Ai>ktL 14. ts«».ll 
ruthlessly as ever were the wild pigeons, but as their 
numbers are so much less, fewer can be killed at one 
lime, ■ and they still exist, though growing constantly 
scarcer.] 
Hawk and Carrier Pigeon. 
West Point, N. Y., April 6.— On March 3 I saw a 
duck hawk strike and kill a pigeon, and scaring oft the 
hawk I rescued the body of its victim. It was a carrier 
with an aluminum band on its left ankle marked T — 54758, 
the. letter T lying on its side. To whom does this pigeon 
belong? Wirt Robinson, 
attie and 0un* 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
A Vefy OIa-Time». 
Chicago, 111. — From time to time we get word of one 
jf the old-time plains hunters of a past generation. Some- 
. lines these men prove fakes and frauds, and most often 
.heir experiences are not of consequence. It is therefore 
I discovery of singular interest to get word this week 
jf a man who was not only an old-timer of the West, but 
whose very long life entitles hirn to respect if for no other 
"eason. 
The Morning Record, of Traverse City, Mich., bearing 
iaie of March 2, recoimts the birthday celebration, at 
t raverse City, of the one hundredth birthday of Dan 
vV hippie, who for ten years past has been a citizen of that 
;ountry. The event was one of considerable consequence, 
Old Mr. Whipple was greeted by many friends. 
It is said of Dan Whipple that the story of his life, if 
A ritten, would read like a romance, instead of the actual 
■xperiences of an ordinary mortal. He was born March i, 
800, a century ago, at Franklinville, Cattaraugus county, 
\'. Y., a farmer boy. At twenty-two he started alone 
or the great West, which seemed to call him. He saw 
Chicago when it was but a group of hovels. He traveled 
nost of the w^ay on foot to the Missouri River, where he 
nade a partnership with George Traskei", and together 
hey trapped all over the Indian country of the upper 
i\'est beyond the river. 
In 1843 Whipple joined the Fremont expedition across 
he Salt Lake country and over the mountains, a journey 
)f fourteen months, all full of hardships. It is not stated' 
vhich one this was of the Fremont expeditions; but it 
s stated that about eight years before the Civil War 
A'hipple became the friend of Kit Carson, and that they 
lunted together all through the Rockies, fighting Indians 
md having the customary experiences of that land and 
ime. They crossed the Rockies together, and Whipple is 
laid to be mentioned in earlier publications as figurmg 
n many of Carson's exploits. Whipple was in the wildest 
vVest for forty years, and during that time crossed the 
^iockies no less than six different times. His story might 
lave been that of the dime novel Indian killer, for his 
;weetheart Avas murdered by Indians while he was yet a 
luung man, and from that time on he was upon a per- 
)etual warpath. Of these things Whipple does not speak 
'ery freely, and indeed he seems to have been very reti- 
■ent about his whole life, never in the least vaunting 
limself. One must confess never to have noted his name 
n the records of the early plainsmen and explorers, or at 
east not to have retained recollection of the fact; yet his 
itory outruns that of the oldest of our old-time Western 
non. How he has been overlooked so long is something 
jf a pu/czie, bttt it is to be hoped that he may yet live many 
,'ears. 
Whipple comes of a centenarian family. He declares 
.hat his father was 113 years of age, and adds the most 
itartling statement that his grandfather lived to 133 years, 
^is father served in the war of 1812. Dan Whipple him- 
■elf served for four years in the Northern Army in the 
3ivil War, enlisting with the First Iowa Volunteers. He 
,va.s, at Pittsburg Landing. Pea Ridge and other important 
nigagemenls. • He was in California in the gold days, but 
jreferred hunting to mining. After the war he came to 
Vlichigau. Three years ago. when ninety-seven years of 
ige, he was on a bear hunt in Michigan Upper Peninsula. 
)u,--t before his birthday he walked seventeen miles in 
jne day, in deepish snow, and he walked five miles on his 
jne hundredth birthday. He is said to be still a hale 
)ld man, though failing perceptibly in the last ten years, 
tlis photograph was taken at the occasion of his cen- 
ennial day. He lives at the house of Alex Mason, near 
Traverse City, Mich. 
hiere is surely an old-timer, and his story is worthy of 
iometliing better than the exploitation of the Sunday 
jress. Tlie newspaper which tells his story, as above is a 
nodest one, and makes its statements in good faith, so 
;hat one mav not doubt the essential accuracy of its. story 
3f Dan Whipple's life. Strangest of all is the fact that 
Whipple himself seems not to ha\'e attracted attention 
LS an old Western man before to-day. He sliould out- 
^uxton Ruxton, be comrade to llie shade of Bill Williams 
md friend of the living Bill Hamihon. These old men 
ire a precious legacy of the past, hut they seem doomed 
10 an oblivion never earned by the character of their 
leeds. 
