^88 ^ ^ FOREST AND STREAM, [Sept. 6, 1902. 
ine when I am laid tip for repairs, that one time I went 
'coon hunting. 
It happened in Michigan, as I have intimated, many- 
years ago, Uiat business and a pretty pair of brown eyes 
called me quite often to a small but interesting business 
center, and I should say, in explanation of my impolite- 
ness in mentioning business before eyes, that I got the 
business, but the brown eyes got away, and I'm not sure 
that that 'coon hunt, or the subsequent consequences had 
not something to do with it. A 'coon cuts some queer 
pranks, 3'et in this case I at least respect him. 
In the course of my visits I naturally met some of the 
local sporting fraternity, among others her brother, and 
it was proposed to take the "Quaker tenderfoot" 'coon 
hunting. The party consisted of her brother, an aquatic 
athlete ; a journeyman lawA'cr, the hotel proprietor's son 
Dick, and myself. Accompanying us were two dogs, one 
gun, two axes, a baseball bat and one lantern. About 
two miles from town on a lovely highway we had a dog 
fight nearly to a finish (and I have always regretted I 
didn't finish it and then call the owner of that dog up 
out of bed and lick him for owning such a brute), in con- 
sequence of which we only had seven good legs under 
our two dogs for some days to come. 
^ About two miles further on we took to cover, and in a 
little while our four-legged dog was "opening up" beau- 
tifully, and we after him and the three-legged one after 
us. I was carrying the gun (I felt safer that way) 
when I took a header over an old log that marked me and 
that gun both for life. The gun was broken; I was only 
bent and barked, both badly; however, I waded on into 
that gloom and dense atmosphere in the wake of a skunk 
that our sound dog was just hazing. 
Soon, however, our athletic friend had the dog in 
hand (being impervious to small things), and got him 
headed_ the other way, and in a short while he struck the 
real thing and treed a 'coon. Here consider the sagacity 
of a 'coon. That fellow had as pretty a collection of 
trees to select from as ever made a forest, and he just 
took to the meanest one in that county. I have forgotten 
what breed of a tree it was, but I do remember how high 
it was, and I shall never forget how thick it was, and I'll 
never forget how tough it was. It would have taken a 
"Steeple Jack" to climb it. So that just left us the alter- 
native of going through it, and the ax began to swing. It 
was glorious, invigorating, perspiring, blistering sport. 
How the echoes of those manly strokes went reverberating 
from tree to tree, clack clacking, calling back as they 
passed on into nothingness. 
Now that aged monument of time stood near a worm 
fence; and on a rise of ground a quarter of a mile 
away stood a farmhouse, in its peaked, puckered-up out- 
lines looking deserted and haunted in the moonbeams; 
and to prevent surprises we posted Dick on the fence as 
a sentry, not to challenge, only to warn (us). Well, 
about the time that tree was ready to fall, her brother 
collared the dogs, gathered in the pieces of gun, and 
collected the lantern, while the oarsman and I put in our 
last strokes with our last breath on the tree. It must have 
been the fall of the tree that woke Dick up, and revealed 
to his senses (what he had) a six-foot, raw-boned Michi- 
gan farmer with anger up, witlwn ten feet of him, coming 
head on. I have heard the whoop of an Indian and of a 
ferry boat in distress; but I have never heard anything 
quite so nerve-rattling as Dick's screech. It all came in 
a heap, the tree, Dick and the howling dogs. Pande- 
monium reigned; the 'coon struck for a stream and the 
dogs after him, and we after the dogs, through briers, over 
stumps and fallen trees galore. The dogs caught the 
'coon in a run in about nine inches of water and were 
doing fine battle when the oarsman got in with his bat 
and closed business. Swinging the 'coon over his shoulder 
we pulled out for a pasture field, in the center of which 
we sat down to await developments, among them Dick. 
Hearing nothing and seeing nothing, we commenced hal- 
loing, and instead of quietly making his way to us, poor 
D ck would hello every time in return; and, of course, it 
did not take the sleuth long to locate Dick and grab 
him. and in that moment Dick's heart could not have 
nearer gone out of him had he committed murder. We 
heard the collision and knew its consequences. The 
farmer took Dick home with him to hold as a ransom for 
his timber. We couldn't go home without him, so we 
followed and reconnoitered. It revealed Dick and his 
captor sitting in the kitchen with a candle between them 
eating apples. So we knocked and "gave ourselves up," 
told the "granger to come to town in the morning and 
we would pay for the tree. He set up the cider and 
some good apples, and we pushed for town, some four 
miles away. 
