
. 2 

good Mr, 

the duks, an’ blazed away; but no sooner did I lit drive at 
_ the ducks than the gote let drive at me. 
_ I was’nt happy, but I gethered up my fragments and 
sneeked off into another lot. I took a good look around for 
gotes, an finding none, I blaized awa at the duks agin. I 
- tuk em on the wing, on the hed, on the back, ennywhere, I 
want pertickler, so I hit em. 2 
I kept bangin’ away till I reckened I killed about all the 
flock, an then I picked up all I could find aflote, and strung 
em On a string an’ started for hoam. I was putty well 
soaked through, az I had to waid into the watter for the 
duks, but I got em an’ I was az happy as a feller with a 
string of duks could be, an was whistlin’ along with my 
Remington over my sholder in wun hand and my string of 
ducks in the other, when, all to wans, a huge Dutchman 
loomed up afore me. 
“Ben shutin’ ’aint it?” says he. 
“You bet,” says I, holdin’ up my string of duks proudly, 
in evidens of my succes as a shutist. 
“Nize dooks, don’t they?” says Dicher. 
Nice ? Well, rayther,” says I. . 
‘Shute ’em on der wing—yah?” 
“On the wing—on the hed—ennywhare.”' 
“Con see diche sprachghcen?” he enquired. 
‘Nine, nine,” sed I. 
“Was you shute dem duks in dot lot, vos’nt it?” 
“Yah, mine frent,” said I. 
“*Dem vos mine ducks,” sed hee. 
“Well, that’s rayther good,” sez I. 
you maike that out.” 
‘Vel, dem vos min dooks. I raised em.” 
“Razem em,” sez I. ‘Well, that isrich. Sa, my tutonik 
trend, how long sens you kommenst razin wild duks? § 
‘*Mebbe-dem dooks vos tame dooks, don’t it?” 
“Taim duks !” i 
“Yah, yah! mine frent, dose dooks vos gro up in mine 
yard by der barn, vare der udder liddle rooshters und gooses 
vos gro, and da vos not vild dooks at all, ain’t it?” 
“Look here, my tutonik frend,” sez I, ‘‘you don’t mean 
to sa that those duks is yure kommon barn yard foul, du 
ou?” 
“Yah, yah, dem vos mine yard dooks by der barn.” 
I never wos so disgusted in all my life. f flung the 
burds onto the ground, an said: 
“Thare ! take your trash, I don’t want em.” 
“Mole on, mine frent,” says Dicher. ‘‘Mebbe I don’t 
want so much ded dooks. Dat vos too much boltry forme. 
You gif me two dollar an ’af a beese, an tak’em.”’ ; 
“Me take em—me take—why look hear, my tutonik 
frend,” sez I, ‘I would’nt eat a tame duk for twice the 
munny.”’ ‘ z 
“Dot vos make no difference to me, can’t it? You cum 
in mine lot—you shute mine dooks. Vel, den, you pay for 
em, was’nt it?” 
Hear was Dutch logic with a vengens. It made me laf, 
an it want no laflin’ matter either, for I hed to fork over 
the two dollars an a’af a pease, before we cud hev enny 
piece, and then the genus ole feller axt me to take a drink 
of syder, which made me hey a better opinyun ov human 
nacher after all; an then, wonst moar I sholderd my gun 
an started for hoam. 
ce I muzed on all the vysissitudes of life, an the grate on- 
“T'd like tu se how 
aty-of duks, an’ partikerlerly of Dutch duks. While 
as musin’ I sot my gun agin a stump while I got ona 
fens hard by and give ful vain to my refleckshuns. i 
While my thots was wanderin’ throw’ the relms of siens 
and foolosofy, the gote—this gote’ was no frend of mine— 
was takin’ satisfackshun out of my gun. He did’nt give i 
up till he dide, but kept hammerin’ his old gotely hed agin 
the barril till it looked like a korkskru with the kinks taken 
out. 
It was ruff on the 2un, but it killed the gote. Irepete agin, 
this gote was no frend of mine, and I only hope he belonged 
to the same Duchman that oned the duks.  _ rf 
Yours, biliously, 
Eruratm Muaains, 

