S42 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct. 28, 1899. 
Types of Sportsmen. 
IV.— Joe Hager. 
One drowsy midday in summer many years ago — away 
back in paper coilar days — an old white-haired and 
bearded man came down the Harvard Turnpike from 
the hills beyond. Beside him, and with an oft-repeated 
look of af¥ection from one to tlie other, there trotted a 
tawny-colored setter dog. As they passed the roadside' 
hazel bushes the dog moved beneath them, and the quiet 
of the Bob Whites, biuejays and catbirds was disturbed. 
"Don't, bother the birds now, Argus; it's too early in the 
season," said the master. "What we wish is to lind a 
home, and if the good people down there in the valley 
will allow of it we will stay with them for the rest of our 
days." And they did so. 
Part way down the slope and nestled among the huge 
elms a cottage with a small stable adjacent boded cheer 
for man and dog, and with respectful manner each ap- 
proached the hostess as she busied lierself in spreading 
huckleberries in pans and exposed them to the hot rays 
of the sun. The old lady was somewhat startled by 
the sudden appearance of strangers. "Land sakes! who 
be ye, and whose dorg is that?" He replied, "They call 
me Joe Hager, and the dog is mine, and 1 am his; we 
are friends and wish to be friends with you; we are 
homeless and looking for some place to call home, so 
can you tell me as to whether we can find some little 
hut or cottage in the village, and can I, do you think, 
procure work to pay my way?" "'Gracious me! Come 
into the house. You look all het up and hungry. Keep 
that dorg away from them there berries. Well, let him 
come in too, only keep an eye on to him. My name 
is Stockwell — Aunt Eliza Stockvvell, they call me when 
they don't call me an old fuss and sich things. I maj' be 
fussy; I'm a widder, and my oniy child, my boy, I fear 
is dead. He went out with the 6th Regiment, and they 
say he is missin'. He was a good boy, but he would go, 
and I didn't blame him for leaving me alone when he 
was needed. I'd go myself if I were a man. If my boy 
did a soldier's duty and faced the right way and died for 
his country, I cannot complain; but I loved, him, and 
cannot hear from him." 
Tears flowed from the old people's eyes, and Joe Hager 
was very much upset and finally said, "I have an object 
in coming to this village. When the war broke out I 
was a practicing physician in Boston; I saw the cam- 
paign banners of Lincoln and Hamlin, Douglas and 
Johnson, Bell and Everett, Brcckenridge and Lane. I 
heard the bands play at rallies, and I heard the throb 
of the drum and saw the flags whipping in the wind. I 
could not go as a soldier, so I went as a surgeon, and 
I knew your boy, and here is a ring which he gave me to 
pass to you. Cheer up, my good woman; he died in 
the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, and as a brave man 
should. I did what I could for him, and told him that 
if I survived I would see you and convey to his mother 
his last words. I was wounded the same day and went 
into the hospital and was delirious; sick for months. 
During that time I lost or forgot your locality, but I 
found the ring on a locket chain which has been around 
my neck for years. I traced his company to this town, 
and knowing his name I intended to seek you, and it 
happens that you are the first one I meet." 
The message was sacred to the mother, and to her let 
us leave it. It sufficeth to say that she was a Spartan 
mother, and in Joe Hager she found the link which con- 
nected her with her loss, and henceforth the friendship 
fcxisting between them was grand to see. 
.Aunt Eliza assisted in renting a small cottage near the 
village church, and inasmuch as she owned it it was a 
simple matter to induce the agent to fix a low rental. 
After a few days some things came in on the afternoon 
freight train, and among them was a case of books, a 
gun, a fishing rod, a case of surgical and scientific in- 
struments, and some furniture; and these, together with 
what Aunt Eliza gave and a few purchases, caused a little 
home to blossom out into an asylum, where in after days 
children of the village flocked for sympathy, for assist- 
ance in difficult studies, for the relief of pain or a bur- 
dened conscience. Here the good and the bad boys 
gathered, and the good boys stayed good and the bad 
grew better. To demonstrate: They were playing ball 
in the street, and a dispute arising little fists were 
doubled up, and the oaths flew thick and fast. The old 
man came out, and raising his hand said, "Boys, that 
is too good a name to use in the trivial game of ball; 
it is a name to be used quietly either in church yonder 
or in your simple prayers at night. Kindly don't repeat 
it, and use some simple words to express your indigna- 
tion if you must lose your tempers." 
