44 8 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. 2, 1899. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
'Weitd Times in the Rockies. 
Nov. 24. — Mr. Frederick Jenkins and Mr. C. F. Hotch- 
kiss, both prominent attorneys of Binghamton, N. Y., 
whom I mentioned as having gone west on a big-game 
trip some weeks ago, to-day arrived in Chicago on their 
way east. I gave these gentlemen the address of Mr. 
William Wells in Uinta countjr, Wyoming, and at first 
they thought they would go to Mr. Wells' Gros Ventre 
Lodge. When they arrived at Denver, however, they met 
a lawyer friend by name of Mr. Jones, who counseled 
them to take a trip which he thought would be made more 
quickly. Under the advice of Mr. Jones a correspondence 
was struck up by wire with Mr. W. H. Ryckman, still 
another lawyer, and a well-posted hunter, who lives at 
Evanston, Wyoming, On very brief notice arrangements 
were made for a meeting place, and the start was made 
from Kemmerer, sixty miles from Evanston. Mr. Ryck- 
man attended to all details, and got together a pack train 
of nearly a score of horses. Mr. James Benedict, still 
another lawyer, of Denver, joined the party, as did Mr. 
Will Alexander, of Richards, Wyoming". To complete 
the legal aspect of the expedition^ still another attorney, 
Mr. W. J. Hill, of Evanston, went along as far as a little 
station called Big Piney, where he announced that he had 
a law suit to try. The Eastern men began to think they 
had struck the Wegt of the stoi-y books, when they found 
that the two wagons of the outfit were driven by two of 
the best lawyers of that part of the State, one of whom 
was to ofilciate as attorney for the prosecution and the 
other as attorney for the defense in this law suit which 
was to be part of the programme of the big-game hunt. 
Mr. Jenkins w^as telling me something to-day about this 
law suit. It seems that Big Piney consists mostly of 
one log building, with a saloon down stairs and the hall 
of justice up stairs. The court was an individual 6 feet 
4 inches long, with a face of ponderous wisdom, and a 
feeling of great importance. The prisoner at the bar, who 
entertained rather shady relations with certain citizens of 
that vicinity, was charged with breaking and entering a 
store and taking therefrom certain quantities of bacon, 
flour, beans and other articles conducive to the personal 
comfort of any good and true man who was facing a long 
Wyoming winter. The testimony was a little vague, 
though it was watched with interest by a crowd of some 
fifty or sixty hard looking citizens who had drifted in 
to see the show. It appeared that some of the witnesses 
had discovered certain bacon, beans, etc., in the cabin of 
the accused, which looked like the bacon, beans, etc., 
which they had seen at the store. It appeared further that 
the trail of the burglar had been marked by a string of 
white beans which had leaked out of a sack. Witnesses 
swore that one white bean had been found in a crack in 
the bottom of the prisoner's wagon bed. It also appeared 
that other witnesses had seen the accused with a sack with 
a hole in it. These things having come in to proof, Mr. 
Hill made an eloquent plea for the State, and the justice 
looked very thoughtful. He remarked without going 
further into the case, that it seemed to him the evidence 
was sufficient for the holding of the prisoner. This gave 
Mr. Ryckman his turn, and springing to his feet he ex- 
claimed : 
"What, your Honor — does the court intend to hold this 
prisoner on the evidence of one white bean, in a country 
where every citizen lives on white beans?" This stag- 
gered the justice, and he dmanded time for thought. 
Sleantirae Mr. Jenkins, who wanted the party to be 
getting down to their hunting grounds, tried what he 
could do with the court, who had heard of him as z 
distinguished lawyer from the East. "Your Honor," said 
Mr. Jenkins to him aside, "it seems to me you ought to 
have more than one bean in order to convict this prisoner. 
Moreover, if you will examine this sack you will find 
that it is darned all over, and that the hole is in the 
bottom and not in the top of the sack, as was sworn to. 
It seems to me vou ought to discharge this man." 
"That's so," said the justice. "But don't it beat h ^1 
how careful a feller has to be in this here business 
Order was then again called in the court, and the judge 
announced that he did not think the evidence sufficient to 
hold the prisoner. This brought Mr. Plill up with a 
violent protest. "But the court has already said the 
prisoner was to be bound over," he said. 
"I reckon a feller can change liis mind," said the 
court. ' ' 
"Yes," shouted Mr. Hill: "and this is after listening to 
the specious argument of counsel for the defense, that 
Evanston imbecile, with a beaver slide running from his 
dome of thought to the bridge of his nose !" (This was 
referring to Mr. Ryckman's bald head,) Mr. _ Rycknian, 
who was nearly doubled up with laughter, hurried over to 
the prisoner and whispered to him: "Git out now, Jim. 
