^08 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept. 9, 1899. 
ehicken story. Now my friend is a very good fellow, but 
does not know one end of a gun from the other, hence I 
am disposed to believe what he says in regard to game, 
for he does not have to live up to the expectations of 
his friends. 
"About chickeng, is it?" said he to me. "Well, you 
know I don't shoot any, but you know I have a brother- 
ift-law who is a shooter. He lives in North Dakota. The 
•wife of my brother-in-law wrote to my wife this week, and 
from all I can tell they seemed to have pretty fair shooting 
out there in North. Dakota. There are not as many birds 
as there used to be, but my brother-in-law and his son 
killed 460 chickens the first day they went out." 
"What on earth is that you are saying !" said I, and I 
fairly fell off the stool. "You don't mean to say that they 
killed that many prairie chickens in one day and in this 
summer?" 
"Why yes, of course I do," said my friend, serenely, 
and I could see that he really saw nothing unusual in, the 
statement. I asked him if he did not think there might 
have been more than two guns in the party, and he said 
that perhaps the writer of the letter was inaccurate in 
that regard, but he was positive in regard to the 460 
chickens in one day. 
"Why, I tell you," said lie, ''you don't know how 
thick the chickens are out there. You see my brother-in- 
law is sheriff of that countAr, and he is also manager for 
the big - — — wheat farm. The birds come in on those 
wheat fields in great numbers. I have been out there, and 
I waxit to tell you that I have seen my brother-in-law 
bring in a wagon load of prairie chickens in one day, 
, Early in the summer I have seen my own sons kill young 
prairie chickens when they rose by throwing clubs in 
among them. You know you can get close on to them 
then. Later in the fall they get together in big flocks, and 
then my brother-in-law says you have to be pretty careful 
wheri you go over the top of a ridge so as to get close 
enough to shoot before the birds fly. He is an awfully 
good shot, and so is his son, and they kill hundreds of 
prairie, chickens. You needn't laugh at me. I tell you, I 
know what I am talking about. Of course, you see he 
doesn't shoot for the fun of the thing, but for what 
money there is in it. He makes a business of it in the 
early fall. Yes, it seems to me I did hear that it was 
against the law to send them- out of the State, but, of 
course, you see, he being sheriff of the countj', he stands 
in! He doesn't ship these as 'chickens,' of course. I 
guess he marks them as 'poultry' or something of that 
sort. He has been at it for quite a while, and makes a 
pretty good thing out of it." 
"Well. B,," said I, as I turned toward him, "I think I 
have got niy chicken story alt right." 
"Why, how is th.at?" said he~. 
"You say he is sheriff of the county?" 
"Yes, sheriff of L. county" (I do not give the name of 
ibis county in full, for reasons which will be stated). 
"And he kills more than twentj'^-five birds a day, vou 
say?" 
"Well, he'd think he was doing a pretty poor business 
if he didn't." 
"And he ships them out of the State?" 
"Sure! What would he want them for if he didn't? 
Sav, what's the matter with you anyhow? Ain't this all 
right?" 
"Well, this is a pretty good story," Said I, "but it ain't 
quite all right. Now, please don't tell me the name of 
your brother-in-law." 
Another friend who sat close to us at table pointed out 
to B. that he was talking too mUch about his brother-in- 
law. "Say, Hough," said B., "you mustn't say anything 
about this in the Forest and Stream, you know, for I 
wouldn't have told you a word of this if I had thought 
vou would get my brother-in-law ' into any trouble 
about it." 
"That's right," said the other friend, also a newspaper 
man. "You mustn't print names." 
Of course, under these circumstances, since this news 
was obtained from an innocent party, and hence prac- 
tically confidential in its nature, I cannot give those de- 
tails which I would gladly do. I want to say, however, 
that I have no doubt in the world that the details above 
stated are practically correct. I think I could without any 
difficulty have the sheriff of L. county arrested, and pfir- 
haps make for him very serious trouble, as I know my 
friend. Warden George Bowers, of North Dakota, would 
not tolerate this sort of think should he learn of it. The 
name of the man I purposely did not learn, and I con- 
tented myself with asking my friend B. to write a personal 
letter to his doughty brother-in-law and to ask him to 
please stop shipping prairie chickens out of the State of 
Dakota. B. promised to do so, and I hope he will thus 
make some sort of a fitting end to one of the weirdest 
Western chicken stories I have heard in many a day. 