One day the boys carried one of their number to him 
and said that a rusty nail was in his foot. Among the 
metatarsal bones was a bad wound, and Joe Hager, hold- 
ing the foot tenderly, inserted a small splinter of smooth 
pine to obtain the direction and depth, and then telling 
•the little fellow to grit his teeth and have courage, he 
met the end of the pine splint with a lance thrust from 
above, and forced through from top to bottom some 
antiseptic solution, which carried off all deleterious sub- 
stance, and in a few days the boy was barefoot again and 
kicking a football. 
In the field at the rear of the house he taught me to 
shoot, and many an hour did he spend tossing up ob- 
jects for me to practic* on, and noting points for cor- 
rection. 
Happy the lad who went fishing with him, and often 
one could be seen on the way to the brook looking up 
into the old man's face with the same spirit that animates 
the countenance of the little drummer boy in that fine 
painting of "The Spirit of '76." 
Aunt Eliza and Joe Hager's interests in each other 
grew apace, and caused miich comment among the gar- 
rulous neighbors; but Aunt Eliza said, "They needn't 
fret; I ain't no Cleopatra and Joe Hager ain't no Marc 
Antony." 
Joe Hager's common sense of propriety and regard for 
the rights of others was unusual. His love for mankind, 
his sympathy for the unfortunate and his readiness to 
help and to defend them were demonstrated in the case 
of "one more unfortunate" "who loved not wisely but 
too well," and when bitter words of reproach were 
spoken a little well-worn Bible came forth from his 
pocket, and the admonition in regard to "casting the 
first stone" was pointed out to the speaker. When the 
Baptist minister called with the object of increasing his 
flock, the old gentleman was non-committal. Taking 
a book from the shelf he asked if he might read from 
Leigh Hunt. Consent granted, he read what may well 
be reprinted and re-read at this time: 
ABOU BEN ADHEM. 
.^bou Ben Adheni-!-ifia.y hiS tribe increase! — 
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace. 
And saw, within the moonlight in his room. 
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom, 
An angel writing in a book of gold. 
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold. 
And to the presence in the room he said, 
"What writest thou?" The vision raised its head. 
And with a look made of all sweet accord 
Answered, "The names of those who love the liOrd.'' 
"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so," 
Replied the angel. Abbu spoke more low, 
But cheerily still, and said, "I pray thee, theft, 
Write me as one that loves his fellow men." 
The angel wrote and vanished. The next night 
It came again with a great wakening light. 
And showed the names whom love of God had blessed, 
And^ lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest." 
Joe Hager told the village boys what caused the war, 
and as Ave sat on his door step evening after evening the 
subject became more interesting until it became necessary 
to go back in history to the landing of the Pilgrims, and 
from that back to the Spanish occupation of more south- 
ern coasts. When Richmond fell he shared the jubilee, 
and taught us how to fire the anvils. We drilled a small 
hole to meet the large square one I'eaching up from the 
base, and then placing another anvil on top with a leather 
patch between, we fired the powder with a long heated 
rod; then the glass broke in the neighborhood and the 
homeless dog mourned his loss. No one was more 
pleased than Joe Hager when the strife was over — none 
more in favor of confederation of the world — and he ad- 
vocated universal peace eloquently. 
Then came over the wires the report of the assassina- 
tion of President Lincoln, and as Joe Hager passed a 
group of idlers sitting on the steps of the village store 
Phin Holden, a rank Copperhead, remarked: "Served 
him right." It was too much for the patriotic old man, 
and with flaming eye and bitter tongue he reproached 
the speaker. Holden, angered at the old man's words, 
arose to strike him, and then what a transformation 
took place! An old man renewed his youth. Stepping 
aside to avoid the blow, one hand reached the ear of 
Holden, and a quick pull on the upper works and a foot 
interposed below landed the freak on his head in the 
road, and Argus, the dog, believing his master to be in 
danger seized the most available portion of Holden and 
shook him vigorously. Joe called the dog away, and 
Phin looked to and asked Jerry Hurley for sympathy, 
and got it as follows: . . 
"Ye dom Copperhead, do yez: think bekase Oim a 
Dimecrat and an O irishman that Oim a thraitor and a 
sneak? The worst Mick living doon by the thrack bees 
more of a man than ye is. Ye is only fit fur 'laping the 
bounty,' and when yez war drafted yez promised Dick 
Kinsley three hundrid dollars to take y'r place, and 
not wan penny did ye pay, and Dick died in y'ur place. 
