March 24, 1900.] 
FOREST AND STREAMe 
^ 2i 
"On some occasion of this sort old Williams made his 
appearance at the fort, to the astonishment of all. who had 
supposed him dead a long while before, zs he had been 
one of a party surprised by the Mountain Blackfoot In- 
dians; but, as it afterward appeared, had made his escape, 
he being the only survivor. After mutual congratulations, 
Mr. Denig asked him to recount his adventure, which 
he did in a most interesting and solemn way. He and 
several other trappers had been hunting for beaver on 
one of the tributaries of the Yellowstone or Platte, I for- 
get which, now, and. after their day's toil, had camped in 
supposed security with the horses in their neighborhood 
and were lying by their fire after supper soundly wrapped 
in that sleep from which they were to rise no more, when 
Williams dreamed: 'God Ahnighty appeared to me.' said 
he, slowly and solemnly, 'in flames and sparkling flashes 
of fire, and said: "Williams, you have been a very 
wicked man: T have saved your life vei-y often and you 
have not profited by it; but I will save you once more." ' 
"Bang! bang! bang! went the the guns oi an Indian 
war party close by, and most of his companions rolled 
from the sleep of time into eternity, or on rising to flee 
from the danger, were immediately massacred. Williams, 
however, clubbing his rifle in one hand and grasping his 
knife in the other, rushed right at the spot from which 
the shots were fired, and consequentlv broke through 
the enemy and got clear off, for those who had fired were 
few, the 'larger number of the savages being ranged at 
the opoosite side, in order more effectually to destroy the 
pai ly by intercepting them as they fled from the obvious 
danger. . ' , „ , 
" 'Well. Williams,' said Mr. Demg, after a pause, and 
is it a warning vott have orofited by?' 
"'Well,' reolied the old fellow. 'I don't know; Ive 
worked very hard at mv traps and oaid all my debts: I've 
given up swear^nsf and that sort of thing, and if I knew 
anvthing else I'd do it.' _ . , 1 • 
"Most likelv the sleening hunter was insmred with this 
vision in a moment of time at the instant dawn of return- 
ing consciousness, when awakened by the explosion of 
the firprqrms which had su£reested the dream." 
I think Ruxton's "Life in the Far West" is still in print. 
I bought a copy of a new edition about four years asro at 
Mes-^rs. Blackwood's publishing house, Paternnster Row, 
London. ' I I Meyrick. 
BUDLEIGH Sa-lTERTOn, Devonsh're, Feb. fi 
Ohio Game Legislation. 
Cleveland, O.. March 14.— Representative Roberts, of 
Cuyahoga county,' introduced to-day in the Ohio General 
Assembly a composite game bill which if it becomes a 
law will in a measure correct some of the existing evils 
in this direction. The provisions of this bill recognize 
the sovereign right of farmers to dictate what shall be 
done with the game found on their property. 
In addition to paying a license for carrying a shot- 
gun, huntsmen will be compelled to secure the permis- 
sion of the owner of the land before he can hunt thereon. 
The same restrictions apply to fishing. 
The provision to be commended most, however, is that 
concerning the hunting of woodcock and squirrels. Since 
game laws came into existence in the State July 4 has 
been recognized as the opening of the game season, squir- 
rels and woodcock coming in at that time. This has 
resulted in much harm not only to squirrels and wood- 
cock, but to other game. These, protected until Sept. i, 
as is most of the other game, would give the hunter no 
excuse for carrving a gun and would save him from 
the temptation of shooting at quail and other game more 
plentiful than that for which he is hunting. 
To illustrate the truth of my assertion concerning this 
natural temptation, I call to mind the statement of a 
sportsman who returned from, a hunting trip a tew days 
ago It seems that he had been after rabbits. He brought 
home twenty-two. After laying out his trophies on the 
floor he pulled forth from an inner pocket of his coat 
a fine ruffed grouse. He was really penitent as he re- 
lated how it happened. . , » , . 1 
"Tip had started a rabbit, ' he said, when of a stid- 
den there flew up directly in front of me three grouse. 
There was no time for thought ; I simply raised ray gun 
instinctn'elv to mv shoulder and fired. Simultaneously 
with the fall of one of the birds came a feeling of guilt 
for having distnrbed the little family. I was really sorry. 
