r BO 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
tJAN. 19, 1901. 
made in the open, and will long remember, with satisfac- 
tion, the fact that you sacrificed something of your com- 
fort to go into the bushes after that wary old bird. 
When you are old enough to go duck shooting, and 
perhaps to take your place beside a companion in the 
ducking blind, I wish you to take with you there the 
same habits that you have, I trust, practiced in the field. 
Try always to remember that you haA'e a companion, and 
that his rights and privileges are just as great as yours. 
You would feel injured and angry if he tried to take 
shots that you thought belonged to you, and you may be 
sure that he will hold the same views concerning the 
shots that he thinks belong to him. It is far better that 
you should miss a few chances than that you should lead 
your friend to think that you were taking more than . 
belonged to you. 
In the blind the gunner can usually see at least half the 
circle of the horizon without having his view interrupted 
by trees, reeds or any natural objects. The birds come 
up in plain sight, deliberately, and, as a rule, there can 
be no question as to who is entitled to the first shot, if it 
is a single bird, nor as to which birds should be shot at 
by each gun if there is a flock. If you sit to the right as 
you face the decoys, and the birds come from the right, the 
first bird' will obviouslj^ be yours. But if they cdntiiltie 
to come from the right, singly, you will do well to-'fli^fce 
an arrangeme-nt with your comrade by which you 'two 
shall take alternate shots. If a pair of birds conie up 
from the right, the first one belongs to your companion, 
and you should kill the second. If three come, your com- 
panion should take the first, you should take the second 
and the third belongs to whichever one can kill it. Of 
four birds coming up, the two leading ones should be 
killed by your companion and the two last ones by 
you. If birds come in directly from, the front in bunches, 
it is enough to saj' that your companion should shoot at 
those on his side and you at those on your side. ' 
BetM'een two good "fellows, each of whom has a regard 
for the other and a respect for fair play, there is not likely 
to occur any opportunity in the blind for dissatisfaction, 
much less for dispute. Rarely, of course, a man or boy 
may forget himself, or a pair of birds may steal Up, and 
if he does not see them until they are going away he 
may forget and shoot across his companion's face' but 
if he is guilty of a slip of this kind he will Certainly, if 
he is the right kind of a fellow, apologize for it and will 
remember his mistake and not soon repeat it 
One thing I want to have you remember about the duck-' 
ing blind — ^your quarters there are limited, often your 
footing is uncertain. Perhaps j^ou are heavily clad. Wear- 
ing rubber boots and a long ulster that comes down to 
your heels; very likely each of you has two guns. All 
these things expose you more or less to accident. Son\e- 
tirnes a man twisting about suddenly to shoot at a swift 
flying bird puts his foot in a muskrat hole and falls down, 
or at least comes very near it. You must remember, there- 
fore, what, of course, has already been dinned into your 
ears so many times, to be especially careful about the 
way in which you hold your gun. Keep the muzzle well 
up in the air, or else pointed out over the water. VePy 
likely behind you may sit your boatman, and somewhere 
near the edge of the blind your retriever, and the acci- 
dental discharge of a gun under these circumstances, even 
though it may do no harm, startles everybody and makes 
each man more or less uncomfortable all through the day. 
I hope that such an accident will not occur to you, but 
it is not very many years ago since a friend, who was 
just about to put down his gun, discharged it by accident 
and frightened everybody in the neighborhood. For- 
tunately, the muzzle of the gun was pointed over the 
water so that the charge, after blowing a hole through 
the front of the blind, passed out over the decoys quite 
harmlessly. My companion, who Avas an old gunner, was 
very much mortified over what he had done, and the boat- 
men who were with its were obviously nervous and unea,sy 
all the rest of the day. 
There are many other little points a.bout your con- 
duct toward your companion in the field, concerning which 
your own geod feeling can tell you as much as I could, if 
I were to write a column about them. You should carry 
about with you when shooting the same good manners 
that you employ if you were in a situation where you 
felt called upon to be on your best behavior. You are 
anxious to become a good sportsman, and the test of good 
sportsmanship is_ consideration for others. You will not 
shoot at a bird in close season, because of your respect 
of the law, and because the act is one you would condemn 
m another person. You will not trespass on posted land, 
because if you owned land and for any reason were trying 
to preserve the shooting on it, you would not like to have 
other people trespass there. You are polite and courteous 
in your intercourse with your companions because you 
wish and expect them to be courteous and polite to you, 
and you are willing sometimes to restrain your own 
eagerness to kill a bird because y®u think it may give 
another more pleasure to have the shot than it would you. 