This is the way the law is not enforced in' some of our 
Western States, and this is why so many shooters go out 
into the Western chicken country and come back dis- 
appointed. I have no doubt whatever that there is a big 
game fence run in that particular county of North 
Dakota, and I wish that I could do something at once 
honorable and effective toward breaking it up. Some- 
times a fellow who is looking for a story gets more of a 
story than he wants, and I have some hesitation about 
printing even this blind rendition of the facts which my 
friend innocently gave me. I think I shall send both B. 
and his brother-in-law a few copies of the Forest and 
Stream. If you seek a pleasant heathen, look about you ! 
There is no need going to Africa or New Zealand if you 
want to do missionary work. 
Notes of Ttavel. 
It is curious and very interesting sometimes to observe 
how generally the Forest and Stream is read in all 
those parts of the cormtry which can produce a lover of 
the rod or gun. Sometimes persons ask me where the 
Forest and Stream is chiefij^ circulated, and I always 
tell them "Everywhere." A while ago I was up at La 
Crosse on a fishing trip, and I met the night agent of the 
C, B. & Q. railroad at that point, Mr. Simonton, him- 
self an enthusiast in shooting and fishing matters. Mr. 
Simonton and I had a very pleasant talk together. The 
next morning I put on my old clothes — and I alwa^'s look 
particularly tough in old clothes — and took an early train 
up the river a little ways, going over the Milwaukee & 
5t, Paul ro^(^. I had to get a permit for my boat, j^nd as 
the agent in the window handed me out the necessary 
slip, made out in my name, he remarked calmly, 'T 
thought it was about time you were coming up here to see 
about this bass fishing!" This remark occasioned me 
some surprise, coming as it did, but I learned that the 
young gentleman was not a detective, and only a reader 
of the Forest and Stream. 
That Upper Mississippi Valley country is a beautiful 
one, the river flowing by a series of lofty white-faced 
bluffs. The tallest of these, not far froni Winona, is 
known as the Queen Bluff, and is said to be the highest 
point of land between the Alleghanies and the Rockies. 
It is 8ft. higher than any other bluff on the river. Still 
another blulf is called the Chimney Rock. Yet another, 
near Winona, has been cut into for the last thirty years 
by a limestone quarry. A tall pinnacle of rock has been 
left by this quarry, and on the top of this the owner has 
attempted to roughly carve the face of an Indian. The 
outline is only half completed, but is visible at a dis- 
tance of a couple of miles. If properly executed it will 
of course be a striking thing. I presume the face would 
be 20 or 30ft. across, though it looks much smaller from 
the river. "That feller," said Ash Spicer, my boatman, as 
he called ray attention to this incipient work of art, ""ha.? 
been working at that thing for quite a while. Everybody 
says he is a bit touched in his upper story. He could 
sell all that limestone in the top of the bluff just as well 
as any of the rest of it." 
One day out in Wisconsin my train stopped in a little 
village, and the car window was directly opposite the 
yard of a cottage where a little girl was playing on the 
grass. "Here, Dewey! Dewey! Dewey!" she cried, and 
repeated this call so often that T was curious to know 
who or what "Dewey" might be. I presumed he might 
perhaps materialize into a mastiff, a Great Dane, or at 
least an all-conquering bull terrier. I confess to a mild 
surprise when I saw the little girl dive under the house 
and bring forth a small and much scared cat. "Dewey 
is a reg'lar fool about the cars," said she, looking up at 
me and smiling sweetly. 
Speaking of cars, while rambling along, I presume 
everybody has seen the warning sign boards posted 
along Western railroad crossings, bearing the warning 
legend, "Look out for the Cars!" It is reported that 
some roads once put up signs reading "Beware of the 
Locomotive," but this seemed to be so pedantic that it 
did not work. People got run over while they stood 
looking at the sign. I am told that in a certain session 
of the Iowa Legislature a resolution was introduced 
impressing upon that body the necessity of warning people 
to look out for the cars. The Legislature passed a law 
literally requiring the railroads to post signs to that 
effect; so the warning seems to be more legal than ac- 
cidental in its phraseology. 
Our friend El Comancno, author of the "Boy" stories 
in Forest and Stream, is at present loose somewhere 
in the East. He writes me that he "has to take in New 
York and a few more country towns" before he comes 
back home to Chicago. He says, "I want to get back 
to where the country is civilized. This is a dead one." 
