830 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[DftC, 30, iBoQ. 
Sumner and Jack Morley dropped off and hunted back 
the track, and Dr. Cross and Mr. Briggs, as usual, made a 
quiet and modest hunt, but a local merchant by name of 
Mr. Cook took out the party, excepting Mr, Mersfion and 
myself, who were taken in charge by two young gentle- 
men of - the town and escorted a couple of miles out into 
the country. These young men had not any dog, and we 
all four shot together, with what results may be im- 
agined. 
- This was not what Mr. Mershon or myself would call a 
red letter day, for bad luck seemed to stay Avith us. To 
begin with, old Bob began to crouch and run a trail which 
we were sure meant partridge, but Queen, in a very un- 
ladylike way, ran in ahead of him and put up two birds. 
• A - little later she retrieved herself by pointing nicely 
near a log, and a partridge went out, which I killed. A 
hundred yards on, she pointed stanchly once more, and 
one of the young men and myself divided on this bird. 
We next went after quail and got a bevy scattered on dry 
leaves, on which we all did very bad work, sometimes all 
missing the same birds, and sometimes all shooting into 
it— a very sad state of affairs. We had lass than a dozen 
birds between us when dusk came on, and Mr. Mershon 
and I started on foot for town, the others going to a 
farm house nearby for the team. We had walked nearly 
to town in the dusk, when, looking back down the road 
for the team, I saw a bunch of birds closely packed fly 
across the road toward a little stubble field. Against the 
sky line they; seemed as large as prairie chickens, but I 
knew they must be quail. We hurried across the fence 
and in a moment were among them. With very good 
luck, we knocked down five out of six shots, almost in the 
dark, Mr. Mershon killing two very long shots indeed, but 
we lost two birds in the hurry, and so we finished our 
walk and our day of somewhat monotonous ill fortune. 
Arrived at the car we found that everybody else had 
had good luck. Dr. Sumner came in with five partridges 
in his pockets. He was weary and footsore, having had 
to walk more than five miles from the point where he 
had struck the railroad. Jack Morley had, if I remember 
correctly, three partridges and quite a'little string of quail. 
He complained bitterly of his poor shootihg,. and said he 
had seen birds enough to have made a, iwle bag. The 
Cook party brought in a lot of quail and reported fine 
sport, though the birds were mostly marked down in hard 
swamp country. Mr. Cook said that he had fired thirty- 
five shots during the day, and all the others reported 
plenty of excitement. The game piled up in the middle of 
the floor of the drawing room that evening made a goodly 
show. And then, I ween, a dark frown sat upon the 
features of Billy Mershon as he realized that he had not 
been in it. "We'll move the car to-morrow further down 
the track," said he. "Til take you into the country above 
Guilford, and we'll get plenty of quail, even if we don't 
.^een any partridges." There was some demur to this 
from those who had had good luck in Alcron, but it was 
finally decided to make the shift the following morning. 
The Fourth Day, 
The fourth d^y dawned clear and pleasant, and we set 
forth to do or die. The plan was to hunt from the little 
station where the car had stopped in parties much as 
above .indicated, with exception of Jack Morley, Dr. 
Sumner, Mr. Mershon and myself. Jack Morley went 
back over his country near Akron, coming down on a 
later train. Mr. Mershon, Dr. Sumner and myself 
dropped "off the car about four or five miles above Guil- 
ford, where the condtictor obligingly slowed down for us. 
Dr. Cross and Mr. Briggs as usual kept close at home, 
and for them I may say they had better luck than any 
of us, their bag being eighteen birds, more than any other 
two guns brought in that day. Mr. Harvey and Mr. Geo. 
Morley began to pick up in their shooting and added a 
handsome bunch of birds to the strings. Jack Morley had 
his pockets bulging when he joined us. Mr. McCarty 
had been obliged to go home. 
The little party of three of which I was a member had 
a most enjoj'able day, and I must say I never was out 
with two better shooting companions in all my life, my 
only complaint against them being that they shoot too 
well to be in my class. We found this country an open 
farming country, and ideal in its appearance 'for quail, 
though we put up only three or four bevies during the 
day, ■ these, as usual, taking to the thickets after the first 
rise. Dr. Suniner took his pointer and went around one 
edge of a bit of wood, while Mr. Mershon and myself fol- 
lowed Bob in the opposite direction. Queen having been 
left at home on this da}'. Presently we heard a couple of 
shots and soon after saw Dr. Sumner motioning us to 
come up. I 
"Did you get any?" said Mr. Mershon. 
