Nov, 14, 1903.1 
coldest winter weather, with the snow knee deep, he 
would sally forth and tramp over his beloved runways, 
always bringing back a delightful account of what he 
saw. But in the springtime he was happiest. The first 
arbutus or hepatica was a pure delight to him, and the 
humming of the bees among the bursting buds was sweet- 
est music. Mr. Schlick's literary attainments were of 
a high order. He had a faculty of putting down what he 
saw in a most charming style, and had he had leisure 
there is no question but that he would have made his 
mark in the field of nature literature. He was a great 
reader, but a most discriminating one; fiction he only 
indulged in lightly, but the works of John Burroughs, 
Thoreau, Rowland E. Robinson, Geo. EUwanger and 
other writers on out of doors subjects were his constant 
companions. All through his illness he was able to read, 
and Ellwanger's "Pleasures of the Table" was about the 
last book he finished. Forest and Stream was a weekly 
delight to him, and his pen has often graced the pages of 
that journal. During his illness he wrote a little series 
of "Wood Jottings" that appeared in Forest and Stream 
of October 3, and not a day passed that he did not take 
notes of what he saw from his window or in his garden. 
< — H. W. LeLong in Dansville, N. Y., Breeze, Nov. 3. 
Tipping, 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
What fellows you editorial sharps are for hunting out 
bits of pepper likely to make a lot of us sneeze in chorus, 
though not necessarily in harmony ! And now comes 
the "tip." Well I'll bugle a little— gently. (All things 
are comparative — even adverbs.) 
To begin with, as Dickens said about old jNJarley and 
Scrooge, among all the insidious baits of the devil cal- 
culated to undermine the self-respecting manhood of a 
man, I know of none quite equal to the "tip." It is a 
Irait of human nature, in the abstract, always to like to 
get something for nothing — to find unowned gold ; to 
get some money and not have to work for it. Success 
therein is like opium-eating, breeding a craving for more 
and more, the element of uncertainty as to amount sup- 
plying the gambler's sauce. Yet, if there is one thing 
more certain than another, it is that you can hardly do a 
m.an more injury than to lead him to believe that he does 
not need to work for what he gets, and that he can shirk 
the duty he is paid to do with impunity. He may not be 
punished by man's laws, but there are others which he 
cannot dodge. Sooner or later he has to pay the score. 
In mere dollars and cents, it is an injury to the man 
eii masse to convince his employer that he can shirk his 
own duty and not pay living wages, but instead compel 
his employe to make it up by outside dividends. So long 
as the employer can get plenty of help on such terms there 
are plenty of employers who will continue so to do. And 
yet those same men are short-sighted in the matter to a 
'marvelous degree. Why? Because they, too, have been 
bitten by the same venom, the same blinding desire to 
get something for nothing. But are they short-sighted? 
Well, let us see. 
I have a friend in New York city who comes over now 
and then to the spectacled city on a visit. Invariably he 
hunts up Marston's restaurant for his meals, and, as one 
who has had long experience, he says that its like does 
not exist in all Manhattan large and' several. But why? 
I will make no statements regarding the Manhattanese. 
I will confine myself to Marston. There you_ find these 
items ; Low prices, good cooking, quiet serving, dainty 
dishing, spotless linen, swift and thoughtful attention. 
And from the steady growth of the establishment for 
lo! this many a year, and the countless throngs that go 
there, the owner must be a millionaire by this time. Yet, 
as far back as I can remember, the long bills of fare have 
borne prominently printed the legend to the effect, "We 
give our help sufficient wages. Do not tip the waiters, 
but please report promptly any case of inattention." And 
I have never heard of any such case being reported yet. 
What would we think of a gun dealer who expected 
us to hand over to his clerk a dime or a quarter every 
time he put up for us a bag of loaded shells ? Yet, where's 
the difference? Your English gamekeeper may have been 
an extreme case, but the principle of barefaced robbery 
is the same, and if that victimized Briton had done his 
own duty he would have landed that gamekeeper behind 
stone walls "for the rest of the season," and taught his 
own landed "friend" a much needed lesson. The chances 
are that his "friend" would at least have respected him 
thereafter, which, as it is, he probably does not do. No 
one, least of all a Briton, ever respects weakness and 
yielding to imposition. It is cowardly. Furthermore, it 
is utterly wrong as between man and man. 
