Sept, 6, 1902,] 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
189 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
The Shootirg Seascn. 
Chicago. Aug. 29. — A sudden drop has taken place 
in the angling ardor of this community, and instead of 
going fishing everybody now is getting ready to go 
shooting. I do not know where all the bird dogs come 
from, but T have seen more in the last two days than 
for the last six months put together before that time. 
I , As nearly as can be told there is going to be an un- 
usually large exodus of chicken and duck shooters Sept. 
T. It seems to be the general belief that we are not go- 
ing to have much chicken shooting in Illinois this year, 
and our duck shooters practically agree that we cannot 
count on much shooting at ducks in this part of the 
world any more. 
I presume that there ate some localities In Illinois 
where very descent chicken shooting will be had, but 
of those who arc making preparations now for a chicken 
shoot, a very large proportion are figuring on going 
outside of this State. One party of more than twenty 
shooters from different portions of the State of Michi- 
gan stopped off here in Chicago yesterday and are go- 
ing on west to-morrow. Nearly all of these gentlemen 
will shoot in South Dakota at dififerent points, a good 
many of them going out along the line of the Milwau- 
kee and St. Paul Railway. There will also be .a good 
many shooters who will go to Minnesota for their open- 
ing hunt. Wisconsin will get its usual proportion, and 
it is to be said that there is much better chicken hunt- 
ing in Wisconsin than is generally known or advertised. 
I have not heard from my old chicken shooting com- 
panion, Mr. Neal Brown, of Wausau, Wis., this fall, but 
suppose that he has no chickens this year, or that he 
has no chicken dog. I am afraid the old meat dog 
of my old friend, Jim Varncy, at Babcock, has passed 
in his checks before now. 
The Crop. 
It is too early as yet to make any confident predic- 
tions in regard to the chicken crop. The impression is 
that it is as good as it has been tor the last two or 
three years over most of the West. It is perhaps bet- 
ter in Minnesota than it has been for many years. There 
will be a few birds left in Iowa, but Iowa is not a model 
of excellence in the enforcement of game laws. South 
Dakota will have as many birds as it had last year. The 
law in North Dakota is not stringently enforced, but 
there will be birds in most of the old places in that State. 
I do not hear much from Nebraska or Kansas, and 
think that the prairie chicken is not so prominent there 
as it was a few vears ago. Mr. Jason C. Clark, of Okla- 
homa City, O. T., tells me that he' nsed to live in Kan- 
sas until a year or so ago, and was instrumental in the 
framing of the Kansas game law, subject, of course, to 
the amendments of the Legislature, as is always in- 
evitable. MrT Clark says that there are no prairie chick- 
ens now left in lower Kansas, but states that in his newly 
adopted home of Oklahoma they have rattling good 
ch'cken shooting. He asks me to come down and prove 
the truth ofthrs" assertion, and naturally I wish I might 
have one more hunt in the beautiful Indian Nations 
country, where I used to shoot chickens years ago. 
D»g Trafnzfs ia Okldhoma. 
Mr. Clark adds that, although they have a great many 
prairie chickens left in Oklahoma, he can see the early 
finish of the b'rds in that reg'on also, in spite of the 
efforts of a great many citizens to break up the illegal 
shooting of game in that territory. He states that much 
of the destruction of the game there is done by "soon- 
ers." whose numbers are.. largely made up of dog train- 
ers froni the Southern Statt.'^. He says that last week 
a party of 12 dog trainers from Mississippi with more 
than 30 dogs, passed through Oklahoma City in search 
of chicken co,untr3\ It hardly need be stated that these 
men killed very large numbers of bir:ls before the sea- 
son opened. Not all of them did work of that kind, but 
some of them did. We had a verj^ good instance of 
that kind reported in Fojrest and Stream of last week 
from the State of Miimesota. Nothing but good work 
at game law enforcement by the local men can break up 
this "sooner" shooting, and it is much to be hoped that 
the men of Oklahoma will lock the door of their game 
stable before and not after the horse is stolen. 
Testing Mtchfgaij Export Law. 
Early last spring William Van Pelt, of Wayne County, 
Mich., was convicted of having wild ducks in his pos- 
session for the purpose of shipping the same out of the 
State. The case was appealed to the Michigan Supreme 
CoCirt, which took the ground, now well supported by 
many precedents in other States, that the State owns 
the game and has a right to restrict its taking and use. 
