•FOREBt •AND eSTHEAM? 
4SS 
after a load of 'corifi, and tlie way led past his "jpap's.** 
His "paj)" tnight let tne sleep in his batn. I got the per- 
mission, atld left mv- pack at Mr. Erhard's, While I Weiit 
on a mile aftid helped load sixteeii bushels of corn in the 
eaf. ■ Oh my way back the driver cautioned me about his 
patents, who were "mighty strict." It wouldn't be wise, 
he said,; to swear unnecessarily in their presence. I re- 
membered the caution with a chuckle on the following 
morning. 
I built a fire in a stove in the basement of Erhard's 
house to cook my supper over, but not understanding the 
stove, nearly smoked out the family overhead, so I had to 
give up and eat with them— a good square meal it 
was, too. 
After supper Erhard told me' how last fall he had found 
all the apples from his cider trees stolen by a bear for 
which he laid a trap in a V-pen of split rails. He wired 
beef to a little saplmg in the V. In the morning the pen 
was split lengthwise, and there was a bear trail leading 
for eighty rods or so into the woods. The 2-inch 8-foot 
long oak pole drag at last stopped the victim by hooking 
into a tree, and there the bear was killed 
I slept in the barn that night, and in the morning, after 
breakfast, went down to a neighbor's with Erhard and his 
visiting son-in-law to help drive a heifer back. The heifer 
started all right, but passing along a fenceless road she 
turned and circled back to the barn, in spite of our swiftest 
and longest strides. She did that three times. They were 
about to try again in the same fashion, but I took a piece 
of carpet and blindfolded the beast. She ran plump into a 
fence, and then stopped, after which she went right and 
gave no more trouble. When the heifer was where she 
belonged, Erhard said: 
'That was a Yankee trick You're a reg'lar down East 
1 ankee. 
The South seemed nearer than ever to me. He told me 
that there were no real wild turkeys in the Bald Eagle 
Valley— that_ they were all tame ones, which had gone 
wild. He said wild turkeys almost white in color had been 
:seen. But he added it was comparatively easy to tell the 
tames ones from the wild, because the wild ones always 
begin to "scoot" when they see one, while the tame stand 
up to look. Nevertheless, every year sportsmen from 
Bellefonte and other places kill turkeys belonging to 
farmers along the valley. The town sportsman has to 
be reckoned among the dangers by turkey breeders, it was 
said. I wondered how many of the turkeys brought in 
by hunters, of which I read accounts in Pennsylvania 
papers, are really wild? He could not tell, but guessed 
about half. 
As I was walking on about a mile from Erhard's I wa 
overtaken by a butcher looking for beef cattle. He gavi 
me a ride of several miles to Julian, near which we at( 
dinner together in a farmhouse, and then I went on up 
the road — ^not "down," as every one to whom I spoke 
about my route made haste to correct me. In spite of the 
up grade, it was hard for me to remember that I was 
going "up." 
Along in the afternoon about 3 :30 o'clock I saw a man 
unloading eared corn' into a crib from a top box wagon, 
i asked him for a chance to sleep in his barn and for work 
that would earn a supper. The work was right there, and 
I got it, on condition though that only supper was to 
come. So I shoveled thirty or forty bushels of corn and 
helped load as much more before it was time to eat. 
Moreover, I went up to the pasture after the cows, the 
dog eyeing my efforts in that direction with distinct 
knowledge as to my deficiencies. A black and tan dog it 
was, and not a polite one, for I am perfectly sure that it 
laughed at me trying to drive thef cattle straight to the 
barn instead of by way of the brook where they watered, 
according to their custom. 
After supper the man and his wife prepared to go to 
hear a woman missionary at Port Matilda, otherwise I 
might have remained with them that night. I' thought a 
good deal about missionaries for a few minutes, and then 
went on to the next neighbor's — "a big-hearted man 
named Williams" living there. 
I explained the situation to Mr. Williams, and he de- 
manded further information about me. Did I drink? 
meaning alcoholic beverages. No. Did I smoke?' No. 
Did I chew tobacco? No. "From the city, eh?" "Part- 
ly." "Well, you know how to gamble, don't y,e?" I 
denied it. "What?" he said, surprised. "Now, say, 
you can play cards, can't you?" I said I used to play 
euchre. "Oh-h!" with a falling inflexion. After talking 
a few minutes: "Now, you can gamble, can't you?" 