"Only two," said Dr. Sumner, calmly, He was about 
the coolest, calmest man I ever did see.' It was with this 
same calmness that he explained to us where the birds 
were marked down. They seemed to have run together at 
once after lighting, for they went up wild ahead of the 
dogs, and all in a bunch, Mr. Mershon scoring the onlv 
chance, a long shot to the left. We marked them agaiii 
among, some old logs, but the birds flew very wild and 
were hard to handle. Even Mr. Mershon missed one, but 
an instant later Dr. Sumner cut down one under what I 
called the hardest sort of conditions. The bird sprang 
directly in front of him and crossed back, very high and 
dropping swiftly. To kill this shot one must hold far 
beloAv the bird, . something, which few people have the 
nerve to do. _ Dr. Sumner did the trick handsomely and 
put the 'bird itt his pocket as calmly as if he were used to 
doing' that sort of thing right along. I got one shot here 
and managed t-o stop my meat. 
Aft^r that things became a little confused. The wind 
was very.high, and shooting was diflicult, the quail putting 
up a game that day which was hard for both dogs and 
men. .For my own part, I went entirely out of even my 
usual ;bad form, and fain would draw veil over the occur- 
ranceg;:that followed. I don't believe I averaged one 
quail in three shots. The old stagers who were with me 
were much steadier, and the unruffled Dr. Sumner con- 
tinued to put bird after bird in his pockets, each time 
with a deprecatory cough as though he were really 
apologi;!:ing for shooting so well. Indeed, I think he 
owed me an apology, too. The Doctor and -I shot to- 
gether most of the. day, and indeed toward evening were 
quite septfrated from Mr. Mershon. All. through the 
day we haiS more of the hard. Iiick which had followed Mr, 
Mershon md myself. It seemed as though the quail were 
phantoms, and when we knocked them down they would 
disappear even before the noses of two as good field dogs 
as I ever saw. ■ We lost during the day eight birds which 
we knocked down and did not find. Once Dr. Sumner's 
pointer, after trailing the bevy down wind for fully 200 
yards, gave us a splendid point, out of which we got a 
fine bevy rise together. We knocked down four birds, 
which fell on naked blue grass sod, yet we never picked 
up but two of them, the others being crippled and escap- 
ing. The balance of this bevy we marked in a little 
clump, and Dr. Sumner going in killed two in the heavy 
cover. I crippled one and missed one as they came out of 
the thicket, and Mr. Mershon wiped my eye handsomely 
on one of these from his station at the fence beyond. He 
then knocked down a second bird, which fell in plain 
sight on the blue grass, but this bird too got away, and 
we began to lose faith in all irmndane things, for Bob had 
never allowed this to happen in all his days before, and 
Dr. Sumner's pointer is also usually safe to locate what 
comes down. At this warm corner Dr. Summer pro- 
ceeded to stop another bird, which had run along the 
fence, and he and Mr. Mershon divided honors on a 40- 
yards stop on a bird which made back toward the heavy 
cover. 
We drew a good many blanks after that, until later in 
the . afternoon, when Dr. Sumner found another bevy, 
which he marked down scattered along the edge of a 
swamp. Here I fear I spoiled part of his pleasure. His 
pointer made a beautiful point and the Doctor stepped up 
to take a picture of him with the kodak which he had 
brought along for that purpose. Thoughtlessly stepping 
to one side in order to cover the bird should it go 
up, my action caused the dog to turn about, and the bird 
rose from between his feet. As the Doctor had laid down 
his gun, he could not shoot, and I killed the bird, though 
I had spoiled the picture. The Doctor took this very 
calmly, and with equal calmness he wiped my eye four or 
five times within the next hour on some singles which we 
got scattered in an open wood. Here we lost Mr. Mer- 
shon, and practically wound up our day's shooting. It 
was dusk when Dr. Sumner and I got back to the car. I 
think he had just under a dozen birds for his aay's 
work, Mr. Mershon and I being much less fortunate. 
Others reported that more birds were found right near 
the car than further out in the country. 
This closed the hunt for me, and indeed for most of 
the party, as the car ran into Saginaw that night. This, 
however, was chiefly for coal and provisions, for on the 
following morning some of the gentlemen pulled out north 
again with the car, bound this time for Omar. I am 
sorry to say that (the latter trip was hardly more success- 
ful than those reported above. I never had a more de- 
lightful time in my life, and it would be a privilege tc 
shoot with the Saginaw Crowd even if one got nothing 
at all,_ but it could hardly be said that we had very heavy 
shooting on this occasion. We took an inventory on the 
car before we reached Saginaw, and discovered that the 
entire party had brought in 154 quail and 30 partridges. 
