Dec. 6, 1002.] 
FOREST ANb STREAM. 
481 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Gafiie La^ Matters in tiUnoisi 
CniCAGO, . Ill, Noy. 2cj. — Stite Game Cdniiiiissidner 
A. j. Lovejoy, of Roscoe, lll.j fa-^'-drs this office with 
the following- statement of matters and afffiirs con- 
nected ^yith his administration: . ■ ^ 
"To set you at rest regarding what the State Game 
CommissioneT is doing, I herewitli hand you a Httle 
synopsis of .the forthcoming report to the Governor. 
The cause of the delay in report is that it is almost im- 
possible to get a deputy warden to answer any cjues- 
tions regarding his work, and I wished to make the re- 
port as complete as possible. 
"At the commencement of my appointment there 
was in the State game fund the sum of $1,967. The 
last General Assembh^, in trying to revise the game 
la\v of Illinois, inadvertently left out the word "^quail,' 
which has caused some to attempt to kill them at all 
.<;easons, instead of waiting till Nov. 1 to Dec. 20. Not- 
withstanding this error in the .present law, we have 
sueceeded in protecting- thgrii h\\\f Ah well fts dtef.b^?- 
fore by, enforcing Section 29 of the law, which forbids 
aiiy. to hunt oh the lands of another without first prd- 
curing permission, etc.. under penalty of prosecution 
for trespass, T am reliably informed that there has 
been less violation than usual. . There has, however, 
been something over one hundred prosecutions for 
violations of the law during the fiscal year. In nearly 
every case we have been successful in fining the vio- 
lators. Beside these cases under the State law, the re- 
port shows that there has been seized under the Lacey 
?aw numerous packages of , game illegally shipped into 
the Statfe froril, States fdrijidding .the. shipitleril .df fanils 
bbyplid their borders,. As required by .this .law,, ihe 
game so seized has been sold for the benefit df the 
State Game Fund, except such portion as goes to the 
deputy making the seizure. The cases have been 
turned over to the U. S. Government for prosecution, 
and we are informed that Illinois stands at the head of 
the list of .States for this work, and has made the best 
record of any. The licenses granted to other States 
to hunt in Illinois during the open season have also 
been more than ever in the history of the law. The 
larger number coming from St. Louis, with Burling- 
ton, Hannibal, Quincy, Dubuque, Indiana, Wisconsin, 
etc., following. 
"To show that we are doing business and reporting 
the same, the game fund in the hands of the State 
Treasurer on Jimc i, 1902, showed a net balance of 
$6,204.90, instead of the small amount of $1,967, when 
the office was turned over to me. This was a net 
profit to the State of $4,237 over and above all ex- 
penses and salaries for the year. 
"I merely send you these figures to quiet j'-our 
nerves and to show that a game commissioner can 
attend to his busines and do right without running 
around to the newspapers telling of it. I have noticed 
two or three slurs about the game commissioner in 
)-our paper that were entirely uncalled for. Trust this 
will ease your mind till the complete report is out of 
the hands of the printer, and show_ that things are in 
good shape. 
"I am as anxious to see a better game law enacted 
as you are, and am trying to get the assistance of the 
.sportsmen in the matter, as I believe they are the best 
men to know what is best for the protection of game." 
I am sure these figures are received in proper spirit 
and promise Commissioner Lovejoy that no one will 
be unduly nervous. It is a matter of much congratu- 
lation to the commissioner to see the good financial 
showing. Cash on hand is always good. I am in 
ignorance of what is meant by "slurs about the game 
commissioner." I am sure there is no department in 
Forest and .STRE.^M which would not rather print 
J, raise than blame. The State game wardens can do 
no greater service to the cause of game protection 
than by giving publicity, not only in the sporting pa- 
pers, but in the daily papers of the country to all the 
workings of their offices. There are plenty of men 
who would rather pay a fine than be held up for criti- 
cism before the public. The power of the press in en- 
forcing the game laws of the country is well nigh us 
great to-day as the executive arm of the law itself, and 
it could be made much more powerful did the officers 
appointed to enforce that law avail themselves of the 
friendship and good offices of their natural allies, the 
newspapers. I know Commissioner Lovejoy will do 
this, and shall thank him always as now. 