Next day, according to agreement, we all met our friend 
of the timber at the hotel and proceeded to dispense our 
hospitality in earnest; entertained him for dinner, learned 
something about farming we didn't know, and unraveled 
our several repertoires of stories, and had "just one 
more," until about 4 P. M. we loaded our friend in his 
Avagon. and he assured us that we could have all the 
derned timber on his place, and his neighbor's place, too ; 
"and they's alius a jug o' cider and a barrel of apples 
open to j'ou." And. stra'nge as it may seem, after he had 
gone, some of us felt as though we owned most of that 
country, including its trees, her brother being the biggest 
shareholder — and I was blamed for his enriched condition. 
Of atl the words on tongue or pen, 
The saddest are these, it might have been. 
Thos. Elmer. 
Wei] QtiWied fof the PosHlon, 
/'ram the Duluih News-Tribune, 
An aristocratic woman, who has had the usual number of failures 
in the way of domestics, having tried nearly every nationality, heard 
the oiher day that a number of girls had come here from Finland 
to seek employment as servants, and that they were highly re- 
commended rts strong, intelligent, capable and generally excellent 
help. With high hope, the houselceeper hied her to the office 
where these paragons were on exhibition, and was soon brought 
face to face with n brawny specimen, who could not speak a word 
of Enelish. With the aid ol an interpreter, the following con- 
versation took placet 
"Can you cook?" 
"Oh. ,no" 
"Carf vou wash and iron?" 
"No."' , , 
"Can you sweep and dust, or clean the bouse?" ' 
"I have never done anything like that." 
"For goodness' sakel exclaimed the astonished matron to the 
interpreter, "ask her what she can do." 
With calmness and complacency, the f^ply ptxoK back. "I can 
jinl!< reindeer!" ' ' 
IThe Old Flint-Lock Musket. 
Rummaging the other day in the back attic of m3' 
memory, among the dust and cobwebs of early recoUec- • 
tioiis, some of which I had thought, hoped at least, were 
obliterated, I stumbled across a long-forgotten remem- 
brance which, on brushing up a bit, became almost as 
fresh and bright as when it was first relegated to the 
limbo of temporary obscurity; it was that of an old flint- 
lock musket, designated in the olden time as a "Queen's 
Arm." 
There was a tradition in the days when the old gun 
was a palpable entity, that a certain Uncle Chet. had 
carried that self-same weapon when he "fit the Britishers" 
in the days of '76. In the minds of us youngsters there 
y/as a more or less firmly rooted conviction that our en- 
joyment of the "certain unalienable rights of life, liberty 
and the pursuit of happiness" was largely due to that 
weapon and the "man behind the gun." A sort of halo 
of liberty seemed to hover over that homely aggregation 
of wood, iron and flint. A more impressive sentiment, 
however, was one engendered by the terrific racket which 
it made when some older, and hence more favored mem- 
ber of the household, fired it ofif. 
Equal jn degree, and greater in effect, were the senti- 
ments with which mother regarded the gui}. Fear tinc- 
tured the views that she entertained, impelling the issu- 
ance of an ukase, absolute and prohibitive, touching the 
attitude of "us boys" thereto. This deterrent pronimcia- 
mento invested the situation with a charm that we longed 
but never dared to break. When, on all too rare occa- 
sions,_ a warning clatter from the henhouse betokened the 
invasion of a predatory hawk into the normal peaceful- 
ness of the feathered preserves, father or an elder brother 
v.oitld proceed to load the gun, then stalk stealthily to 
behind the barn, in an ever vain anticipation of "getting a 
shot," with what sentiments of almost awe and rever- 
ence did we regard the weapon's custodian; and we would 
wax impatient at the more than snail-like pace of time 
which debarred us from the privilege. 
The hens reassured and quiet restored, the old gun 
v/ould be returned to its resting place in the woodhouse 
corner. At rare intervals, against the almost tearful ma- 
ternal protest, the gun would be permitted to retain its 
load. _ Upon such occasions mother would reiterate her 
standing injunction, impressing it upon us with the added 
force of contingent penalties. With what wonderful in- 
terest did this element of danger and its proscriptions in- 
vest that old firearm ! From a simply interesting bit of 
mechanism it now became transformed into a potent, 
death-dealing embodiment of concrete power, about which 
we hovered and feasted our eyes, speculating as to what 
probable results would attend possible inisadventures. 
such as the cat jumping on it and knocking it over! 
Deliberative sessions of this character would be usually 
dissolved by maternal motion, and its members ignomini- 
ously scattered. 
