3^0 
•FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Npv, 2, 1901. 
snfpes, plover; grouse, $2.50; grass, $2; yellow legs, $2; 
rabbits, $1.25 per dozen. Game is shipped in egg cases 
with a layer or two of eggs on top so as to avoid con- 
fiscation. C. F. BUMANN & Co." 
E. Hough. 
Haktfobs Bmtmna, Chicago, IIL 
Holding the Snipe Bag. 
Here are two stories of the snipe bag. The first one 
is from a Chattanooga. Tenn.. paper; the second is told 
by a correspondent of the Cliicago Inter-Ocean : 
I* 
The young Southerners ofTered to' make him one of 
the party, and explained the method of trapping the 
unsuspecting birds. Two stout coflFee bags were obtained. 
They were half-filled with pine kindling wood, and early 
in the evcnitig the party — five in number — trudged a mile 
or two away and turned into a small, open, half-timbered 
^Aood. Young Bascom was told that, not being used to 
driving the birds, he might hold one of the bags. A 
good natiired New Yorker was impressed into the service 
to hold the other: 
A roaring fire was built for Bascom. and the boys went 
nway to drive in the game. He watched the bag dili- 
gently and kept p'ling the wood on the fire to attract the 
birds into ilie snare. The bird^; were diffident or sleepy, 
for tliry wore slew to arrive. Bascom burned up all the 
woi'd within reach, but not a snipe had got up in its night 
clothes, slipped on a pair of pantaloons and some one 
else's shoes, and run to the fire. The last ember grew pale 
lR-f'ii e Bascom made up his mind that the hunt was a fail- 
ure, lie searched the wood for his companions, but they 
were at home waltzing in turn with the star lady boarder. 
Not finding them, he started home across plowed fields, 
thick undergrowth and knobby pastures. He went south ; 
Hot Springs was north. He finally sought shelter at a 
farmhouse, but a dog threatened to make a meal of him 
and he ran away as fast as he could. Four miles away 
he fonnd a farmer, who took him in and gave him a bed. 
The joke and the early day dawned on him at about the 
same time. Bascom had been frightened nearly to death. 
He declared that he heard the wild, despairing, human cry 
of a paniher shrieking for b-l-o-o-d. and the dismal howl 
of the white- fanged wolf. He ran until his chest pro- 
tector melted in the heat of his emotions. 
He caused the arrest of the entire party and threatens 
to sue for damages. The fright and exposure probably 
w ill affect his present health, as he was under a doctor's 
care. 
The trial of the snipe hunters was before Police Judge 
Smith, misdemeanor being the charge. Judge Smith is 
an Ozark Mountain gazelle in build. His legs are long 
and slender, his arms slender and long. His thin face, 
taptTfd to a point at the chin has nothing more to .spare 
in fatty tissues. His cheeks are sunken, and a pair of 
blue eyes are set under heavy brows like hall lamps be- 
hind storm doors. A heap of iron-gray hair lies idly 
on hi- forehead and a long, thin lK;ard hangs from his .jaws 
and chin. Judge Smith's entire make-up is lean and bony 
— from hair to fingers — from face to feet 
City Attorney Townsend thundered his assertion that 
the supposed joke was an outrage, in the tones of an Ozark 
Mountain storm. He drew a sketch in black colors, show- 
ing how Bascom had been chased by dogs and wolves ; 
how the lad had climbed trees to escape the dogs, and 
fences and hills to get out of the forest. The judge 
listened pat'ently to this recital and then bit a hunk off a 
piece of Arkansas twist and told the defense to saunter in. 
Another Lawyer Townsend ai-ose and denied that a 
joke had been intended. 
"Your honor," he said, "knows that this is one way of 
hunting snipes. This young man did not attend to his 
business. If he'd held the bag long enough he'd caught 
the .snipes." 
"I'm not he'ur to give you fellers pointers 'bout ketchin' 
sn'pes." interrupted the judge, with a serious wrinkle in 
his forehead and a long-range rifle shot at a sawdust 
bo.K, "Git deown ter bizness." 
The attorney for the defense proposed to offer expert 
e\'idence showing that snipes could be bagged, but the 
witnesses called denied that they had ever hunted game 
with coffee sacks. 