I infer that El Comancho has been listening to the 
meadow larks singing in the morning around Madison 
Square, and that he wants to get back here and have a 
look at the limpid Chicago River, and to hear the steady 
hoof prints on the sidewalks of a town which is the real 
thing. By the way, it may be news for Forest and 
Stream readers to know that El Comancho's "Boy" 
stories are to be printed in book form. 
Mr. Geo. Thorne. secretary of Montgomery Ward 
& Co., of this city, in company with his friend Mr. N. 
Munn, will start the first week in September for a big 
game trip of some duration. He wants either elk, moose or 
caribou, and has been looking at all sorts of country. Talk- 
ing it over together with him I rather counseled him 
to take a Rocky Mountain trip, where he could be sure 
of getting an elk. He will either go east of the National 
Park or southeast of the Park into the Wind River 
country, which Mr. Wm. Wells has often told about. Mr. 
Thorne will probably have either Billy Hofer or Gardiner 
or Van Dyke, of Red .Lodge, as his guide if he goes 
east of the Park, and he has also written Mr. Wells at 
Wells P. O., Wyo., for details regarding the length of 
time it would take him to make the trip into that country. 
With any of these guides and a couple of weeks' time in 
the mountains at his disposal, Mr. Thorne ought to be 
pretty sure of getting his elk. Pie looks forward with 
great enthusiasm to his mountain trip. He has never 
seen the Rockies, but has done a good deal of mountain 
climbing in Norwaj^. and Switzerland, and has made the 
ascent of Mt. Blanc. Methinks he will make some of 
those mountain men look down their noses before he gets 
through witli them. 
In Chicago. 
To-day I was riding along on the trolley car through 
the foreign settlements penetrated by Wentworth avenue 
of this city, when chancing to look out I saw standing on 
the sidewalk a Mexican. He was a regular story-book 
Mexican, with tight buckskin trousers and very much 
of a hat. He was talking on apparently very friendly 
terms with a somewhat dirty citizen in shirt sleeves. Of 
course in a big city, one would hardly be surprised if 
he saw an angel, let alone a Mexican, so I le"t the Mexi- 
can go without mental query. Two blocks further on, 
however, I saw a genuine cowpuncher rolling along in 
company with two story-book Indians who wore better 
Indian togs than I ever saw west of the Missouri River. 
This was too much, and I sat up and_ rubbed my eyes. 
A few blocks further on there burst into view the big 
spread of canvas of Buffalo Bill's Wild West. That ex- 
plained it. I had forgotten that this was circus week. All 
things come to Chicago. Y^'ou can see better Mexicans, 
ijetter Indians and better frontier stuff than you could 
ever see in the West. I have even seen the downfall 
of Nero pictured here in Chicago, and every one must 
admit that Nero could not carry a ward caucus in Italy 
to-day. Ancient Italy and the ancient Plains are pretty 
much on the same footing nowadays. 
Minnesota Reserve. 
Progress is still making in the preparations fcii" tile 
big trip about Oct. 1 in the interests of the Minnesota 
For^-.st Rese^rve, PracticpHy %\\ the preliminary work 
has been done, and it remains to be seen now what the 
members of Congress will do in the way of accepting 
the invitation of the gentlemen who have organized for 
this purpose. The Dewey exercises at New York and 
Chicago are the most serious of conflicting events, but 
ir. is thought a date can be determined which will enable 
the trip to be made without inconvenience to any who 
attend. If all the members of Congress knew in advance 
how delightful this beautiful lake region of Minnesota 
is during the fall they surely would put many things of 
importance to one side and accord themselves this 
pleasure. 
Col. J. S. Cooper, of this city, prominent through his 
recent exertions for the Minnesota forest reserve, re- 
turned this week from a hurried trip to upper New York. 
Col. Cooper reports that the invitations for the Con- 
gressional party are now in process of engraving, and will 
be sent out at an early date. We shall therefore presently 
arrive at some interesting news regarding this movement, 
for now' that the preliminary work has been completed it 
becomes a matter of great curio.sity to know how many 
Congressmen will respond to the invitation .to make the 
Minnesota trip this fall. 
Out in Minnesota the situation in regard to the pro- 
posed reserve is much as earlier reported. Some parts of 
the State are in favor of the park and some bitterly op- 
posed to it. At Walker, Minn., the majority of sentiment 
is in favor of the park. The Indian trader for the Leech 
Lake Indians is in favor of the idea. Citizens of Melrose, 
Minn,, say that the lumbermen want that pine and are go- 
ing to have it. Bemidji is divided, some citizens being 
favorable to the reserve and others against it. Sentiment 
is also generally divided as to the amount of agricultural 
land which would be included in the reserve. At Cass 
Lake there is bitter opposition to the park project. 
