1018 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[Dec. 24, 1910. 
’Possum Lore. 
Raleigh, N. G, Dec. 9. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: We have had a wonderful autumn. 
November was like a picture all the way through, 
with sparkling sunshine and gracious weather, 
and with just enough frost in the air now and 
then to make people active. Day by day the 
cotton diminished in the fields, under the deft 
touch of the many pickers. The persimmons, 
which are very plentiful this year, gre\y sweeter 
day by day, and the big fat locust pods hanging 
so thickly from the trees were gathered and 
blended with the persimmons to make beer in 
many a household; beer which sparkles and de¬ 
lights the palate, but does not inebriate. And in 
the woods something else was ripe, namely, Br’er 
’Possum, very numerous this season, because of 
the wise protective policy which in this section 
has stopped every sort of hunting with dog or 
gun until November. In the fields Br’er Rabbit 
is numerous, too, more plentiful than in a good 
while, and for the same good reason—protection. 
I have been after him this season and behind 
a good pack of beagles, running so close to¬ 
gether that a big blanket would cover every 
rascal of them, noses and ears upon the ground, 
and making the merriest of music. And by the 
way, these little dogs, once ridiculed by not a 
few owners of the long-legged hounds, are be¬ 
coming more popular year by year. 
The other day I was.talking with a man who 
raises Belgian hares, and his young son, who 
was present, declared that “our big buck .hare 
has whipped three dogs; I saw him do it; saw 
him whip a setter yesterday; he jumped all over 
the dog, kicked him with his hind feet and made 
the funniest noises you ever heard, and the dogs 
all got away.” The father looked at the boy, 
perhaps with a shade of doubt in the look, but 
the little fellow stuck to his story and declared 
that he would bet on that rabbit against any¬ 
thing but a bull dog; there he drew the line. I 
laughed as I thought of this story of the boy 
and his fighting hare, and it was not many hours 
later before I was to hear another good one, 
for my friend Burton Ray told me he had talked 
with a negro this season who has introduced 
something absolutely new in the way of ’possum 
hunting. I had thought that my good friend, 
Polk Miller, of Richmond, had reached the top 
notch in this particular line, for it was this 
genius who devised the plan off taking with him 
in addition to the lantern, axe and bag for 
’possums, some Roman candles. When the dog 
trees, Mr. Miller takes a squint up the tree, 
touches off a candle, fires the blazing balls into 
the treetop here and there, and lo! Br’er ’Pos¬ 
sum is revealed, unless the dog has been fooled. 
But Mr. Ray’s man, a rare genius by the way, 
has worked out something even better, and has 
shown the world that in spite of what King 
Solomon said, there is something new under the 
sun. This hunter said to Mr. Ray: “I likes ter 
go er ’possum huntin’ erbout three times er week 
and I done cotch over fifty ’possums endurin’ 
de mont’ uv November, and I never seed em 
thicker in my life. I got so I don’t lak ter cut 
down no mo tree, ’ceptin’ they’re saplins. My 
wife she’s got er Maltee cat nigh erbout as big 
as either one er my dawgs. I foun’ dat Maltee 
wuz a hunter by himself and two times he brung 
in er rabbit. Now, when I goes er ’possum hunt¬ 
in’ I takes two bags, one for de ’possums what 
I cotches and one fer him. He lies in the bag 
jes’ as quiet as kin be; jes’ quiles up lak er 
'possum, and when my dawgs trees, I goes ter 
de tree, opens de bag, and you oughter see him 
git up dat tree. He don’t lose no time at all 
er gettin’ to dat ’possum. Dey ain’t never seed 
no such er varmint as him, and dey gives right 
up and den dey's his meat.” When Polk Miller 
reads this, as he surely will, he will stop taking- 
out Roman candles and will adopt the Maltese 
plan. 
One glorious night .last week I took out a 
party of young women representing a number 
of States; not one of whom had ever been on 
a ’possum hunt. We had three good dogs and 
there was just enough moisture to make the 
hunting good. The dogs worked through a bit 
of woods and then through what is known as 
an old field in this part of the country, grown 
up with young pines, a stream which ran swiftly, 
being bordered by bushes which were bright 
green with smilax. Suddenly the dogs took up 
a hot trail and were heard splashing in the water 
and then baying at a tree. We men in the party 
simply broke a trail through the reeds and the 
dense fringe of smilax, and found the dogs, at 
the foot of a young birch tree with gracefully 
drooping branches set in a circle of smilax, the 
scene making a real Southern picture in itself. 
