FOREST AND STUKAW. 
[March io, 1900. 
Aaother NOTthemjExpIorer-Sportsmaa, 
It was something like a year ago that Forest and 
Stream was given the privilege of printing the first story 
sent to a sporting paper by Mr. Harry E. Lee, of Chi- 
cago, describing his singularly interesting hunting trip 
in the far-away land of Alaska. Mr. Lee was of course 
far to the northwest of Mr. Norris' country, and was 
closer tp the coast whereas, Mr. Norris was well inland at 
the point reached in his nofth and west bound journey- 
ings. Mr. Lee's trophies excited the admiration of all 
America, and all America went wild over this new and 
little known big game country, from which came heads 
and hides of unheard-of size, the first authentic account of 
which was thus given in the Forest anb Stream, at first 
hand and from a reliable source. The stories of that 
country might excite derision did not the enormous heads 
and the big skins act as their own witnesses. Knowing 
that Mr. Lee had made a second trip into Alaska last sum- 
mer, I have often asked him for more stories about it, and 
may now promise this treat at an early date for the Forest 
AND Stream family. I do not wish to forestall Mr. Lee 
by any partial mention of this expedition, but am author- 
ized to say that Mr. Lee is now at work on a big game 
map of Alaska, which will be correct and authentic in 
every particular, and made only from his own personal 
knowledge. This will prove of great interest and value to 
the sportsmen who wish to undertake the experience of a 
trip for big game in Alaska. During his five months' stay 
in Alaska this time. Mr. Lee made a grind collection of 
birds, and thinks he has the best lot of specimens ever col- 
lected in Alaska. There is much tempation to tell some of 
the interesting things wliich this Chicago wanderer and 
his wife told me this morning, but we must keep faith and 
give this later. I shall only mention what Mr. Lee says 
in regard to the duck egg industry in the North. 
"The Indians gather eggs to eat, of course," he said, 
and they sell them, too, wherever they get a chance. They 
get about 50 cents a dozen for them, sometimes, at settle- 
ments, but that is only what they carry in there." 
"They do not ship them away in any shape, do they?" 
was asked of him. 
"No, not at all ; not in the least." 
"Do they get very many of them ?" 
"No, not v<?ry many of them, in that country ; not any 
quantity of consequence there." 
"They don't sell them?" 
^'Only to peddle them around, as I said." 
Wate* Trips. 
This week I met Mr. J. Edmund Strong and Mr, Selz, 
of Selz, Schwab & Co., who are purposing anotlier canoe 
trip together, something like that which they took last fall 
on my recommendation along the upper waters of the 
Mississippi River. They went in at Bemidji and ran 
about 150 miles of the Papa of Waters, having a very 
delightful time. Now they want new worlds to conquer, 
- and we talked that over for some time. The Wisconsin, 
the Menominee Brule, the St. Francis of the South, the 
St. Croix of the North, the Ottawa of Canada, the little 
Thornapple of Michigan, all came up for discussion. At 
last the gentlemen practically decided they would try the 
Au Sable River of Lower Michigan, going in somewhere 
above Grayling and making a long run down the river. 
They will have splendid fishing, and friends who are ac- 
quainted with that water say it is practical for canoeing. 
I hope that Mr. Geo. L. Alexander, of Grayling, will tell 
• these friends all he can about the suitablility of the Au 
Sable for a trip of this sort. Mr. Alexander has always 
seemed to me to be about the nicest man in the world, and 
he is the sort that will put himself out to the last gasp to 
help a man who loves trout fishing. My two Chicago 
friends are canoe fiends from 'way yonder, and unless a 
stream is so steep that it falls over" backwards they can 
run it and play checkers at the same time. You can't ask 
any more than that. 
Italian Joe Discovered. 
This has been a week of pleasant discoveries among old 
friends. This morning I was at "V. L. & A.'s" store, to 
see if anything was going on, and as I stooped over for a 
moment I was surprised to feel a pair of hands clasped 
over my eyes and to hear a voice ask me if I "knew who 
it was." Several guesses were in vain, and the man be- 
hind me then began to whistle, "Wheet, wheet, whit-whit, 
wheet!" 
"Oh, Italian Joe, sure/' I cried, and he said, "You 
guess-a it right that-a time." 