Of course, all men and boys get excited sometimes and 
do thmgs that are thoughtless and even selfish. You are 
not expected to be perfect any more than other people are, 
but it is well for you always while you are in the field to 
think about your companion and his feelings, and try to 
some extent to put yourself in his place. You will find 
that your good manners and your forgetfulness of self 
will react on him, and will breed in him the same thought- 
fulness and consideration for you that you are mani- 
festing toward him, and when two boys or two men who 
act on this principle go out together they are very sure 
to have a good time, whether they get many birds or not. 
Sometimes you may notice that your companion, if he 
has not had good training, is careless about his gun; he 
may carry it in a fashion which you will think dangerous 
to yourself or the dog, or to himself, and as I have already 
suggested, you may find it necessary to caution him about 
this and to ask him to mend his ways. If, however, such 
necessity should arise, you niu.st use great tact and judg- 
ment in speaking to him about it. Very likely lie may 
imagine that he knows just as much about shooting as you 
do, and may resent any criticism on your part. It will 
be_ well for you, therefore, when you speak to him about 
this to tell him frankly that you are afraid to have the 
gun pointecj at you or at the dog, and to give him to 
understand that you will be more comfortable if he keeps 
t;fifi mm^e of |ii§ gun poip,ted up m. the sir. Yqh in^f |} 
you please, quote to him the example of older men known 
to both of you, and may especially instance what your in- 
structor has said to you on this subject. But all this you 
must do in a pleasant manner, not as if you were criticizing 
or finding fault with him, but rather in the way of dis- 
cussing general principles. He, of course, has no desire 
to make you feel uncomfortable, and while he may pos- 
sibly laugh at your fears, do not let this trouble you, if 
only you can carry your point and induce him to hold his 
gun as it ought to be held. After you and he have grown 
a good deal older, you will find that the men who have 
had most experience with guns are those who are the 
most afraid of them, and who have the least patience with 
persons who are careless in the way in which they handle 
them. 
In your shooting you may occasionally shoot with men 
who are ignorant of the rules that I have just explained 
to you. Often, these men will commit what you and I 
would consider gross breaches of good manners in the 
field, but it frequently happens that they do thesq things 
merely because they are ignorant and have never been 
taught. Such people, if spoken to in the right way, will 
very often accept suggestions good naturedly, and even 
gratefully. They do not intend t© be selfish or boorish, but 
thev know no better. A few words of plain, pleasant 
speaking, clearly setting forth what some of the best 
known rules of field etiquette are, will often cause them to 
cease to offend, but if they do not stop after such a warn- 
ing, or a second reminder, you should leave them and go 
off to shoot by yourself. W. G. De Groot, 
LCHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Big Indiana Preserve. 
Jail, g.— Reference has already been made to a rtufilber 
of Chicago game preserve ideas of a minor soft, a.tld I 
httve mentioned the entferprise of cifeftaih of oUr more 
prominent sportsmen here who have for some time been 
figuring on securing a big tract of land on the Kanlcakec 
bottoms, thus forming, although at a late date in the 
history of that country, another one of those important 
shooting clubs Avhich have taken over large bodies of the 
best shooting country along the historie Katlkakee. 1 
have not felt at liberty befote this time to give details 
regarding this, last matter, bllt it is How shfficiently fot- 
ward to be saffe, heilce I take this opportunity of Waking 
eKckisive mention of the news in this coluliitl. 
The genJemeh concerned in this matter are H0II. 
Hempstfead W'ashblirne, esc-Mayof bf ChicagQ ; Mr. j. V. 
Clarke, president of the HibeVniah Bank; Mf, HafrV 
Clarke, of the same institution ; Charles S. Denriis. 