Distinguished Offeorets. 
Fish Commissioners Kercheval and Vogelsang recently 
spoiled a nice dinner out in San Francisco. The dinner 
was to have been given bj- Assistant District Attorney W. 
H. Alford to District Attorney Byington, Frank Gould, 
Gavin McNab and other politicians. It was announced 
as a game dinner, though the game season was closed. 
The two officers on search found 2,160 dressed quail, 240 
ducks, many grouse, etc., all in possession of two poultr3'' 
firms. The" game was boxed and marked "blackbirds." 
It was given to charitable institutions. The district 
attorneys seem to have been unskilled in their business. 
An Iridescent Dream. 
Last week there appeared in these columns- a; story re- 
garding the Minnesota National Park prospects, in which 
some mention was made of the work done by the United 
States Government in the "presen-ation of the head- 
waters" of the Mississippi River. It was remarked there, 
and wFth what is no doubt truth, that the head of water 
in the river was not much affected, except as the lumber- 
men desired. In this connection it is interesting to note 
comment of a very different nature which was made on 
this same work some years ago, the- instance in csoecial 
point being a two-page article in Harper's Weekly of Jan. 
y, 1897. The writer of that article was an enthusiast over 
this preserA'ation business, and he undoubtedly saw iri 
these big Government dams a work which to his mind 
would be of great usefulness all along the river. It is an 
iridescent but emp:y dream, this old-time view of these 
reservoirs up in the pine woods, as witness a f^'w qou- 
lations from the te.xt of the story: 
"At any time from tlie early spring months until the 
latfe autumn — until the frost king has begun his sway, in 
fact — the Mississippi River for nearly 400 miles of its 
course can be controlled, re.gulated, manipulated ! From 
his oflice in St. Paul Major Jones, directing the opera- 
tion of lite system, can send out orders which will, at a 
given hour, bring to any part of the river in all this upper 
portion a given amount of increased flow, in any depth 
from 14 inch to 2 feet 6 inches. * * * It is a strange 
power which this man wields — the controlling of hundreds 
of miles in ttie course of one of the mightiest rivers of the 
globe, holding it in check, steadily supporting it in time 
of sore need, raising it ivqm its rocky bed, where it lies 
a stricken giant, prone and weak, undone by the tremen- 
dous attacks of the deadly, devastating drought * * « 
This vast reservoir system stands unique among tht 
engineering enterprises of tlie world. It accentuates anew 
the mental equipment of the men of the nineteenth cen- 
tury. It has been a magnificent help to the noblest 
stream of water on the globe, giving it for all time to 
come the splendid aid of tlie strong arm of man." 
Now, isn't that all very nice writing — nice to read and 
to think about? And is it not too bad that the old 
steamboat men and the river guides and all that half am- 
phibious element which ought to know about these things 
cannot agree with the writer of those lovely sentences? 
They think the old Mississippi couid always take care of 
itself pretty well without the "strong arm of man," and 
that she did not formerly languish very much on her 
rocky bed. 
There are some few partial truths in the above en- 
thusiastic article, prominent among these the statement 
that the reservoir system has been a "magnificent help." 
It has indeed been a magnificent help- — to the lumber- 
men! When they are through with it it is likely the river 
■ will be left to lan.sjnish again the wa}"- it used to do. And. 
by the way, since the big Winnebigoshish dam was 
blown out last year we haven't heard that the Gult of 
Mexico has gone dry, or anything stoj)ped the Minneap- 
olis mills, have we? And yet the frost, king has held his 
sw<\v there for at least one solstice. He will be holding 
it in a yet warmer region before those dams are worth 
one-tenth of what they cost to anybody but the lumber- 
men who are stealing the Indian pine. Take one-tenth 
of what they cost, .give the Indians one-tenth of what is 
theirs, and you will be doing some justice to the Indians 
and some good to the people. As to the dams, they are 
nice things. We all used to like to build dams, when we 
were boys. But blow them all out, and methinks the 
Father of Waters would still be found doing business at 
the old stand. 
The Wishinittne Club. 
The Wishininne Club meets daily at a certain Randolph 
street place, die assembly hour being i P. M. sharp. 
