April 8, 1899.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
263 
\vent on deck mighty quick, and I see we had gone clean 
right atop of the reef and the tide going out we was 
high and dry on the coral. Of course, being so tired I 
couldn't be expected to wake up when we struck; you 
see I was depending on them Savages the way Cap'n 
Harry Smith said you could. But come to look for them 
they was all fast asleep on deck, and they didn't know 
we was wrecked until I went around and kicked each one 
in turn. You see they got hold of some gin I had aboard 
in case of cramps or any kind of sickness you're likely 
to get when you're out at sea. They got hold of it and 
then they got drunk and let the schooner jump the reef 
and they didn't even call me, but just slept through It 
all like logs. And before the Samoans thought to wake 
us up and let us know we were wrecked somebody stole 
all the sails and rigging and everything else, and then 
they left us to wade ashore. Bnt I don't mind that so 
much as I do them Savages, Cap'n Harry Smith was so 
sure you could depend on them. Because you can't de- 
pend on them and I've proved it; that's whv I want to 
protest them Savages; likewise and also, Cap'n Harry 
Smith which said so." 
Now there is all the narrative there ever was in con- 
nection with the wreck of the schooner Lupe, which 
climbed over a Samoan reef and stuck there until suc- 
cessive gales tore her timbers apart. For a shipwreck it 
may, perhaps, lack the thrill of dashing waves and drown- 
ing mariners and things going by the board, if that be 
the correct way of putting it. There are a plenty of 
other shipwrecks which have all that sort of thing, this 
is only a nice cosy little shipwreck designed to illustrate 
the great truth that Savages can't be depended on, even 
if Cap'n Harry Smith does say so. 
Llewella Pierce Churchill. 
A Bee Hunting Story, 
The story I am about to relate— hoping that it may 
find a place in the columns of good old Forest and 
Stream — has the merit of being a true tale both as to 
the names of persons given and the names of the places 
at which tlie incidents occurred. Many years ago, or to 
be more explicit, in the summer of 1850, the writer was 
employed in the town of South Deerfield, Mass., by a 
mill man and farmer, whose mill was situated on a 
stream known in those days as Bloody Brook— so called 
from the fact that the Indians a good many years pre- 
vious to the time of which I write, had swooped down upon 
the luckless white settlers who then lived in this vicinity, 
and had ruthlessly murdered many men, women and 
children; the stream being dyed with the blood of the 
inofil'ensive white settlers who were massacred at and 
near this point, hence the name of Bloody Brook. One 
bright September morning Mr. Adams, for whom I was 
at work, informed me that he was about to take a holi- 
day and devote .it to a test of skill with the speckled 
trout with which some of the nearby streams were well 
stocked in those days. He also informed me that I could 
accompany him on his fishing trip if I so desired. Of 
course I gladly accepted the invitation, and bright and 
early on the Saturday morning we started, taking for 
transportation purposes Mr. Adam's bay mare. Five 
o'clock saw us on our journey, and by nine o'clock we 
were near its end, the fresh bracing air of the beautiful 
September morning seeming to put new life into our blood 
as well as into the pony that hustled us along. Shortly 
after nine o'clock we arrived at the stream and stabled 
our pony in an old looking log stable that had been 
erected adjacent to a log shack erected by my companion 
and a party of city sportsmen from Boston a year or two 
previous. We proceeded to our pleasant task without 
loss of time, and in a few hours had as many fine trout 
as we cared to take home with us — or rather shovrld I say, 
as we cared to spend the time to catch, as I had per- 
suaded Mr. Adams to devote a part of our day to hunt- 
ing bees, we having seen many of the busy honey gath- 
erers plying their trade on the flowers in the clearings 
that were adjacent to the stream upon which we had 
been at work. 