"No." "Well, what do you play?" I guessed I could 
beat him at checkers if we tried. We didn't. I switched 
him to politics as gently as possible, and he went that 
way flying, for he was the only one in a railroad gang of 
forty who held — but no inatter. We were friends in a 
moment. 
Mrs. Williams had a store of murder stories to tell — 
all the bloody crimes for years back in that section she 
could remember in lurid detail. I discovered that away 
back at Haneyville I had passed through a section noted 
over half of Pennsylvania for a crime of awful brutality 
a couple or three years ago. As she smoked her pipe the 
old lady recounted her acquaintance with the mother of 
the unfortunate child, and stated her belief that I had 
stopped at the very house where the child had lived and 
near which it died. 
I slept that night in the parlor on the lounge, 
and after breakfast came away. I liked the place. 
Once I had allayed the suspicion as to gambling 
I was one of them — a friend as close as if it had been 
a year's long acquaintance. To go on into the unknown 
regions up the valley was particularly hard, for it was 
unlikely that I should find a better place for a long ways. 
.■\s usual, I tried to look forward and see the dusk only a 
few hours away ; but I could not see beyond the first bend 
in the road. 
In a few hours I was hungry again, and a large farm- 
house/ built like a mansion, lured me up its broken board 
walk, round to the rear, and at the door I smelled cab- 
bage. Inside, I sat down at a table where cabbage, 
potatoes, bread, molasses and butter comprised the eat- 
ables. I ate heartily of all but the cabbage, and churned the 
butter to pay for my keep. The tax on the farm came to 
over $100 every year, I was told, and to raise this with 
the reint was a task that bowed the man's shoulders and 
lowered his voice to the hopeless tone most noticeable in 
the speach of the old-time negro, who was once a slave. 
The resemblance was so marked that I recalled the tone 
of the white ihatt wheii 1 listeijecl to the fii-st ex-sJave I 
ever heard some days latetj 
It was a relief to leave the house of the driven shaie- 
Worker, and start on, in spite of the rain beginning to 
fall. The rain came down so hard, however, that I sought 
a place to stay till it was clear again^unfal Monday, if 
necessary. It was cold and raw. The bite of dampness 
in chilly weather is hard to endure anywhere away from 
a warm stove. I have felt it under mj^blanket and three 
feet of straw. Fast as I go, even with the pack on my 
back, the wet wind of late autumn refuses to caress — it 
literally drives me to shelter. The tirst house was too 
crowded to shelter a traveler ; the second I passed by, for 
there were many heads in the windows ; but after a while 
I came to the house of White. 
Mr. White is the foreman of the bricklayers on the new 
post office at Tyrone, seven miles from his home. It was 
a pleasant experience to find a man who could and did 
value a home in the country. Both he and his Wife were 
city bred. Her father died, leaving a farm, and White 
purchased the shares of the other, heirs, and two years 
ago went out on the farm to live. The son, WiUiam, was 
reared on the farm of an uncle. He went on a railroad 
for two years, but came back to more fully appreciate the 
kind of life he could get out of a farm. 
Two weeks before 1 came, three bears were discovered 
m a corn patch on the place. It was a moonlight night. 
A couple of neighbors were stirred up, one of whom 
had a repeating ride. The bears were surrounded, and 
as they climbed up on the railroad track, headed toward 
the Bald Eagle ridge, a bullet cut short the career of a 
yearling. 
Three nights before I arrived the dog began to yelp and 
bark. It was a pup, and those of the house suspected it 
of hoaxing. It refused to be stilled, however, and William 
came down stairs to see what was the matter. He found 
a coon treed on the woodpile. He killed it, and memories 
of the bear were revived by a juicy roast. 
It is one of the most remarkable things about Pennsyl- 
vania m the parts I have seen, to hear tne hunting stories 
and note the interest in hunting. Women have picked up 
my nfie with knowing grace and asked questions about 
Its shooting qualities, ihe boys have air guns and the 
men repeaters or shotguns. But they are not used to a 
variety of weapons, 'i hey try to cock the gun with the 
take-down lever, and to pull back the breech block before 
they cock the weapon. The gun they used to kill a squir- 
rel this fall is the same that knocked over woodchucks 
last summer; and the one which, loaded with "buck and 
ball" quieted the efforts of a trapped bear last fall. The 
.44 repeater, the old muzzle-loading rifle and the double- 
barrel shotgun, -which takes "wadding" of hornets' nest, 
are the weapons oftenest seen. But the new breech- 
loaders are creeping into the back districts, and the cross- 
roads stores are beginning to show a variety of ammuni- 
tion. In towns of any size— of a thousand Or so inhabi- 
tants—the weapons are as good and clean as one could 
wish to see. But, as before remarked, the "town chap" 
does kill the old farmer's turkey once in a while, and per- 
haps never knows the difference — and never wants to. 