Young Bascom told his story in a frank, innocent, can- 
did manner that set the crowd chuckling, and at one time 
the venerable justice swept his long, pipestem fingers 
across h's iron-gray moustache to conceal the smile that 
trembled on his thin lips. The victim mistook the fre- 
quent snickers in the crowded room for amusement at his 
graphic description and the hard rubs he gave the de- 
fendants. He said they came from small towns, were 
not used to city ways, and thought such a joke smart. He 
thought it was an outrage. 
Judge Smith jabbed his sharp elbows into the desk, 
dropped his face into his hands, and listened with evi- 
dent -amazement. Bascom told how he held the bag and 
watched for the game until the wood for the fire was all 
gone. 
"Young feller, did you r'aly think them snipes wuz 
a-goin* inter that thar bag?" asked the judge, slowly and 
deliberately. 
"Certainly I did. I believed what they told rae," re- 
sponded the witness. 
The judge let a twinkle slip out of his eyes, but they 
speedily fell back into the glassy stare of judicial reflec- 
tion. He sternly rapped the outburst into silence and the 
trial went on. 
An adjournment was finally taken until last Moaday, 
when the case was disinissed. 
n. 
"SiTAKiNG of duels," said the big man of the crowd, 
'^recalls to my mind a mock duel that I had a hand in 
some eight or nine years ago. There was a serious ending 
to this oue that has never allowed the aflPair to e6ca{>e my 
memory, 
"It was in Lawrence, Kan. One day a new man came 
to town. He put on matt ai^ than the fellows consider?*! 
tiie proper thing, md, a ibnse^nence, a job was put upi 
on him. He was to be initiated into the old, time-worn game 
called snipe hunting, and from the earnestness with which 
the victim entered into the spirit of the proposition many 
of the conspirators believed that he was up to the trick, 
and that it would be a failure. 
"However, as the sequel proved, the poor fellow had 
never been on a snipe hunt, and the result was that at 3 
o'clock in the morning he was left at a fence corner about 
ten miles from town, calmly holding a sack and a candle 
and waiting for the snipe to come up and be lighted into 
the bag. 
"The conspirators rushed back to town, and when the 
morning newspaper came out it contained an account of 
the whole affair, dished up in true Western style. 
"The victim held his bag and candle until the latter had 
burned up, and then he began to wonder if a job had not 
been put up on him. He called to his companions, but 
there was no answer. Finally he wandered about the 
prairie until he found a farmhouse. After some trouble 
in convincing the honest occupants that he was not a 
horse thief, he was taken inside and cared for until day- 
light, when, for a consideration, the farmer drove him 
into Lawrence. 
"Of course he got quite a reception. The conspirators 
had arranged that part of it, which made the victim very 
angry. He thought the matter over, and concluded that 
the proper thing to do would be for him to challenge the 
chief conspirator to a duel. This was just what was 
wanted. The challenge was carefully accepted and double- 
barrelled shotguns selected as weapons. The affair was 
to culminate at a grove near the town the same after- 
noon, and when the time came there was a crowd there 
that would have done credit to any event. The seconds 
were careful about their preparations. They put only 
small charges of powder into the gun barrels, and after be- 
ing searched for breast plates or knives or revolvers, the 
combatants took their positions. 
"Meantime, the victim was in the dark. He meant 
business. There was no joke about it to him. He meant 
to kill his antagonist, and when he looked at the doctors, 
with their instruments and lint and bandages, it only 
served to screw his courage still higher. 
"The signal was finally given. Two loud reports rang 
out , and both, men stood still. Then they raised their guns 
again, took careful aim. and blazed away once more. 
"Then came an unlooked-for occurrence. The young 
conspirator staggered back, dropped his weapon, threw 
one hand to his forehead, and as he fell, the horror- 
stricken spectators saw a thin stream of blood pour over 
his face and down on his white shirt front. 
"Men looked at each other and gasped. Unknown to 
the seconds, somebody had slipped in a charge of shot into 
the gim of the snipe hunter, and what had been planned as 
a farce was turned into a horrible tragedy. 
"Finally some of the crowd summoned up courage 
enough to go to where the body lay. As they bent over 
the prostrate form they were shocked once more, for 
very distinctly it could be seen that the supposed corpse 
was really convulsed with laughter. 