The game bill introduced by Mr. Roberts, whde rather 
far-fetched in some repsects, would prevent such acci- 
dents. 
This bill makes game wardens State officers, to be 
known as deputy State game wardens, and an unlimited 
number, at pav" to be fixed by the State commission, 
are to be appointed. Game wardens are to receive fines 
for prosecutions and have right of search and seizure ot 
game during the closed season. Confiscated game can- 
not be replevined and the warden is not liable to dam- 
ages for seizure. Nobody can hunt or fish without tlie 
written permission of the land owner or owner of water 
rights hut the game warden cannot prosecute except on 
complaint of the property owner. A hcense of ?i must 
be paid to carrv a shotgun, but a man can shoot squir- 
rels, for instance, with a rifle without a gun license. JNon- 
rcsi'dents of the State must pay a fee of $25 
Railroad and express companies are prohibited from 
delivering or transporting game in the closed season, 
and it is prohibited to anybody to have possession ot 
game in such season. Swallows, bluebirds, meadow 
larks, doves, giills and buzzards are added to the list ot 
protected birds, but doves are added to the list of birds 
whi'-h a farmer can shoot on his own land, and all birds 
mav be caught for domestication: but birds' eggs can- 
not' be "disturbed," in addition to the old prohibition 
acrainst destroying eggs. 
"Bird traps are barred. The open season for quail 
is to be Nov. 10 to Dec. iS ; for woodcock and squirrels, 
Sept T to Dec. iS; for wild goose. Sept. i to April 15. 
FishhTT with three hooks or by cutting through ice is 
forbidden. The closed sea.son for sunfish is May to to 
Tune 15. Bass must be 8 inches long. Turtle can be 
caut^ht only bv 5-inch mesh seines, but carp and suckers 
may be "^igsed. speared or caught with a grab hook, lo 
fish for German carp permission must be obtained from 
the gan'e cnnimission. T. A. Knight. 
CHICAGO THE WEST. 
'Special Park Number. 
Chicago, 111., March 10.— The news from the West this 
week should by right be largely in the form of a special 
Minnesota Park number. Certainly if there was ever 
anything in that movement to entitle it to interest, it 
deserves it to-day, for its fate as a public measure is at 
this writing hanging in the balance. _ _ 
Undertaken as a public spirited enterprise, disinterested 
and impersonal, this park proposition excited the an- 
tagonism of personal interests, and that antagonism, selfish 
and persistent, has pursued its own fight far beyond the 
first glow of a generous enthusiasm. Left largely to its 
own way in the halls of Congress, the Minnesota Park 
idea has received the steady attention of its enemies, who 
have been not weary in their ill doing. At this date it is 
too soon to predict the issue, yet, though blind hoping is 
a poor policy, it is surely not yet time to despair. 
Indeed, there is very much reason to predict success in 
some form. Even further than that, one may say with a 
very great degree of confidence that the Congressional 
trip of last October has already practically accomplished 
its purpose. It has already stopped the axes of the lum- 
bermen. It has already assured that this pine will not be 
swept away, at least for the present. From a source very 
direct and reliable, word comes that no bill authorizing 
the further cutting of that Indian pine will ever become 
a law in the present administration. It may or may not 
pass both Houses, but if it does it will not pass the veto 
of President McKlnley. Therefore the necessary time 
will have been gained and the necessary agitation will 
have gone on, and the pine will be there for other men to 
look at and for others to attempt to preserve. 
That even this negative result will be a tremendous 
disappointment to the lumbermen of the Northwest is 
very well known by those who have kept in touch with the 
secret movements of those interests at Washington during 
the present session; and this is measure of the im- 
portance of even such negative victory to the friends of 
the proposed park. 
Hidden History, 
There has been a great deal of unwritten history about 
this park movement, some of which will come into print 
in due time. It is plainly seen now that some men who 
last fall came into the camp of the park friends and pro- 
fessed all sorts of willingness to help the matter on— 
who even spent considerable money in one way or an- 
other — were not worthy of even the name of wolf in 
sheep's clothing, but were openly insincere and entirely 
selfish. It should have been known at that time, as 
was suspected by all the newspaper men of the party, 
that a lumberman does not belong with a forest preserva- 
tion project, and is not there for his health. Now as time 
has gone on, the lumbermen of the Northwest are be- 
ginning to come out and show where they really stand. 