After securing several bees for lining purposes 
we liberated them one at a time, following their 
movements with our eyes across the fields and into 
the woods. Then we would make a "bee line" in the di- 
rection taken by the first one liberated till we feared we 
might miss our line, when we would liberate another 
and follow in the same fashion as before. We kept this 
up for some time till we began to think we would soon 
be obliged to procure more "liners," as we called our 
captured bees. But success at last crowned our efforts, 
and we came to a large birch tree that we felt sure must 
be the home of the colony we had been lining and such 
it proved to be; but, alas, upon its smooth bark we found 
the newly cut initials of a man who had located this same 
colony a day or two before, and to whom by all the rules 
of the pioneers of the woods the tree before us now be- 
longed, although he had deferred for a time the collecting 
of his store of honey. Being young and not over scru- 
pulous about what I would now look upon as genume 
robbery, I tried to persuade Mr. Adams that we cut down 
the tree and carry the honey home, but with all of my 
pleading he was firm in his refusal to meddle with another 
person's property. 
In due course of time we returned home with our fish, 
but the "bee tree" still haunted my waking hours, and I 
decided rightly or wrongly to have a share in that honey. 
I had little difficulty in persuading Nathan Himes, who 
was also employed by Mr. Adams, to agree to accompany 
me on a second trip to secure the bees' store; and we de- 
cided to go that same night in order to make sure of 
the prize and to be more secure from detection while 
procuring the honey. Shortly after supper Himes and I 
took one of our overseer's horses and with a wagon in 
which we had placed a large tub and several smaller 
pails for receiving the honey, started 011 our expedition. 
When we arrived at the clearing, which was some half- 
mile from the bee tree, it was dark. We drove the horse 
and rig in the direction of the tree by way of a zigzagging 
Wood road till we were forced to stop by the sinall trees 
that impeded further progress. We left the horse, and 
with cross-cut saw and tubs we made our way slowly 
through the woods till we at last found our tree again. 
We proceeded at once to our task of felling the tree with 
the saw. When our task was about half completed we 
were nearly scared out of our wits by a party of men 
with dogs that chanced to pass quite close to us while on 
a coon-hunting e-xpedition. We feared that it was the 
owner of the tree and a party of friends that had got 
wind of our doings and had come to take forcible pos- 
session of the tree. Luckily for us it was not so. After 
this party had got out of sound of us we finished cutting 
down tree, which by good luck broke in two just at the 
point where the honey was stored. The night was rather 
hazy, and we were obliged to work by the aid of a 
lantern that contained only a tallow dip. Perhaps it was 
as well that our light was not more brilliant, for as it was 
Himes was badly stung by the bees, and several times 
was obliged to run off howling into the woods to free 
himself from the fierce little tormentors. I might as well 
say that though I was better protected than my mate, in 
the excitement of procuring the honey I lost part of my 
mask and several times I was obliged to follow the same 
tactics as the luckless Hirnes. But we persevered, and 
along in the small hours of the morning had finished 
despoiling the bees' store and had all of our pails and 
the big tub filled with honey, and were ready to start for 
home. By this time Himes and myself were hardly able 
to see, caused by the many stings we had received in our 
faces, and with our dim lantern we went groping through 
the woods looking for our horse. To make matters 
worse, what little light we had received from the moon 
had disappeared, as the moon had gone down, and not 
knowing the woods very well we got turned around, and 
it was more than an hour before we could locate the spot 
where we had left the animal. We finally succeeded in 
finding our horse and then we lugged our honey to the 
rig and struck out for home, arriving there just as the 
first red streaks of dawn began to show in the East that 
the .sun would later on show itself again. We were tired 
as well as chilled through with the cold night air on our 
drive home, while as to personal appeai'ances we were 
frights. We had just 87 pounds of honey — very fine and 
nice — but we were sure we must have had a ton's weight ' 
of experience. 
It was a good thing for us that it was now the Sabbath 
day, so we could hide away with our swollen and half- 
blind-eyes, which we were obliged to do all that day; and, 
to make matters worse, the owner of the tree went on 
the same Sunday morning to secure his anticipated prize, 
and when he found it had been taken he was in a terrible 
state of mind and declared he would take summary ven- 
geance on whoever had taken the honey — provided he 
could find out the guilty parties. Mr. Adams fearing for 
our safety as well as for his team had cleaned all traces 
of the honey and dead bees from the wagon and refused 
to believe (?) when called upon by the owner of the 
tree, that his men had taken part in the robbery. Things 
looked so bad though that Himes and myself were 
obliged to leave the place until our faces had again re- 
sumed their normal condition. Luckily, Himes had a 
sister living at Northhampton, Mass., several miles dis- 
tant, whither we went on Sunday night and visited till 
our faces healed and we felt safe to return to our work. 