The Law la Indiana. 
I had occasion to call attention to the ease with 
which one may borrow the non-resident license of a 
friend for the purpose of shooting in the State of In- 
diana. To-day I heard of another way in which to 
escape the penalty of this law. Say you want to spend 
a few days shooting on the Kankakee, where the duck 
shooting has been better this year than it has been 
anywhere else, and better than it has been for many 
jcars in the State of Indiana. Very well. You write 
to the office of the State game commissioner stating 
your real name and enclosing the fee for a resident 
license, and giving your address as Hammond, Ind. 
Then have your license sent in care of a certain friend 
at Hamraoird, Ind. When jovi go shooting your friend 
meets you at Hammond and hands you your license. 
.After i^ou are across the line you become a resident of 
Indiana. The wardens do not know you as anything 
but a resident, and naturally they do not want to take 
chances of making a mistake. In this way several 
Chicago men have made themselves residents of the 
State of Indiana for the time being. I simply call 
this to the attention of the State game warden, who 
is apparntly in ignorance of this state of affairs. 
Ducks. 
We have had an unusually good duck season and 
oire more than ordinarily long. There has' been no 
freeze up- at this latitude as yet sufficient to shut up 
the waters, and old marsh shooters say that the best 
Ot the shooting is yet to come. With this dictum I 
hardly agree, but belicA^e that one could expect good 
iHallard shooting along the open waters of th.e Kan- 
kakee quite up to the tin-^e of the final freeze. Out in 
Mimicsota, at the latitude of Si Paul, all th^ lakes 
have been frozeri for sonie time and the clucks hdve left 
that country. . ■ j j 
By tlie way, can anyone advise ine df good, duck and 
quail shooting in the State of, Arkansas, and can any- 
one tell me what is the attitude in that Sta^te to-day in 
regard to the non-resident shooter? I have under- 
stood that .Arkansas and Missouri are not hankering 
for nQn-resirlents. For sorhe reasons I do riot in thfe 
least blanie thcni. 
The License Law. 
There is considerable discussion in this part of the 
world now over the question of non-resident licenses. 
The situation has grown so urgent that shooters are 
not always bold enough to openly violate the laws of 
their sister States. Flence we hear the cry that the 
tton-resident license law is unconstitutional, that the 
State cannot charge a non-resident any more than it 
charges a resident, for the privilege of shooting, etc. 
This is open abandoii.merit of the doctrine that the li- 
cense fees go to swell the revenues of the game pro- 
tectors. I think, any one who knows the sentiment of 
the legislators of the Western States will agree that so 
soon as we imdertake.to put a gun tax of even 50 cents 
a gun, or a shooting license of even $10 on our statute 
books, we shall see every. game law wiped off of those 
statute books by the. hands of ,an irate Legislature. If 
you put the price down to $1 or $2, you will come 
near enough to doing this same thing; arid, if you 
make it an even price for shooters of all the different 
States, you will net. get enough money into your fund 
to materially btnefit you in the enforcement of the 
laws. , There ,are sonie who tliiiik tliat the non-resi- 
dent license laws .as they st^nd are good- Others 
would like to see the nonTresi,dent tax hot above $10 in 
each State. Others again, begin to howl that they 
want.no tax at all. I am afraid that the trduble with 
the great North American citizen John Jones, is that 
he wants protection for John Jones, but not for the 
game birds. The American people do not deserve to 
have any game, and the probability is that they will 
not long have any. 
The Deer Season. 
As I wrote last week from St. Paul, the returns 
from the deer hunters had not at that time begun fully 
to Goiiie in, Since then many of the hunting parties 
have come out of the woods, and they for the most 
part bring with them substantial proof of the abund- 
ance of game in Minnesota. Early last week one 
Great Northern train brought down 128 deer to the 
city of St. Paul. On board that train was one party 
made up of Frank Nordstrom, Gus Rylander and F. 
Nelson, who were returning from a trip of two weeks 
in the country between Vermillion and Rainy Lake. 
