174 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 29, 1910. 
Missouri Girls and ’Possums. 
One beautiful moonlight night just before 
Thanksgiving I had to do it. We live in Butler, 
in beautiful Bates county, Missouri. This is the 
border county which you may recall having read 
about on account of order No. 11. It is the 
third county south of Kansas City, and there is 
no prettier country in the world. I had been 
promising my daughters that I would take them 
’possum hunting. We needed the ’possum for 
Thanksgiving, anyway. The night was lovely, 
and I could not think of a real good excuse, so 
I telephoned down to Beno to come up with 
old Touse; and the girls telephoned to Rosalie, 
their chum, to come down—for papa had 
promised to go ’possum hunting that very night. 
I hooked up Cap to the double-seated surrey, and 
in an hour we were off for the happy hunting 
grounds of the ’possum. The three young 
ladies, Beno, son Clarence and myself made a 
load for Cap. I took along a little single bar¬ 
rel shotgun as well as old Joe and Goldie, my 
two champion bird dogs. 
About two miles out we called up a country 
boy who had an old black cur so old he could 
not bark above a whisper, and a measly-looking 
bench-legged yellow dog, took him in and drove 
to a creek about two miles further on. There 
we hitched Cap, and successfully crossing a 
vexatious barbed wire fence, struck down the 
branch in the timber. 
We had not walked far ere the girls began to 
chatter, and one of them said: “Now, papa, I 
do hope we can get a ’possum—just to please 
Rosalie. She never saw one, and you know she 
was to have gone with us that night.” Someone 
turned Cap loose and we all had to w’alk five 
miles home. That night we caught three ’pos¬ 
sums. 
About that time old Touse set up a fierce 
barking about 100 yards ahead of us. I shouted 
“Touse has got one—run!” and away the boys 
went with the young girls at their heels, helter- 
skelter through the brush, across ravines and up 
the hillside, and when I caught up, old Touse 
was gnawing the bark of a small hickory tree 
about thirty feet tall, Clarence was climbing it 
and an unearthly racket was in progress. All 
the dogs joined in and the girls were shouting, 
“There he is! Don’t you see him away up 
there!” 
As Clarence climbed the ’possum climbed also, 
until I grew uneasy, and told the boy to take a 
good hold on the tree and then give it a quick 
jerk. He did so and down came the ’possum 
to the ground. All the dogs piled on to it and 
Beno piled on to the dogs to rescue the ’possum, 
yelling at the top of his voice as all rolled down 
the hill together. It was a great scrimmage, and 
the girls enjoyed it immensely. Assured by Beno 
that the ’possum “wasn’t chawed up much,” we 
put out the dogs and again started slowly along 
the devious branch. We had walked and rested 
on logs several times, and it began to look as 
if our sport was over, or that our dogs were off 
duty, when very suddenly and not twenty steps 
away, the yellow dog set up a sharp, raspy bark¬ 
ing. We all hurried to a red elm that was too 
big to be climbed. A large grape vine was 
swinging from the tree, but we could not see 
anything. The young boy who owned this par¬ 
ticular dog was sure the ’possum had gone up 
the vine and must be on the tree, so Beno said 
he would shake the vine and “roust him out.” 
I had my little shotgun in hand and told him to 
go ahead. He gave the vine a few jerks and 
sure enough out came the ’possum from some 
obscure place into the broad moonlight, and 
after going nearly to the top of the ancient elm, 
stopped and looked down on us and the barking 
dogs. 
The boys decided that the tree could not be 
climbed, so I got into a position with the ’pos¬ 
sum directly between me and the full moon and 
fired. Down came the ’possum. Another scrim¬ 
mage with the dogs and we were in possession 
of a small black ’possum. 
By this time it was about 11 o’clock and we 
thought we would better be going toward the 
surrey and home. We got down into the dry 
bed of the branch where it was easier walking 
and where we could get under the barbed wires 
more readily and with less damage to apparel, 
but had not walked far when the little dog shot 
into a hole on the side of the creek and began 
making a frightful noise. In a moment he 
backed out of the hole, the old black dog dove 
into it and came out shaking an enormous ’pos¬ 
sum. That made number three. Each one of 
the boys had a ’possum by its hairless tail, two 
alive and fhe one I had shot. When nearly back 
to the surrey the little dog found another one 
in a hole beside,the creek and there was- a simi¬ 
lar performance, the big black cur bringing out 
a great fat ’possum. When we got to the sur¬ 
rey we dumped them all in a gunny sack, un¬ 
hitched Cap and started for home. 