The vivid green leaves of the plant, which 
smothered every bush and ran riot, sparkled in. 
the light of the lanterns, while the trunk of the 
birch reflected little pencils of light from its 
polished surface. In its limbs and only a few 
feet above the ground crouched a ’possum which 
looked at the girls with a very quizzical air and 
gave them the best of all opportunities to see 
how he held on and manipulated his feet and 
tail. Pie was a big fellow, and as, his white 
face was brought out by the light he looked 
like an elderly man with a fringe of whiskers. 
“Tode” Pool, one of our hunters, stepped up the 
tree from limb to limb, and adroitly slipping his 
hand along the ’possum’s back, took him by the 
scruff of the neck, the beast’s features expand¬ 
ing with a broad grim, and he shut down with 
his very numerous and sharp teeth so hard upon 
the bag into which Mr. Pool was trying to put 
him that he had to be cuffed like a bad young¬ 
ster in order to make him turn loose. 
After this capture we struck out into some 
splendid woods where there were poplar trees 
six feet in diameter, but suddenly the dogs took 
up the trail of a fox, giving tongue furiously 
and running like the wind, putting us out of 
action for a full hour. Meantime the moon was 
not in view, and there was no danger of ’pos¬ 
sums seeing their shadow, for the belief of most 
all ’possum hunters is that they are afraid of 
their shadow; at least the old fellows are, for 
as an old darkey told • me once: “Er young 
’possum ain’t got no sense nohow. He ranges 
and squanders erbout any time er de night, and 
lak de fool dat he is, he climbs the bigges’ 
tree he kin find. Dat’s de way dem kitten ’pos¬ 
sums gingerly doos.” 
Now, when we got back to Raleigh Mr. Pool 
put his ’possum in a box with others of that 
toothsome tribe, fed him on scraps and apples 
and he was ready for us this week, cooked for 
about six hours, with plenty of red pepper and 
what the darkies call “hot soption” on him, and 
with a ring of thoroughly cooked peeled sweet 
potatoes round him on the big dish, he was 
worth while to look at and better still to eat, and 
I thought about what a darkey said once about 
eating ’possums: “Dey shorely is sumpin’ wrong 
wid folks whar don’t take two helpins er ’pos¬ 
sum.” There was not anything wrong with any 
of us, and we left only the head, giving the 
tongue to an Ohio woman to whom the ’possum 
hunt and the feast had been a revelation and a 
joy forever. Fred. A. Olds. 
New York State Sportsmen’s 
Association. 
A special meeting of the New York State 
Sportsmen’s Association was held in the Court 
House in Syracuse, N. Y., Dec. 10, for the pur¬ 
pose of enabling the gunners of the State to 
confer and discuss game and the conditions sur¬ 
rounding same with a view to making recom¬ 
mendations to the Legislature looking to the 
passage of sane and reasonable game laws. 
In his call, President Plendrickson, of Jamaica, 
said: 
“It is our firm belief that with proper laws 
honestly enforced, game can again be made plen¬ 
tiful in this State, but without a united effort 
nothing can be accomplished, and we urge upon 
every gunner in this State the necessity for join¬ 
ing our organization or one of a similar char¬ 
acter, and taking an active interest in this sub¬ 
ject. Study the game laws and come to this 
meeting prepared to discuss same intelligently, 
so that useful and valuable recommendations 
can be made to our next Legislature. Do you 
know that the State Treasury has been enriched 
hundreds of thousands of dollars by the gun 
license act without the gunner receiving any 
benefit? Do you want more of this kind of 
legislation? If you do, do not take any interest 
in this subject; stay away and leave the formu¬ 
lation of your game laws to the parties who 
have dictated them in the past.” 
The State League meetings closed on Friday, 
and many of its members remained over to at¬ 
tend the association meeting, hence it was well 
attended, and exciting at times, for many live 
topics were discussed and acted on. Some of 
the principal changes favored by the association 
were: Dividing the present commission into a 
forest commission and a fish and game commis¬ 
sion, all protectors to be under civil service 
rules, to be removed only on charges, and giv¬ 
ing all peace officers, sheriffs and constables the 
same powers as game protectors. 
There was a lively tilt over a resolution to 
limit the number of wildfowl to twenty-five per 
day for each gunner and prohibit the sale of 
same. Coast gunners finally agreed to this num¬ 
ber, and members from other parts of the State 
acquiesced when they found that a bag limit of 
half a dozen would be strenuously opposed. The 
federal control of migratory game birds was, 
however, commended. 
A resolution was passed favoring a fishing- 
license, or rather a license permitting the holder 
to fish or shoot at his option, the proceeds to be 
applied to the propagation of game and fish. 
This, of course, cannot now be done, as the 
State constitution provides that all moneys be 
turned into the State treasury, but the sentiment 
shows the trend of opinion in the shooting public. 
Another resolution favored the establishing by 
the State of artificial ponds, these to be planted 
with wildfowl food. The present trespass law 