There are sume bankers, some merchants, an artist or 
so, the librarian of the biggest library in the city, some 
men prominent in politics, the president of the Board 
of Education of Chicago, etc., etc., so that it may be 
.seen that wealth, beauty and culture are there in abso- 
lute profusion. Yet no one of the members is proud 
either of his wealth, his beauty or his culture. Every one 
who comes there is a sportsman and is proudest ot all 
of his doings by lake or river, in the fields or forests. 
Each man is a good shot and a good angler, or thinks he 
is, though openly scoffed at by his fellows. They are 
talking of establishing a . little game preserve and club 
oi their own one of these days, not a thousand miles away 
ironi Chicago, though that is not yet to be called news. 
After luncheon is over at llie Wishininne Club there is 
daily a brief symposium on things pertaining to sport, and 
occasionalli^ one hears a story a bit out of the ordinary, 
true or not so true. Yesterday conversation began upon 
angling matters, and some one mentioned the fact of a 
muscailun.ge being caught up at Fox Lake, with a spoon 
hook fast in its mouth. "The odd part of that," said Mr. 
W^ells, "is the fact that this was the same spoon hook lost 
by Buft' Clark there more than a year ago." 
"Pshaw, that's nothing," said Mr. Pope; "that's hap- 
pened lots of times. I've heard of such occurrences a 
hundred times myself." 
"Yes," said Mr. Wells, reflectively, know it; so have 
I. The only strange thing about "this is that Mr. Clark 
Idst that spoon two years before, and it was up in Rice 
Lake, Minn., more than 600 miles away." 
No one said anything at this. It was rather a deli- 
rate thing to conmient upon. "Moreover," continued 
'.he story teller, "the spoon hook had Mr. Clark's raono- 
.gram on the back, so there could be no doubt as to the 
identity of the spoon — none whatever." 
"Oh, certainly not — not in the least," said everybody 
hastily, lest Mr. Wells should think his veracity ques- 
tioned. 
Thus encouraged, the first speaker went on: "Singular 
thing," he .said, "what odd circumstances sometimes take 
place out hunting. Now. .about twenty years ago. down 
in this Calumet country, where the Kleinman boys used 
to shoot, one day Henry and Abe Kleinman were out 
.shooting ducks, or, rather, at this time Henry was shoot- 
ing and -Vbe was two miles away, in a wagon, driving 
across the bottoms. A duck came across where Henry 
was and he fired at it and apparently did not touch it, 
which was the first time such a thing ever happened in the 
life of Henry Kleinman. Henry sat down and began to 
cr3'. because he thought he was going to be sick, or some- 
thing. Now, Abe turned around and saw this duck come 
on not hit, and was thinking what a sad thing it was for 
one of the family to miss a duek. The bird came right on 
OA-er him as he sat in the wagon, but he had no gun and 
could not shoot. He pulled up his whip and pointed at 
the duck. It gave a comvulgi^-c. struggle and fell flat to 
8B 
the ground! I might say it fell in the Avagon, but it didn't, 
only near the Avagon, and Abe went out and got it, thus 
saving the honor of the family. Henry had hit it in the 
wing bone Avith one shot. When it saw another Klein- 
man pointing at it it tried to rise swiftly, and the extra 
effort broke the shattered Aving bone. That is really a 
true story." 
"Oh, oi course, of course," said everybody. 
"That reminds me of something of the same sort that 
happened up at Fox Lake," said Mr. Pope. "Mr. Wells 
is right in saying this is true, for he was the hero of my 
story, whi':h is quite similar. We were standing in our 
blind one spring day and bliiebills came across and he 
fired at them. They Avent On a half mile, not hit so far 
as Ave could see, and then one of them quietlv lit out in 
the lake. Old man Stanley was out with ex-Mayor Hemp 
Washburne, of Chica.go, and Hemp, he says, 'Let's go 
over that Avay, and I think I can hit 'em if they don't 
fly. So they went over, and he kept ready to shoot till 
they got Avithin 10 feet of the duck, and then Stanley told 
him not to shoot, for the duck was dead. And so it was. 
Now, Avho ought to have had that duck?" 
"The one that saAv it first," was the opinion of the legal 
department. 
"But that isn't the only time I ever heard of such a 
thing," continued Mr. Pope. "My friend Brewtser was 
out in Iowa shooting last September, and he was across 
a marsh a mile away when he saAV a man shoot at a mal- 
lard. As in Mr. Kleinman's case, it flew on .as though 
not hit, and came so close to BrcAvster that he raised his 
gun to shoot at it. Just as he did so it let go and came 
dov/n stone dead before he had time to pull trigger." 
"That story seems really to be a very common one," 
said Mr. Graham Flarris. judicially. 