Italian Joe, it seems, is keeping a saloon out at Sum- 
mit, about tweh^e miles southeast of town, and this point 
is within half a mile or so from where he has done some 
of his best plover shooting. Of course, everybody knows 
that Italian Joe is the most celebrated and the most re- 
markably successful plover shooter in the whole country, 
and his reputation extends all over Illinois and Indiana 
at least. He asks me to come out and spend a night in 
!iis saloon this spring and go "shoot-a de plov' " the next 
morning, and I think I shall surely go, too, for Italian 
Joe is unique and enjoyable, and a downright good fel- 
low. He shoots for the market, but he does it because he 
has to, and doesn't know any better, and there is such a 
thing as being a market-hunter and a gentleman, too. The 
story printed some years ago about Joe and his methods 
of plover shooting over decoys describes his system pretty 
well, though perhaps we shall see something new this 
spring if we get into the blind together on the wind-swept 
prairies. 
Joe is most kind-hearted in allowing a stranger to visit 
him, for the plover flight is short, and it is money to him 
to kill all he can, and he can kill more plover alone than 
any five men can with or without him. His system is a 
very practical one, and he does not like it disturbed by his 
guests, who sometimes come into his blind without any 
invitation and stay till he invites them to go away. One 
should promise Joe only to watch, and let him to the 
shooting, though he says I must "bring-a de gun." 
Italian Joe says the new game law, closing the season 
at April 25, is all wrong for him, as his birds sometimes 
do not come here in full flight till after that date, though 
the plover flight (the golden plover is referred to) may be 
depended upon to begin before that time each spring. 
Joe tells me that last spring the flight of golden plover 
was heavier than it had been for years, and as heavy as he 
ever saw it. 
"Two day they come-a, oh, my ! You see-a the black-a 
cloud o' de plov', two, free mile-a, come an' come ! Dat 
two-a day, I kill-a de six hund' plov'. Some time-a I 
got-a de two, t'ree dam-a fool in de bline! Dey shoot, 
shoot, an' make-a de mix. You keep-a de two dam-a fool 
out-a de bline dat two day, I kill-a de t'ousan' plov', sure-a 
you born!" Joe explains that the folk above described 
would get excited and would raise up and shoot into the 
flock as it came straight in, or as it crossed overhead, his 
own system being to rake them as they angle in to the 
decoys, which are set at about 45 degs. to the wind. This 
shooting, as practiced by this man, its originator in this 
country, is curious and exciting. Joe can call plover as 
no other living man can call them, and when one sees a 
bunch of two or three hundred birds swing from their 
flight half a mile or more away — he can call them a mile 
down wind — and head in for the decoys, there is the same 
excitement there is in watching a bunch of ducks decoy, 
atid the certainty that the plover will give a shot or two, 
sometimes three or four, for they decoy again and again. 
Soutli. 
Mr. Irby Bennett, Southern representative of the Win- 
chester Repeating Arms Co., was in town for one day 
this week (Thursday), and, refusing to remain longer in 
this city, started home to Memphis that night. 
Mr. Fred M. Stephenson, of Menominee, Mich., has 
gone South to his coffee and vanila plantation at Jalapa, 
Mexico. It shall go hard if he annex no ducks and deer 
while there, for he is a mighty hiinter, of legs long and 
tireless withal, and to this full many a Congressman will 
testify who was guided by this youth in Minnesota last 
October, 
Hot. 
One morning this week two energetic Chicago police- 
men saw a faint, dark figure half a mile out on the ice of 
the harbor. Taking their lives in their hands and hoping 
for a good notice in the paper, they set out to rescue the 
unfortunate victim of the lake. It was James Hanson, 
who had out a bunch of decoys and was shooting ducks. 
The policemen spoiled the flight. Mr. Hanson was sitting 
on the ice, but he was hot. 
The Ivanhoe Club Preserve, of MisslssiFpi. 
Mr. W. I. Spears, of Ingram's Mills, Miss., as was men- 
tioned earlier, is the projector of the Ivanhoe preserve, 
in De Soto and Marshall counties. Miss. Mr. Spears is 
a very ardent fox hunter, and has turned down many 
scores of red foxes in this country, which have increased 
with the native stock until this is a paradise for the fox 
hunter. Mr. Spears has a fine pack of hounds, and he 
can get a run any day he wants it. We two rode out one 
morning and started a fox before we had been out two 
hours. As we were obliged to be back home by noon, 
and as the chase led directly away from us we had to leave 
the dogs and come home, asking a neighbor to look them 
up if they came back near his place. Twenty-four hours 
later some of the dogs were still out, and not till the sec- 
ond day did all come in but three, whose fate was at last 
accounts unknown. We found the country hilly, with 
some creek bottoms, and not bad for cross-country going, 
since the fences are mostly low rail affairs, and even the 
wires have frequent gaps. For fox hunting this is the 
best country of which I have any personal knowledge. 