manufacturers' sigent; Mr. W. L. Wells, head of the art 
department of Chicago Tribune; Mr. E'cldie l*ope, Mf. W, 
P. ' Haskell, Mi-. Gratem li. Harris, president of the 
School Board; Mr. C. E: Lewis, of the Washburne-Lewis 
Investment Company; Mr. R. B. Organ, of the County 
Board of Commissioners, and a number of friends of thest' 
gentlemen, probably to the number of twenty-five or 
thirty in all, the names of the additional members heing 
not yet determined. The tract in question is Ihe largist 
continuous body of land available for such pm'poses any- 
where within reach of Chicago. Evety shooter who knows 
anything about the Kankakee will know this land, which 
is known as the John Brown tract. It extends from near 
Shelby, Ind,, on the Monon Railroad, itcirth and north- 
east for about six miles along the Kankakee River, The 
western line of this tract cuts the fend of Fullei"s Islahd, 
which is in the center of the best open siiipe Couiitry 
left on the Kankakee Rlvef . , It includes the niottes 
known as Skunk Island, I^idge island, and A dozen smaller 
and unnamed islands. The northern lifle of the tract runs 
clear to the edge of the hills, which bound the m'a'rsh 
on the north a mile or so from Fuller's Island. On this 
tract there is nearly two miles of wild rice, and out into 
the bottoms from the timber there are fine smartweed, 
slough and grass flats. 
The whole tract, if taken over, will deprive the shooting 
public of Chicago of one of its most popular duck and 
snipe grounds. The best snipe and plover shooting open 
to the man who does not belong to a club is in this same 
Fuller Island region. The grass flats on the John Brown 
tract are known as famous pintail grounds in the spring. 
There is no better mallard shooting anywhere on the 
Kankakee to-day than there is in the timbered region 
which is included in the John Brown tract. This is the old 
shooting ground of the Diana Club, which was fully de- 
scribed in these columns some years ago. The tract is 
opposite the marsh of the old De Golyer Club, whose 
grounds were bought out by Nelson Morris as a cattle 
range. 
Another Good Decision. 
There is accumulating in the West a long list of strong 
decisions supporting the proposition that the State has 
under its police powers a right to control at all times the 
possession of game within its borders. The Supreme 
Court, of Indiana, in the case of William H. Smith against 
the State, has handed down a strong opinion which is in 
line with the above doctrine. Smith had some quail in 
possession during close season. He claimed that he had 
bought them legally in the open season and had them in 
his ice box since. He was found guilty in the lower 
court and appealed. Judge liadley confirmed the deci- 
sion of the lower court and pointed out that the State 
had the right under its poHce powers to protect its game. 
He said that the State could impose such condiions as the 
Legislature saw fit as to the time and manner of taking 
game and of keeping the same. 
This same principle of law-^and it is one which is 
sufficiently well established in the West — could, under the 
law of Illinois, break open and empty every one of these 
big Chicago warehouses which will be full of illegal game 
after the closing of the season. We Jiave never had any 
rnovement in this city of sufficient strength to prac- 
ticafly uphold this doctrine of the police power of the 
State. There would seem to be no difficulty, except in 
making the original seizure. 
Seizures Under the Lacey taw. 
The Lacev; act continues to do good work in this city, 
Pllj-ing the. ^^ek Warden LoY^^ay. with his depvtie?. 
Clark and Edenborough, have made some heavy seiziures 
of game under the provisions of the Lacey act, and their 
hauls of two or three days have amounted to over 4,000 
pounds of game. Everybody knows how good the qttail 
shooting is down in the Indian Nations, or how good it 
used to be. Its future may be guessed from the fact 
that this week there were over 150 dozen quail seized in one 
lot which came from the Indian Territory addressed to 
Boston. The transfer here in Chicago was fatal to the 
interests of the shipper. He will lose his game, and it is 
much to be hoped that he will eventually los.e his calling. 
Illinois Sooners. 
Mr. £. K. Stedman, writing from Mt. Carroll, 111., re- 
ports a little poetic justice which overtook a couple of the 
citizens of that community, as follows: 
"Last week George N. Machen and Joseph Boothby 
were fined $25 and costs each for killing ducks out of 
season. They committed the act about six hours before 
the law was out — went camping the day before so as to 
be on the ground on the opening day. They could not 
withstand the temptation, and opened up on the previous 
evening, with the result aforesaid. The worst feature 
of the affair is due to the fact that both men are among 
the county's best citizens and have always been considered 
sportsmen of the right sort; while the informers were 
fellows below the average moral status, and suspicioned 
game violators from the time they were born." 
Late Velvet. 
Mr. John W. Carpenter, of Whitman, Neb., writes re- 
garding some of his own experiences with deer which 
carried the velvet on the horns until the beginning of win- 
ter time, his letter reading as follows : 
"I was very much interested in a letter in a late issue 
of Forest ai^d StiiEAM from Wm. Wells, of Wells, Wyo., 
telling about a buck he shot on Nov. 20 that had not shed 
or rulibed the velvet off his horns. My two brothers and 
myself were out on a deer hunt Dec. 24, 1885, on the south 
side of Dismal River, in Nebraska, and we found where 
three deer had crossed the road, and tracked them about 
five miles. We found them in a plum thicket and shot 
one apiece. The one I shot had a very large set of 
horns, and there was not a particle of the velvet rubbed 
off. ' The deer had a large wart on his side, hanging by a 
cord or string, and the string was about 2 inches long. 