Pull your freight or the judge will change his mind 
again !" Jim pulled his freight, and so also did the hunt- 
ing expedition. 
Our Eastern shooters thought that they were gettmg 
into a pretty weird country. Nearly every man at Big 
Piney wore" a big hat and a big gun, and there was a 
general air of belligerency. The cook of the party de- 
clared openly that he was himself just out of prison. 
"Say," said the cook, "I'll bet I've slept in more jails 
than anybody you ever saw. It seems like, somehow, I 
git arrested every time I git into a town where there is a 
policeman or a marshal. I expect I'll be in jail again as 
soon as I git in of¥'m this hunt. Was either of you 
fellers ever in jail?" Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Hotchkiss 
took no chances about getting into the jail themselves and 
complied with the letter of the game law as soon as they 
possibly could, for the local sentiment was anything but 
friendly to the outsiders. 
The party now proceeded down to their hunting 
grounds, which were in the Gros Ventre Range, on the 
North and South Cottonwood and North and South 
Horse creeks. . They establi.shed a central camp and hunted 
on horseback, having sometimes to ride twelve or fifteen 
miles to the game country proper. They met very deep 
snow and suffered some discomfort from frozen noses, 
fingers, etc., but they made a very succ-essful hunt. Mr. 
Hotchkiss killed a fine bighorn ram, whose horns meas- 
ured IS inches at the base, and which stood 40 inches 
at the shoulder. Mr. Jenkins killed a sheep, an elk and 
^^ lynsc, ^1%q a 9QUpl§ antelope. Mr. Hotchkiss killed 
a bob cat and a couple of antelope, and others of the 
party killed two more antelope, so that on the whole they 
had a very fair showing of game under the circum- 
stances. 
These gentlemen say that the slaughter of game in the 
Gros Ventre and other nearby country is something ter- 
rible. Last winter two hunters by name of Butts and 
Sykes killed fifty-four elk in one day on the Green 
River. On one day in last January, Jack Howard and 
party killed fifty elk in one bunch. They did their shoot- 
ing toward night, and did not skin out the game. On the 
next morning they thought it would be easier to kill some 
fresh elk, which would not be frozen and which would 
be easier to skin, and they accordingly did so without 
touching a knife to the enormous quantity of game which 
they had killed the day before. A great many elk are 
killed for the teeth, and are not even skinned. The elk 
do not come down out of the mountains until the snow 
gets very deep, and were this fall turned back by the 
numerous party of hunters who were waiting for them 
along their regular trails. This turning back of the elk 
made the hunt less successful, for the party above re- 
ferred to, but they were very well pleased with their luck. 
As showing the expensiveness of Rocky Mountain big- 
game hunting in these days, I might state that Messrs. 
Jenkins and Hotchkiss think that their trip from Bing- 
hamton and back will cost them about $1,500, and they are 
very well pleased at that. They report several parties 
from Mr. Wells' camp hunting in the Gros Ventre coun- 
try. They say that they saw a great many tracks of moun- 
tain lions, and think that with dogs it would not be hard 
to get a lion. They are delighted with their experience 
in the West, which seems to them to be a singular and 
somewhat bizarre region, more especially as regards the 
practice of the law. Two pleasanter gentlemen nor any 
better deserving of a good time could not be found. 
From Alberta. 
All the way from Calgary, Alberta, comes a pleasant 
letter from Jim Tomlinson, who may be a good way off, 
but yet seems very close. He says: "I have read the 
Forest and Stream for a considerable time, and have 
thoroughly enjoyed it. Although a good way off, I find 
great enjoyment in following the many contributors, and 
look forward every week for the paper, which is passed 
around among a large number of brother sportsmen. I 
can report good chicken hunting tliis fall, the birds very 
plentiful and very strong, No. 4 shot seldom killing out- 
right. Large quantities of geese, and ducks in thousands, 
though they have all gone south now. Blacktail deer are 
coming down in big numbers, and there are lots of ante- 
lope, too. Good-by for the present." I hope Mr. Tom- 
linson's good-by is indeed only for the present, for sports- 
men like to read of the far Northwest, which is yearly 
coming closer in a sporting sense. The British posses- 
sions north of us and the Mexican semi-tropic regions 
are bound to be the next regions invaded by the American 
sportsmen, and the attractions of the great and little 
known Northwest country already appeal very strongly 
to the better posted of our big-game hunters. 
Never Works. 