G'wan wid ye, ye dom skunk. Joe Hager is a good 
man, and he is koind to the children; and w'u'd Oi raise 
me bond to kape him from killin' yez? Not Oi, sor! 
And if Oi iver hear wan more wurred from ye ag'in the 
did Presidint or that ould mon Oi'll smash the dom 
head off yez betwane me two fists and the strate be- 
yant, and I'ave ye to die; and may the dog die too that 
w'u'd rowl in yez carrion. Gintlemin, twinthy-wan years - 
ago Oi left the ould sod to come here, and Oi love me 
home as a mon should, but Oim thrue to this country 
besoides, and yez all know that they would not enlist 
m» whin Oi thried, with wan leg too short and meself 
siventeen years too ould." 
The old surgeon helped the boys to rig the spring- 
board at the "big spring hole," and taught them how to 
dive and swim, and often could be seen with some white- 
skinned little fellow standing in the stream regardless of 
wet clothes, while he supported the little form with his 
extended palms. We boys tramped the trodden paths 
beside the meadow brook many, many times with him, 
and the pickerel, perch, bream and pouts that came to 
us were, at his suggestion, given to sick people or to 
some poor family. 
In the wanderings he gathered wild flowers, and his 
botany class of boys and girls dissected them, and all 
parts were described and names given them. 
Once, while squirrel hunting with him, a half-dozen 
young grays disappeared suddenlj^, but we found the 
next hole high up on the tree trunk. He "boosted" rne 
up, and upon reaching the nest I could see down in 
the hollow trunk the silvery backs of the squirrels. 
I called down to him, "Catch them in your game bag. 
Uncle Hager," and he said, "Don't put your arm in 
there; you will be bitten." "What have I got a doctor 
with me for? Hold back. Uncle." He did so, caught 
five of the six as I threw them down, and I caught as 
many painful bites. He said, "No one but a crazy boy 
would do that," and I think he was right. I wouldn't 
do it to-day; but fools step in where angels fear to tread. 
We tamed the squirrels, and they played around his 
cottage for a long while afterward. 
In the days of grouse hunting he could be seen leaA^- 
ing the village dressed roughly, but with gray hair and 
beard white and glistening in the sunlight. His dog 
trotted cheerfully along besid/: him, and upon his return 
at night or the next day some one in the village with 
delicate appetite was sure of the capture of the day. It 
was his delight to dress and cook partridges at Aunt 
Eliza's cottage, and frequently were there children in- 
vited to the feast following. 
I left the village about this time, and for a few years 
came reports of the old man's kindness and love of the 
woods. Then came the news that he Was dying. They 
were cutting ice on the overflow meadows, and two of the 
village boys went out in a feed box in lieu of a boat to 
push shoreward the floe of ice, and upsetting were thrown 
into the chilly water and were drowning. Burly and 
rugged men stood helplessly, while the old doctor, in his 
love for the little fellows, slipped over the icy edge and 
waded in water up to his neck to save them. One was 
secured easily, but the other had gotten under the floe 
in his struggles, and the brave old man sinking beneath 
the ice rescued him from his perilous position. 
The shock and effort were too much for Joe Hager 
and he died of pneumonia in Aunt Eliza's best room 
in a few days. Sorrow came over the village, for all had 
learned to love him. They closed the school on the 
day of his funeral, and the sobs of the children went out 
on the chilly air of the wind-swept cemetery. 
His faithful dog did not long survive him. The land 
adjoining the cemetery was owned by Aunt Eliza, and 
she caused the burial of the faithful brute to be made 
over the wall within a few feet of his master's grave. 
I passed through the cemetery a few years ago and 
found his resting place, and over him the children had 
erected a stone bearing this inscription: 
JOE HAGER, 
Age 16. : 
"Greater love hath no man than this: : 
That he lay down his life for his friends." ; 
—St, John I) 1 , : 
W. W. Hastings, 
Alaska Before the Spring Rush of 
J 898. 
Forty-Mile, April i, 1898. — I inclose you a photograph 
of a dog team and its Malamoot Indian driver "at home.'' 
This was taken at Forty-Mile Post, Yukon Territory. 