This was my first and last attem.pt to steal another's bee 
tree, and though helping to gather in many a store of 
wild bee's honey since that day, I have always looked 
back upon that boyish escapade with regret, and to this 
day consider that we paid dear for our whistle. 
Wm. Brown. 
P^ovtNCE OF Quebec, 
The Story of Dixie/' 
It has frequently been the subject of discussion regard- 
ing the origin of negro minstrelsy which has brought fame 
and fortune to song writers, musical composers and 
minstrel performers. 
Negro minstrelsy in reality had its origin with the plan- 
tation slaves of the South, but their performances, while 
amusing, _ were crude, fragmentary and perpetuated only 
by tradition,. 
The period when the white race first entered the field 
of plantation melodies and songs is within the memory 
of men still living, your correspondent included. 
The first known public performance of that character 
was "Coal Black Rose," sang with self accompaniment 
on the piano by a blind vocalist, whose name I do not re- 
member. 
The next to obtain notoriety was "Old Zip Coon," 
which the writer, when a small boy, heard under the 
tent of a show consisting chiefly of two fiddlers, an ele- 
phant, and Shetland ponies, ridden circus style, by eques- 
trian monkeys. This was over sixty-five years ago. The 
song was sung and performed with dance by three burnt- 
cork minstrels, and its novelty to both old and young 
afforded great amusement for the audience. 
It is questionable whether later songs have excelled 
it; and few performers on the stage at the present time, 
when they dance to the tune of "Turkey in the Straw,'' 
know that it is the air of "Old Zip Coon" "recently re- 
vived. 
Almost contemporaneously burst into popularity Rice's 
great hit in "Jim Crow," performed for the first time by 
him as an interlude in a theater in Pittsburg. 
The next in that line who gained notoriety appeared 
Christy's Minstrels, and Dan Emmett, both being pio- 
neers in professional minstrelsy, and it is difficult to say 
which, if either, had priority. 
The principal object of this article is to contribute in a 
small way to perpetuate the memory of the author and 
composer of the world-wide song and air of "Dixie." 
Daniel D. Emmett is now living in retirement on a farm 
near Gambler, the seat of Kenyon College, in Ohio. He 
is a hale old man of eighty-four, and in full possession of 
his mental faculties. The writer remembers him as a 
pleasant, blue-eyed young man half a century ago, when 
his family resided in Mount Vernon, Ohio. His sister 
was a fine performer on the piano, and the two would 
often entertain their visitors with choice music, both 
vocal and instrumental. 
Interest in this venerable minstrel has been recently 
awakened by an ovation tendered to him on the 1st day 
of the present month, March, 1809, by the cadets of the 
Military Department of Kenyon College, to whom he 
feelingly told the story of his life, and detailed all the 
circumstances under which he wrote his famous song. A 
report in the morning papers give the interesting detail.s. 
The young ladies of Harcourt Place Seminary were 
present, and the large assemblage filled Delano Hall to 
overflowing. The enthusiastic welcome of the young peO'- 
ple and the kind manner in which he was introduced by 
N. H Plills, senior regent of the academy, so touched Mr. 
Emmett that he could not at once proceed with his ad- 
dress, which he said was the first oration he ever made. 
Of Southern parentage, he was born in Mt. Vernon Oct. 
29, 181S, and was the first white boy born there. His 
education was such as he gained in the log schoolhouses 
of the country in those early days. His father was a 
skillful and prosperous blacksrnith, but the son at the 
age of eighteen, being a promising amateur, became a 
musician with traveling shows until he was twenty-two 
years old. In 1843, in connection with three others of 
similar tastes, he organized the "Virginia Minstrels," 
which was immediately successful in New York and other 
Eastern cities of the United States, as well as in Great 
Britain. 
In 1859 he was engaged by Bryant's Minstrels, 472 
. Broadway, New York, to write comic songs, negro songs 
and walk-arounds, and to act as musician when required. 