Van Pelt appealed from the Supreme Court of Michigan 
to the Supreme Court of the United States, the case go- 
ing up on Aug. 25. This case is one of very great in- 
terest to all sportsmen and to all legally or personally 
concerned with matters of game protection. It has 
been stated in my hearing in dozens of instances that 
the State of Michigan dared not undertake to enforce 
the law prohibiting the export of fish and game. The 
result of this case will, it is to be hoped, put an end to 
this sort of talk. This case, unfortunately, does not 
cover the question of carrying game out of the State, as 
:it is understood tliat Van Pelt intended to ship his game 
and not carry it with him. None the less, the decision 
■of the U. S. Supreme Court will be awaited with much 
interest. Gradually the game laws of the United States 
;are gaining definiteness and acquiring respect. 
"Where Shall They Go? 
Mr. Sam J. Ryan, of .'\ppleton, Wis., wants some 
good readers of Poorest and Stream to help him frame 
UP a trip for next year. The readers of Forest and 
Stream know everything in the world that is worth 
knowing, and I feel sure that Mr. Ryan will get the in- 
formation he desires. Ills letter follows: 
"Mr. P. M. Conkey and self are planning a long 
i^iuioe trip f^rf next yei^r ^ifl4 waot some pointers. We 
want to hear from parties who have made trips on the 
Albany, Rainy and English rivers northwest of Lake 
Superior; also, would like to hear from those who have 
made trips on waters in northern Minnesota and on the 
Ottawa and Gatineau rivers." 
In the Dry Southwest. 
Mi\ M. S. Taliaferro, now of Watseka, 111., came into 
my office one day this week and stirred me all up. 
Mr. Taliaferro and I used to be mixed up in ncAvspaper 
work and other things down in White Oaks, New Mex- 
ico, something like a quarter of a century ago. He is 
now just on his way for a visit to White Oaks, which 
point he left some years ago, when all of us had to walk 
out of town. He has a brother living down in that coun- 
try, and thus knows considerable of what has been go- 
ing on in that far off corner of the world as the years 
liave been rolling by. I want to go down there some 
lime and i-^visit the old places which T knew, but I am 
afraid I shall find a country much changed and hardly 
so interesting to-day. Mr. Taliaferro tells me that some 
of my old friends are dead, and a good many of them 
are in the penitentiary. One of them is postmaster at 
Las Vegas; one has made a fortune in cattle ranching; 
another has got rich out of a mine which we all thought 
was worthless; another one has been to Congress a 
couple of time. One who was at one time rich is now 
clerking in a grocery store in Chicago; and so on, and 
so on, Most of the boys who stuck it out have made 
their pile long ago, and I reckon Taliaferro and I 
missed ]t when we walked out of White Oaks. We used 
t ) have to ride 90 miles by stage. Now the Rock Island 
road lias built within six miles of the town and has a 
station on the Carizozo stock ranch, where Jimmie Al- 
cock and I used to hunt antelope, before Jimmie went 
back to England. Another railroad runs from El Paso 
close to White Oaks. Lincoln County, which used to 
be about as Kg as the whole State of Pennsylvania, is 
now cut up into three counties. Old Whiteman, the Jew, 
is replaced by a number of modern merchandizers. The 
town has got plum quiet, and nobody down in that part 
of the world is now allowed to wear his six shooter! 
These surely must be changes, my countrymen, and 
they mark the changes which have gone on all over the 
W^est. This part of New Mexico twenty years or so ago 
was about as remote from civilization as any in the 
United States. You see what it is to-day. I am afraid 
I should be a very sad man if I went down to my old 
stamping grotinds. 
And yet there might be some trout and turkeys down 
in the far Southwest even to-day. My friend tells me 
that a party of hunters brought in a wagon load of 
antelope one day this year. The trout fishing over^ on 
the Riodoso, on the Mescallero Apache Reservation, 
is said still to be good. My old friend and roommate, 
McDonald, now manager of the Carizozo stock ranch, 
has plenty of horses and buck-boards these days, as well 
as a wife and some children, none of which he had when 
I last saw him 20 years ago. Another old friend, Jim 
Nabours. once foreman of the Carizozo, after a big ex- 
perience in ranching for himself, now has a ranch over 
toward the Nogals. Others of the boys are scattered 
here, there and everywhere all over the territory. I be- 
lieve if I should go down in there I could get a place 
to sleep once in a while, and someone to go fishing or 
antelope hunting with me. Quie-n sabe? 