"An explanation followed. The young man had exe- 
ciUed a neat little surprise of his own. He had secreted in 
the palm of his hand a small rubber sack, filled with 
aniline dye, and when the second shot was fired, he had 
done the rest. When the truth dawned on the crowd that 
the whole matter was a well-planned joke, there was a 
good laugh, and somebody looked for the snipe hunter, to 
whom it was considered a full explanation was due. He 
had disappeared. As completely and effectively as if wiped 
off the earth he had gone. And to the best of my know-l- 
edge he never was seen or heard of in Lawrence again. 
He was sought for years, but no trace of him was ever 
found. He firmly believed that he had killed the man, 
and in the confusion that ensued made good his escape. 
"I have often wondered if he ever learned the truth, or 
is still an exile, laboring under an impression that he 
killed a man in a duel." — Chicago Inter-Ocean. 
The Blooming Grove Park Association* 
Port Jervis, N. Y., Oct. 22. — ^Yesterday Dr. Joseph 
Kalbfus, Secretary of the Commission, and State Game 
Warden Joseph Berrier, went to Glen Eyre and met a 
wagon just driven up to the station from the Blooming 
Grove club house. In the wagon were N. S. Smith. Presi- 
dent of the Park Association ; Reber Bretnall, of Newark, 
N. J. ; Robert Post and his brother, of Jersey City, and 
John Kusser and Benjamin Kusser, of Trenton, N. J. Dr. 
Kalbfus demanded that thej' open their grips, despite their 
protest that they contained nothing contraband, and in 
them were found, wrapped in papers and otherwise con- 
cealed, several English and native pheasants. 
Upon Mr. Smith's assurance that they would all appear 
when called upon to answer to charges, they were per- 
mitted to return to their homes. 
Soon afterward Thomas J. Barry, of New York city, 
was apprehended with a bag of game, and he, too, will be 
proceeded against. 
The game seized was sent to the Lackawanna Hospital, 
to be served to the patients, in accordance with the law. 
The cases will be prosecuted in a United States Court, un- 
der the Lacey law, recently enacted by Congress, which 
prohibits the transportation of game from one State to 
another unless properly labelled with the address of the 
shipper and consignee, and stating the contents therein. 
Dr. Kalbfus has made his complaint before United States 
Commissioner J. Hixon Vanetten, of Milford, Pa. 
The contention of the Blooming Grove Park Associa- 
tion members is that their charter gives them the right to 
make their own game laws, and that this right cannot be 
invalidated by the general State game legislation. 
MichiganTQwail. 
Habtford, Mich., Oct. 22. — The season for quail opened 
on the 20th. and with dog and gun I promptly started, and 
at evening returned with eight quail and two woodcock. 
Quail are plenty, but dry leaves and. thick covers protect 
them. Some St. Jo parties, with two dogs and three 
guns, fot thirty^QOQ qtJail and one ?nipe to-day. 
- ^- SvuxvA^ Cook, 
Gun Flints. 
Charlestown, N. H., Oct. iS.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Some two years since you published an inquirj' 
for gun flints from one of your Pacific coast correspon- 
dents, Orin Belknap. Now, I have just come across 
a new and very interesting book, "Highways and By- 
ways in East Anglia," by William A. Dutt, published this 
year by the Macmillan Co. It is an account of a bicycle 
trip of exploration among the quaint, old towns of the 
extreme east of England, where many very old and 
beautiful churches mark the places of the earliest Chris- 
tian settlements, and old mounds and ru'ns show the spots 
where Saxon, Dane and Norman battled for centuries for 
supremacy, and where are still standing the homes of 
many well-known English worthies of the Elizabethan 
ages. 
In the course of his rambles, Mr. Dutt reaches the 
quaint, old town of Thetford, and makes an excursion 
rfom there to the Flint Pits, about six miles distant, where 
the prehistoric inhabitants of the Stone Age made their 
axes and arrowheads, and where the manufacture of gun 
flints is still carried on. Caught in a shower, the writer 
takes refuge in a flint cutter's hut, and I quote from 
him as follows : 
"While 1 am an unwilling loiterer in his shed, the 
'knapper' initiates me into the mysteries of his craft, so 
far as concerns the making of gun flints. Taking up a 
flint so large that it requires two hands to lift it. he first 
'quarters' it — that is, breaks it into sections 5 or 6 inches 
in thickness. This he does with a hammer such a^ a 
blacksmith would possess; but the next process, called 
'flaking,' which consists in breaking thin strips or flakes 
off the 'quartered' sections is effected with a smaller 
hammer. So skillfully, and with such a curious knack, is 
this flaking done, that it leaves each flake with two sides 
shaped as in a gun flint, and the 'knapping' it then un- 
dergoes, is simply the breaking of it into sharp-edged 
squares. This is done by resting it on an iron tool like a 
blacksmith's hard chisel fixed upright on a bench, and 
splitting it twice with two blows of a small hammer. The 
processes are difficult to. explain, but look very simple. 