"Dixie," with the music, was composed by him early in 
the spring of 1859. and sung from that time to July 4, 
1865, by Mr. Emmett at every performance given at 
Bryant's. 
His recent address at Gambier was received with great 
applause, and at the close he sang "Dixie" with a chorus 
improvised from the school during the day. He was 
heartily encored, and after the performance, the cadets 
were all presented to him. He is white-haired, robust and 
physically shows but little indications of his advanced 
years. It was an enjoyable night for the venerable min- 
strel. S. R. Harris. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Having seen Mr. Harris' notes on Dan Emmett, I will 
say: He composed "Dixie" as a "walk-around" in No- 
vember, 1859. The date is fixed because I came from the 
West in that month and dropped in to see Emmett, whom 
I had known, and he was to produce "Dixie" that night, 
and I heard it, The dancing part is left off now, it is in 
different tune. The name did not refer to Mason an<i* 
Dixon's line, but to an old New York City slave holde' 
named Dixie, who was famous for some reason, and a» 
early as 1840 we boys had a game called "Dixie's land/ 
A ring was marked out and one boy was "it." The others 
would trespass, calling out: "I'm on Dixie's land, Dixie 
ain't at home." Then, if the first one could catch an in- 
truder, he was "it." Dixie was crowded by the anti- 
slavery movement and took his slaves south. 
Fred Mather, 
Handling and Breeding Rocky 
Mountain Game Animals, 
In compliance with your request I take pleasure in giv-r 
ing you such facts as I have gained in ten years handling 
and breeding game of this locality. The species with 
which I have had experience are antelope, black-tail 
deer, mountain sheep, moose, elk and bison. Of the elk 
I can say the most, having handled something over 300 
head tliat have since been distributed in different parks in 
the East. A great many of them I caught wild when full 
grown. The balance were bred in captivity. I find 
them to be a very hardy animal and one that will thrive 
under the most unfavorable conditions. They are easily 
domesticated and become very docile and nice pets. The 
males at one year old grow a spike horn, and at two 
years the prongs will vary from three to six on each 
horn, so the old adage of a prong for each year as the 
age of a bull elk is exploded. 
I had one female elk which grew a horn. She had but 
one, which came out the summer she was three years old. 
It grew to be i8in. in length. It curved down over hev 
face and hung below her nose, and remained that way 
while I kept her, four years, without shedding the velvet. 
After shedding the velvet the males are inclined to be 
vicious. The old ones will horn the young males, and 
often kill them, if confined in a small enclosure. I have 
had several killed that way. To avoid accidents I would 
dehorn all males more than' two years old. As soon as 
they rub the velvet from the horns they shed the crowns 
that are left on the head. The next spring the horns 
grow as usual. 
Elk are prolific breeders and drop their first young at 
three years of age. 
Moose, although hardy, tough fellows in their native 
swamps and hills, in captivity are very tender and soon 
die, seemingly without any provocation. I have captured 
several head, all old animals, and only succeeded in keep- 
ing one alive. This was a female. She was easily broken 
to harness, and would come to the call of her name for 
any distance within hearing. She wotild eat anything in 
the line of grain, vegetables, fruit and bread. 
After keeping her seven years I sold her to a showman, 
and she died nine months later in Detroit, Mich. 
Black-tail deer do well in a large pasture. They should 
be captured when fawns, as they are of a very restless 
disposition and will not do well if caught when grown. 
They drop their young when two years old, and usually 
have two each year. Mountain sheep are fast disappear- 
ing before the inroads of civilization. They take kindly, 
to domestication, and will breed in a Very small place 
altogether unlike the mountainous range to which they 
were accustomed. They are most difficult creatures to 
take alive as the ranges they inhabit are almost inaccessi- 
ble to man. When a rope is dropped on them they will 
jump from any height at the risk of injurj^ or death. But 
if they can be caught and brought down to level ground 
without being irijured in the process the chances are 
ninety-nine out of a hundred they will live in this alti- 
tude. Their food in captivity consists of wild hay, veg- 
etables and, above all, oats. Like the deer, they drop two 
young and breed at an early age. 
The antelope, while not a great success, can be bred 
with great care and time and a large pasture. I have 
