S8 FOREST AND STREAM. 
decided success, but as a reward for the self-denial of 
our sportsmen in stopping spring shooting and permitting 
these ducks to nest and breed here it is a dismal faihire. 
It begins to look as if there wotild be something doing 
at Albany this winter. I see that our old-time friend ( ?) 
Depiity Comptroller Oilman has found a better (?) job, 
and if I read the Governor's message right, he is willing 
to listen to us this year. If we fail to let him know what 
we want (as many of us did last year), it won't be his 
fault if we are disappointed. 
We want the good old Forest and Stream plank, 
"Stop the sale of game." The spring shooting of wild- 
fowl prohibited. A uniform open and close season on all 
upland game from September i6 to November 30. That 
special protectors shall have the same powers of search 
as regular protectors. That the hours for shooting wild- 
fowl shall be from daylight to sunset. 
If the sportsmen of this State will make the same effort 
that they did last year we shall win. As regards special 
or local laws, the conditions are not alike in all counties. 
In many counties, by reason of a denser population, game 
is becoming very scarce, and any law which shortens the 
open season or closes it entirely should receive the support 
of all true sportsmen. W. H. Tallett. 
Two Nights and a Day. 
I WATCHED the coals in the open grate fire grow gray, 
heard the lamp sputter its remonstrance over a long ses- 
sion, laid aside a cold pipe, and still lingered — even drew 
nearer to the declining warmth, reluctant, indeed, to 
leave even for bed, the place of all places on earth where 
we can live the yesterdays of the past "and dream 
those dreams again" in retrospective contentment. 
As the lamp died out the lesser light in the grate as- 
sumed a grander proportion, and left me in the glow of 
a Florida simset, calling back to memory dear the active 
and attractive day so soon ended of my recent stay where 
the magnolias grow — "way down upon the Suwanee 
River." 
In this afterglow I see Creighton and his ten-bore em- 
barrassment. Judge Hopkins, in his strenuous life; Mr. 
Simmons nursing his temper and cold ; Mr. Hazen meas- 
uring his muscles and zeal; Mr. Poeschke fishing from sun 
till sun; Mr. Molton trolling from the bridge; Mr. Smith 
loving his gun; Mr. McGregor and his bull-baiting 
sweater; Mr. Valentine teaching Sport to sing; Jesse 
Daniels, my ebony companion afield, and many others 
grouped in the same picture. And who is this in the cen- 
ter, whose light blue eyes seem to look you through and 
through, whose quick tread resembles the youth in love, 
whose erect carriage denotes an undiminshed vigor, and 
whose hearty laugh is music to hear, "whose money never 
runs out?" It'fj the Colonel. South Carolina, Georgia 
and Florida all know him, and so should the rest of the 
^ world could I introduce him. Coal is high and even 
scarce, but it's not wasted, dear Colonel, when writing of 
two nights and a day with you. Then, too, it is at least 
an illogical excuse for another pipe. 
From the first moment I met the Colonel I determined 
to share nearly anything 1 had with him, and I began 
that day by asking him to share my portmanteau, thus 
reducing our baggage. It was at two P. M. that he 
appeared at my door with a U. S. weather report in one 
hand and canvas clothes and shoes in the other. The 
Colonel's white hair was not smoothed down to a de- 
gree of neatness to denote a really tranquil spirit within, 
and I asked him the cause. He replied by saying: "Look 
at that darned weather report for Northern Florida." 
Sure enough, prophesy had its hand on the spigot, and 
nothing but rain was in sight. However, I told the 
Colonel that we had a high priced, high minded, high 
principled weather prophet in New York who didn't 
kiiow it all, and I guessed they were all alike, honest and 
scientific, but often mistaken. So we would go. "All 
right," said the Colonel. "A hunting trip only begins 
with the packing and only lets up when your wife puts 
away your clothes after you get back." 
