Industrial Conditions Improve Big Game Hunting
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SENATORS CLARENCE
FORMER.
LEXOW AND JOHN LEWIS CHILDS OF NEW YORK, WITH DEER SHOT BY
1 HON. W. A. REEVES OF FATCHOGUE, N. Y., IN CAMP WITH HIS GUIDE AT MOHAWK, Fla.
MsR
STRANGE, utterly unexpected ef
fect of the mighty Industrial
spirit of the United States Is
making i,l Ml Unoflcently in
the 5l(i of sport with rod anl
gun the very last province in which one
could expect it. That the "commercialism"
of the nation should work to improve and
Increase the hunter's and angler's pleasure
seems paradoxical at first. But the rea
sons for it are as simple as any other sim
ple business reason.
What the effort of sportsmen, continued
through many years, had been able to ac
complish only step by step In the way of
game protection and game propagation the
suddenly alert power of business promises
to fulfill almost at once.
The United Slates ns a whole and most
of the states Individually have become Arm
converts to the principle that wild game In
one of the great sources of Individual and
communal wealth. The pitKsenger-carrying
railroads have plunged Into the work of Im
proving sport and of protecting and propa
gating game In the country reached by.
them. Many of the men who have been
made Immensely wealthy by the opportu
nities of the past few years have helped
by either leasing or buying outright thou
sands of acres of woodland and other un
improved country. Other men, who have
owned great tracts of poor, wild land for
years without deriving any benefit from it,
have Joined In because they have learned
that this hitherto useless property can bo
made a source of excellent Income by be
ing held as a sanctuary for the animals and
birds that are sought by the sportsmen.
Moose and elk have been re-Introduced
Into New York state. New Hampshire, by
protecting deer, moose and caribou the
whole year 'round, has so fostered the In
crease of the doer that It Is uncommon to
inarch a day through the woods In some
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CAPTAIN L. G. BILLING, U. S. N., AND A TEN-FOOT
ALLIGATOR KILLED NEAR APOPKA MOUNTAINS,
HOY GUIDE AT THE JOLLY PALMS, FLO RIDA.
FLORIDA.
parts without seeing at least one. Maine he flna(ly makea tils stand the hunter must largely over open lands, making It clean,
Is gathering more income cacn year irum j boldly and make a distinctly personal untrammelcd sport, with not as much need
the big game nuniers. new jeruey, uui
the Influence of especially clear and es
pecially well enforced game laws, Is fast
becoming one great hunting preserve.
And the "New South," the south of In
dustrial regeneration, Is becoming a sports
man's heaven.
Tens of thousands of acres have been
placed under rlghl protection; some by the
owners themselves, who lease out shooting
privileges, others by rich sportsmen, who
form themselves Into clubs and either buy
the property or obtain hunting rights for
financial considerations, such as paying the
taxes.
All this posting and preserving naturally
reacts favorably on the unposted and un
preserved lands where hunting and fishing
are free to all, for the game cannot ab
solutely be penned In the preserves.
Exceptionally quick to see the advantage
of tempting sportsmen, the southerners are
beginning to treat the wild things as If
they were gold. Many hotel owners have
acquired hunting rights over the country
surrounding their property, and they per
mit their guests to shoot and fish there.
One hotel man thus controls 25,000 acres
In Ideal game country.
As a result the New South Is fast becom
ing a magnificent game country. From
Tennessee eabt and from the Chesapeake
south, It furnishes today every variety of
wing shooting, from turkeys to snipe, and
In big game It offers deer and black bear.
Quail are so plentiful this year that the
reports from all parts of the south are the
same "the finest of quail shooting is prom
ised for this year."
Old Man Bear still grumbles his surly
way through the woods of some of the
southern Appalachian mountains and the
forests and canebrakes of Alabama, Mis
sissippi, Georgia and Arkansas. He Is
hunted In many ways. Some men like to
follow him day after day, sleeping on his
trail at night, until the endurance of the
wild beast is conquered by the endurance
of the man; others bunt him with dogs
k. Hriv him to stand at bay. Some ot
matter of It.
Canebrake bear hunting is the exciting
sport. The yelping bear dogs are trained
to hang Just close enough to a bear to
make him run and still to keep Just far
enough away so that he cannot reach them
when he turns in his recurring attacks
of rage. After they have started him go
ing the hunters can hear the crashing of
the cane and the splitting and tearing of
underbrush as the big, black chap pounds
his way through. When a bear, thus set
to running, comes down her ".long on a
man in the canebrake It means quick shoot
ing and good shooting. Old Man Bear Is
red hot and he means to destroy every
thing from a bush to a man that stands In
the way of his escape from those dogs.