Quien sabe? — I think I will quit right here. That old 
Spanish phrase was one which one heard continually 
down at White Oaks, but I have not heard it up here 
for more than twenty years. This is a shore funny 
world, but on some occasions not altogether as good 
as it might be. 
A Notable Camera Httntcr. 
Hon. Geo. Sliiras, 3d, of Pittsburg, recently passed 
through this city on his way home after a sojourn at 
liis camp in northern Michigan. Mr. Shiras has this season 
ciilarged his famous collection of game photographs by 
laany other beautiful specimens. He has now what is 
perhaps the most complete and beautiful collection of 
photographs of wild game animals ever made in this 
part of the country. There are many sportsmen of 
America who would be glad to see this series published 
in accessible form, and Mr. Shiras has made some rash 
promises looking in that direction. 
Forestry Convention, 
Aug. 29. — At the convention of the American Forestry 
Association at Lansing, Mich., yesterday. Gen. C. C. An- 
drews, chief fire warden of Minneapolis, read a paper 
on the Minnesota system of preventing and checking 
forest fires. Other addresses were made by Dr. Gif- 
ford. of the New York State College of Forestry; H. 
B. Ayres, of Carleton, Minn.; Frank G. Miller, of the 
Bureau of Forestry; W. C, Winchester, of Grand 
Rapids; H. H. Chapman, of the Minnesota experiment 
farm; Grand Master G. B. Horton, of the Michigan 
State Grange; Gov. A. T. Bliss, and State Land Com- 
missioner Wildey. 
St. Paul, Minn., Aug. 30. — The baggagemen of the 
Union Depot here say they never saw the like of the 
hunting travel. "There's more going out this year than 
all that had gone out of here in the last three years," 
said one baggage hustler to me. 
I met here this morning Mr. Richard Merrill, of Mil- 
waukee, who was just having an interview with State 
Warden Sam Fullerton about a shooting permit. Dick 
had a nice box full of dogs, some likely looking gun 
cases, etc. 'T'd hate to have my men confiscate this 
outfit," said Mr. Fullerton, "but we've, sworn in a big 
lot of men and they will enforce the license law. Dick 
had a permit. I think Sam was sorry. It does him good 
to annex a good $400 gun and a crate of dogs once in 
a while. 
By the way, Mr. Fullerton and T are going up to 
Fergus F"alls to see our old friend, Jimmie Jones, who 
has about 8,000 acres solid full of prairie chickens 
waiting for us. Five dogs — good, cool weather — oh, I 
don't know! 
Mr. and Mrs. Shattuck .of Minneapolis, are inaugurat- 
ing a bad precedent in chicken hunting. They used to 
tour in a. hunting wagon. This year it is an automobile. 
They have started for South Dakota and will follow 
closely the line of the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad. 
If it is getting to be necessary to use an automobile 
in chicken hunting, the pace is getting some swift for 
the dogs. But I suppose a modern field trial winner 
won't mind it. 
Among the Eastern sportsmen to make chicken hunt- 
ing expeditions into the West for the season now open- 
ing, is Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., 14 years of age, but ap- 
parently full heir to his father's love for field sports. 
The young hunter arrived in Chicago yesterday, and 
will, on the hunt, be the guest of H. R. McCullough, 
vice-president of the Chicago and Northwestern Rail- 
way; Marvin Hughitt, Jr., general freight manager of 
the same railway, and Mr. E. W. Cox, all of Chicago. 
The start will be made to-day for South Dakota, where 
a few days will be spent on the grouse stubbles. After 
that the party will return to northern Wisconsin, fish 
for a time in waters along the northwestern line. The 
first sporting trip of an Eastern boy into the West is 
something he never forgets all the rest of his life, and, 
although it will be relatively a very tame part of the 
West which Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., visits, there is little 
doubt he will enjoy himself. 
E. Hough. 
Hartford Building, Chicago. Ill, 
Bill Sewall and the President. 