An hour later our dogs had Ijeen sandwiched between 
trunks and I was listening to the life-history of Harry 
Stillwell Edwards told by one of his friends; and I was 
outlining to the Colonel the story of the forgetful lawyer 
for his use, when next his friends should hear his clarion 
tones and see the tears run from his blue eyes. We 
reached Live Oak at 7:30. At the hotel the manager 
told us he could give us a nice big room with two beds 
in it. "Just the thing," said the Colonel. "That will give 
me a chance to practice my new story before a critical 
audience that won't dare throw things at me." In this 
room we found an open grate fireplace and beside it a 
pile of pine wood ; and I started to ring for a boy to 
build the fire. "Not much," says the Colonel, "here is 
one of the rare pleasures of life that one can't find in 
his own home, that of .starting a light wood fire and then 
watch it, smell it, feel it burn. Oh, that odor! don't it 
melt your heart?" 
At 5:30 next morning Jumbo Green by name came in 
and the Colonel set him building the fire; however, the 
eflfect was soon manifest. The Colonel did a breakdown 
en deshabille; with him the sere period of life will only 
occur when his name is carved on marble. 
I found the Colonel at the breakfast table with an 
orange in one hand and that blessed weather report in the 
other, while the waiter was hanging out the window 
gazing at the heavens making his report, which seemed 
more favorable than the more gifted guesser could 
promise us. Mr. Allen, our guide for the day, awaited us 
with a good pair of horses and a top spring wagon on 
the road. 
Mr. A. was a wise one. His aim was to find birds, and 
this he did, about seven miles out of town in a country 
that all looked alike to me. The horses were stopped and 
the dogs turned loose; not at all a dangerous expedient, 
for they only wandered away about a hundred yards and 
looked around wondering what we were going to do. 
It was then that I heard for the first time that this pair of 
dogs were owned by a white man of fine reputation and 
broken by a negro. As the Colonel put it, "What good 
sense they started with in life is soon knocked out of 
them, and they absorb a nature foreign to their native 
gifts and b'-'-o'ap.e shiftless." So the only thing for us 
to do was to hoof it and lead them on. 
Solicitous always for the comfort of others, the Colonel 
^sked me if I. was in condition for a day's tramp. I re- 
minded him of my Pike County days with two guides 
and assured him I was toujonrs pret. It was but a short 
time before we had those poor misguided dogs straight- 
ened out in the rear of a covey of quail vi^hich we flushed 
and both sampled, and while for miles in every direc- 
tion that woods, or what had been a woods, was alike, 
we could not miark those birds down; but while trying 
to find them, we covering the same amount of territory 
as the dogs, we found another covey. Again in looking 
for singles we fell across another bunCh, which, when 
they lit, surrounded another bevy^ and We warmed our 
guns. With each flight poor Alto, a Hver-colored pointer, 
would follow to mark them down, while little ilcc-bitton 
Winnie would Satisfy her chewed up ambition retrieving. 
On one occasion, while carrying in a dead bird, she 
stopped and pointed another. We had both seen this 
done before, and so have many others, but, as the Colonel 
says, "Think what that bitch might have been. I wouid 
have just as soon expected to see a braying jackass win 
the Brooklyn Handicap as See that sight. Dear little 
Winnie, you have retained some of your native instinctSj 
haven't you?'* , 
At noon we (we and the dogs) had scattered fully a 
dozen big bevies in a radius of not more than t\vo hundred 
acres and had bagged thirty odd birds, and had a pair of 
dogs that seemed tired before we started and that were 
tired in dead earnest how. 
Again the Colonel warms his hands over the burning 
HUGO AND STEVE, AND THE COVER WE HUNTED IN. 
pine ; does a cake-walk beside a fallen tree ; sings snatches 
from forgotten operas ; introduces a new step of a recent 
dance, and settles down to drink in the aroma from the 
boiling coffee pot and says : 
Ah, this sunshine of ours! 
I'm sure 'twill never set; 
Tor as it shone so long ago, 
It's blazing on us yet. 
And then he burned his weather report. 