This region is about twenty-five miles from the edge 
of those great bottoms of the Mississippi Delta, which 
are so grand a preserve for deer and bear. There are 
a few wild cats near Mr. Spears' place, and he often runs 
one of these. He tries to get track of all the cats, wolves 
and foxes he can to turn down in the country round 
about. All that wild timber country is full of possums, 
coons, and that sort of thing. There are many squirrels 
and a few ducks, the latter sometimes coming at some 
ponds not far away. The great mainstay of this tract, 
however, so far as it appeals to the shooter, is the great 
abundance of quails. These birds could not have a bet- 
ter home than the old fields, the brier patches, the stub- 
bles and corn fields, pea patches, etc:, which make up the 
cover of the country. 
Mr. Spears has 25,000 acres under ten year leases, all 
in one body, and we rode over a strip of perhaps eight 
miles without going off the preserve. He says he can 
get 50,000 acres if he likes. He arranges for the exclusive 
shooting rights on the farms, giving the farmer himself 
right to shoot, but binding him to keep off trespassers. 
This leaves good feeling, and the simple plan seems to 
work most admirably, leaving none of the usual antag- 
onistic feeling against the game preserve. Mr. Spears 
wishes chiefly to stop the pot hunting, and he lately drove 
out of the country the only two men who ever tried to 
shoot for the market in there. The local farmers, many 
of them colored, do not know or care anything about 
shooting birds, hence the supply is very large and bids 
fair to keep its numbers. Mr. Spears encourages farmers 
to leave a pea patch out here and there, that and the sor- 
ghum seed being the best feed the birds have. We saw 
a good many birds around the house, but it was not legal 
to shoot in De Soto county. A little ride took us to Mar- 
shall county, and we put up seven bevies in a little while, 
though we did not care to shoot very much. Friends 
of mine, as earlier mentioned, put up seventeen bevies 
in part of one day. 
Just at present Mr. Spears and our friend, the redoubta- 
ble Bobo, the bear hunter, are having this little preserve 
pretty much to themselves, Jiving neighbors, as they do, 
and each having a pack of hounds. Bobo is degenerating 
into a fox hunter— Mr, Spears says he is ascending, and 
not descending, the scale. Bobo's doctor told him he 
would have to quit bear hunting, or it would kill him, so 
he has quit, or is tapering off, and just runs a fox once 
in a while to keep his horn in tune, 
Mr.. Spears says that he would like to make an arrange- 
ment with a few gentlemen of the right sort — not more 
than half a dozen or so — who will take hold of his pre- 
serve and make it possible for him to continue it with jus- 
tice to himself. He does not want any money put up for 
buildings, for he has them already. He can keep the dogs 
of his own pack and he can furnish horses at a reasonable 
rate. He requires only a small annual sinn for the con- 
tinuance of the leases, really a ridiculously small amount. 
The brief earlier mention of this matter in the columns 
of the Forest and Stream brought Mr. Spears several 
inquiries, but I do not know what arrangements he has 
made or intends to make. He wishes to make a big ac- 
climatization park out of this, and put down pheasants 
and other birds. He has put out a couple of dozen Mon- 
golian pheasants. His plan seems to be so laudable that 
it is to be hoped he will enlist all the aid he wishes. 
Guinea Fowls as Game. 
It was one of Mr. Spears' ideas that the guinea hen' 
might run wild and prove a good game bird if set free in 
a wild region. To-day I have a letter from Mr. W. A. 
Powel, of this State. He writes: 
"T noticed something in Forest and Stream in re- 
gard to guineas as game birds. On my father's place iti 
Kansas, down by the Territory line, some neighbor had 
left a bunch of them, and they went wild on the prairie, 
and I hunted them same as prairie chickens. I would 
think they would do on a preserve. They lay to a dog, 
and flew fairly well." E, HouGH. 
300 BoYCE Building, Chicago, 111. 
Mr. Wadsworth's Quail. 
Governor Roosevelt's nomination of Mr. W. Austin 
Wadsworth, of Geneseo, Livingston county, to be presi- 
dent of the Forest, Fish and Game Commission, has 
brought to public attention the fact that Mr. Wadsworth 
was once fined for shooting quail out of season. The New 
York Herald of March 2 contained this from its Albany 
correspondent : 
"Within an horn* after the names had been sent to the 
Senate to-day the fact had been dug out of the records 
that Mr. Wadsworth had pleaded guilty of violating the 
game laws and paid a fine. Mr. Wadsworth is the presi- 
dent of the Boone and Crockett Club, and a big game 
hunter, but he killed quail out of season, in company 
with several other sportsmen in 1896. 
