^8^ 
FOREST ANiD STREAM. 
(April 14, igoo. 
Be Careful, 
As the years go by and we revisit the places that have 
knovi^n us, we mentally note the changes. The changes 
are usually improvements where people are gregarious 
in city life, but the city is not a production of nature. 
"Man made the town ; God made the country," some one 
truthfully said. It is an inborn, latent and inherent trait 
in humanity if unadvised, unobstructed and free from the 
need and greed of civilization to roam the woods, to idle 
by stream and lake, and to have as companions other 
creatures, either wild or domestic. When natural desires 
prompt us, when too close and long-continued contact 
with business and people irritates us, .we seek the quiet 
of outdoor life for relief; and outdoor life does not mean 
to us the paved street or any place where we have to 
turn out for others. It means afar off and away back 
from the bustle of activity. But such places and spaces 
grow smaller year by year, and further away. Where we 
fished years ago the shrunken waters are poisoned by the 
refuse of mills and the sewage of city and town, and 
fish breed and bite no more. The stillness of the forest 
TS raped by the roar of passing railway train, the steam- 
boat whistle frightens the already timid animals — frightens 
them again and again as each echo bounds from the 
hills. Then the .wild creatures move away to approach 
a -new danger, or stay to .go down before the guns of 
those who come in on boat and train. Has any one the 
right to complain? Have not those who come to-day the 
same right that allowed the first ones to come? Granted. 
Now, what about those who are to come in tlie future ? 
What will they find that is differetit from what they left? 
Nothing. We can tell them to go further; but where? 
Not West, surely. "Westward the tide of empire takes 
its way," and it also takes everything in sight. North 
and East for a while, possibly, or maybe South. But it 
is the same everjnvhere- — men will kill all living things. 
We kill the least offensive and the most beautiful first, and 
leave till the last the noxious and repulsive. We destroy the 
forest wantonly, and have as a reward our Johnstown 
floods and disasters which cost a thousand-fold more 
than the value of all timber obtained. The noble Hud- 
son, above where the tide has an influence is a roaring 
torrent in spring and can be waded in summer. Barring 
tide influences, the same is true of the Mohawk and tnte 
of man}' other streams throughout the country, and their 
waters, like troubles, all come at once. 
We would shoot all the game, catch all the fish in one 
Season, aud deprive ourselves of seeing any the next. 
What is the remedy for all of this? Simply forbearance. 
Let every good citizen hold aloft the torch of tolerance in 
forest, fish, animal and bird destruction and lend a 
helping hand to the propagation of each. 
*'WliHe yet the lamp liolds out to burn 
The vilest sinner tnay return." 
Our consciences should silence our guns except in the 
smashing of clay pigeons and in puncturing an inanimate 
target. The fish rods we will use a while longer in 
proper season, inasmuch as too many fish get away that 
ought to be caught. One lusty bass or pike exterminates 
more in a season than the average man can in a life time 
with rod and line. It is the poisoning and drying up of 
streams that makes the trouble. Let all consider those 
who are coming. Let those who are coming hear, as 
we have, the song of the robin aUd the drumming of the 
partridge. Let them see the squirrels frolic. Let them 
see the graceful deer flaunt their white flags in the forest. 
Let them gather the wild flowers as we have done, and 
above all, preserve shady woodland retreats for those who 
have woe and sorrow, for such places do they seek and 
therein find comfort. 
Our children and the children of our children will have 
the same yearnings that we have, and such yearnings 
begin with life. When the first smile ripples over the 
baby's face' the little hands go out to touch the flowers in 
the window or to stroke the playing kitten, and the ears 
are open to the sound of the imprisoned canary. If the 
baby grows to boyhood he hies to the temporary brooks 
that pour down beside the hilly road in the spring- 
time. If a girl, she watches for the crocus as it pushes 
its way from the softening ground, and both boy and 
girl, when "All the world loves a lover," seek the shady 
paths in grove and garden by the shores of stream and 
Jake. Later in life the tired workers look forward to a 
few days spent among nature's charms and away from 
the humdrum of toil. The old people, too often neglected 
by those who should care for them, find solace in the sun- 
shine that warms them in the paths under the trees in 
the summer, and they live out their days hoping to be laid 
away where flowers and green grass grow, or where the 
moaning pines will guard them. 