The)' had one moose, nine deer, two bears, and 125 
partridges. Now, if any of our Canadian or Maine 
friends want a little record, they might cast their eyes 
this way. I fully believe that Minnesota is as good a 
game country as Maine, were it equally well systema- 
tized, mapped, tabulated and ticketed. 
Two St. Paul policemen came down last week from 
a hunt in northern Minnesota, and each of then had 
a good moose, with good antlers. This is the third 
hunt which these men have made in Minnesota, and 
they have got a moose each time. Well posted hunt- 
ers of St. Paul insist that it is as safe a proposition 
to get a moose in Minnesota as it is anywhere on 
earth. 
In Wisconsin the deer law seems to work fairly well, 
at least in the city of Milwauke;c. Mayor Rose, of 
Milwaukee, was out hunting last week and brought 
home with him a nice deer, which was left in the ex- 
press office by the mayor when he arrived in Mil- 
waukee. The next morning he sent his license and 
an order for the deer to the express office, in care of 
his butcher. The game warden was at the office and 
refused to honor the order of the mayor of the city, 
so the latter had to go down to the office and check up 
like anybody else. These Milwaukee wardens have 
been very vigilant and have gotten themselves very 
much disliked by reason of their efficiency. There 
have been several cases of game taken from parties 
coming through to Chicago, and they have come 
pretty near establishing a reign of terror among the 
un regenerate. 
Not so much could be said for some of the settle- 
ments further north in the State of Wisconsin. A 
Stevens .Point, Wis., dispatch has this to say as to a 
seizure lately made at that point: 
Utter disregard of the game laws has characterized 
the operations of hunters and game dealers in the cen- 
tral and northern part of the State. Several large 
confiscations have been made, but the largest one was 
made in this city yesterday by Game Warden Brown, 
in which he secured more than 400 pounds of part- 
ridges and venison. The find was made in searching 
a Wisconsin Central refrigerator car. One consign- 
ment of 250 pounds was billed from Spencer as 
"dressed poultry," to Lepm.an & Haege, Chicago. One 
barrel was packed at the top and bottom with domes- 
tic geese, but in the middle were twenty-eight part- 
ridges. Another consignment of "dressed poultry" 
billed from Colby to T. J. Holing, Chicago, consisted 
almost wholly of partridges. Saddles of venison to 
the amount of 100 pounds were found disguised as 
"veal." The confiscated goods were tagged as contra- 
band of law, and promptly sold on the local market, 
the proceeds being sent to the State warden at Madi- 
son. 
Deaths Among Deer Hunters. 
Thus far I have heard of several deer hunters killed 
and sixteen wounded in the States of Wisconsin and 
Michigan this fall. It is not pretended that this list 
is in the least complete. There are many sportsmen 
who do not care to go deer hunting in .the northern 
woods of these States during the present reign of ter- 
ror. The pine woods region of Michigan and Wiscon- 
sin in the deer season is a kingdom of fools. 
A man from Montrose, Mich., by the name of 
Chaurtcey Streeter, went out from his hunting camp 
and failed to rgturri. His companions hunted for him 
for oyer a week, and cit last he wais discovered, 
wounded, iri a logging canip some rrtiles away, where 
he was being cared for. He had teeh picke'a up itl 
the woods, shot through thfe thigh hf so'hie imktictwti 
party. 
Big D^ef Stoty, 
Mr. Sam Ryan, of Appletori, Wis., halnds m(e the" ioi- 
lowing story from the Merrill Advocate: 
"While out hunting deer one day last week Kiiut 
Severson, of 1404 East Main street, ran on to five 
bucks engaged in mortal combat. Mr. Severson was 
attracted to the scene by a g'reat commotion, and 
walked up within easy range of the enraged denizens 
of the forest. After looking at the battle a short timS 
he took aim and felled on'e to the ground. The buck 
had no sooner fallen than another buck picked the 
dead on his horns and threw him high iii the air. Mr. 
Severson again fired and brought down another otie. 
The rest then discovered the hunter and took to the 
woods. Mr. Severson says that but for the fact that 
he was so interested in the furious fight he might have 
killed the whole bunch." 
It is to be regretted that Mr. Severson overlooked 
his opportunity to kill five deer with interlocked horns. 
