108 
In the North he takes to the trees, where you cannot 
see him, and the dog cannot smell him. Here in 
Texas the trees are short and bare, so he has not that 
refuge. Miich persecuted, he learns a new wrinkle, 
and instead of lying in grass tufts for the dog to find 
him, he takes to his heels over the hard ground, which 
carries the scent but illy at best, and so puzzles both 
dog and man over his sudden and mysterious disap- 
pearance. It takes a specialized dog to handle Bob 
White here. As to the bird itself, it is not exactly like 
our Northern bird, not so heavy and plump, nor so red 
and russet in color. The shade of the general body 
color is ashy or gray, to match this gray soil. The 
constant running makes the bird thinner and much 
tougher to eat than the Northern bird. The flight is 
much the same, though not so strong here as in the 
North, the bird being an easier mark in the open here 
than in the woods or thickets of the North in the late 
autumn days. 
An Amiable Teaderfoot, 
I have mentioned one member of our party, Mr. 
Stites, of Chicago. That gentleman is a partner in 
Rector's well-known restaurant, which methinks almost 
anyone in New York or Chicago is apt to know; and 
by this token Mr. Stites ought to know a good bird 
or the like on sight by this time. Perhaps he has dined 
too well, too often, and not so wisely as too much, 
for of late his doctor has told him that he must get 
out of dors or become a has-been. Partly on my own 
advice he stopped off here at San Antonio on his way 
to California, and we took him with us on our little 
ranch trip. In the opinion of all he proved a most 
amiable tenderfoot. He had never shot at a quail in 
his life, yet he began to stop them very nicely, to our 
joint delight, so that he did his part of the bag very 
easily. Then we took him over to the Mitchell's Lake 
Club Reserve after ducks. It was a clear, bright, warm 
day, and it was certain there would be no flight unless 
we could stir up the birds, so we had resort to boats. 
These craft, by reason of the shallow and weedy waters, 
are not built like warships, but are easily capsizable. 
When we came to round up in the evening I met Mr. 
Stites and observed that he appeared damp, but sup- 
posed that he had been perspiring. I told him that my 
boat had leaked so much that it had gotten half full of 
water, so that I was afraid to shoot out of it lest I 
should go overboard. 
"Why, are you afraid of that?" said he. "I ain't, 
not a bit." 
"Did you get in?" I asked him. "Twice," was his 
reply, with a happy smile. "I don't mind it. I like 
it!" He had' indeed upset his boat twice, and one time 
his gun was under water fifteen minutes before he could 
recover it. He pointed out with great pride that the 
gun and shells would "go oft' just as good as ever," 
and, indeed, he seemed none tlie worse for his adven- 
ture. Happily, the water was not above shoulder depth. 
That night, by request, Mr. Stites did a turn at broil- 
ing quail for the gang, attired for the time, thanks to 
his late bath in the lake, in a long ulster, which came 
down about his heels. I don't know what some of the 
swell patrons of Rector's would hjive thought had they 
seen the urbane manager acting as cook at a Texas 
ranch house, but I am here to testify that his cookery 
was voted excellent. We named him Rosa then, and 
he had no trouble holding his job as chef. In fact, I 
never saw anybody get a job easier than he did that 
one. Nor did I ever see a cook eat much more freely 
of his own cooking. "That doctor has been stringing 
me for six years," said Mr. Stites. "There ain't any- 
thing the matter with me at all!" 
Comfort in the Wilderness, 
I have a friend up North who runs a pine woods 
hotel for anglers, and it is his boast that he makes 
his patrons comfortable in the wilderness. He has 
his hotel provided with hot and cold water, nice hair 
mattresses and all that sort of thing, and it is his 
claim, perhaps well founded, that he has the best 
equipped wilderness hotel in the West. He asks rne to 
come up and see him, but I have always told him I 
would rather go anywhere else in the whole wild world. 
T can get hot and cold water and hair matresses at 
home, and have good society there, too. As to the 
wildernesss, it is no place for the softenments of civi- 
lization. I don't think Big Adam Moore and I missed 
any hot water or hair matresses up in New Brunswick. 