Raymo.vd S. Spears. 
kCaptureJoi lu Badger m_i Maine. 
^J^J^'^^ latter part of September, \^iile traveling from 
Washington (Knox county) toward Waterville, as I 
stopped to speak with Mr. John Turner, near Razorville, 
he told me that his hired man had just killed an animal 
that none ot the old hunters and trappers had ever seen 
betore, or ever heard of anything like it. The animal lay 
across the road from the house, and. when we came up 
to 4t, i saw It was still alive. Though not very lively yet 
It was perceptibly breathing. I saw at once 
It was new to me, and alighting from my buggy I pro- 
ceeded to examine it. From its structure and its resem- 
blance to the badgers I had seen in parks and menageries, 
i told my companions that I believed it to be this animal. 
Mr. 1 urner called his man, Mr. Desmond Nash, who had 
killed the animal, and he stated that he had been working 
m the lower end of the field near the road, when, looking 
down toward the swamp, he saw this animal. He at once 
gave chase, but soon found the animal could run faster up 
hill than he could, but on the down-hill grade he gained on 
It. ihe animal headed for a gap in the stone wall, and 
cutting across, Mr. Nash was able to get there first and 
bang the animal over the head with a- heavy club he had 
picked up. He stated he pounded him over the head 
enough to kill a seven-foot ox. I asked Nash what he 
proposed to do with him, and he said he did "not sup- 
pose the fur was much good, anyway." I told him I'd 
like to take the animal and look him up, and see if Com- 
missioner Carleton, of the Fish and Game Commission 
wanted him for the State Museum at Augusta. So putting 
the ammal mto a sack, I tied a string around the sack 
and put him into my buggy and hauled him to Waterville 
with me. The next morning he was still alive, and was 
still breathing when I carried him on the train to 
Gardiner and gave him to Mr. Homer Dill, State Taxi- 
dermist and Curator of the State Museum at Augusta 
where he is being mounted for the State House. 
I at once w^rote to Mr. Manley Hardy, of Brewer, who 
IS an authority on birds and animals. He replied that 
it did not seem probable it could be a badger, but it was 
more likely to be the wolverine, and that if it was a 
badger it might be an escaped specimen. A male badger 
{Taxidea a. americanus) he proved to be, and ^ve no 
evidence of being an escaped animal. 
Mr. Turner's boys told me nearly a year ago of a 
strange animal that made strange growls, and was not 
like any animal they ever saw before. They feel certain 
Ais is the animal that has been around the swamp near by 
for more than a year. Mr. E. G. Turner, whose store is 
near by, sai(d to me when I next called on him three 
weeks later that the men who cut his hay had seen this 
animal, a female artd .young near the place where this 
male was captured* - 1 1 , 
The animal weighed about 40 pounds, and had the ap- 
pearance of being aged. The only escaped animal I am 
able to learn of was one that Mr. Amos Gerald, of Fair- 
wick, Me But this animal proves not to be th*' onfe that 
escaped itom the park. It is an ihtetestittg captui^ 
whether an escaped animal or net, as the animal was veVv 
habita? '° '^"^^ ^° ^'^^ their natiK 
■ ^ . J- Mehton Swain. 
roETLAND, Maine. 