They stand where they did all the time. They stand 
with both hands reaching out for every stick of pine left 
standing in the forests of Minnesota. They don't want a 
park. Not one of them wants a park or ever did want 
one. The loudest talker of the lot was the one who least 
of all wanted a park, and who most of all intended al 
along that there should never be any such park. 
The park project to-day is in the hands of AmericaTi 
politics. There has been something done by the workers 
in favor of the park— the greatest step of all was consum- 
mated when the leaders of that movement discovered who 
were their friends and who were their enemies. The 
Women's Federation has done some work. Col. Cooper, 
now thoroughly aroused, is to start at once for Wash- 
ington, and he' will do good service there. It is likely 
that we shall see some action taken before long by Con- 
gress. Such action may take either of two forms; it 
may come as a plenary bill, or it may come in the form 
of a joint resolution for investigation of this movement. 
This latter is the more likely to pass, and at first it would 
not seem a very dangerous measure for the lumbering 
interests, who thus far have always gotten exactly what 
they wanted out of such "investigations." Yet these same 
lumbermen know very well that times have changed. The 
old wilderness is coming to be too well known. There 
are coming too near to the surface of some of the ancient 
rottennesses of the earlier Indian "treaties" some of the 
"estimating" commissions, and some of "apportionments 
under which the Indians and the American people were 
outrageously robbed. 
These words sound a bit harsh and a bit broad, but they 
are entitled to neither the one characterization nor the 
other. They are simply the truth, as we shall shortly 
see. Now, if the lumbermen of the Northwest want to 
come out flat and fight this park proposition, they may 
expect to see many or all of these facts made public and 
their method of operation explained in full. In face of 
this, they are not apt to wish any investigation at Just 
this time; for however shameless they may be as to the 
past robberies, whose gains they now have safe in their 
pockets, they will hardly wish to risk a possible later haul 
by reason of a letting in of the light of publicity over the 
scene of their past and intended operations. In this there, 
lies a hope that the friends of the park will have a 
fighting chance. They never had and never ought to 
have supposed they had anything but a fighting chance. 
Fine words and empty promises from lumbermen never 
could build this fores't reserve, safely and widely. The 
truth, and the truth put before the people and before their 
representatives, is the only weapo?'^ worth having in this 
enterprise, at least at this stage of :ts fate. 
. Some Tfutts. 
It was the truth which Col. Cooper wanted the mem- 
bers of Congress to learn when they were in the North- 
west last October. It was the truth which the lumbermen 
of that country were afraid they would learn. The lum- 
bermen never v/anted the party to see the desolation of 
that region by the so-called Government dams, which were 
never anything in the world but reservoirs created by 
Government for helping private lumbermen float out their 
logs. These reservoirs were a blight and a ruin, and a 
disgrace as a Government work. They never preserved 
the headwaters of the Mississippi, and originally never 
were really intended to do so, as every one must have 
known who ever investigated the matter. After the vague 
American fashion, some one asked for money to build 
these dams, apparently for a public reason. The request 
came from some good friend of some one else, and the 
appropriation was made. The work was carried on up in 
a far country, out in the woods. No one knew of it, and 
no one cared about it. It was supposed to be all right. 
The Government was going to "preserve the headwaters 
of the Mississippi." Meantime that same Government 
had stolen millions of acres of pine lands by a fraudulent 
treaty— as we shall soon see— and it had appointed a 
series of fraudulent "estimating commissions," as these 
same lumbermen very well know, and it had allowed these 
same lumbermen to go ahead and strip the forests off 
from the headwaters of the Mississippi as fast as they 
cared to do so — a very handsome second, certainly, to 
the movement for "preserving" the headwaters aforesaid I 
That is the record of the gentlemen from Minnesota, 
and that is what the Minnesota citizens have been quietly 
doing all these years. And that is just what the Con- 
gressmen who went up there last fall did not see, and 
what the lumbermen took precious good care they should 
not see. Witness certain objections always urged when 
Col. Cooper wanted to get away from the railroad to visit 
any part of that region with his Congressional friends. 