At sundown we laid brave Winnie m a blanket and put 
her in the cai-ria^e, while friend Allen put Alto in a 
straight-jacket beside him on the front Seat. We sang in 
the gloaming "Home, Sweet Home," a.s we entered the 
town, our voices were the only part of us that wasn't 
tired and satisfied to rest. Immediately after dinner we 
went to our room and had a fire built, in front of which 
the Colonel settled down with our basket of birds before 
him. One at a time he lifted them tenderly out, pulled 
away the rumpled feathers, straightened their pretty necks 
and graceful legs and laid them side by side on the car- 
pet, fondling and petting them, and after a silence re- 
marked, and that, too, with a sweet reverence: "Little 
fellows, you have given us great pleasure, taxing, as you 
have, our skill and zeal. I would that you could know 
that in death you are beloved and cared for; groomed in 
your feathered beauty, laid by capefully and with affec- 
tion ; in this care and in this love only am I better than 
the hawk." 
Dear Colonel, in your age of wisdom and feeling you 
do on more occasions than this, but particularly on this 
occasion, show that nature I will always try to copy. I 
think it is better to carry one's game in a basket. I will 
never string them again. 
The logs were still burning when slumber made us as 
oblivious as our little friends outside the window, and 
my claim of sleeplessness will never be believed by the 
Colonel, as he informed me the ne.xt morning "That the 
noise from my bed had caused him to dream that he was 
at sea in a fog." I was naturally delighted, assuring him 
that for once in my life I could prove an alibi. Of these 
two nights and a day in Florida, in justice to my friend, I 
must claim that the best hours and the most profitable 
ones were not spent afield. 
The accompanying picture shows Hugo and Steve, two 
excellent dogs the Colonel and I shot over when here 
ten days previous to this visit, owned by Mr. McGregor, 
of Live Oak. Alto and Winnie will, however, outlive this 
pair in memory dear. T. E. Batten. 
Elizabeth, Jan. 22. 
Fish and Game in Florida. 
In my freshly groomed recollection of "Two Nights 
and a Day," I have undoubtedly exposed a sentiment 
of regret in leaving Florida so soon. Yet where duty is 
I must; so there is but one thing left for me to do, and 
that is seek others to take my place in that congenial 
clime and then tell us all about it. 
Many others have gone before and thoroughly covered 
[Jan. 31, 1903. 
the ground in their gamy research, yet an overmastering 
modesty or a secret too sweet to tell has confined their 
history to the limited space of their own firesides, and the 
sportsmen's world can gain no wisdom ftom their ex- 
periences. 
To the touring spoftsman I am inclined to believe that 
no othef one section of Florida contains more "first 
night" attractions than the Land of Manatee. Its geo- 
graphical position insures comfort at all seasons, it i^ 
easy of access, and as convenient to Tampa and Tampa 
Bay. Sarasota Bay presents to the angler about every 
variety _ of fish known to these southern waters, while 
the mainland will entertain the hunter during our gener- 
ation and a large remnant of another to come. The re- 
ctntly published pamphlets by Morton M. Casseday. and 
issued by Mr. C. B. Ryan, of the Sea Board Air Line, 
are so accurate as to conditions in this section that I 
cannot do better than refer to them, and they can be had 
for the asking. 
Those who have taken it, tell me that for a nlonth <if 
life with nature and a few chosen companions, w'here the 
new acquaintances daily are game in variety and fish of 
different tribes, one should take the trip beginnhig At 
Ki ssimmee by small steamer south through Lake and 
River Kissimmee into Lake Okeechobee; thence west 
th rough the canal into Lake Hie-po-che, Banner Lake, 
Lake Flint and Caloosahatchee River to Fort Myers. 
These trips are arranged for many times during the win- 
ter months, and are never regretted by those fortunate 
enough to make them. 
Fort Myers and Punta Gorda are favorite tarpon fish- 
ing grounds; the silver skyrockets are often taken here 
late in the season, and are seen at play nearly every month 
in the year, but seem to have their seasons for striking. 