Boston, Aug. 30. — Bill Sewall, of Island Falls, Me., is 
the envied of all the Maine guides to-day. He has been 
especially honored by President Roosevelt; called to the 
President's side by the President himself. Twenty-three 
years ago, Theodore Roosevelt, "a raw young chap," as 
Bill described him, came down to the camps of Bill in 
Maine and spent a hunting season with him. The next 
year he came again, and then again, till the yearly visit 
came to be a regular annual event. Later Mr. Roosevelt 
decided to start a hunting ranch in North Dakota, and 
nobody would do like Bill Sewall, his Maine guide and 
hunting friend, to manage it. Arrangements were com- 
pleted, and the camp was put in charge of Bill Sewall and 
his nephew, Wilmot Dow. Later Mrs. Sewall came, ac- 
companied l3y Mrs. Dow, to do the cooking and look after 
the men. Sixteen years ago the ranch was abandoned, and 
the Sewalls and Dows came back to Maine. Naturally 
they thought a great deal of Mr. Roosevelt, and Bill now 
declares that he always knew that he would be President 
some day. They had not seen him since they came back 
to Maine. When the President made up his mind to 
come to Bangor he sent a telegram to Bill to meet him, 
and one of the first things he did on leaving the train 
was to ask the chief of police if Bill Sewall, of Island 
Fall.s_, was in town. But nobody among the officials had 
seen such a man. At the conclusion of a short address 
from the steps of the Bangor House, the President said, 
by way of conclusion : "Now, I want to act the part of 
town crier for a moment. I have a friend lost in the 
crowd. If anybody sees Bill Sew^all, of Island Falls, 
around this county, I wish they would say to him that I 
want him here to lunch with me." 
Some one shouted: "He's here now. Governor Powers 
has got him." It seems that Sewall and his wife and 
Mrs. Dow — Dow having died some years ago — had come 
to Bangor, in response to the President's telegram. But 
Bill, naturally feeling bashful about coming into the pres- 
ence of the President, had kept in the background, till 
Governor Powers had found him and dragged him for- 
ward, in response to the President's proclamation. 
"Indeed, I am glad to see you," said the President, shak- 
ing the hand of his old guide. 
"You're no gladder'n I be," replied Sewall. 
And there was a suspicion of moisture in the eyes of 
both men which lent pathos to the spoken words. 
"Are you glad you came?" some one asked Bill during 
the afternoon. 
"I was glad before I came," he dryly answered. 
"The last tiine I ate with Bill Sew.ill," explained the 
President to some of his friends at the luncheon, "we 
dined off a bit of boiled muskrat." 
"Muskrat isn't such very bad eatin'," saiJ Bill, 
"You remember that we had to eat it fo: want of any 
. other meat?" 
It seems that on that particular day the hi inters had 
traveled far, but had shot nothing but a muskrat. 
Mrs. Sewall and Mrs. Dow were presented latei, and a 
most pleasant meet.ng it was, with reminiscences and 
recollections of adventures almost forgotten by the Prcsi- 
, dent. Bill sat at the President's right hand at the luncheon 
where the big officials and their wives were assembled, and 
after all the old guide was glad that he came down to 
Bangor. "I wanted to see him," said Bill, and my wife 
she wanted to see him, and we're glad we came."- 
It seems that Mr. Roosevelt's appointment to the Civil 
Service Commission Avas the incident which led to the 
breaking up of the ranch. 
"He did not really want the place," said Bill. "He 
liked ranch life and lie could make more money from 
his books. I told hini he ought to take it, and I remem- 
ber I said at the time, 'Take it, it will lead up to other 
things. Some daj'- you'll be President.' 
"He thought I was joking him then, and he said: 
" 'You think more of me than I do of myself.' But 
what I said has come true, and he'll be our next Presi- 
dent, sure as you're born." Bill is a sort of David Harum, 
for quaintness, in his own town; postmaster and general 
good fellow. Special. 
Shipment of Wcstetn Game. 
We printed last week the Department of Agriculture 
circular respecting interstate commerce on birds and game. 
Paragraph 5, relating to Western game, has been revised 
and now reads as follows : 
(5) Western Game.— All the States and Territories 
west of the Mississippi River except six prohibit export of 
all game protected by local laws. Of the six exceptions, 
Louisiana and Texas prohibit export of all game except 
a few birds, while Arkansas, Missouri, Montana, and 
Wyoming either prohibit export of certain species or prac- 
tically cut off export trade in game by means of other re- 
strictions! Eastern dealers in ordering or receiving such 
game from these States encourage direct violations of 
local laws and may render themselves liable to the penal- 
ties provided for violating the Federal lavf., 