JIaI. °°*ed is certainly a most interesting one 
Maine tL'°.'^; i""''^' ^ ^^^'^^ badgers exists in 
J eastward range of this species in the United 
sSS^ Sf""""'^ T^''^^^ P^'"" ^"'i Indiana, in which 
States, however, they are believed to have been long ex- 
tinct. Coues, m his "Fur-Bearing Animals '' sills attS- 
tion to the fact that the distribution of the tdg^ s mo^e 
or less closely cemcident with that of some of the Sper- 
mophiles and adds: "%ese animals, with the badger 
and kit fox, being highly characteristic species of the 
central treeless region of the United States, where they 
7nZ.M ?,°""^'^^f multitudes." Mr. Swain will un- 
Deet as Weather Prophets, 
Ss^S--^'?,i^ 
orchards of apple J^ee" Whe? xr'' ^i^'SI'ently in the 
grounds on Nov 23 we ionTd Jhn/'^'^l^ °r ^""^"g 
had gone back to the mountahis Th "^^^^^ j^e deer 
day was clear, and L fndkadon. ^^^^ 
Dec. I, just back of the village of L^^'a '"°^' °° 
miles south of our Lntlnl LmLi /"I' ^^^"^y 
but a few mches?f^"no"^,^th?Sck?oftb^ 
deer were ^ppn c^i^^ t, ndCKt, 01 a Dand or nine 
.racks leaSinTLS'a'Sgh^nl'^^n r ^ ^ 
of Dec. 3 snow heenn tn 4^ f ^ morning 
day and part of the^n"gS and ; '^^i ^""'"^ 
State, fifty miles or morf south of A.wLh ^^^'^ °^ 
20 inches in the woods of frS 1 we have over 
the deer knew what was 'm^^^ i° ' as thqugh 
to find yarding placel ' '°™'"^' and were hustling 
DtrNBARTON, N ri. ^- Stark. 
A Trag'edy of the Mettimack. 
RoS S 
hid 'at?e"moted"^tn^';^r "^^ll^"^- seemrtSTt 
naa attempted to cross the river on the ice anH 1ia<4 
broken through. How long it had been in the water is not 
known but he was alive when first seen Mark sh"w 
hat a desperate struggle had taken place. It s supposed 
these' J^t ^''^ has been sefn 12 
these parts durmg the summer. Edwin C. Hotson 
The Wild Pigfeons. 
. Macomb, Ill-Editor Forest and Stream: 1 was talk- 
mg with a fnend in regard to the disappearance of tl^ 
wild pigeon. He told me he had read an article in some 
?haT?r; st'"' ""/'-''l years agfreporJbl 
that some sea captain had stated that he had seen hun- 
dreds, of thousands of dead pigeons floating on the water 
at sea. It looks like a "fairy tale," but I write this ask- 
ing you or any one who may see this article if they ever 
saw or heard ot it:before. O. BlaisdelI 
AnfAIbino QttaiL 
The New York Zoological Park has received from 
JS^ansas a pure albino quail, which is now on exhibition 
in the aquatic bird house. 
Dttcfc Shootingf in Maryland. 
Brooklyn, N. Y., Dec s—Ducks, geese and brant ar- 
iived in Chincoteague Bay earlier this season than for 
r^°^' S""' Pif' -^P ^°y- ^2 Young, of Pocomoke 
L,ity Md., shot eighty-nine bluebills from Mr. O D. 
-boulks battery, Stockton, Worcester county, Md. I spent 
a week at Mr. Foulks'. beginning Nov. 18, and in spite 
of adverse northwest winds most of the time, had good 
sport. My bag consisted of redheads, broadbills, blue- 
bills, ruddy ducks, geese and brant. I also had some 
sport with the quail, which are more abundant than for 
many years past, owing to exceedingly dry weather dur- 
ing the breeding season. I hear the same cheering re- 
^°wu^*'°™ "^^"^ sections of the South about quail. 
When ducks, geese and -brant are numerous in the 
bay no better sport* could be desired than is to be found 
m Stockton I found a i6-gauge as eflicient as a 10- 
gauge for battery shooting. The natives never use a 
heavier gun than a 12-bore. 
A train leaves Jersey City over the Pennsylvania R»l- 
road at 12:55 P. M., arriving at Hursley's at 8:55 P M 
Excursion ticket good for ten days costs $10.40, There 
are two or three trains from Philadelphia and Wilming- 
ton Del., daily for Hursley's. The station (Hursley's) 
and the post oftice (Stockton) are one and tise same place 
but tickets must be bought for the former and letters ad- 
dressed to. the latter place. As Mr. Foulks can only ac^; 
commodate two or three sportsmen at one time it will be 
absolutely necessary to write ahead and make arrange- 
ments. 
In taking such a trip everything depends upon two 
things— the ducks and the weather. If the ducks are 
there and the wind blows from the right quarter all the 
sport that the most exacting could desire is almost sure 
to be realized. jq- p 