Unwritten history maintains that the musket originally 
came from Holland, in the company of a goodly body of 
adventurers, on the staunch ship William and Mary; also 
that it played a not inconsiderable part in the civilization 
of the New England Indians in the early days of that 
colony. Certain suggestive nicks engraved upon the 
curly maple stock were construed as a tally sheet of the 
Indians it had "civilized." According to this record, the 
number of aborigines thus "made good" lacked but one 
of three-fourths of a score, and it was by no means the 
least interesting feature of the weapon. As an imagina- 
tive youngster, I was wont to weave a separate and in- 
dividual romance round about each specific nick, investing 
it with such gruesome details as, to my original intelli- 
gence, best appertained to mortal strife. 
However'much credence these traditions were, in jus- 
tice, worthy of, they served to invest the old gun with an 
associate value that was keenly appreciated by those to 
whom they were familiar. In one of these individuals the 
knowledge aroused such an intense longing to possess 
himself of the war-like relic that he approached an elder 
brother of mine with a fine, new fowling-piece, of the 
most approved pattern, offering the same for the old flint- 
lock for the consideration of a bushel of potatoes "to 
boot." _ My brother acc^ted the proposition with alacrity 
and, without the formality of consulting higher authority, 
made the trade. Father no sooner heard of the transac- 
tion, however, than the esteem in which he held the old 
flint-lock was _ made forcibly apparent and negotiations 
were nullified in short order. 
And so the old gun resumed its wonted corner, with 
the added security of a revised paternal prohibition, ad- 
dressed to all the boys of the household, hedging it round 
about. The flight of the years eventually brotight a 
period of my existence in which I felt old enough and 
venturous enough to encroach upon forbidden ground, and 
to _shoot_ the proscribed old flint-lock. Of course the 
anticipation of an act of such stupendous import involved 
many hours of grave cogitation and no little preparation 
as to ways and means. I fixed ttpon a certain July 4 as 
the date of my projected infringement of the parental 
gun law. I managed to acquire a quantity of powder 
(that proved to be blasting powder) without the knowl- 
edge of any in the household; even my brothers were 
excluded from the secret. Fortune favored me, in that I 
was permitted to have a bed all to myself on the night 
of July 3, the excessive heat affording an unsuspected 
pretext for advancing my claim thereto. Barely had the 
final stroke of 12 o'clock died away when I stole softly 
down the stairs, realizing for the first time in life what 
was meant by one's "heart getting in his throat." Not a 
loose board protested nor a door squeaked, in the stereo- 
t\-ped manner of the story books, and I reached the wood- 
house, secured the gun and escaped without disturbing a 
member of the sleeping household. A glorious full moon 
made the night almost as bright as midday, and I lost 
no time in getting to the secluded spot of prior selection. 
My hand trembled so that I could hardly measure out 
what I esteemed as the proper amount of powder, while 
all the fates of disobedient boys in all of the* story books I 
ever had read, crowded in upon my mind most embar- 
sassingly. Nevertheless, I finally succeeded in getting the 
gun loaded, primed it with a bit of fine powder that I had 
purloined from the home horn, took a firm "rest" across 
a convenient fence rail, shut my eyes and pulled the trig- 
ger. True to tradition and an established habit of that 
partiqyl^r g«n, the flint cli^lc?^ upon the pan steel vrith m 
further result. Again and again I repeated this prelimi- 
nary function, gaining courage as each successive trial 
produced no more alarming consequences than the sharp 
click of flint upon steel. At last, however, there was a 
spark, a flash, and, instead of the anticipated explosion, a 
terribly smoky and hissing demonstration of fireworks. 
This was something new on my expected programme and 
I dropped the gun and ran behind a tree, whence I ven- 
tured to cast furtive glances at the fiery fountain, wonder- 
ing what had bewitched the old flint-lock, and half-fearing 
it was a retributive judgment on my disobedience. With 
a final splutter, the vesuvian demonstration ceased and I 
was enabled to asccii-iin that the charge (because of the 
powder being damp) had blown out through the vent, 
after the manner of a fire rocket. Then I was compelled 
to take one of my elder brothers into my confidence to get 
assistance to dig out the wadding, which I had rammed 
most vigorously into the long gun. I was forced to un- 
dergo a most unmerciful "rigging" for some time there- 
after, the others of the family wondering what signifi- 
cance _ attached to my brother's allusions to "fireworks" 
and kindred themes when I was present. 