~$ +e 
“AUTUMN WOODCOCK SHOOTINO IN 
PENNSYLVANIA.” 
——__4¢—__. 
Eprror Forest anp Stream:— 
Comparatively few sportsmen devote a portion of the 
month3 of October and November solely to woodcock shoot- 
inz, so studying the habits of the bird as to meet him al- 
most to a certainty in his migratory rest and to him on his 
favorite feeding ground; they are stumbled upon in a 
measure, and frequently no doubt; likely spots are always 
beaten out, if any such come in the path, while quail shoot- 
ing, but they are seldom shot in nymbers. 
Would that all might abandon July and August, yes, 
and I witl say June cock shooting, (Sportsmens’ Clubs and 
Game Protective Societies to the contrary, notwithstanding), 
and the Legislatures of the middle States could thus protect 
the birds until they had gained full growth and vigor of 
wing. 
The hatching season is at so variablea period of the year, 
young woodcock are frequently drowned and the mother as 
often obliged to abandon her eggs only to begin again. I 
have killed woodcock in July, and late in the month at 
that, which were hatched in the last half of June. Jam 
convinced this was in the summer of ’69 or 70, and I re- 
member the March of the same year had been unusually 
open and mild; April, May and June following, were noted 
for their freshets; and all the cocks shot that season were 
diminutive specimens of the bird, indeed. Why not give 
the woodcock the benefit of gall doubts, and every chance 
possible until October, and then begin the work? We, 
that is Van and I, take a week every year with our friends 
of the long bill—(I refer to the woodcock, not the hotel 
pai and do not intend a joke)—and so fix our departure 
for Munroe County to be on the ground during that hazy 
portion of October, no; cold enough at night to freeze the 
““wet places,” but sharp enough to have partly stripped the 
fcliage from the trees; and if there has been a warm rain 
previous to these frosts and freezing weather has taken 
place in Canada and-our more northern states, so much the 
better, The woodcock are migrating and will drop and 
tarry in every good feeding place in the line of their flight, 
and so we catch them. 
Where we Intercept our woodcock, as we call them, 
mountains are piled up on the north-west and south-east of 
us, and in a beautiful cultivated valley, with abundant 
cover of black alder, and several good trout streams wind. 
ing their way towards the Leh gh, Iam a little chary, 
Editor, of telling the exact location af this our 







FOREST AND STREAM. 

paradise of grounds, but there are hundreds of others just 
so situated in both New York and Pennsylvania, and as 
good sport can be had, I will warrant. : 
Two years ago I could only enjoy two days with the 
woodcock in Monroe County, and it ended rather abruptly. 
Van and I arrived just in the ‘nick of time.” There had 
been a warm rain during a full moon and we found the 
birds in great numbers, and with our careful working dogs, 
we could not have them work too slowly, we shot fifty- 
Seven woodcock and four ruffed grouse. Fully intending 
upon a third and fourth day’s pleasure, we were disappoint- 
ed, indeed, to finda hard freeze had set in on the night of 
the second day, and our grounds were completely frozen 
up and the birds driven farther south. On reaching Phila- 
delphia our bag was styled by a leading new paper as ‘“‘the 
first offering of the season.” No woodcock of any amount 
had been coming to the markets from New Jersey or Dela- 
ware, thus far; and it was almost direcly afterwards that [ 
began to notice them with the game dealers in our city. 
How much greater the sportsman’s pleasure can be in- 
creased by a little study of the habits of the game he seeks! 
It very often overbalances the misfortune of being a medi- 
um shot, and it is noticeable to me that one thus informed, 
be he a poor marksman or not, is generally as successful as 
the better shot. 
In the counties of Carbon and Lehigh, of Pennsylvania, 
capital grounds for autumn cock shooting can be found in 
the neighborhood of Easton, Mauchchunk and Lehighton; 
and I may state here that it ig useless to enquire of the 
natives of these parts of the whereabouts of woodcock; 
very few know it by that name. I have heard it called 
“‘shrups” and ‘“‘bog bird” by some, and a species of the 
large ivory bellied woodpecker is known as the woodcock. 
The Dutchmen of Pennsylvania use the rifle only, and many 
of them are expert deer hunters. ; 
I mention October as the best month for cock shooting, 
for the heavy frosts and cold weather in these sections are 
in advance of those nearer Philadelphia by ten days or two 
weeks. 
On one of our trips, having made a large bag of 
woodcock, we devoted one day to the ruffed grouse with 
success; and on the last day of our stay secured the services 
of a Dutchman and his two hounds, and had a fine doe 
driven to us, which, both my friend and myself, shot at 
and killed. He claims the killing, as I do; of course we 
never dispute, however; and I doubt if either of us, to- 
day, would wish really to know to whom belongs the honor. 
** Homo,” 

