[Sept. 15, 1906. 
418 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
hat, his boots, to his wife, that heart-burnings 
are natural enough. The student is therefore not 
surprised to find the season in town giving rise 
to somewhat similar emotions. A recently wed¬ 
ded pair had found the honeymoon delightfully 
reassuring, and were looking forward with con¬ 
fidence to the future, when the jealousies awak¬ 
ened by the strange conduct of the husband while 
under the influence of the malady, nearly brought 
about disaster. In the autumn, soon after their 
return to town, she awoke one Saturday night 
to discover that he was not there. She called 
his name lightly without response, and rising, 
whispered it repeatedly in the dark hall and ad¬ 
joining rooms, returning at length, shivering and 
distressed. Toward morning he stole back to her 
side. 
On the next Saturday this was repeated. This 
time she lit a candle and descended as far as 
the landing of the stairs, where an alarming grat¬ 
ing and tapping sound assailed her ear, like a 
large rat in the wall, and she fled back to her 
couch. At breakfast she challenged his secret. 
He flushed, laughed foolishly, lost his temper, 
and silenced her with brusque words. The fol¬ 
lowing Saturday he did not retire at all till four 
in the morning. She again assailed him with 
questions, and threw him into embarrassment. 
He was plainly concealing something he was 
ashamed of. Her fancy broke loose, and flew 
from surmise to surmise. Bitter language passed 
between them, and serious estrangement set in, 
during which he continued his strange nocturnal 
habits. It was clear that she had ceased to be the 
absorbing interest of his life. The situation cul¬ 
minated in a heart-rending scene, in which she 
was only restrained from going back to her 
mother by his breaking down and confessing that 
he had been loading cartridges. Probably he 
should not get shooting; somehow he never did. 
Only, when November came around and those 
men with bunches of grouse began to be seen 
again upon the streets, and particularly when 
Chokebore began again upon those stories at the 
club, he really could not help loading a few 
shells. Needless to say, the discovery of this one 
flaw in an otherwise perfect character only 
bound the wife more closely to the afflicted man. 
With all a woman’s tact she screened his weak¬ 
ness from the world. Years have passed, children 
have been born to them, and hers is the fond 
but difficult duty of explaining to the piercing 
mind of childhood why, at each returning Novem¬ 
ber, father finds it necessary to load shells. 
It should be said in conclusion that the in¬ 
dulgence which predisposes to the attacks of this 
malady is frequently found to have been of the 
most trifling description. A case may be men¬ 
tioned to show how lightly one may nibble at 
the insane root, and yet the mind be for ever 
poisoned. This man had but one field-day, and 
that was such as Connecticut affords. Birds are 
not numerous in that respectable state, and the 
shooting-party had passed the day very enjoy- 
ably admiring the landscape, which had already 
begun to take on the first hues of evening, when 
actually the dog stood a quail. Ponto’s rigid 
figure exhaled a degree of electricity sensible a 
field off. Everybody felt the delicious thrill. The 
bird was flushed directly under our friend’s feet 
and, flying off with unusual languor, constituted 
one of those cases in which it is customary 
among true sportsmen to repeat a verse of some 
familiar hymn before shooting, in order that there 
may be a certain necessary interval between the 
gun and its object. But the rash neophyte went 
off promptly with both barrels—he gave quickly 
and gave twice. The result was all that could 
be wished. Little Bob White span away like a 
peg-top defying the laws of gravity, swooped up¬ 
ward to take the crest of a swale, lay for a mo¬ 
ment a black spot against the golden rim of the 
sky, and vanished. The marksman was observed 
to gaze after him with his mouth slightly open, 
and it is supposed that at this moment the in¬ 
eradicable germ of the autumn trouble entered 
his system. 
Now, singularly enough, with this man the 
malady takes the form of recounting, several 
times during the season, how he killed that Bob 
White, which has now become four—two for 
each barrel; and it is confidently predicted by . 
admiring friends that, with the lapse of time, his 
relation to the birds of Connecticut will be simi¬ 
lar to that of St. Patrick to the snakes of Ire¬ 
land. 
Hints on Handling Guns. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Having been asked by friends frequently for 
advice for their boys in handling guns, I send 
you a digest of same. Perhaps, as the shooting 
season will now be on soon, you might think 
them worth publication: 
1. Empty or loaded, never point a gun to¬ 
ward yourself or any other person. 
2. When afield carry your gun at the half- 
cock. If in cover let your hand shield the ham¬ 
mers from whipping twigs. 
3. When riding from one shooting ground 
to another, or whenever you have your gun in 
any conveyance, remove the cartridges, if a 
breechloader, it being so easy to replace them. 
If a muzzleloader. remove the caps, brush off 
the nipples and place a wad on nipple, letting 
down the hammers on wads—simply removing 
caps sometimes leaves a little fulminate on the 
nipple, and a blow on the hammer when down 
discharges it. 
4. Never draw a gun toward you by the 
barrels. 
5. More care is necessary in the use of a gun 
in a boat than elsewhere; the limited space, con¬ 
fined action and uncertain motion making it 
dangerous at the best. If possible, no more than 
two persons should occupy a boat. 
6. Always clean your gun thoroughly as soon 
as you return from a day's sport, no matter how 
tired you feel; the consequence of its always be¬ 
ing ready for service is ample return for the 
few minutes’ irksome labor. Reignolds. 
Bonded Game. 