This morning as I was going down the street I heard a 
cheerful hail and turned to meet the bright, glad smile of 
my old friend Mr. George W. La Rue, whom I had not 
seen for several years. Mr. La Rue has always been one 
of the puzzles of my acquaintances, for he always has 
time to go shooting, and he never works. In fact, he 
once told me that he quit working when he was twenty- 
one years of age, and never intended to do so any more, 
as he thought it was a bad habit, I don't know where 
Mr. La Rue lives, but think it is mostly where the shoot- 
ing is good. Once in a while I hear of him with a street 
railway [ franchise in Mexico, or a rubber concession in 
South America. But these things he does as pastimes, 
just as he does his shooting. Mr. La Rue told me that 
he was just back from a partridge shoot over in Michi- 
gan, and he wanted me to go back with him this even- 
ing, which I told him I could not do. Then he exacted a 
promise that I would go quail shooting with him in a 
week or so down in lower Illinois, where the quail are 
destrojang the crops and threatening public safety. (I 
have been invited to-day to go on two quail shoots, one 
partridge shoot and one prize fight, and I regret that 
Saturday is my busy day.) While shooting last week in 
lower Illinois, Mr. La Rue killed seventy-two quail in 
two days, and on two other days he shot all day with- 
out making a miss. I think Mr. La Rue is one of the 
best quail shots I ever saw. When I asked him if he had 
any good dogs along, he said that he had a few scrubs 
which could barely stand up, but he thought he might 
worry along until the end of the season. It is a pretty safe 
proposition that he will have some good bird dogs pretty 
close around when he goes out shooting. I recall that 
some years ago Mr. La Rue, Mr. R. B. Organ, of this 
city, and myself, shot over the pointer Dame Bang, and 
had a very pleasant time. This was the occasion of the 
death of Mr. Organ's borrowed dog, poor Molly O'Brien. 
Roll Organ thought it was a good joke to borrow a man's 
dog and then take nothing back but the collar. 
Some Big Bags* 
I have been saying all along that this was a phenomenal 
year for quail in Indiana and Illinois, and results seem to 
indicate this. I have heard of several parties who have 
been out, and nearly all report splendid success. Messrs. 
J. L. Jones, A. W. Adams and W. McCaughey, all well- 
known shooters of Chicago, had a A^ery pleasant hunt at 
Logansport, Ind., from which they returned some days 
ago. They drove out into the country about thirteen 
miles, and in twp- days they bagged a little over sixty 
quail. 
Awhile ago I reported the fact that Mr. W. L. Cunyng- 
ham, a prominent trap shot of this city, had gone to 
South America on a mining expedition. Mr. Cunyngham 
was unable to get into the country he wished to reach 
on account of the Venezuelan revolution, and he re- 
turned to Chicago recently. He and Mr. Charles Antoine, 
of this city, have been out quail shooting near Rochester, 
Ind., this week. They got back this morning, and while 
neither has yet been inten'iewed, T learn that they had a 
very big bimch of quail which they were leaving among 
their friends. • 
AU of Indiana m a feeU ^bovit eighty or one hundred 
miles south of here is alive with quail this fall. The 
best country is that between Newton and Disco. Servia, 
Ind., where Fred Donald took a party of us in his private 
car some years ago, is once more blessed with a tremen- 
dous crop of birds. Mr. C. C. Hess, of this city, well 
known as a member of Eureka Gun Club, says that he 
will guarantee he can put up twenty-five to thirty bevies 
of quail any day in that section of Indiana. On opening 
day of the season he hunted three hours and put up eleven 
bevies, out of which he killed forty-one quail. 
Mr. Hess has been having good luck with his shoot- 
ing this fall. A week ago to-day at Lorenzo, on the 
Santa Fe i-oad, and in the Kankakee country, he killed 
thirty-seven mallards, and says that had he had a pusher 
he could have killed more. There was a very heavy flight 
of mallards, which were feeding on the cornfields and 
coming into the few little sloughs in the evening. 1 should 
not be in the least surprised to hear that Swan Lake Club 
and Lake Senachwine were turning out big bags this 
week, for the mallards are hanging around this country 
still. I hear there are some up at Fox Lake, and where 
there is water there is sport along the Kankakee. 
Probably the largest bag of quail made by any Chicago 
parties this fall was that brought back from near Ashley, 
111., last week by Dr. C. W. Carson, secretary of the 
Eureka Gun Club; Dr. R. B. Miller, of the same club, 
and Dr. J. N. Shallenberger. This medical coterie broke 
into the warmest quail shooting of which I have ever 
heard. They brought back to the city over 300 birds. 