It is unnecessary to say we had a fine dinner 
on Thanksgiving day. The girls enjoyed the 
romp as much as the boys did, and they are 
planning to invite all their girl friends to go 
with them on another ’possum hunt next fall. 
W. O. A. 
Shooting Licenses. 
Lowell, Mass., Jan. 17 .— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The subject of hunting licenses seems 
to never tire and I am glad to note that the 
objection to resident licenses seems to be sub¬ 
siding. I hope that public opinion will soon be 
such that the price can be raised from the usual 
one dollar, which seems to me to be ridiculously 
low for the privilege of hunting over an entire 
State for 365 days, as such licenses can be taken 
out Jan. 1 for the current year. Compare this 
with a $2 license for a male or $3 for a female 
dog and how small it seems in comparison. 
Moreover, remember that the money is for game 
protection and that game protection is for resi¬ 
dents almost wholly. As it seems to me, more 
than 70 per cent, of all game killed in any State 
is killed by residents. 
If such is the case, what fairness is there in 
the present law of Massachusetts which charges 
non-residents $10, not for 365 days, but for only 
such part of the year as from the opening of the 
regular hunting season to the end of the year. 
I think this is unfair for numerous reasons. 
First, visitors from other States average only 
a few days to hunt under the license. 
Second, the New England States take in yearly 
from visitors $60,000,000 or more; therefore it 
seems to me extremely selfish to charge visitors 
ten times the amount per year and reckoned by 
available time one hundred times the amount 
charged resident's for game protection, of which 
residents get nearly all the benefit. 
Third, is it fair to ask visitors to pay ten 
times what residents pay when they have already 
paid the good prices charged by the proprietors 
of our mountain, country and seaside resorts for 
board, horse bill and other expenses? 
Lastly, why not take the same high and honor¬ 
able ground in making our game laws as honor¬ 
able individuals take in their own private affairs? 
Taking all these things into consideration I 
can see no fair reason for charging non-residents 
more than residents. 
It seems to me that to do so amounts to simply 
an extortion from those who have no voice in 
the matter and that it is in principle very much 
if not the same as taxation without representa¬ 
tion, save that the non-resident may stay away 
or leave his gun at home. 
I have expressed these views to many others 
and have yet to find one to differ with me, and 
as all men admire the “square deal” in others 
at least, why not practice it ourselves in making 
our laws? I am proud that Massachusetts was 
one of the last States to adopt this un-American 
idea and much regret that it has been adopted 
even if it was done in retaliation. If these 
views are not fair and square I would like to 
know why, and if they are I wish Forest and 
Stream would take up the club for fair treat¬ 
ment to our visitors and patrons. C. H. M. 
Rearing Wildfowl. 
A correspondent of the Shooting Times writes 
as follows of wildfowl rearing: 
“It is rather surprising that the sporting pos¬ 
sibilities of the mallard are not more fully 
recognized by those who have places suitable to 
the rearing of these birds. No great expanse 
of water is needed, for ducks do not need any 
water at all except for drinking, until they are 
nearly full grown. Duck rearing, however, is an 
art that is not properly understood by all game- 
keepers, and although the birds are much more 
easy to rear than pheasants, there are certain 
difficulties to be encountered before the ducks 
are brought to the gun. Many who have tried 
duck rearing for sport have given it up in dis¬ 
gust because they could not keep the birds at 
home, and one must admit that there is occas¬ 
ionally some trouble in doing this if there hap¬ 
pen to be a more attractive piece of water close 
at hand. Under such circumstances it is abso¬ 
lutely essential to have plenty of decoys, some 
of which should be of the ordinary wild breed, 
pinioned, and others of the small white call-duck 
variety, which are indispensable on a pond. 
These should also be pinioned. The great thing 
to guard against is over-feeding, for once the 
birds get fat and lazy they will not fly, and all 
one’s expense and trouble is brought no naught. 
It is important that wild ducks should be shot 
by about the end of December, or they will be 
pairing, and in that case will go right away, and 
perhaps not return at all. If there are suitable 
nesting places in the locality one has a better 
chance of keeping up a good stock of birds, but 
it will be necessary to rear a few every season.” 
All the game lazvs of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and now in force, are 
given in the Game Lazos in Brief. See adv. 