If I were to go into the woods to-day I should take 
with me a package of as good cigars and smoking tobacco 
as I could afford. Also a pipe or two, and, say, a flask of 
sherry. I do not smoke myself, and my use of sherry is 
somewhat limited, personally. I should endeavor to pick 
out for my guide a man — not a grafter — but an honest, 
self-respecting, congenial comrade. I should make my 
deal with him at the outset, and should expect to pay him 
a fair market price for his services, and for the knowledge 
which he has gained by time and experience. And that 
deal would cover the cash outlay to the last cent. But 
when the work of the day is over, comradeship begins. 
After an all-day paddle up stream through fog and rain, 
when the camp has been made snug and it is time to 
watch the glow of the fire and let every tired muscle re- 
lax in the warmth and blow, I should be thinking of 
many an unobtrusive bit of kindness done by that man 
beyond the fire. Things done from sheer comradeship be- 
tween man and man, not nominated_ by the bond, and a 
something pleasant to remember him by hereafter. I 
might not be able to return that service to him in kind. 
Yet I might do something at that moment. And if he 
found my brand of tobacco more enjo3^able than his own, 
nothing would just then give me greater pleasure than 
the thought that I had had sufficient forethought to bring 
a bit along, although no smoker, and that I could just 
then do an appreciated friendly turn. 
But a "tip !" Sooner than that I would give him opium 
at once. Morally I believe it could hardly be worse. 
And here, friend editor, perhaps you may find one more 
Forest and Stream plank for your carpenter shop. 
J- P^T. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
An Intelligent Cat. 
Charlestown, N. H., Oct. 20— Editor Forest and 
St ream: I inclose you a cutting from the Manchester 
Mirror which may interest some of your readers who are 
studying anirnal intelligence, if you can find space for it. 
Some time since a correspondent, whose name I forget, 
gave us a "cat story," and promised more, for which I 
have been watching your columns, as I am now some- 
what interested in "catology." I had the usual childish 
loudness for kittens when young myself, and this was 
somewhat revived forty years ago by that of my own 
children, one of whom had, I remember, a black kitten 
which he, for some forgotten reason, called his "Simday 
cat." 
My own tastes, as usual, were soon directed to horses 
and dogs, but an accident, while raising troops in 1861, 
disabled me forever for my favorite exercise in the sad- 
dle, and the wandering life of an engineer has prevented 
me from taking proper care of a dog, so that as I have 
quietly settled down in my armchair my attention has 
been acidentally drawn to cats. 
It happened thus, two summers ago, when one of my 
little granddaughters was visiting me, a forlorn, half- 
starved yellow kitten wandered into the yard and ap- 
pealed to her for comfort. She fed him, for which he 
seemed thankful, and he immediately attached himself 
to her, and took up his abode with us permanently. 
He had evidently been some child's pet, although we 
never could find out where he came from, and soon made 
himself an important member of the family. He proved 
a good mouser, and paid close attention to the pantry 
and closets, and is a very clean and affectionate laouse- 
hold pet. He is now a large cat, of a regular "lion 
tawny," with a white breast and white hind feet, and 
showing faint tiger markings of a darker buff, particu- 
larly in his tail and legs. The most remarkable thing 
about him is his fondness for a farinaceous or vegetable 
diet. He comes to my side at breakfast to beg for 
doughnut, which he eats most daintily from my fingers, 
and then goes over to Mrs. W. and finishes her saucer 
of oatmeal porridge for her, after she is satisfied. He 
likes Boston brown bread and baked beans, string beans 
from the garden, and is extravagantly fond of sweet 
corn, which he takes from my fingers, a kernel at a time ; 
and after we have cut oft' the corn in the usual way, he 
will polish off all the cobs, steadying them with his paws 
while he licks them clean! He will not sleep in the 
house if he can help it, but prefers the barn, in which my 
landlord keeps two or three horses, and to which, I sup- 
pose, mice are attracted by the grain, as we sometimes 
see him playing with a mouse in the yard. One of the 
bitter nights last winter my daughter fixed a bed for him 
with a piece of old carpet in a basket, which he slept in 
one night, but the second night he got up, went upstairs 
to her bedroom, waked her up, and got her to come down 
and let him out, when he trotted off to the barn very 
happily. 