Neither do I think we missed that sort of allurements 
at the ranch in the Santone Valley the other day. When 
I start my own wilderness resort I am going to have 
a tin washpan on top of a stump back of the cabin, 
and if that is not good enough washing facilities for 
any patron of the place, the quicker he can get out 
the healthier it is going to be for him. The dragging 
of city life, or would-be city life, into the real wilder- 
ness is one of the things which make me continually 
regret that there is a legal close season on some sorts 
of human beings. The old. nigger man was right. Said 
he, "It ain't fitten." If I could run the world for a 
while it would be a most excellent good world. Still, 
I suppose there will always be an element who want 
hot and cold water and hair matresses and fresh beef 
in their "wilderness." 
Big Country. 
This is a glorious region, this Texas country. We 
traveled a day and a night west from New Orleans to 
get to old Santone, and to get to El Paso we would 
have to travel a day and a night more, all on Texas 
soil. It is hours' run between towns, days' run between 
cities. It is all big, open, free, magnificent, good for 
people who have been feeling that much has been de- 
pending upon their personal attention to the affairs of 
the world. The keyed-up nervousness of the North 
falls away like a garment here. To-morrow is good 
as to-day; indeed, better. We have been going down 
to the salt water for a sail now, for nearly a. week. 
We are going to-morrow. Excellent institution, this 
to-morrow! This sunlight is full of to-morrow. 
Tame Deer. 
My friend. Col. Guess*?, has- * tarn? deer, a youngr 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
buck, which he caught last summer on his ranch, and 
the little creature is as good an example of absolute 
fearlessness as one ever saw. It plays with the dogs 
and chickens, fraternizes with all human beings, and 
when it feels disposed walks into the house and prowls 
about quite as one of the family. Apples, bread, cake, 
sugar, or almost anything else seems to it proper food 
for the Cervida, and one day it stalked into the cup- 
board and ate a pie, full proof, if any were needed, of 
the universal beneficence of the peculiar American insti- 
tution, pie. 
Horse and Dog. 
We should not to-day be grieving so much were the 
brotherhood between all animals so distinct as that ex- 
isting at my friend's household. A dog commonly loves 
a horse, and a horse a dog, but the Texas horse is 
different from all other horses. The other day, while 
we were unhooking the team down at the ranch, Col. 
Guessaz' old pointer. Waif, another member of the 
family, and loved very dearly, passed close by one of 
the horses, and the latter, with no reason in the world 
save that of malice, kicked her savagely, breaking two 
or three ribs and wellnigh killing her on the spot. 
That was four days ago, and even yet we are not sure 
that Waif will get over it, though she can now eat 
and drink and sleep lying down. It was pitiful to see 
her stand with drooping head all day and all night 
long, unable to lie down by reason of the broken ribs. 
Nature is especially kind to dogs, and heals their ills 
with great rapidity, so that we hope that, even in spite 
of her twelve years of age, Waif will live to point an- 
other quail or so before her race is run. 
Ducks, 
They say the duck season is not a good one, for that 
most of the flight goes on down to Mexico. This may 
be in part true, though no doubt there are a few birds 
to be found on the coast even yet. We are waiting 
word from Kemp's place, at Rockport, and may stop 
there for a day or so, but the truth is no one seems to 
care for shooting ducks at this time of the year. The 
best time to see wildfowl in Texas is nearly the same 
time that we have our best shooting in the North, 
October or November. So far as the neighborhood of 
this city is concerned, the shooting will be better in 
February, when the northbound migration begins. I 
suppose it would be spring shooting then to shoot 
ducks here. I doubt if any of our little party will do 
any duck shooting. Quite a number of shooters left 
town to-day for Mitchell's Lake, but we were too tired 
to go along. The birds are as tired as their pursuers 
these warm days, and will not fly unless chased up by 
numbers of shooters. 
The End Not Yet. 