It was always so, and so it always will be. The trees 
should not be destroyed nor the wild flowers ; the brooks 
and ponds should not be dried away, and the song birds 
must be left undisturbed in the perpetuation of their kind. 
It is a duty that the living owe to those who are coming, 
that they may enjoy what is theirs by right, and it is as 
vital to their interests as the preservation of recorded 
advancement in literature, science and art. The fanatics 
in past centuries who did so much toward wiping out all 
traces of Grecian progress, and of architecture, eloquence 
and history, wronged those who came after, and we, in 
the destruction of game life and singing birds, in the 
spoliation of forests and streams, are as amenable for 
wrong to the future as those who lived in the past -are 
amenable to those living to-day. Every good_ citizen has 
the welfare of his country and his people in mind, and his 
actions are based thereon. He would, from preference, 
help to maintain the perpetuity of all that is good. He 
would, if nossible to accomplish it, leave a paradise as a 
legacy. Therefore, let our recollections and our hopes 
crowd in together. Bring the past and the future closer 
and try to find in experience lessons which may be profit- 
able to generations yet unborn. Let us adopt a policy in 
Ayhich the principle is to preserve what is good bv re- 
forming in time what is evil, so that the living things 
that people the air, the streams and the woods, together 
syith the habitat that mWrt gave them, may be pres?rv^4 
to a late posterity, and that under a fostering care they 
may long continue to flourish. 
Away up among the headwaters of the Mississippi there 
lies a section of primeval forest. It can be seen in all its 
beauty — in the condition that La Salle found such places 
long years ago — and a band of noble women are pleading 
that this great Government shall retain its ownership and 
the natural conditiqn. They are pleading for the welfare 
of posterity, asking that they may provide for the hap- 
piness of those they bring into the world; and a horde 
of greedy lumbermen and politicians, caring no more 
for the future than they care for the suffering of 'those 
who give us birth, oppose these good women that they 
may gain the few dollars that might accrue from the 
destruction of the forests and lakes. We give voice to the 
sentiment of millions of right-thinking Americans when 
T^e say to these would-be destroyers, "Stand back !" 
When we say to the legislators, "Do your duty by us 
and cease to obstruct the will of those who are in the 
right," we demand their attention and compliance. The 
right must prevail, and the right in this case is the right of 
ownership en masse, and no robbers shall step in and 
despoil us of one of the few remaining virgin forests — 
the Minnesota Park Association must win. Then some 
one with head up and lungs filled with pure air can say. 
"Far to northward lies a land 
Wliere the trees together .stand 
Closer than the blades of wheat, 
When the summer is complete, 
t-ilce a robe the forests hide 
Lovely vale and mountain side. 
Balsam, hemlock, spruce and pine — 
All those mighty trees are mine.. 
There's a river flowing free; 
All its waves belong to me. 
There are trout within the brook. 
Skeltered in some quiet nqok", 
There are song birds in the air 
Fearing neither gim nor snare. 
And the wild life of the wood 
Fears not man, for he is good." 
W. W. Hastings. 
New Yokk. 
Through the Parsonage Windows. 
VL 
As the curtain slowly rises it discloses nothing more 
startling than the picture of a young man peering cau- 
tiously from behind a huge cottonwood tree. The tree is 
full 6 feet in diameter, and stands an isolated giant among 
the stunted growth that lines a stream. Let us follow 
this 3'oung man's vision. Ah! It falls on a knoll or head- 
land not half a dozen rods away. The headland is formed 
by the first bench above the creek bottoms thrusting a 
little dome out from its face whose round top is carpeted 
with smooth, flossy buffalo grass. The little dome en- 
croaches on the narrow creek bottom, where there is a 
dense growth of small, red willows which give it the 
appearance of a bald head surrounded at its base by a 
shaggy growth of red hair. 
The morning sun is gilding willow, dome and white 
plain beyond, but, beautiful as is the picture, it is not 
that which holds the Parson's eager gaze. There are 
actors upon the stage which hold the ttndivided attention. 
See those yellowish brown bodies, gray barred and lithe, 
basking there in the sun. There are six of them rolling 
on the grass and playfully buft'eting each other with paw, 
or closing with teeth and claw in imitation of fiercest 
combat. 