The bear lives In cover too thick to per
mit hunting on horseback. But for that
the chase of this fierce old game would
have been one of the standard field sports
of the southerners long ago. They try to
hunt nearly all other kinds ot southern
game and beasts on horseback.
A southerner rides on horseback to shoot
quail. He courses wild turkey on horse
back. He hunts deer and wild pigs, foxes
and rabltts on horseback. His one sor
row Is that alligators cannot well be
hunted on horseback. It is the only draw
back to the pursuit of this hard-shelled
southern animal.
Shooting hardly entered Into hunting as
defined by the old-time southern sports
man. His hunting was the chase almost
exclusively. But now that he has become
a devotee of the shotgun, his enthusiasm
for the sport of wing shooting is as keen
and his regard for the finest points of tho
game Is as perfect as they ever were for
hunting on horseback. Consequently the
game gets a fair chance and will get a bet
ter chance still In years to come through
out the south.
Quail wintered so well last season and
a succeeding excellent grass season gave
them so much fine cover and food during
batching time that many second broods
were raised, thus doubling last year's quail
v. .nnrtamin carrv their regard for th supply in many sections, notably through- for fun
........ h. Phase so far that they bear out east Tennessee. The alligator isn't
n riftM or shotguns, but follow Old Man Owing to the vast spread of the old plan
pear simply with a revolver, ao that when tatlon. the wing shootin for quail
as there Is In the north for forcing one's
self through the woods and brambles to
follow frightened coveys.
Another shooting that is feeling the ef
fect of game laws Is the wild fowl shoot
ing along the sounds and Inlets of the
coast from Chesapeake capes to Florida.
Especially is this the case In Albemarle and
Pamlico sounds, where the water birds are
protected by all sorts of laws. One law
actually prohibits men from sailing or row
ing over the waters of Currituck sound ou
Sunday for the purpose of locating wild
fowl for shooting on any future day. There
are laws covering shooting from batteries,
Bhooting with any sort ot big gun or other
firearm except a gun held to the shoulder,
laws prohibiting ktlllng of birds before
dawn and after dark, laws covering shoot
ing from any moving boats not anchored,
laws providing even for the exact mode
of anchoring and the distance from shore
where such anchoring shall be done.
Currituck, Albemarle and Pamlico sound
waters, often present wonderful eights In
the season when the wild fowl begin to ar
rive there during their southern flight.
It is possible at times to see thousands
of birds, big and little, swimming, diving
and flying wherever one may look over the
water. Wild fowl of every kind, from the
great wild swan to the tiny butter ball
duck, from herons to the most diminutive
of the snipe family, pitch Into those glor
ious water hunting grounds.
Florida, hard hit for a time by the
feather and plume hunter, has Improved
game laws now and the Federal Lacey
act helps It In Its work. In addition, rail
roads and road Improvement have given
access to tracts that were not to be reached
a few years go, except by long, slow Jour
neys. There Is a good deal of deer shoot
ing in the state. The deer are not large,
but they are shy and wise enough to make
hunting a true sport. Occasionally a pan
ther can be bagged In the swampa and
thickets. Alligator skin-hunting nearly
cleaned that reptile out a few years ago,
but lately there has been an opportunity
a game animal, but
hi pursuit la as exciting as most ordinary
Is sportsmen can wish. The alligator may be
hunted in day or night time. Each form
has its own peculiar attractions.
In the day time, he may be "stalked"
and shot with a rifle aa he lies on a bank
or bar; or the shooter may go in a canoe
which is paddled softly toward the reptile
until the hunter Is close enought to use
a shotgun with effect.
Night hunting for alligators is one of
t ho weirdest forms of American sport. The
canoe glides softly over coal blacky ater.
with heavy trees hanging over the banks
and everything lost in gloomy mystery. A
lantern with a strong reflector is carried.
The dazzle of it makea a drifting or swim
ming alligator hesitate Just long enough
to provide a good chance for a eiiot. Some
times the lantern is affixed to the bow ot
the boat. Sometimes it is affixed to the
trout of the sportsman's hat, so that its
beam ot light shines straight in the direc
tion of the line ot aim.