"Prosecution was brought by T. H. Donnelly, one of the 
State protectors, before Justice of the Peace C. W. 
Gamble, at Mount Morris, Livingston county. All the 
accused, including Mr. Wadsworth, pleaded guilty and 
were fined $150. 
"Governor Roosevelt said to-night that Mr. Wads- 
worth, who is a wealthy man and a large- land owner, had 
stocked his extensive preserve with quail, and had been 
very active in suppressing illegal killing. He shot quail 
out of season in order to get a specimen, or something 
of that sort, the Governor declared, and the. poachers 
themselves filed complaint out of revenge. 
"Governor Roosevelt's opinion is that the prosecution 
was almost 'comic' " 
In further statement of the case, ' Mr. J. W. Cowan 
writes from Geneseo as below. This we take to be a correct 
statement of the circumstances, but our correspondent is 
in error in assuming that there is any provision in the 
law which permits the owner of a private park or a land 
owner to kill game in close season. Mr. Cowan writes : 
Geneseo, N. Y., March Editor Forest and Stream: 
In relation to the article which appeared in the New 
York Herald of March 2, I would like to add to Governor 
Roosevelt's statement, for the benefit of Forest and 
Stream readers, an explanation of the situation which 
led to Mr. Wadsworth's submission to a fine upon a charge 
of shooting quail out of season. 
In the first place, there were no quail left worth men- 
tioning in the county of Livingston in 1899; they had 
been practically exterminated by overshooting. One could 
then have hunted the length and breadth of the Valley of 
the Genesee, which had always been the home of the 
quail, but he would hear the voice of "brave brown Bob" 
no more in the land. In that year Mr, Wads'worth de- 
termined to try to restock the covers both with Mon- 
golian pheasants and with quail, and to that end he se- 
cured all the pheasants he could from Oregon, Judge 
Greene, of Portland, furnishing the addresses of men who 
could provide the birds, there being then no pheasantries 
in the East. These birds from Oregon, together with a 
few dozen quail, were liberated that' year. In 1890 he 
procured the services of an expert game keeper and 
established a pheasant hatchery, where a very large num- 
ber of birds were raisd and liberated as they became 
sufficiently matured to take care of themselves. This 
work of restocking the woods of the county he has kept 
up ever since, and the results are apparent to any one who 
goes afield. It is not uncommon now to see a big bright 
pheasant strut across the road as one drives along, and in 
the few days I was out last autumn with a dog and 
fowling piece, r am quite sure I saw fifty of these fine 
birds. - •• u ., 
In 1894 Mr. Wadsworth and several other gentlemen 
organized a little club, intending to form a portion of Mr. 
Wadsworth's land into a private park, where the members 
would be at liberty to shoot under their own regulations, 
as the law of the State provides they may. For this pur- 
pose they procured from the West sixty dozen quail and 
turned them out to multiply, repeating the experiment in 
1895 and 1896. It appears that by some oversight they 
omitted to comply with all the technical formalities of the 
law as to advertising the existence of this club .and the 
establishment of a private park, in consequence of which 
the first time these gentlemen went out with their guns 
on Mr. Wadsworth's own land, to shoot birds that his 
good cold cash had bought and which he believed he had 
the unquestioned right to hunt, Game Protector Don- 
nelly, with commendable zeal but questionable judgment, 
rose up in his might and made a complaint. It so hap- 
pened that Mr. Wadsworth was obliged to go on an ex- 
tended Western trip, and could not possibly be present to 
make a defense or explanation in person, and left the 
matter to be settled by his attorney in the simplest way 
possible ; this was_ accomplished by the imposition of a fine 
of $25. It was simply an instance of selecting a shining 
mark and an exploit to "get at" a wealthy man, who 
had done much to cultivate good sport in the county 
at his own expense, and who it was perfectly well known 
would not knowiiigly violate the letter- or spirit of the 
gatne law under any circumstances. It is proper to add 
that Mr. Wadsworth'^ has been at much personal expense 
to prevent the violation of the game law and to punish 
offenders, and he is the last person in the world to 
countenance any infraction of these laws consciously by 
himself or his friends; he has, moreover, been very 
painstaking to preserve his forest land from the axe at 
large expense t® his revenues, and no one could commit a 
greater depredation upon his lands than by injuring or 
destroying a tree. J. W. Cowan. 