Witness, if you like, the incident of the split train, and the 
sudden end of the whole trip. Now put it all together 
and make your own conclusions. It was long ago the 
conclusion of all who knew the facts that some of the 
purposes of the trip were substantially defeated, and that 
by men who purported to be friends. 
Since that time there has been wondrous change of 
heart of some of those residents who spoke loudly in 
the synagogues during the Congressional progress. They 
may have been "seen," or they may have arrived at their 
new attitude by process of independent reasoning. You 
take your choice as to belief in these matters. In due time 
we shall learn who have been real friends to the park, and 
who have been false friends. Meantime it was impos- 
sible to conceal all the facts from those Congressmen 
who were along on that trip, and among them were many 
men whose mental grasp and whose honesty of heart will 
render them very hard customers for the forces of lum- 
bermen to handle. It is so safe to put trust in these men 
that the time has by no means come when the friends of 
the Minnesota Park need feel that they are beaten. 
Facts About the Minnesota Dams. 
It was not possible for the Congressional party to see 
the handiwork of their friends in Congress as witnessed 
in the "Government improvements" at the headwaters of 
the Mississippi, and not all readers of this paper perhaps 
have a clear idea of what those "improvements" really 
are and what they have cost the country. 
If you go there you see a vast swamp made by the back- 
water of the dams. You see miles of submerged lands 
and of ruined forests, a desolation in a desert. "It looks 
just like logging work," you say. It is just like logging 
work, and such it is, nothing more nor less. It is logging 
work carried on not by the United States Government, but 
by private individuals whose expensive works are paid for 
by this United States Government A lumberman builds 
his dam, and holds back his log drive. When he gets 
ready to drive, he turns on the water and regulates the 
flood to suit himself. This is just what he has been doing 
up here in Minnesota, and the whole people have been 
paying for his dams and paying his hands and helping him 
make money, and the whole people are sharing in the 
desolation which this same lumberman makes with his 
backwaters and his slashed-over tracts of timber. 
The "regulation of the flow" of the Mississippi never 
had one atom of effect on the navigation possibilities of 
that stream. Never was a boat which stopped or started 
because the flow from the Government dams was on or 
off. Never was a mill that had a wheel stopped or started 
by that same flow other than as the mill owner preferred 
at the time. Never was a living soul along the Missis- 
sippi, high or low along the whole river, who was ever 
affected in any way by such regulation of the flow. But 
you have to have water to float logs, else the logs get 
astrand, and it costs money to "sack" them off. You 
have to have water to run the drive. 
Here is where the Government dams came in, and the 
only place there they ever did or ever will come into 
use. All the talk about navigation was ignorance or 
deception. The only navigation concerned was the navi- 
gation of the logs. When the big companies got ready 
for their drive, they told Uncle Sam to hurry up and turn 
on the water. And Uncle Sam did. 
It is a very great and obliging Uncle Sam, this, that we 
have. If you can only get Uncle Sam's ear for a_ little 
while, this way, while no one else is looking on or listen- 
ing, you can get rich. This has been proved by many 
hundreds of men in this great big America of ours. It 
was never proved so openly and shamelessly as by these 
same Minnesota lumbermen who are fighting this park 
proposal, and who intend to kill it if they can. 
Below are the figures showing what it costs to engage 
in logging operations on a large scale in a wilderness pine 
country. In other words, below are the figures of 1.he 
sums given by Uncle Sam to the lumbermen of the Min- 
nesota regions. Still another and more customary, per- 
haps a more euphonious, name for the same thing is as 
written below : 
APPROPRIATIONS BY CONGRESS FOR DAMS AT HEADWATERS 
OF MISSISSIPPI." 
1880— U. S. Statutes, 1879-81, Vol. XXI., p. 193- 
Winnebigoshish appropriation $7S>0OO 
Additional, dam; p. 481, same volume 150,000 
1881- 83— Vol. XXII., p. 203 300,000 
1883-85— Vol. XXIIL, p. 145 60,000 
1885-87— Vol. XXIV., p. 328 37,500. 
1887-80— Vok XXV., p. 419 12,000 
1889-91— Vol. XX VL, p. 449 80.000 
1891-93— Vok XXVIL, p. 106 60,000 
Total $774,500 
, Statutes at Large, Vol. 28, p. 357- For care and 
maintenance of reservoirs at the headwaters of 
the Mississippi River $S0.00O 
I 