Mr. Ryan says that this account frorn the North 
equals the. alligator war story which Gsfptain LiCfWe 
used to relate down at Fort Myfers, Fla. 
Qaail. 
Nothing much is doing iri the quail regloris of ikh 
State, our shooters coming back with reports of, very 
moderate bags. The Michigan season is practically at 
an end, and I do not hear of anything very startling 
done by those of our Chicago sportsmen who have 
gone around the lake. Mr. W. B. Mershon, of Sagi- 
naw, reports a. trip with six friends into a new part- 
ridge country iii that State, which panned out pretty 
well, eight or ten birds per day to the gun regularly. 
Mr. Mershon also says tjiat a frierid of his and two 
others killed two moo.se in three days iiear their sa\v- 
mill in Canada. 
The Saginaw Crowd will go into mourning now, 1 
presume. Harry, the head porter and general utility 
man who has helped make things comfortable on so 
many of the Saginaw Crowd's trips, is to leave Saginaw 
and go to college for a course in mechanical drawing 
and engineering. He is a good engineer of a car party 
right now. 
The Dally Repottef. 
My friend, the daily reporter, still does stunts on 
field sports. He opines that in wild turkey shooting 
"one needs a good choke bore, shooting a tightly 
packed load of nitro powder with BB shot in front 
of it." I camiot help expressing a mild surprise at this 
statement, as I believe it has never been customary 
to load BB shot behind a tightly packed load of pitro 
powder. ■ "That shot must be driven with mighty 
force," says the daily reporter, "to penetrate the 
lordly escutcheon of burnished feathers that shines on 
the wild turkeA''s breast." I see no reason why talent 
like this should not find ready employment in the nat- 
ural history department .of a traveling circus. An 
escutcheon of burnished feathers is not without charm. 
Qaail in Minnesota. 
I have heard a great deal for several years about 
the abundance of Bob White quail in the State 
of Minnesota, and, as stated last week, was able 
to have a taste of the Minnesota quail shoot- 
ing in company with Mr. Sam F. FuUerton, 
the State game warden, and Mr. Frank Water- 
ons, of the Waterous Engine Works, of St. Paul. We 
went out to NorAvood, and had in all three days of 
good, keen sport, being blessed with the first sunshine 
which had been seen in that country for a long time. 
This sport of quail shooting in Minnesota is some- 
thing worth a little description. I was told that the 
quail belt extends nearly 70 miles north of where we 
were, that is to say, about that distance north of St. 
Paul. There is a big belt of hardwood timber which 
extends east and west, partly across the State of Min- 
nesota, lying between the prairie country and the pine 
countr3^ All this country where we shot was once 
very heavily timbered, and was noted as a splendid 
range for deer. To-day you would hardly know that 
this region was once heavily forested. For some thirty 
or forty years it has been farmed by a thrifty class, 
mostly composed of German immigrants. The soil is 
a deep, black loam, exactly like that of the prairie 
State of Iowa. Here and there a swamp or marsh 
r'.ms through a section, but for the most part the 
ground is high and rolling. The crops are wheat and 
corn, and these thrifty farmers farm so close that they 
hardly leave cover enough for a quail. That is to say, 
that would be the offhand dictum of the man accus- 
tomed to find these birds in the denser vegetation of 
our lower country of Illinois and of the South. In 
the old days out in Iowa, where I spent my boyhood, 
these fields of corn and wheat were vast in extent, and 
no one ever thought of cutting or stacking his corn in 
the fall. The "shucking" was done in the field and 
the stalks were left standing or lying, as the case 
might be. With these Minnesota farmers the reverse 
is the case. They cut and shock all their corn and 
get the stubble grounds plowed clean early in the fall 
season. The infrequent groves are for the most part 
cleared of underbrush, and very little more than a 
carpet of leaves is left for cover to the quail, which in- 
variably go to the timber when flushed on a bevy 
rise. When I first saw this region I was satisfied that 
it was not a good quail country, because it did not re- 
semble other quail countries I had known. But the 
proof of the pudding is in the eating. Mr. Fullerton 
told me that he had on one day put up thirty bevies 
of quail in this same country. We ourselves on one 