The end is not yet in prohibitive legislation. Word 
comes to-day that the Legislature proposes to stop 
the shooting of all sorts and species of birds, tame pig- 
eons included, for a term of some years. There is 
report also that the great ammunition companies of the 
North are telegraphing local agents in Texas to have 
the bills killed at any cost. There is also rumor that 
the "any cost" side of it all has been carefully con- 
sidered by certain of the framers of some of these 
numerous bills at Austin. There is such a thing as a 
bill going a little way and then not being heard of 
again. In any case, the enire shooting population of 
the State, not to mention very many firms who sell 
large amounts of goods in the State, is very much 
exercised over the matter. 
R Hough. 
136 Hastford Building, Chicago. 
Game Parks and Other Things. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
We Americans used to think the comrnon people of 
England were trampled down to the condition of slaves 
by the lordly landed aristocracy, but what are we 
Americans coming to in these days of selfish million- 
aires? 
"The public be d d," is apparently their motto, and 
they seem to delight in depriving others of everything 
in the way of recreation. The people of North Hemp- 
stead prove that they have too much self-respect and 
common sense to place themselves in the position of 
serfs for the paltry sum of $50,000, knowing that if the 
New York man could get control of the lake no man 
would dare to catch a fish, or sail a boat, or even take 
a bath in its waters. They are wise in holding it, for 
as the millionaires improve their suburban property 
their own will be increased in value greatly. 
From the rapid progress the millionaires are mak- 
ing in getting control of land, it will soon be difficult 
to step outside the public road without committing 
trespass. 
One of my friends has just returned from a visit 
to an Eastej-n man who has brought down the wrath 
of the whole community on his head by inclosing a 
deer park of several thousand acres. 
He has to be always on his guard, but some of his 
enemies say they are bound to "git him" some day. 
Now, rather than live such a life I'd go a thousand 
miles for my deer and elk. 
If men were not so selfish they would not be so 
liable to make enemies, but some of the trust clubs 
buy up from one to half a dozen lakes in the Adiron- 
dacks simply to control them and keep others out. 
Some of these men pretend to be Christians. They 
say their prayers and attend to all the surface matters 
of religion, but they trample on the Golden Rule and 
read the warning of their Lord and Master in this way 
— "It is easier for a needle to go through the eye of 
a camel than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of 
Heaven." Theti, to insure their future safety, they 
try to pull the wool over the eyes of their Divine 
leader by giving a mere pittance now and then from 
their vast hoards of wealth to some church or college, 
while the poor are left to starve and freeze, and during 
all these terrible times of suffering not a single one 
of the crew of millionaires has lifted a finger to re- 
lieve it- The Hon. Abram S. Hewitt said, "T^^er^ uced 
[Feb. 7, 1903. 
be no suffering among the poor if the rich would do 
their duty, but they go on praying and let the Lord 
take care of the poor." Didymus. 
St. Augustine, Fla. 
Winter Hare Shooting in Germany. 
Fro?n. the London Field. 
Whatever changes have come over the manners and 
customs of Germans, it still remains true that a Teuton 
is seen at his best out shooting. Sport is practiced on 
sportmg lines in the Fatherland, despite the number of 
parvenu "shooters" who have entered the field within 
recent years, and for those who have leisure and in- 
cHnation to devote to it, there are opportunties in 
Germany for the use of the gun which can hardly be 
found with such comparative facility anywhere else 
ill Europe. Red deer, fallow deer, roebuck, capercaillie, 
blackcock, pheasants, wild boar, partridges, wild duck, 
bustards, woodcock, snipe, wild geese, quail, hares and 
rabbits are plentiful, and almost every species of game 
here enumerated may be obtained within easy access 
of the capital of the empire, the greater number in its 
immediate vicinity; while there is also good chamois 
shooting in the Bavarian Mountains. 
The laws and customs of venery are perliaps most 
strictly observed in North Germany, i.e., Pomerania, 
East and West Prussia, and Silesia, where the land 
is chiefly in the hands of large landed proprietors, who 
are themselves good sportsmen, the knowledge and 
passion for the craft having been handed down to 
them from generation to generation. In Central and 
South Germany things are done on a laxer scale, as 
the shootings are almost all in the hands of tenants, 
who hold leases for periods of about six years — in 
Wurtemberg, indeed, for three years only. These ten- 
ants, in the ordinary run of things, attach more weight 
to obtaining good bags during the period of their ten- 
ancy than to the preservation of a good stock of game. 