He early showed a great friendship for me, and will 
lie on my knees by the hour, curling himself up into a 
ball, with both fore paws round my wrist, and his head 
buried in the palm of my hand, sometimes waking and 
challenging me to a frolic, by making believe to bite my 
fingers, and kicking my arm with his hind paws, while he 
holds the hand fast with his fore ones, and looking up at 
me in the most comical way. Altogether, he is quite a 
study, and his tastes for a vegetable diet are certainly not 
ordinary "cat instinct," though, as I have previously said, 
I do not believe in any line of demarcation from reason. 
VoN W. 
From the Manchester Mirror. 
"Mister McKinley" ds'-a tiger-striped maltese cat who 
holds a place of honof in the household of Mr. and 
Mrs. Frank A. P. Mace, of George street. West Man- 
chester, and every one^who has seen him agrees that h^; 
is one of the most remarkable cats in New Hampshire. 
He descended from an ordinary breed of house cats, but 
he has grown to phenomenal proportions, and to-day 
he tips the scales at twenty-six pounds. That is about 
four times the weight of an ordinary cat. People who have 
caught a glimpse of him in passing the house have often 
called to ask for a closer inspection, and many people 
who have heard of the remarkable feline have gone to 
the Mace home to see him. And every one has said 
they never saw or imagined his like before. 
Mister is seven years old. Mr. Mace made a pet of 
him from the first, and he is well trained in a variety 
of tricks. He is as intelligent as he is large, and the 
family tell of numerous experiences that prove his clever- 
ness. He seems to understand a great deal of what is 
said in his hearing, and Mrs. Mace tells of one trick that 
illustrated his faculty of understanding in an interesting 
way. The cat used to show a great fondness for lying on 
a certain bed in a chamber of the house, and gave Mrs. 
Mace considerable annoyance by spoiling the white 
spread. She allowed him to lie on the quilt beneath, but 
punished him several times for lying on the spread, and 
either from her words or actions Mister apparently dis- 
covered just what she objected to. 
"It was a few days after I whipped him for lying on 
the spread," says Mrs. Mace, "when I chanced to go 
upstairs and found him lying on one corner of the bed. 
The spread was turned back from that particular corner 
and he was lying on the quilt. It was turned back so 
smoothly that I was sure some niember of the family 
must have done it, but on questioning them I could find 
no one who had been in the chamber. Next day I found 
Mister lying in the same place with the spread turned 
back as before, and that time I was certain that the 
spread had been tucked down at every corner when he 
entered the room. We watched him then and discovered 
that it was Mister himself who turned back the spread. 
Just how he did it I can't say, as he would not do the 
trick while we were in sight. One day I fastened down 
the corners so that he could not move them and he suc- 
ceeded in crawling in imder the spread and was lying 
there hidden in the bed when I went in." 
Mister will sit up on his haunches when directed, and 
S7S 
will hold out his paw to shake hands. When he wahts to 
bnter a room he will rise to his hind fefet and rattle the 
dOor knob until admitted. Although he is so large thit 
he looks clumsy, he is remarkably activfe and spry, and 
he is anything but lazy. Like most cats, he likes a daily 
nap, but he runs about a great deal more than ordinary 
cats of his age, and will come running when called as 
quickly as a kitten. He is a good hunter, too, and keeps 
the premises free of mice. 
The big cat is very particular about his food. He lives 
entirely upon cooked meat and milk, and he will not 
touch raw meat. When he catches a rat or mousej he 
will play with it for a time and leave it uneaten. He is 
fond of music, and it is a favorite trick of his to walk 
up and down the keys of the piano while he purrs loudly 
with pleasure at the sounds produced. 
Timing: the Flight of Birds. 
In times past much speculation has been devoted to the 
speed at which birds fly, and very many estimates have 
been made on the subject, which, however, because they 
were only guesses, have really little value. However, 
the speed of homing pigeons has been fairly well ascer- 
tained in this country and in Europe, and the conclusions 
reached in Britain are that on a journey of twelve hours 
a bird may fly thirty-three miles per hour; on one of four 
hours, thirty-six miles per hour; of one hour, forty miles, 
of ten minutes forty-eight miles, and of one minute fifty- 
two miles an hour. The speed of a pintail duck, as 
quoted in American Duck Shooting from observations 
made on a moving train, the speed of which was known, 
has been shown to be at one time fifty-six miles an hour, 
and later much more rapid. Detailed observations on this 
subject are lacking in this country. 