<> o 
CREEDMOOR IN THE YEAR 1900. 
i 

New York, April 1st., A. D. 1900. 
Epiror Forust anp Stream :— 
A recent visit to the Creedmoor Rifle Range made us 
aware that many improvements have been introduced since 
its founding, nearly thirty years ago, At the mile range 
we witnessed some capital shooting, done by representa- 
tives of the Ancient and Honorable Amateur Club, the mem- 
bers using telescopic sights restricted to 3 inches aperture. 
The four-inch bull's eye was invariably struck at this dis- 
tance, and to do such a thing as to hit iron shields, sur- 
rounding the four-inch square canvas targets, was thought 
very bad shooting. Platinum bullets are mostly used at 
present, although some prefer to employ projectiles of 
hardened gold. Each bullet is of course marked so that it 
may be afterward recovered from the sawdust behind the 
target, to be hydraulic-pressed over again into shape. 
Sub calibre shot occasionally give very accurate results 
only after the shot leaves the barrel the sabot or patch is 
not as uniformly detached from the projectile, as one could 
wish. The old idea of sagittary projectiles is again assum- 
ing importance. The front of the shot is the usual para- 
boloid of least resistance, with long spirally-fluted cylinder 
to take the grooves, but the rear tails off in a wave-line con- 
tinuation of lighter and more resistant metal. As this tail 
fits a socket in the cartridge shell, the centering is absolute- 
ly true. The cartridges are mostly drawn from Bessemer 
steel and are nickel-plated. The metal elbow and shoulder- 
rest is usually discarded as soon as the rifleman learns 
to hold his piece steadily for a second or two. 
Aluminium-bronze barrels have gone out of date since 
the recent improvements in gun powder, and those of 
mild steel, cast under enormous pressure, and iridio-plated 
inside, have replaced aluminium bronze guns to a great 
extent. 
One very promising invention was recently ruled off the 
range owing to an unfortunate accident. An exhaust tube 
connecting with a thin metal vacuum plug was disconnect- 
ed, while the plug was in its place in the muzzle of a re- 
peating rifle. The air entered the barrel before the weapon 
was fired, a fine gun was utterly destroyed by the explosion, 
and the owner, a crack shot, in perfect training, lost con- 
trol of his nerves for some days. 
We noticed that an improvement had been applied to 
several rifles. The barrel is turned truly cylindrical and 
parallel with the bore, which, when fired, recoils on slides 
in a straight line upon an air cushion in the stock. As it is 
also free to turn laterally, the change of figure from the 
rapid twist given to the bolt, is reduced to a minimum. 
The sights of common military rifles are still adjusted by 
setting the vernier on the hind-sight for the elevation due 
to the state of the barometer, as reported every ten minutes 
by the Signal Service officer on duty at the range. For 
fine work the aneroid rear-sight and self-acting front-sights 
are much in vogue. < 
rect range a small aneroid in his right hand pocket, is 
placed in’ electric connection with the rear-sisht, which 
automatically changes its elevation, to correspond with the 
slightest variations in the pressure of the atmosphere. In 
testing rifles, the several anemometers or wind-gauges along 
the range not only register the force of the wind, but act- 
ually traverse the front sight in accordance therewith, by 
its micrometer screw, turned by the current from insulated 
electric wires, which run under the barrel, along the stock 
and to the ground. The varying “drift” of the projectile 
and the amount of moisture in the atmosphere are-also 
taken into account by this complex mechanism, which re- 
lieves the shooter from the consideration of many perplex- 
ing details—when it does not get out of order, a not infre- 
quent occurrence, 
For field sports, the small self-rotating shoulder-gatling, 
is fast replacing both the venerable breech-loading shot 
gun, and the equally antiquated sporting rifle, 
The light cartridge drums for the Gat ing are contained 
in a knapsack on the back, and the stream of bullets flows 
371 



After the rifleman has obtained the cor-” 
at will. The recoil of each barrel is utilized to load the 
next cartridge, to extract the exploded shell, and to rotate 
the gun. To decapitate the swift winged teal in full flight 
is with many sportsmen a matter of certainty, and in the 
Cave-bear parks, the little exploding pellets quickly destroy 
the monarch of the forest. Six Me: 
Atarional Jlastimes. 
CE Will our University correspondents kindly send us thet most recent 
catalogues. 