Drs. Carson and Miller, between 8 o'clock and 2 o'clock 
one day, bagged 109 quail, and this they did out of eight 
coveys, the country being open and suitable for marking 
the flights. I have not heard of any such shooting as 
this anywhere. The man who kills fifty quail in a day's 
shooting is usually a mighty busy man, and I do not 
know that I have ever seen it done in my own personal 
experience. Yet Mr. Hess tells me he is satisfied he could 
easily kill that many birds a day in Indiana this fall. 
The above statements will easily justify all that has 
been claimed in these columns as to the phenomenal 
abundance of quail in tliis section at this time. For 
points I would suggest Newton, Rochester, Effingham, 
Jerseyville, but these may be no better than any one 
of dozens of others. 
Frank Bissel, of the Audubon Club, is no-*' absent in 
Indiana on a quail shoot, and is no doubt having an en- 
joyable time. 
Mr. W. P. Mussey, of this city, was down at Bloom- 
ington, 111., recently and met a snow storm which spoiled 
his sport. On the first day he killed only three quail and 
three rabbits. For the unprofessional conduct in shoot- 
ing rabbits, Mr. Mussey justifies himself by asserting that 
there were no quail, and that it was good rabbit weather. 
On the next day, however, he killed eighteen quail, with a 
close choke gun in which he was using shot spreaders. 
He did not seem to like the combination. As Mr. 
Mussey wants one more day with the quail, I have sent 
him over my old cellar-door gun, with which nobody was 
ever known to miss a quail except myself. I keep this 
gun mostly to lend and almost anybody can have it if 
some other fellow has not got it. 
Mr. A. C. Smith, of the Chicago Fly-Casting Club, is 
back from Colorado, where he had the enjoyable ex- 
perience of being arrested for breaking the game laws, or 
rather on the charge of having done so. Mr. Smith killed 
a deer and it was skinned and cut up by his guide. It 
was not a doe, but a kind citizen of the neighborhood sus- 
pected that it might have been a doe, and had Mr. Smith 
arrested as a little piece of blackmail. Naturally, Mr. 
Smith was very indignant, and the dismissal of the case 
on his proof that he had not broken any game law hardly 
made him feel entirely satisfied. It is getting so it is not 
safe to go out shooting any more. 
Our distinguished fellow citizen, Bill Haskell, this week 
made a hunt down at Maksawba Club in Indiana, and he 
brought back eleven quail and two turkeys. He said that 
the turkeys were wild turkeys, and offered to prove it to 
anybody who doubted the assertion. It seems that there 
is a peculiar crook in the Indiana law as applied to the 
Kankakee country, which allows any one to kill any 
straggling turkeys and throw them in the public highway. 
Mr. Haskell complied with the law strictly. Finding 
the turkeys near the highway, he killed them, threw them 
into the highway for a few minutes to satisfy the law, and 
then brought them home to satisfy himself. 
While I am speaking of big bags and interesting shoots, 
I ought to mention a little partridge story which my 
friend La Rue tells me. He says that Mr. H. C. Crosby 
and "old John Davidson," the famous dog authority, of 
Monroe, Mich., were out partridge shooting for two 
days this fall, and actually bagged eighty partridges in 
that short time. This beats any record on rufifed grouse 
of which I ever heard, and I should like to hear from 
Mr. Davidson whether the facts are reported correctly, 
Mr. Crosby I do not know personally. 
North Caroliaa. 
Mr. Charles Hallock writes me from Washington, D. C, 
regarding the sporting resources of North Carolina, with 
which State he is very well acquainted. He says: "I 
see you state that parties sometimes write you for in- 
formation regarding good hunting tracts in North Caro- 
lina. Send them to me, and I can give them the finest 
tract in the land, that has every known species of fish, 
fowl and animal game found in the State, except brook 
trout, all in the same tract together, besides oysters, scal- 
lops, diamond back terrapin, shrimp, etc." While I have 
never pursued the scallop or the shrimp in any of my 
shooting trips, I am disposed to think that Mr. Hallock 
must have a pretty good country down where he is, and 
anybod}' looking for an all-round proposition would better 
write to him. 
Movements of Western Sportsmen. 
Nov. 22. — ^About once a year nowadays we hear from 
Billy Hofer, and I have a suspicion that he divides his 
time out in the Yellowstone Park country between read- 
ing novels and catching bears and others wild animals. 
It seems that he has gotten together another lot of- ani- 
mals for the National Zoological Gardens at Washington 
this year, though 1 regret to say that I was unable to see 
him as he passed through Chicago this time, and indeed 
would not have known he was here except for the follow- 
in.g communication, which T received to-day: 
"Somewhere ou the Belt R^ilrQa4 In Chicago, Nov. 23 