In crossing the State of Florida one can find quail 
shooting near most any station on either the Atlantic 
Coast Line or Seaboard Air Line; and in many instances 
Can find in addition to quail wild titrkcys and deer. This 
is particularly true of Sanford, Orlando, Deknd, Ocalaj 
Palalka, Fort_ White, Tallahassee, LivC Oak, Lake City 
and intermediate towns, and in those places mentioned 
one will find pleasant hotel accommodations, a list of 
which will be found in the Forest And Stream office. 
There has been much said by the nervous ones about 
snakes in Florida, and the danger the sportsman assumes 
in hunting there. I personally know a brave man who 
loves the Avoods and valleys only next to his wife and 
children, who could not, under any circumstances, be in- 
duced to hunt there for fear of the fattier, the moccasin, 
and other varmints of their sort. He succeeded in "chill- 
ing" me into buying a pair of aluminum-lined leggings. 
My purchase, however, was not completed without em- 
barrassment. Mr. Justus Von Lengerke assured me that 
he "thought any man extremely foolish to miss the rare 
yet_ possible opportunity of drinking a quart bottle of 
whisky all at once." I really think his ridicule about 
fits the case, and that we can all hunt in Florida and 
come home sober, provided we don't yield to the more 
tangible temptations. 
I hunted with a man who has tramped the State in 
quest of game for twenty years, and during that time 
has killed just four rattlers. I know a man in Massa- 
chusetts and another one in Pennsylvania who can beat 
that record silly. 
Upon entering or leaving Florida nature and the rail- 
roads have decreed thait one must pass through Jackson- 
ville, which in itself proves a far-seeing providence. Here 
one can see snakes and alligators at close range with im- 
punity. M. I. Cohen, on West Bay street, has a number 
as seen before and after death. Just across the street 
are the offices of the Atlantic Coast Line, presided over 
by Mr. Frank Boyleston, a sportsman in fact and on 
purpose ; his trim launch is nearby on the St. John's 
River, and he does like to run it when his duties will 
permit. Then go up to the Duval and call on the Colonel 
and keep on multiplying your regrets until you are sorry 
j'^ou came because it makes you so sad to leave. 
For a time only, farewell Florida. With all your 
charms, rods and gun must give way to mitts and gum 
shoes. Only in reminiscence are you with me now, yet 
you are a real yesterday of yesterdays. 
T. E. Batten. 
New York, Jan. 24. 
Boone and Crockett Clufc Meeting. 
The annual meeting of the Boone and Crockett 
Club was held at the Metropolitan Club in Washing- 
ton on Saturday last. 
The meeting was called to order by President Wads- 
worth at 7 o'clock. The report of the treasurer showed 
the finances to be in a flourishing condition. Of the 
reports of various standing committees, that of the 
Big Game Protection Committee was one of the most 
interesting. The chairman, Madison Grant, reported 
that the new Alaska game law, passed last year largely 
through the efforts of the Hon. Jno. F. Lacey, of 
Iowa, was working very well. He read a letter from 
Andrew J. Stone, the well-known Arctic explorer, stat- 
ing that the customs and other United States officials 
were endeavoring to enforce the law and that the ex- 
portation of heads and hides had almost entirely ceased. 
Mr. Stone, however, observed that certain mining com- 
panies, notably one located in Unga Island, were regu- 
larly killing caribou for meat, because it was a cheaper 
food than beef, and that great numbers of these ani- 
mals were being destroyed. 
An amendment to the constitution was adopted. 
The election of officers for the ensuing year resulted 
as follows: 
President, Major W. Austin Wadsworth; Vice-Presi- 
dents, Chas. F. Deering, W. B. Devereux, Howard 
Melville Hanna, William D. Pickett, and Archibald 
Rogers; Secretary, Madison Grant; Treasurer, C. Grant 
La Fargc; two members of the executive committee 
to serve for three years, Alden Sampson and Owen 
Wister. 
At the close of the business meeting dinner was 
served. At each plate lay a beautifully modeled little 
plaster cast of a weathered buffalo bull's skull, mel- 
ancholy reminders of what once was but is no more. 
The souvenirs are the work of Mr. A. Phimister Proc- 
tor, the sculptor, a member of the club. Many of the 
diners were puzzled by one dish served to them. It 