On the other hand, at a recent meeting of the Brad- 
ford, England, Scientific Association, Mr. Alfred Walker 
gave the results of his personal observations and timing 
on the flight of certain birds. He stated that wild 
whooper swans had been timed and found to flap their 
wings 3V2 strokes a second ; starlings going to their 
roosting places were found to fly at the rate of forty to 
forty-five miles per hour. Swallows, on the other hand, 
which we imagine to fly with very great rapidity, really 
cover only from fifteen to twenty-five miles per hour. A 
wild duck for a short flight flew at the rate of thirty-six 
miles per hour. 
There are few more difficult things to do than to ac- 
curately time a bird's flight, and we may fancy that it 
will be some time before definite and general results 
will be had on this subject. 
Season Signs. 
MoRGANTOWN, W. Va., Oct. 30. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: The observations of Frank Hey wood in the 
current number of Forest and Stream concerning a long, 
cold winter, are worthy of more than passing notice. It 
has always been my habit to note the "signs" as each 
season comes and goes, especially if much in the woods. 
Besides^ those which have been mentioned, there is an- 
other which very forcibly indicates the coming of a hard 
winter. From what few forest trees can be seen sur- 
rounding town here, the leaves are evidently hanging on 
the timber unusually late this year, which indicates a hard 
winter. 
A good barometer for an approaching winter in some 
of the Western States is the badger. If he does much 
digging late in the fall, it is safe to predict a hard win- 
ter. In fact, the actions of many of nature's wild crea- 
tures are full of information, if one will only observe 
them, and it will be noted that it is always the man who 
is most isolated from his fellow men and all the sources 
of information attendant upon civilized surroundings, 
who observes most closely and gains the most knowledge 
directly from nature. Thus the Indians and the old time 
hunters, trappers and explorers, men of the woods, are 
much more wise in knowledge gained from personal ob- 
servation than those who, living among men, depend upon 
others to observe for them. Emerson Carney. 
As to Texas Reptiles* 
In the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences 
of Philadelphia, Mr. Arthur Erwin Brown, Secretary of 
the Philadelphia Zoological Society, has recently pub- 
lished an interesting paper on "Texas Reptiles and their 
P'aunal Relations." 
The paper is divided into two parts, the first treating of 
the "Reptiles of Pecos," and the second of the "Faunal 
R-elations of Texas Reptiles." 
Pecos lies on the west bank of the Pecos River in a 
high dry plain much broken to the westward by irregu- 
lar mountain ranges. The annual rainfall is only about 
fifteen inches, and the mean annual temperature about 
sixty degrees Fahrenheit. During the past four years Mr. 
Brown's collectors have sent to him from this region no 
less than forty-eight species and subspecies of living rep- 
tiles, almost all of them collected in the neighborhood of 
the town As many of these are little known, Mr. Brown 
gives here an enumeration of these species, in which, as 
might be expected, the snakes are most numerous, and 
the turtles least so. 
This material from Pecos has induced Mr. Brown to 
study the reptiles of the entire State of Texas, and this 
has led him to three conclusions, the first being that the 
boundary between the Austroriparian and Sonoran rep- 
tilian faunas lies approximately between the ninety-sixth 
and ninety-eighth meridians of longitude in Texas ; 
second, that the restricted Texan district of Cope is not 
Austroriparian, but Sonoran; third, that transcontinental 
zones of distribution cannot be maintained for reptiles 
in the Medicolumbian region. 
The AcJitondack Elk, 
Malone, N. Y., Nov. 9. — ^Three elk from, the herd re- 
cently liberated in the Adirondacks as a gift to the State 
by William C. Whitney were struck and killed by a light 
engine near Floodwood on the Mohawk and Malone Rail- 
road. There were severi standing together on the track. 
One of those killed weighed over 600 pounds. The ani- 
mals are very tame. Hunters near Floodwood last week 
were driven from the highway by this herd which per- 
sisted in keeping on the plank road through the woods, 
one bull in the bunch being very ugly. , 