The following notice has been sent to dealers 
in game by Commissioner J. S. Whipple: 
“Take notice: That under Section 27 of the 
Forest, Fish and Game Law of the State of New 
York, all persons handling woodcock and 
grouse, taken from without the State, will be 
required to furnish a bond in the sum of one 
thousand ($1,000) dollars. This includes hotels, 
restaurants, clubs and all places that handle 
game. Woodcock and grouse taken within the 
State of New York cannot be legally sold. 
“Blank bonds will be furnished by this De¬ 
partment to all persons making application for 
the same, and said bonds, when filed in the office 
of the Forest, Fish and Game Commission, must 
qualify with some bonding company as surety, 
and no individual bonds will be accepted, as the 
Department cannot readily ascertain their stand¬ 
ing. “J. S. Whipple, 
“Commissioner.” 
North Dakota Prairie Chickens. 
Wimbledon, N. D., Sept. 8.-—I report weather 
hot and dry, 99 degrees day before yesterday, 
101 degrees yesterday, and a promise of another 
scorcher to-day; chickens scarce; my limit of 
twelve to two guns is quite a big bag now. 
Reports from towns in this and three adjoin¬ 
ing counties are alike—ducks are still plenty— 
and from Sask, in Canada, where I am going 
later, say chickens scarce, ducks and geese 
plenty. 
Not quite as big a crop of grain as expected, 
but crop of signs—“No Hunting Allowed”—in 
great abundance. Pink Edge. 
Modern Dogs. 
The third edition of “Modern Dogs,” by 
Rawdon B. Lee, has been issued with some im¬ 
proving changes, which the able author, in his 
preface, refers to as an endeavor to summarize 
the progress and describes the varieties of the 
dog, as they are at present known, in the British 
Isles. An important change has been intro¬ 
duced in the matter of illustrations, which are 
from the brush of the renowned painter, Mr. 
Arthur Wardle. Actual portraits of individual 
dogs have been superceded by pictures of ideal 
dogs, though the latter have a substantial fidelity 
to living specimens, and may be accepted as the 
true type of the different breeds which they 
respectively represent. 
It is pointed out that the existence of the in¬ 
dividual dog is relatively ephemeral, while the 
race type should be reasonably permanent, and 
that therefore a representation of the ideal type 
is much more pertinent and instructive. The 
different breeds are treated in the masterful 
manner, dear, full and direct, which distinguish 
Mr. Lee’s writings on canine subjects. 
Modern Dogs is, in fact, an encyclopedia on 
the dog as a companion of man, and as to the 
distinctive featur'es of the different breeds of 
dogs, treated under the three generic heads, 
sporting and non-sporting divisions and terriers. 
1 hey are treated accordingly in separate vol¬ 
umes, of which volume one is devoted to sport¬ 
ing dogs. The prices are as follows: Vol. I., 
$??; Vol. II., $?; Vol. III., $?. For sale by 
Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
National Beagle Club of America. 
At a recent meeting of the National Beagle 
Club of America, held in New York City, it 
was ordered that the seventh annual field trials 
of this club be held at Stevenson, Baltimore 
county, Maryland, during the week commencing 
Oct. 29, 1906. 
At the same meeting the following committees 
were appointed: 
Field Trial Committee—Charles R. Stevenson, 
Chairman. Eaddonfield, N. J.; Henry Dickson 
Bruns, M.D., Howardsville, Va.; John Caswell. 
Prides Crossing, Mass.; A. J. Purinton, Fair- 
mount. W. Va.; George B. Post. Jr., New York 
city; George F. Reed, Barton, Vt.; William G. 
Rockefeller, New York city; James W. Appleton, 
New York city; C. Staley Doub. Frederick, Md.; 
Ramsay Turnbull, Bernardsville, N. J.; T. 
Budley Riggs, Stevenson, Md.; Charles F. 
Brooks, Sandy Spring, Md.; Thomas D. 
Griffith, Redland, Md.; Henry W. Warner, New 
York city; Le Page Cronmiller, Laurel, Md. 
Committee on Arrangements—T. Dudley 
Riggs, Stevenson. Md.; Ernest Gill, Baltimore, 
Md.; C. Staley Doub, Frederick, Md.; Le Page 
Cronmiller, Laurel, Md. 
Judges—Thomas Shallcross, Providence, R. 
I.; James MacAleer, Bellevue. Pa. 
Charles R. Sevenson, Sec’y. 
101! Market St., Camden, N J. 
That Thankful Texas Dog. 
Yesterday afternoon a small poodle dog, runn¬ 
ing at large on Waller street near Fourth street, 
caused some excitement and a telephone mes¬ 
sage was sent to the police station asking that an 
officer be sent to the scene, as a mad dog was 
terrorizing the residents in that neighborhood. 
Officer Stanford was detailed to make an investi¬ 
gation and went over. He found that the dog 
was only overheated and excited. The animal 
was evidently a pet and had strayed from home 
and was trying to make friends with some one 
when some boys began stoning him, with the 
result that he became very much excited and led 
to the belief that he was mad. The pup was al¬ 
lowed to rest for a short time and given some 
water, when he made off, presumably for his 
master’s residence.-—Austin (Tex.) Tribune. 
“They say those costly Pomeranian dogs make 
excellent watchdogs.” 
“Yes, a friend of mine had a fine Pomeranian 
in the house the other night when burglars broke 
in.” 
“Did they steal anything?” 
“Nothing but the dog.”—Cleveland Plain 
Dealer. 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained from 
any newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
supply you regularly. 