ether, 2). 
NATIONAL AMATEUR BASE BALL CON- 
VENTION. 
ee 
Princeton, N. J., Jan. 18, 1874. 
Eprror Forrest anp SrREAM:— 
By means of a call issued at the instigation of several 
prominent amateur organizations, delegates from some 
thirty different amateur associations, among whom were 
representatives from five of the college nines, met at the 
Astor House. Having elected Mr. Shields, of the Keystone 
club, of New York, to the chair, and Mr. Rogers, of tke 
Staten Island B. B. C., as temporary secretary, the meeting 
was called to order about half past eight o’clock. The first 
and main question to decide, and which occupied some- 
time, was, ‘‘whether we should proceed to a reorganization 
of the old National Amateur Association, which has lain in 
a state of torpor for the past eighteen months, or form our- 
selves into an entirely new organization, irrespective of that 
one previously existing.” After much ventilation of the sub- 
ject, and but little light thrown upon it, some one, coming 
to a realization of the situation, quoted an article from the 
old constitution, which distinctly says, ‘‘a quorum shall 
consist of delegates from seven regular clubs, members of 
this association.” The chairman then called upon all dele- 
gates who represented the old organization to stand up, 
when but six clubs being present, the Chair decided that 
no reorganization of the old organization was possible,and by 
a resolution to that effect we proceeded to the organization 
of the ‘‘National Amateur Association of Base Ball Play- 
ers.” The officers were then ballotted for and elected as 
follows: 
H. B. Beach, of Princeton, president. 
A. K. Hayes, of Arlington B. B. C., vice president. 
Joseph Dillon, of New Rochelle, treasurer. 
Mort. Rogers, of Staten Island, secretary. 
A constitution and by-laws were drawn up, using the old 
one as the basis. Changes in the rules for 1874 were 
adopted which are looked upon by the amateur fraternity 
at large as greatly beneficial. Two of them, and two of the 
most important, are the decided rejection of ‘ten men and 
ten innings,” as now in vogue among professional organi- 
zations, and the ruling out of underhand throwing. The 
benefits arising from rescinding last year’s style of deliver- 
ing the ballare two-fold. Preeminently there should be 
but one style of delivery allowable, or else we find clubs 
so palpably ill mated, playing against eaeh other, that all 
interest in the game ceases. Where both nines have the 
underhand throwing, well and good, but certainly there 
should be some protection for that organization which is 
not so fortunate as to possess one skilled in the underhand 
throwing. Now, how can that be better obviated than by 
abolishing that style of delivery, as was done, and adopt- 
ing one which shall govern all organizations belonging to 
this Association? Another benefit which accrues from the 
pitch is the affording a much ampler field for fine display 
in fielding qualities. Now those fielders who have been 
standing idly by, and watching the pitcher, short stop, and 
base men, putting out men. one after another, will be 
compelled to add their assistance, and more attention will 
be paid to training up fielders than hitherto, and the beauty 
of the game will be transfered from the ash to the field. It 
may be argued by those opposing, that great difficulty will 
arise as to what constitutes a fair delivery. All that can be 
said in this matter is that a definition of a fair pitch will 
be given in the rules, and to those who can read and under- 
stand, we think no trouble will arise. 
The president has appointed Mr. Hayes of the Arlington 
B. B. C. as judge advocate. 
On the Judiciary Committee are: 
M. M. Rodgers, Staten Island B. B. C., chairman; C. W. 
Blodget, Arlington; G. H. Willis, Jr., Oneida; T. W. Me- 
Cormack, Chelsea; 0. T. Tyler, Harvard; A. C. Crawford, 
Princeton; T. B. Brashcr, Nameless; E. Lgoff, Montague; 
G. T, Patterson, Jr., Blagden. 
Committee on Rules and Regulations: 
W. 4H. Clark, Staten Island B. B. C,, chairman: J. R. 
Carpenter, Nameless; Chas. Hovey, Star, (N.Y.); John 
Ryan, Rose Hill. 
Committee on Nominations: 
E. K. Thompson, Nassau, B. B. C; T. M. Beals, Modoc; 
T. Grigg, Athletic, (N. H.) 
Committee on Printing: 
G. Shields, Keystone, (N.Y.) B. B. ©.; W. 
Amity; J. Thomas, Equitable Life Insurance Co. 
I send this even at this late day as I have not yet seen 
any report of the Convention, and, as a delegate present, 
my principal object is to remove all appearance of negli- 
gence on the part of the president in announcing his com- 
mittees. They were appointed and given to the secretary 
who has failed as yet to officially announce them, By in- 
serting this account you will greatly oblige 
““CHAMPION.” 
Murphy, 

—S op 
CaLirorniA Inprans.—There are also some curious pe- 
culiarities in regard to personal names. One can very sel- 
dom learn an Indian’s, and never a squaw’s, Indian name, 
though they will tell their American titles readily enough. 
It is a greater breach of decorum to ask a squaw her name 
than it is among us to ask a lady her age. I have often 
made the attempt, and never yet have learned a squaw’s 
Indian name from her ownlips. A husband never calls his 
wife by name on any account, and it is said that divorcees 
have been produced by ng other provocation than that! It 
is amusing to note the resemblances between feminine 
human nature in the aboriginal and the civilized state. No 
squaw will reveal her own name, but she will tell her 
neighbors’ that she can think of ! For the reason above 
given, many people believe that half the squaws have no 
names at all. So far is this from the truth, that everyone 
ossesses at least, one, and sometimes two or three, —Over- 
lind Monthly, 