This Indian is known under the soubriquet of "Monkey, ' 
and I am quite sure that his looks do not belie his nick- 
name. He was raised at St. Michaels, 1,700 miles ddwn 
the river. St. Michaels is an island sixty miles from the 
mouth of the Yukon River in the Bering Sea, and is the 
transfer station for all passengers and freight from tlic 
ocean to the rivers. 
Some of these dogs are what we call Malambots and 
some of them Siwash. They are all part wolf, and will 
steal anything from a lash rope to a loaded dog sled. I 
have seen Doc (the dog with the black spot on his back 
lying down) come trotting into the yard at 5 o'clock in the 
morning, when everything was perfectly quiet, carrying 
half a slab of "sow-bosom" (as the boys here call it) in 
his mouth. When he had eaten all he could manage 
(which was about half), he deliberately took the re- 
mainder around behind an old cabin, laid it on the 
ground and calmly laid himself down beside it, using the 
bacon for a pillow, and proceeded to have a quiet snooze. 
Unfortunately for him, however, Monkey happened to pass 
by just then, and notwithstanding the piteous look with 
which Doc regarded him, seized the bacon and laid it up 
on the roof out of danger until feeding time, looking at 
me with a grin and remarking, "Dog hi yuh muck a 
muck," which, liberally translated, means "big lot good 
stuff to eat," which was his idea of the transaction. 
The distinction between the Malamoot and the Siwash 
dog is that the Malamoot dog proper comes from the lower 
Yukon River, while the Siwash is the upper Yukon River 
Indian dog. Usually the Malamoot is white or grayish 
with some black or white, while the Siwash is mostly 
black vyith a little white in places. The black dog with 
the white front feet on the left of the picture came from 
Fort Hamlin, 560 miles below here. I got him when a 
pup of four months from Chief Stevens, an Indian near 
Fort Hamlin. The dog's name is Steve, and he is "the 
thief of the world." Innocent looking as a babe, ex- 
tremely affectionate, and withal will steal everything he 
can lay his paws on. He took the liberty one day of 
going into a squaw's cabin while .she was hanging out 
clothes and had left the door open, jumped up on the 
table, seized his prize, and decamped with it out the 
open door before she caught sight of him. She saw him 
just as he turned the corner of the cabin, and realizing 
what he had done, started after him pell-mell. Then 
ensued a foot race for the woods in which Steve won out 
and departed to devour the "spoils of war." while Mala- 
moot, or "Pie-Faced Annie," returned to her cabin to 
find that Steve had seized as contraband 2lbs. of butter 
in a tin, which left her just $2 out, butter being .$r a 
pound. It is very easy on looking at her to see where 
she got the nickname of Pie-Face, as she has got an 
extretnely large, flat face with a little flat nose re- 
sembling nothing so much as a hump on an apple pie, 
wedged into the middle of it. Like a good matiy of the 
Lower River Indians, her face shows unmistakable signs 
of Japanese blood. 
But I was speaking of dogs. They have the precedence 
oyer human beings in this country, in that they have the 
right of way everywhere. Every man is obliged, and 
expected, to build a cache to put his stuff on, as the 
dogs run everywhere, and if you should do such an un- 
pardonable thing as to kill one you are liable to arrest by 
the Northwest Mounted Police and to have to pay a fine of 
$200; in default of which you would most likely have to 
.saw wood for the police barracks for six months. Why, 
if a Cherchocko just from the States comes down the 
river and leaves his boat for an hour or two tied to the 
bank of the stream, he is liable to return and find half 
his bacon missing, and notwithstanding the fact that he 
finds dog signs about, he has no redress, and has nothing 
left to do but to "look pleasant." The better rustler a 
dog is, however, the more valuable he is. Some of them 
are extremely valuable. In the winter of 1897 and 1898 
dogs sold all along the river for from $150 to $200, and 
some of the larger and better ones fetched from $250 to 
.$300. In December of 1897 Capt. Barnett paid John Shu- 
man, a Porcupine River Indian, $1,200 for a dog team of 
four dogs, only to be sure this was the best team in 
Alaska or the Yukon Territory. They were bought near 
Fort Yukon, and their first trip was 990 miles, from Fort 
Yukon to Skaguay. They come from Hudson Bay Com- 
nany stock on the Mackenzie River, and are called 
"Huskies." They are a short-tailed dog, built like a run- 
ning horse, and stand as high, or nearly as high, as a 