This seems like a pretty big pile of game, if you see it all 
together. Yet it took eight guns the best of four days 
to make the bag, and during the time I do not think any 
one man bagged a dozen birds on any one day. As in this 
party there were some wing shots as good as any in the 
land, it maj' be seen that the supply of birds was none too 
good on this countr}^ The Omar trip was practically a 
blank. Yet the car was not to cease its wanderings, but 
was kept in commission for the best of the following 
week, Mr. George Morley especially being emphatic in -his 
assertion that he vvas out for a week's quail shooting and 
he intended to have it. By later letters from Saginaw, I 
am advised that two or three Other points were visited, 
and that finally they did get some fairly good shooting, 
though not so good as they might have expected it a 
couple of years ago. Mr. Mershon, who was making 
positively his last appearance when I left him at Sagitiaw, 
managed to sneak out again, this time for better results. 
On one day he hunted Queen alone, and she made him 
nineteen points with only one flush, and he killed eleven 
partridges and six quail. He got one bunch of four 
partridges and killed all four. Therefore, I may say that 
our ill success of the earlier days was fully avenged. Dr. 
Sumner also liad some sport after I left the party, one 
day four partridge and eight quail, and I am advised that 
George Morley completed the ruin of the gabardine suit 
with which he started out, and added many quail to his 
string before he decided that his hunt was over. 
Such are some of the nearby wanderings of the Saginaw 
Crowd, all of them business men, all of them .=;ports- 
men, and I may faithfully add exceedingly hard men to 
leave behind, whether as shooters or as hosts. 
The Founding of St. Louis* 
Chicago, III., Nov. iq.'^There is a certain interest, 
which increases as one gets into the habit, of prowling 
around in the ancient history of familiar places and 
things. As I have sometimes mentioned, I have found 
considerable pleasure in reading about the beginnings of 
that country which we call the West. When one is 
, forced to study history as a schoolbo^^ it goes against the 
grain; but the history habit, once taken up from choice, 
is quite a different thing. 
Perhaps a good many of us are in the habit of dating 
everything in America frdm the Fourth of July and the 
Revolutionary War. It is popularly supposed that the 
American settlements were then in what we now call 
the East, and it is getting very fashiohable to write nov- 
els located in the Revolutionary period and Revolution- 
ary territory. As. a matter of fact, however, there was 
a West even at the time of the Revolutionary War, and 
a West whose drama was so vivid that no one has yet 
needed to write fiction about it. The progress of the 
French settlements westward along the St. Lawrence and 
the Great Lakes, and thence into the Mississippi Valley, 
began nearly three hundred years ago. The upper Mis- 
sissippi Valley was taken by the French, while the mouth 
of the Mississippi, which would naturally have belonged 
to the earlj' Spanish explorers, was juggled from hand 
to hand b,etween the French and Spanish. Meantime, be- 
tween the French on the north and Spanish on the 
south, there drove in that wedge of Anglo-Saxon civili- 
zation which never retreats from a country it has once 
occupied. Thus our Boones and Kentons and Wetzels 
pressed West until they reached the country midway on 
the Mississippi River and came into ground part French, 
part English and still faintly Spanish. That is to say, it 
had had this mixed complexion at a date long before our 
Revolutionary War. Already there had begun the open- 
ing of that gre^t Northwest country later to be known 
as the Louisiana Purchase. The genesis of the American 
trapper and fur trader may thus be seen to clearly ante- 
date the Revolutionary era. 
If in the popular mind the Mississippi River be indis- 
solubly associated with the idea of a mighty commerce, 
so is the Missouri River equally suggestive of a land of 
Homeric adventure. Sometimes I trace out the course 
of that crooked stream upon the map, figuring in my own 
mind the different points where I have crossed it, and 
then thinking vvhat those places must have been a hun- 
dred years and more ago. Perhaps not every one may 
remember at first thought that the city of St. Louis, the 
gateway of that old Land of Great Adventures, the val- 
ley of the Missouri, was founded before the Revolution- 
ary War. It was holding on in the even tenor of its way 
as a growing trading point in those troublous days after 
the Revolutionary War when the Americans living west 
of -the Alleghany Mountains were figuring on starting 
one or two new republics of their own, and when Gen. 
Wilkinson, once of the American army, was intriguing 
with the Spanish commandant at New Orleans to hand- 
over the whole Ohio Valley, to be added to the provinces 
of Spain. Gen. Wilkinson seems not to have been a gen- 
tleman, but a gent. He did not arrive. 