This method ot night hunting Is known
as "shining." It the 'gator is asleep when
the "Bhlne" falls on him, he will glare
stupidly at it for a moment or two be
fore he is awake fully enough to get away
into the darkness. Then is the time to
shoot. The shotgun is most used for this
kind ot hunting and the charge is sent into
the Joints between the head and shoulders.
One ot the exciting stages ot alligator
hunting is after the beast has been hit.
As a dead alligator sinks almost at once, It
is necessary to get hold of him quickly.
Sometimes It happens that the creature
has not died as he should, and in that
case there will be vast trouble, a great
deal more Interesting to read about than
to experience. A ten-foot alligator, hurt
grievously and crazy mad, a canoe that
remains right side up even under ordinary
circumstances only because the occupants
are lucky, a pitch lark bayou and black
water full of various undesirable reptiles,
from water moccasins to other alligators,
makes a combination equal to a first-class
nightmare.
Many alllgator-skln hunters in Florida
and the gulf states carry marks that ac
crued to them because they made such a
mistake about the "death" of an alligator.
"Stalking" an alligator with a rifle is a
pretty sport, especially if the hunter Is a
blue blood and willing to call it a fair
deal only If he shoots the reptile through
the eye. An alligator eye Is not big. If
the bullet even so much as grazes the bony
eyesocket, the chances are that it will
glance off and the alligator will plungo
away, unharmed except for astonibbment
aud anger at the unreasonableness of man.
Everybody knows about Florida fishing.
But not everybody knows that the men who
go there to catch big fish really do not
taste the finer degree of bport with rod
and line. Estimating tbe quality of sport
by the hundred weight has a full pleasure
of its own. But in recent years many
tarpon anglers, having cnught their ton or
so of the great Silver King, have turned
with a sigh of relief to the light split bam
boo rod and tbe thin line and find the
true sport in taking the smaller game
fishes of tho coast, with tackle so light
that It is an ubsorbiug question as to
which end of the line will win.
Such fishing as casting spoon or bait
and sometimes the fly for croakers, snap
pers and Spanish mackerel is fishing that
can be excelled for real sport ouly by
extra good trout and black bass fiehing.
When the splendid, flashing, brave-heartud
mackerel "strike in" on a Florida beach,
the fishing is something to be remembered.
Running in undismayed schools that glitter
sometimes for miles; savagely hurling
themselves at the bait; fighting from tbe
firet touch of the hook until they are
beached they provide unblemished bport.
Another noble game fish is the barra
couta slim, wicked, a reincarnation ot the
old pirates of the Spanish Main, he darts
along, blue and silver. So swift is his
dash that the eye cannot follow him even
in the clearest of water. The writer had
an experience in the Windward Passage
of the incredible swiftness of the barra
couta. He was fishing in water so clear
that little tsh and weeds fifty feet below
were clearly visible. He was watching bis
baited hook, drifting about ten feet below
the surface, when a barracouta took it.
Yet, despite the fact that everything that
went on in the water was as visible as if
it were going on under glass, the fish was
so swift that before the eye could per
ceive him the line was running out and
the fish was leaping on tbe surface.
West Indians fear the barracouta more
than they do sharks. Bathing places are
fenced in on many island beaches to pre
vent the savage fish from reaching bathers.
They have been known to dash at swimmers
and bite oft their toes and fingers clean.
Never Touched Them
The pair of uonfriendly felines on the
back fence had been caterwauling at each
other for about forty-five minutes before
the patience of the man in the third floor,
back room of the boarding house became
exhausted.
"Gosh blame their mangy hides!" he
muttered, ferociously, as he hopped out of
bed in the darkness; "I'll fix 'em. I'll
throw my "
No, he did not say to himself that he'd
throw his bootjack at the cats, for tho
simple reason that be had not seen a
bootjack in exactly twenty-four years,
such articles only being employed nowadays
in the imaginations of professional funny
lsts, who live backwards.
He threw his water pitcher at the cats.
"Never touched us!" they hissed back
at him and then they went right on ex
pressing their opinions of each other un
til dawn.
Life Preserved
Judge: "There seems to be considerable
excitement in your town today," said the
visitor.
"Yes," answered the native. "Several o'
the fellers is presentln" a life-savin' medal
to Henry Piller."
"What sort of a hero is Piller? Did he
rescue some one from a burning building,
Btop a runaway or drag a drowning person
from the raging waves?"
"Nope; uolhin' like that. You see, our
town has been local option for nigh onto
a year an' Piller runs the only drug store
we have."