Moreover, as the shootings are generally put up to 
public auction, it is open to persons of every class and 
rank to acquire them. Unfortunately, not only men of 
intelligence and taste and good manners who have 
acquired a fortune as manufacturers or in other 
branches of business thus get the command of the mar- 
ket, but tradesmen, such as butchers and confectioners 
and publicans, circus owners and innkeepers participate 
therein. To be the proprietor of a shoot has long 
since come to be accepted in Germany as the right of 
riches. The individual in question may know nothing 
about sport, and, indeed, have no love for it; but he 
has the opportunity thereby of inviting a number of 
guests and of entertaining them luxuriously. For this 
reason the price of conveniently situated shootings has 
considerably increased of late years. Such, at least, 
is the constant complaint of German sportsmen; but, 
like all generalization, it must be taken cum grano salis. 
There is a priori no reason why rich men as a class 
should not derive as keen pleasure from shooting game 
and should not be as good sportsmen as men of mod- 
erate means or as those who have to work hard for 
their living. It is well to give weight to this argu- 
ment, for it cannot be denied that in general, if wealth 
be directed to the preservation of game, sport must 
inevitably gain very considerably therefrom. Among 
wealthy manufacturers and merchants there are as 
good shots and sportsmen to be found as among those 
feudal families who claim to have by birth the sole 
privilege to kill game. Most certainly you can count 
on the fingers of one hand the number of real sports- 
men among the crowned heads and scions of ruling 
sovereign families in Germany. The late King Albert 
of Saxony was among the number, but Kaiser William 
is not what one would call a "lover of sport," nor 
was his father, nor his grandfather before him. On 
the other hand, many of the highest nobility of Ger- 
many and of the large landowners are strict preservers 
of game, and are second to none as sportsmen. The 
royalties have their big battues, and their parties for 
the most part consist of shooters only, clad in forester's 
green. The Kaiser is an excellent shot, but he does 
not care for sport as such. He shoots hares with an 
i8-bore gun specially made for him, and seldom misses. 
It has been noted that he never makes his hares turn 
a somersault like other good shots; they always fall 
flat on the ground. 
While the sovereign princes of Germany, with the 
aid of the gentlemen of their courts, are slaughtering 
the required annual number of big game — deer and wild 
boar — their subjects are occupied with hare driving. 
These drives take place for the most part in the months 
of October, November and December. Hare shooting 
opens in September and closes in January, but it is 
very rightly considered to be unsportsmanlike to hold 
a drive so early as September, and it is generally un- 
wise to shoot hare too long in January. In September 
the mother hare generally still carries milk, and the 
disposition to breed commences very early in the year, 
quite irrespective of the temperature out of doors. It 
is a thousand pities that the close time is not pushed 
on to Oct. I. The close times for game vary accord- 
ing to the different States, and, funnily enough, some 
of them make a difference between forest hares and 
field hares. It thus happens that in the beginning of 
the season you can shoot a hare out in the stubble, 
but not in the adjoining forest. Red tape legislators 
never see what is as plain as a haystack to ordinary 
people! Of course, it constantly happens that a forest 
hare comes out on to the stubble or the meadow to 
feed when it is no longer close time for the field hare. 
What is one to do? Perhaps the sportsman has not 
seen him issue from the shade of the trees, and yet 
the quarry is a forest hare" right enough, although 
€11 voyage. 
In Germany hares are generally shot in circular 
drives in November and December, and, provided there 
are none of your careless shots about, there need be 
no fear of danger. Unfortunately, these are not to be 
blotted out from the face of the earth, so that guns 
and beaters occasionally get a sprinkling of shot either 
direct in the legs or body or some grains in the face 
that have ricochetted from the ground. There are the 
circular drives in the opea.» and. the sa-called Stand- 