"Gun flints are made in four sizes — for muskets, car- 
bines, horse pistols and single-barreled pistols. That a 
market can still be found for them is surprising; but I 
am told that the Arab tribes of northern Africa purchase 
large quantities, and that since the opening up of the 
Congo country a considerable trade in gun flints has been 
done with the Central African tribes." 
The whole book is very delightful reading. It takes the 
reader off from the usual routes of travel into those old 
NTorfolk and Suffolk towns from which many of the first 
settlers of this country came, and whose names, such as 
Lynn, Norwich. Brandon and Framingham, they brought 
with them. I think it would delight Mr. Talbot, Coahoma 
and Didymus, whose photo I am glad to see in this week's 
Forest and Stream. It looks like the "Old Roman" 
which his criticisms show him to be. 
Deer are getting plenty; they have been seen by many 
this summer, and two were seen last week within half a 
mile of the center of the village." Squirrels are scarce, but 
ruffed grouse (partridges) are plenty, so the boys say. 
VoN W. 
The Game Fields of Virginia. 
Lumberton, Sussex County, Va. — ^Reports are coming 
in from north, south, east and west of the numbers of 
quail and wild turkey found in the game fields of the State 
this season. Here in southeastern Virginia game is 
certainlj' more plentiful and the cover heavier than for 
many years past. 
This is said to be owing to the dry spring and early 
summer conditions peculiarly favorable for the breeding 
of young birds, too often drowned by the heavy rains 
and dews in May and June. This season the rains held 
off till July and August, and then "made up for lost 
time." The restilt was a wonderfully rapid growth of 
weeds and grasses in the fields, the scant cover growing 
from knee high to head high in two or three weeks, and 
thus affording feed and cover for the young birds and 
protection from their natural enemies — foxes, hawks and 
owls. No estimate can be made of the destruction of 
small game by these all-the-year-round hunters. 
It is useless to make laws for the protection of game 
when these ruthless hunters are allowed to hunt the 
covers unmolested. They begin at the egg and never 
leave off as long as there is a bird in the covey. One fox, 
with a nose keener than that of the best dog that ever 
ranged a field, can destroy more birds from one Thanks- 
giving Day to another than all the sportsmen in the 
country in the three months in which they are permitted 
to hunt. Every nest of eggs broken up is a covey wiped 
out of existence, hence the Reynard is a "game hog," a 
"pot-hunter" and a professional. He never leaves off, 
and, like Death, "He has all seasons for his own." 
Just when the fledgling has grown swift and strong 
enough to elude his pursuit, it becomes the prey of other 
enemies, as destructive and indefatigable as he. It rises 
from cover only to be pounced upon by the wary hawk, 
with hungry talons and piercing eyes ever on the alert. 
At night the old bird hovers the scared covey in the 
open field, Only to be seized by the silent-winged 
night hawk, or owl, from whose great eyes the friendly 
darkness is no protection. 
Ten thousand times ten tjhousand birds and rabbits are 
thus destroyed every year, and then the scarcity of game 
is attributed to the breechloader and the pot-hunter ! If 
these alone were to blame, the game fields in rem.ote 
places would teem with game, but these are the very 
haunts of the fox, the hawk and the owl. Years ago, 
when the clearings were small and the settlers few, when 
the forest was vast and its wild denizens numerous, there 
was enacted a wise law in the Old Dominion giving a 
premium on every fox, hawk and owl scalp presented to 
the boards of supersasors in the counties. It was re- 
pealed by the politicians of a later day, who cared less 
for noble sports than for the spoils of ofiice. In their 
desire to fill the coffers of the State, they failed to note 
how false was this economy ; how great the loss in barn- 
yard products alone. One housewife informs me that she 
has lost one hundred or more fowls by hawks and owls 
this §«as9t^. Multiply by the hundreds of hoitnes 
