angling features connected with this sporting trip. 
New Orleans, of course, everyone knows, is a great fish 
market. We saw all sorts of "fish in the old French mar- 
ket, and ate all sorts of fish in the many excellent restau- 
rants which we discovered. The pompano of New 
Orleans is a dream, the red snapper is a reverie, and the 
tenderloin of trout is pure and delicate imagination. The 
oysters are beyond description. I was disappointed in 
only one regard in these sporting investigations at New 
Orleans. At one of the old-restaurants the menu said that 
one might have oysters from Bayou Cook, or oysters from 
Bayou Cypriani, the price in either case being the low one 
of 15 cents for a dozen, and each oyster, as it proved, 
being as big as one's hand. "Which one is best, garcon?" 
I asked in my choicest French (for ici I' on parle Francais 
a good deal of the time). The waiter shrugged a most 
expressive shrug, evidently having sized us up for pil- 
grims. 
"Bayou Cook, Bayou Cyprian'," he said; "two time on 
ze print, all same oyst'." By which I presume he meant 
to say that they were the same oyster irnder different 
names ! Anyhow, they were very good. Everything in 
New Orleans is very good, It was very good of our friend 
of earlier bear hunts, Mr. R. W. Foster, to show us to 
the depot, as we left, though he was at the time ill him- 
self. 
Yes, this was about all the fishing we had at New 
Orleans. But we had a great many other things, from 
genuine sugar house molasses up. And the ride through 
the great sugar plantations was, as ever, a continuous 
pleasure. A great and wondrous country, this of the 
South, and much worth visiting, even though one confine 
himself to the ride in the sunshine, the encounter with 
the "oyst' " of Bayou Cook, or the matutinal visit to the 
pawnshop of Rue Royale, eking this out with an awed 
look into the sawdust precinct of the "Old Absinthe 
House." where there ought to be some gruesome scenes, 
but where I am told there never are any. 
One should not visit the South and come away without 
seeing all the Southern friends he ever knew. Thus we 
wanted sadly to call on Dr, Taylor and family, over at 
Brownsville, a little way from Memphis; but time grew 
short, so I had to compromise by telephoning over to the 
Doctor ; and had I not been forty miles away from him I 
am sure I could not have resisted the importunity of his 
pleading to come over and have "just one day's hunt" 
wnth him. And surely I must do this some time, for a 
better host or a better hunt never might be found. 
And there was Capt, Bobo, Bobo the bear hunter, whom 
I have ruined in the bear hunting business, and who ought 
never to forgive me, but who does. We wrote to Bobo at 
his place, and .said we would call, but again time grew 
.<^hort. and we did not hear from him. Yet, lo ! on the very 
last day of our stay at Memphis, who should come into the 
cafe and sit down at arm's length from us but Bobo him- 
self, looking just the same and talking just the same as 
ever. This was sheer good fortune, for he had but that 
dav got our letter at his plantation, ninety miles away. 
The best we could do with Bobo was to promise to come 
again. He says he might maj^bc squeeze out one little, 
measly, small, poor bear if I should be out of meat. And 
Bobo promises to come North to see me this spring. All 
these Southern folk promise to come to see j-ou, but they 
don't come. They seen\ to want the balance of courtesy 
always on their side the house, which is the one thing 
that "can be urged against them. ^ 
Thus ended my shootingless shooting trip, but I couldn t 
say when I ever had a better. Noel Money will see this 
sometime, over in Siberia, somewhere, where he has gone 
and never kept his promises to write. Mr. Money will be 
glad to hear that his friends in the South are well, and 
that Capt. Bobo has got. at his house east of Memphis, the 
big set of bear tusks which Noel wants to put in the head 
of a walking stick. And he has also tlie ctfriosity of the 
claw of a bear, which is white instead of black, it being 
rarely that the black bear has a w4iite claw. These things 
Noel" Monev can have if he will' write as a decent fellow 
should, and" tell us where to send them. He may also re- 
flect with gratification, remembering the loss of his own 
dog at Memphis under suspicious circumstances, that he is 
not the only victim of his friend Divine's duplicity in dogs. 
Mr. Divine is old enough to mend his ways, but I am los- 
ing hope about him. • -.^ • - 
North American Birds, 
Mr. Ruthven Deane, no doubt Chicago's most dis- 
tinguished ornithologist, mails me the report of the A. 
O. U. committee on protection of North American birds, 
asking mention in the Forest and Stream if po-^sible. 
The report covers many intere.=;ting matters from nil t!ie 
States of the Union, North and South. One matter, from 
Mr, Mackay',g report from Massachusetts, seems 10 me 