Duluth, of course, is more frantic than ever. The Pioneer 
Press of St. Paul commented on the matter as follows : 
"That the opening of such a park in this section would 
bring a big summer population here there seems to be 
little doubt. Thousands of Illinoisans and people from 
Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska come up here and spend 
a goodly portion of the year. Lake Miltona, in Douglas 
county, is given as an illustration of the summer settle- 
ment of the countrjr. Twenty years ago a party of Mon- 
mouth people, among whom were James H. Stewart, Dr. 
J. R. Webster, Hugh Henry and H. F. McAllister, 
journeyed 600 miles to Alexandria to fish. They dis- 
covered this chain of lakes, Miltona among them. They 
built there a club house, and ever since they have an- 
nually brought their families this long distance and spend 
the whole summer in the wilds. Others followed, and 
now Chicago and Kansas City have well organized clubs 
on the lake. 
"It is the argument of the proprietors of the park that 
just such clubs and companies would populate a wide 
area; that little towns would spring up in the preserved 
timber where fish and game wotild bound to be taken only 
Avithin the law." E. Hough. 
4S0 GAxton Building, Chicago, 111. 
Boston and Elsewhere. 
Boston, Sept. 2. — The coming of September has started 
the deer hunters. A number of Maine $6 non-resident 
licenses to shoot deer in September have been obtained, 
and the hunters are off. The opening of the deer shoot- 
ing season, Sept. i, in Canada and New Brunswick will 
also draw a number of early sportsmen. Mr. E. E. Hills 
and Mr. C. L. Howes started for Mr. Howes' camp on 
Lake Magaguadavic, New Brunswick, Friday. They in- 
tended to be on the deer grounds on the first day of the 
open season. They were to go to Prince William Station, a 
few miles from McAdam Junction, which station is but a 
short distance from the lake. Thence they go by canoes 
up the lake to their camp. Their guide writes them that 
deer are very plenty, coming down to the water every 
night and morning. Doubtless most of the early deer 
shooting will be done at the water, the hunter simply 
waiting in ambush for his prey. 
Some good shore bird shooting is noted occasionally, 
but the boys are taking the lead. Master Merton L. 
Alden, son of Charles H. Alden, of Quincy, is a good deal 
of a Nimrod as well as boatman. He has won several 
races with his catboat, though only fourteen years old. 
This season he is shooting. The other day he made a 
trip to Paddock Island, off PIull, all alone. When he 
returned he brought seventy-two birds, all shot by him- 
self. That he is a wing shot appears, when it is stated 
that he used but twenty shells that day. In the lot he had 
chicken plover, black and red bi-easted plover, nodies, 
summer yellowlegs, with a few peep. Some good scores 
have lately been made on shore birds at Chatham and 
vicinity. C. A. Brown is down there this week, and he 
almost always has good success. Robert Pierce brought 
up twenty birds yesterday. Mr. Houston took a couple 
dozen the same day. 
The partridge shooters are making ready for the 15th, 
the opening day of the season in this State. It seems that 
the interest is imusually good, and reports mention more 
Ijirds than last year, the dry weather being thought to 
have been favorable to the chicks. _The dogs are being 
taken out for training, and the first day will be a 
lively one. 
Boston, Sept. 4. — Reports from Bangor and eastern 
Maine suggest that the preliminar^r open season on deer 
is being thoroughly patronized by both residents and 
non-residents. Many licenses have been taken out by 
both, and those who desire to extend their summer outing 
into September may legally shoot a deer for camp use 
by paying for it. Saturday evening trains at Bangor 
from the west were well supplied with sportsmen, and 
some went in on Friday. But the Canadian Government is 
going Maine one better, in that the new regulations per- 
mit the sportsman to bring out his deer shot in September, 
as well as the rest of the open season, while in Maine the 
deer taken in September can be used for camp purposes 
only. I have not the new Canadian regulations from 
authoritative sources, but hunters understand, and it is 
ptiblished in the newspapers, that sportsmen going to 
Canada or New Brunswick to shoot will bp permitted to 
bring back the carcasses of one or two deer, the qnly 
restrictions being that such export of deer will bo limited 
to the open season and fifteen days therec^fter, s'jd i;h? 