Now, as to the founding of St. Louis, supposing that, 
this beginning of the Northwest seems as interesting to 
everybody else as it does to me, we are to imagine the 
French up the Mississippi River, the Spanish down the 
river, and the English claiming the east bank of the river. 
The French were in teinporary control in Louisiana, and 
in 1762 a gentleman by the name of D'Abadie was Direc- 
tor-General. They had a great way ir? those days of giv- 
ing exclusive rights to some fellow to trade or hold lands 
exclusively, over a territory bigger than all outdoors. 
M. D'Abadie farmed out the exclusive trading right with , 
the savages of the Missouri and "all nations residing west 
of the Mississippi River" to a company formed under 
the name of M. Laclede Ligueste, Antoine Moxan and 
Company. If these gentlemen had had a notion of what 
this Western country was going to be. they would prob- 
ably have felt sorry that they could not hold it all down. 
As it was, they were satisfied to begin with the building 
of one modest little settlement. 
M. Laclede Ligueste was advance agent of the com- 
pany, and he went up the river on Aug. 3, 1763. He ar- 
rived in Illinois, Nov. 3, 1763. Meantime, by one of the 
pleasant little changes of the time, France had ceded to 
England all the settlement on the Illinois side of the 
Mississippi River. On the Missouri side of the river 
there was only the settlement of St. Genevieve, and here 
Laclede could not get a house big enough to store his 
trading goods. Making temporary arrangements at Fort 
Chartres, on the Illinois side, Laclede set out to look for 
a town site of his own, and after canvassing all of that 
country he settled upon the site where the city of St. 
Louis now stands. 
This was in the month of December, 1763. Laclede's 
companion in this search for a townsite was a young 
man named Auguste Chouteau, ancestor of the prominent 
Chouteau family who are still citizens of St. Louis. My 
friend Mr. Horace Kephart has sent me a little pam- 
phlet showing a part of the ancient "Chouteau Narrative," 
describing how the settlement of St. Louis was made. 
Laclede blazed some trees with his own hand and laid 
out the lines of the town. He and Chouteau then returned to 
Fort Chartres to look after their goods. In February, 
1764, they went back with boats and men to the town- 
site. On March 14, 1764, the men actually went to work, 
first building the shed for a store rQom^ and then going 
on with their cabins. 
These first builders were much bothered by Indians, of 
whom numbers came and camped around the .growing 
settlement, but the latter were finally induced to go away, 
and after they had left, a few families, with women and 
children, came from the other French settlements on both 
sides of the river and settled at "St. Louis," as this settle- 
ment was now named in honor of Louis XV, 
Meantime, other matters were shaping themselves to 
the gain of the embr^^o city. The treaty of 1762 had given 
the Illinois country to England, and orders went out 
from the Governor-General of Louisiana to M. de Neyon 
de Villiers, who was then Governor of upper Louisiana, 
or Illinois, to evacuate all that country. Neyon was an 
odd genius, and he thought he would cut sornething of a 
swath if he went down .the Mississippi with a big retinue. 
So he told pretty much all the French folk around these 
upper settlements that they would better move out and go 
down the river into French territorv, where they would 
be free from the English and could live as thev liked. 
A great many people left the old Illinois French set- 
tlements and went down the river with him, in spite of 
the advice of Laclede, who understood what the little 
game of Neyon was. By this time there had been another 
change' of affairs at New Orleans, and that country was 
now in the hands of Spain, so the unfortunate families 
who had followed Neyon down the river were much 
worse off than if they had stayed where they were. 
Nearly all who were left up the river listened to Laclede, 
and Fort Chartres and the other little setlements there- 
abouts were practically abandoned by the French, who 
all moved over to the new town of St. Louis. And there 
you are. 
Ten years before the War of the Revolution we were 
doing business out here in the West, and we have never 
stopped from that time to this. This was the begin- 
ning of that epoch of our Western life when the trapper 
and the hunter were typical figures of the poplation. 
From that time to this the glory and the charm of those 
wild, free days have never faded. 
An Early Game Dinner. 
Mr. Charles Hallock, writing from Washington, D. C., 
incloses to me a newspaper clipping bearing date of 
Dec. 2, 1886, and describing the menu of one of the 
erstwhile famous game dinners given by John B. Drake 
of the Grand Pacific Hotel, Chicago. Although this was 
thirteen years ago, it was the twertty-first annual game 
dmner given by Mr; Drake. The menu certainly ran the 
gamut of our Western game, apd was as follows r 
Blue Points. Soup— venison, hunter style; game broth. 
Fish— Trout, black bass. Boi!e<i— Leg of mountain sheep, 