The deer was as fat a deer as I ever shot or saw at that 
time of the vear. The deer were all black-tailed bucks, 
The deer I shot was the first atid last one I ever heard of 
of saw with the velvet on that time of the year until I saw 
Mr. Wells' letter in Fouest and Stream. 
"1 was telling some hunters from the East about the 
deer liot shedding the velvet, and they told me it was a 
fish story. T am glad Mr. Wells wrote about his deer. I 
am going to send tne letter to those sportsmen and let thejxi 
see I am not the only hunter that ever killed a buck with = 
the velvet on his horns in the winter time." 
A Good Ending for the Year. 
Mr. S. B. Dow. of KnoxvilIe,''Tenn., must certainly be 
one of the sOft of men who can fall into the water and 
come up with diamonds hangiirg to him. He could hardly 
tell a better story made to order than his own experience 
of a llicky dottble, which he gives as below: 
'T want to tell you of a good double I made — the last 
two shots I fired itl 1900. It was Friday after Christmas^ 
otit hetii' the Chidnnat! Southern Railway, at a place 
called Roehy Ctefek: 
"A party of four of lis had hiWkd fill the day.befdr^ 
and ujj to iioori of Friday Withodt a shot.- had jumped 
sevei-ai deer arid seeh a. sin.an gang of Wjid tilrksyS. mi. 
no ineat to take hohie. . Whilfe featih| ,oui- llineh on Ff iday 
I said, 'Boys, I ikni MoiHi back to Kiio34vilie "sktlnhed-'' 
It has never happened to me hfeforfe, aiid I h^tfc it likg 
sixty, but it is no use — luck is against us.' One silid, 'Let's 
try it another day.' I told them they could, but 1 had 
promised my wife that I would be back home Friday 
night, and in an hour I was going to the station (two 
and a half miles distant') and board that 4 o'clock train for 
KnoJtville. We agreed to hunt out an hour down to a 
place where 1 was to leave them for the railroad. 
'T was going along a branch that led down to a swamp 
not far away, and between it and myself was a stretch of 
sage grass and briers, and while passing through this up 
jutnped a deer and went bounding down the hill. It was a 
fairly good angling shot. 1 fired the left barrel, and he 
fell with a charge of buckshot through his heart. The 
right was loaded with No. 4 chilled. As I went to the 
deer at the edge of the swamp, it proved to be a j^oung 
buck, and while standing over him I saw a wild turkey 
flying over the trees. My old Parker was equal to the 
occasion, and a deader turkey never hit the ground. It 
was a gobbler, and exactly 4 feet from point of tail to end 
of bill, and weighed 15 pounds. I caught the train and got 
home that night with venison and turkey. The others 
remained there over Saturday, btit came home empty 
handed." 
Politics in the Park. 
The future of the Minnesota National Park is going ty 
be one largely of politics. Luckily, the resolution for the 
joint commission has passed. the Senate. There will soon 
be appointed for the Senate a successor for Cushman K. 
Davis, of Minnesota. At one titne the name of Thoma'i 
Shevlin was up for this position. Mr. Shevlin is well 
known as the hero of the split train in the Congressional 
trip over a year ago to the Minnesota reservations. He 
pretended to be a friend of the park at that time, but he 
was not, is not now and never wiU be any such friend, antf 
it is a good thing that his protestations are distinctly un- 
derstood for what they are worth. Mr. Shevlin will' 
hardly attain the office of Senator of the United States.,, 
which is much more apt to go to his friend, Thomas 
Lowry, of Minneapolis. The election of the latter would' 
practically be the same as that of .Mr. Shevlin, so far as 
the interests of the park are concerned. He would prob- 
ably do all he could to prevent a park of any considerable 
size ever being established. Mr. Evans is still another 
candidate for this honor, though his attitude in regard to 
the park is not known. The real center of affairs, how- 
ever, will not rest with the Senate, but with the Hguse, and 
as has been already pointed out, Judge Page Morris, 
Il(ifi^e5P^|5itivp of the $ixth pistrict of Minnesota, 18 th? 