The poetry of life and motion is in those graceful, wil- 
lowy, gamboling forms. They leap and roll and tumble 
over each other. Now and then one will leap lightly full 
6 feet in the air and come down on another lying, paws 
up, to meet the charge. WHioever has seen kittens at 
play has witnessed the same scene, for these are kittens at 
play. An old wildcat and five kittens scarcely less in 
size, and the' Parson is enjoying it to the utmost; but in 
his eagerness to get a better view he steps on a dry stick 
and it snaps sharply beneath the pressure of the foot. 
Slight as is the sound, it is enough and the cats are gone. 
Gone describes the situation completely, for the Par- 
son's eye is not quick enough to tell when or how they 
went. Simply gone, that is all, and 1 realize that, wait 
and watch as long as I will, I shall never see them more. 
'Tis sad to part thus, and forever, and I resolved to see 
what I could do with a steel trap. 
Concluding that as cats like birds, a bird would be the 
thing to bait a trap with, I shot a magpie, and getting a 
steel trap proceeded to set my snare in what I supposed 
to be an irresistible manner. Hanging the magpie on a 
small twig stuck isito the ground, just high enough to 
be out of reach of a cat without its standing on its hind 
feet, I dug a hole in the ground beneath it just large and 
deep enough so that a trap set on the bottom would fill 
it, while the jaws and springs came even with the top of 
the ground. I then rubbed dry buffalo grass until it was 
almost a powder and covered ah signs of trap or chain. 
I went out next morning fully expecting a wildcat, but 
the cat had not come back. My magpie hung there for 
a week, and still no cat. and then one morning I went 
out and found a sneaking coyote in the trap. This turned 
my attention in a new line, and for a time trapping coy- 
otses was all the rage. 
I would take a piece of meat and drag it over the prai- 
rie for a quarter of a mile or so and then stake it to the 
ground, setting two of my steel traps, one on each side 
of it. I seldom failed of a wolf, either the first or second 
night. This kept up for some time, and then I went out 
one morning and found a coon in one of the traps. I 
skinned this coon and and threw the carcass into a thicket 
of willows. 
Next day I went to see if it had been carried oft' by any 
animal and found it neatly buried in leaves and grass. 
Some animal had done this, and I at once decided to 
catch whatever it might be. Taking my best trap, I set 
it beside the buried coon, carefully concealing all signs, 
and went away confident of something next day. When 
T went to the trap next I had something. When I was 
coming up to the spot I at first saw nothina-. Then I 
became aware of the presenet^ of 5>ome animal lying flat 
\xgK>n .ground and glarina- baU-fiiHy rit irit; froTp eye?, 
green with rage. At a still nearer approach a yellow 
streak shot toward me so suddenly that I almost fell in 
my haste to get out of the way. As the wildcat, for such 
it was, somersaulted at the limit of the chain it let out a 
savage growl and instantly regained its feet, ready for 
another charge. It chanced one of the men from the 
camp was close at hand, and I called for him to come 
over. He had his lariat along, and at sight of it I re- 
solved to take my prize to camp alive. I would rope the 
cat, and after getting it wound up and its feet tied I 
would string it in the center of a long pole and get the 
men to help carry it in. 
What a joke it would be to throw a live wildcat on the 
table in the midst of a game of seven-up. My friend fell 
in with the plan in great glee. As I swung the rope for 
the cast the cat drew back as far as the trap chain would 
permit, and as I made the cast it sprang at me again. 
The noose fell squarely around the cat's neck and at the 
same instant the trap chain broke. The force with which 
the cat struck the chain of course threw it another som- 
ersault, and before it was up again I had the rope taut 
and was dragging it about to keep it from gaining its 
feet, for I well knew the instant it gained its feet it would 
be tipon me. 
The only firearms that either of us had was a revolver 
which I had in my belt. With the cat loose at one end 
I gave up the idea of taking it to camp alive. What I, 
wanted most at this stage of the game was to get rid of 
the "white man's burden." A burden that is not well 
tied sometimes becomes troublesome. Holding the rope 
in one hand and keeping up the tension by traveling as 
fast as I could, giving the rope an extra twitch now and 
then when the cat seemed about to regain its feet, I drew 
my revolver with the other and commenced to shoot back 
at the cat. But conditions were not right for a sure shot 
and I emptied my gun without effect. 