"I'll never forget," said Mr. Clark, the bank president, 
"about a little day I once had hunting with this same 
.gentleman, Mr. Washburne. Dick Turtle came to one 
of us and said he knew Avhere Ave could get a good bird 
dog, and we asked where, and he said, 'Out in the dog 
pound.' Sure enough we did find a pretty fair looking 
bird dog there, and Ave bailed him out for $10. That next 
morning we started .out before daj^break to trv for some 
shooting, out southwest of tOAvn. and we had the dog 
tied behind the buggy. Three different times we had 
farmers call out to us. and point at something or other 
hehind_ us, but A\^e thought it Avas nothing important. 
'They just ain't used to seeing me dressed up this Avay,' 
said Hemp, Avho was Mayor then. Well, we drove out 
about six miles and stopped to look around. We found 
the pace had been a bit too strong for our new dog. He 
was stone dead, and had the hair Avorc off him where we 
had been skating him along the right of Avay of the road." 
"Well, of all fool things!" said Mr. Dennis, the smoker 
on his left. 
"And that ain't all," said Mr. Clark. "That night, when 
we came back to the horse and buggy, what do you think 
Ave found? We had left our horse hitched up all right, 
lie_a(l pointed away from the buggy. On this both Mr. 
Washburne and myself agree perfectly. Well, when we 
c;imc back, that horse was standing, still hitched up, and 
without a strap broken or stwisted, but Avith his head 
pointing to the dashboard! Noav, how do you account for 
that?" 
It Avas the unanimous opinion of the legal department 
that the horse must have turned a somersault, and indeed 
this would appear to be the most logical theory. But 
what made him throAV the somersault? That is still a 
mystery. 
"I heard a singular thing the other day," resumed Mr. 
Wells, "told by Charlie Beck, of Evanston. He was out 
goose hunting, doAvn along the Kankakee River, some 
time ago, and was shooting at the geese with buckshot for 
his load. He shot one goose hard, and it flew off, with 
no sign of immediate stopping. Two days later the 
.Ejoose Avas found in a tree top, tAvo miles beloAv. "The 
heavy shot had cut open its body, and as it flew across 
this tree it actually Avas entangled by its protruding viscera 
and so held fast." . 
"A friend of mine shot a man once," said another, 
"and this reminds of a funny thing that once happened 
to Jack Parker, the well-known trapshooter, over at De- 
triot. Jack Avas sitting on a fence about 30 j'ards ahead 
of his companion, when they were out snipe hunting, and 
the other felloAv shot Jack good and plenty as he sat on 
the fence, knocking him off on the other side and making 
him aAvfully mad. The careless shooter Avas scared more 
than Jack was, and he seemed to get a bad case of rattles. 
Hc came running up to Jack Avith tears in his eyes, and 
holding out a big red apple he had found in his pocket, 
"Oh, Jack, Jack, I didn't mean to; 1 didn't mean to! 
Here, take this," he sobbed. He Avanted to square himself 
the best he could, and as it happened this apple did it, 
tor Jack burst out laughing and let it go at that, though 
he never tires of telli/ig hoAv the felloAv looked, coming 
up \A-ith a red apple as a peace offering for a skin full 
of shot." 
"Well," said another one, "T expect some of the fun- 
niest things that ever did happen have happened to 
shooters and fishers. Noav. for instance, take the case of 
the joke the SaginaAV gang played on their friend Charlie 
Davis, over there. They Averc all out on k trottt fishing 
trip, and they had to leave the Avagon and walk a little 
Ava.y to the stream. Mr. Davis had along a bottle of gin 
Avhich he prized very much for medicinal purposes, as it 
had been recommended by his physician as a tonic after 
a case of the grip.- This bottle he placed in a spring of 
cold water near where the wagon Avas left, and went away 
forgetting it. Not so careless was another member of the 
partA% who went over to the bottle and poured out the 
gin, refilling the bottle with water. . He said it Avas a 
shame for a man to drink gin, anyhoAV. That night when 
they all got ready to start home, Mr. Davis bethought him 
of his bottle of gin. and also thought it Avas time for a 
bit of tonic. He Avent over in the dusk of evening to the 
place Avhere he had left his medicine, and picking up the 
bottle took a goo.d pull at it. A look of horror over- 
spread his face as he turned tOAvard his friends. 'My God! 
boys," said he, "I'm ruined! I've got diphtheria-! I've 
lost my taste!' He has never vet heard the last of that 
story." _ 
At this point the club adjourned for the day. 
Vild Turkeys in Oklahoma. 
I was talking today with Fred Taylor, one of tht •U- 