But "the ice was broken," so to speak, and it was not 
long until I felt sufficiently courageous to break the 
parental prohibition and take out the old gun with the 
coveted freedom I had so long envied in my elder 
brothers. With what ad'niration I regarded that old 
weapon as I reflected uprn the marvelous, yea, almost 
inconceivable, strides taken by man's inventive faculties 
which had resulted in its evolution from the sling and 
cross-bow of historic days. True, I had heard of the 
"percussion Ipck" that was said to eclipse the flint and 
steel mechanism ; but I failed to conceive how it was 
possible to construct anything more perfect in its opera- 
tion than the firing machinery of that self-same war- 
like institution that I clung to so loyally. To be sure the 
old flint and steel lock sometimes, oftener than other- 
wise, in fact, failed to meet the anticipations of the would- 
Le shooter, remaining quiet when a noisy demonstration 
had been planned and looked forj but this, I argued, 
gladly condoning the seeming dereliction, was due rather 
to the setting of the flint than to any mechanical flaws. 
Bitt the time soon came, however, when I was com- 
pelled to concede to \\\f rfrcussion lock its due superior- 
ity over the flint-lock. ill- something of the sentiment, 
I imagine, that leads Av^'^'es to slaughter and consume a 
wounded comrade. I no ' oner detected a loss of prestige 
in the old flint-lock than I underwent a radical change of 
heart and rated it as a clumsy imposition. In fact, I 
experienced such an antipathy toward it that I wrenched 
the barrel from the stock and determined to blow it out 
of its similitude to a gun barrel. I took a chum into 
my confidence and we fixed upon the coming Fourth of 
July, but a few days distant, to execute the intention. 
Very early in the morning, while all the country-side was 
yet wrapped in slumber, we went to a lofty, rockv emi- 
nence, taking the gun barrel, a half-pound canister of 
finest rifle powder, a quantity of plaster of paris, paoer 
and matches. Emptying the Contents of the canister into 
the barrel, followed by a paper wad. we moistened the 
plaster and rammed it down in small installments, until 
it came within about a foot of the muzzle, a solid obstruc- 
tion. Near the summit of the ledge was a huge rock 
which rested upon a solid rock base and which some big 
convulsion had split vertically. The two sections were 
separated several inches, and into this crevice we inserted 
the gun barrel, the muzzle down and resting firmly upon the 
base rock. Over the breech pan we placed a strip of paper, 
putting a little heap of powder on it, directly over that in 
the pan. Applying a match to one end of the paper we 
ran to the shelter of an overhanging rock and awaited 
developments. Nor did we wait long ; soon there came a 
detonation that echoed among the Mils and re-echoed 
through the silent woodland, followed by the cackling of 
fowls and the lowing of kine roused by this untoward 
demoristration. The morning air was heavy with smoke 
and stifling with the fumes of nitre as we emerged from 
cur shelter and proceeded to look" for souvenirs of the 
event. Of a sudden, with a mighty swish and a blood- 
curdling shriek, something came down from the o'er- 
canopying blackness and half buried itself in the rocky 
hillside. It was the old gun barrel, and, when we pulled 
it out, we found that, aside from scratches superficially 
received, it was perfectly uninjured. The force of that 
ti-emendous charge of powder, expended upon the un- 
yielding surface of solid rock, had, by its recoil, sent the 
barrel, like a mighty arrow, some thousands of feet up 
into the circumambient ether. Where, among latter day 
stub and twist or chokebores, can a barrel be found that 
would survive such a test? 
Samuel Mansfield Stone. 
Kansas Prairie Chickens. 
Leavenworth, Kan., Aug. 27. — A hunting party, of 
which A. Maduska, D. R. Anthony, Jr.,. Albert Schill- 
ing and Carl Schilling were members, returned yester- 
day from western Kansas with a bag of 51 prairie 
chickens. The chicken shooting has not been satisfac- 
tory this year, many other hunters returning with empty 
bags. While on this trip Mr. Maduska had a narrow 
escape from serious injury or possible death by the burst- 
ing of his gun. Maduska's dog had just pointed a 
covey of chickens. As the birds raised Maduska downed 
one bird with the right barrel and covering a second bird 
pulled the trigger. At the discharge of the gun the 
shooter reeled back, badly stunned. Upon investigation 
it was found that the gun had burst at the breech. A 
large piece of the metal flew off and went whistling 
through the air with the noise of a piece of shrapnel, 
so says Charles Kulp, who was standing by Maduska 
when the explosion occurred. 
That Mr. Maduska escaped serious injury was a piece 
of great good fortune. He has been an ardent sports- 
man for the past 40 years and never before had such 
an accident. Curiously enough, the shot which caused 
the gun to burst also killed a prairie chicken. 
All oommtinications intended for Forest and Strkau should 
always be addressed to th^ Forest and Stream Publishing Co., Nen/ 
Yorle, and aot ta aa| ^djiyic^ connected ^nth ^% lp*^<t 