The situation was now critical, and I resolved to call 
for mediation by a friendly power, and yelled to my com- 
panion to get a club and kill the cat. But to get a suita- 
ble club took some time. Meantime the cat was a con- 
dition and not a theory — at least it was an actor in a con- 
dition of things that made it very interesting for me. To. 
meet this condition and keep that cat amused while the 
friendly power was getting a club was a special duty 
I now owed to myself. There was a smooth piece of 
prairie of a half acre in extent partially inclosed by the 
break away to the lower creek bottom. I took this piece 
of ground for the stage, for I did not want to have any 
jolts or jars to mar the performance. I took as wide a 
circle as the ground would permit, the cat following in 
a lesser circle, for I was not the least bit stingy with 
my rope, but played out all there was of it, which was 
some 30 feet. 
The cat, though a monster of its kind, was not heavy, 
being built like a saw-horse, with legs almost as large as 
its body. It was all cords, teeth and claws and had won- 
derful strength; but as the ground was smooth there was 
nothing for it to exert its strength on, so that I had no 
trouble in dragging it about. At first I thought I mjght 
choke it to death or exhaust it to some extent; but while 
I lost strength rapidly the cat seemed to gain with every 
passing moment and become more furious at each circle. 
There was not resistance enough for the rope to have 
any effect on the great cords of its neck, and it was not 
choked at all. It might have easily gained slack on me 
but for its natural rebelliousness of spirit. Now and then 
it would gain its feet, but it would invariably surge back 
in defiance of the authority of the rope, thus giving me a 
chance to throw it again. Such howling, spitting and 
cuffing never impelled me to swifter movement before or 
since. Often it would strike its footing and bound sev- 
eral feet in the air, I had handled a rod some in my- 
earlier youth and knew the value of a taut line, and played 
that cat witli the greatest care. Since then I have fished 
a great deal and can truthfully say that I never felt the 
electric thrill surge through 30 or 100 feet of line as it 
surged from that cat to me. 
Twenty centuries is a long time, and slow and tedious 
as was their march they have come and gone since Christ 
was born, and we who are living to-day have been born 
and have lived to know the blessings of that great event 
Aye, and twenty tuore shall roll away and others wil! 
be born who have longer to wait than I to know of the 
same great blessing; and thus it was, though long to 
wair, that my friend finally came with a cudgel and arbi- 
trated matters between me and the cat to my entire sat- 
isfaction; and then he lay down on the prairie and rolled, 
roared and bellowed to his heart's content. ' 
No doubt it was funnj', but serious thoughts are often 
aroused on humorous occasions, and I lay down too and 
just thought serious things and drank in the fresh morn- 
ing air, which for some time I had been too busy to 
appreciate. 
When we got to camp my companion told of my ad- 
venture with inspired tongue, and then everybody laughed 
and I was the butt of many jokes .and much chaffing. 
One man in particular, taking great delight in my weak- 
ening, as he called it, at sight of a wildcat, said he could 
take one by the neck and tie it with a pocket kerchief 
without getting a scratch. 
We laid the cat on the ground, and as we had noth'ng 
that would measure in feet and inches measured it with 
a needle gtm. It was two inches more than the gun 
from tip to tip, which would make something over 4 
feet. The tail was not more than 2 inches long, so that 
this measurement was all cat. To have stretched its feet 
and legs to the furthest would have given an extent of 
OA-er 6 feet. On each ear were a few long hairs, which 
formed a tassel. Its body was long, round and slender 
and seemed but little larger than its powerful forearms. 
When we first arrived at this place, and before we had 
built any permanent camp, as we were sitting around our 
bivouac fire at night, we were surprised at the mew of 
a cat. All around us it traveled and kept up a constant 
mewing, but only once did it come within the circle of 
firelight. It was a large domestic torn, and snow white. 
The second night he came a little closer, and the third 
night came into camp and made himself at home. He 
had been with tts several weeks when I captured the wild- 
cat. Out of curiosity to see what he v/ould do, I got 
Tom and carried him out to where the dead wildcat lay. 
I carried him in such manner that he could not see it 
t!'l I put him down within 6 inches of the dead cat's 
, tfitn-a^- f?ic;f, At .sight of it he gave one frantic yowl, and 
