Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-10-15
THE GUN AND ROD.
Annual Prairie Club Hunt in
Arkansas.

T.. WHITMORE,
Publisher and Proprietor.

MEMPHIS, October |, 1871
Editor Chicago Field:
About two weeks ago ten doctors,
lawyers, merchants and others, em-
barked hence upon the duck of a
boat, the charming little Ruth, to
spend our one week ont of the years
fifty-two, among the fur, fin and
feather of the Tooth-pick State,
over the Mississippi river. Genial
Captain Harry and the scientific
Hoyle at the helm, in thirty-six
hours down the "Father" and up
the White, landed us at Mount
Adams, Prairie county, Arkansas.
Casino, the yerker, and the little
game of draw poker beguiled the
hours; but Hoyle says Guido only
knows one game Of cards, namely,
cribbage, having enormously packed
away Hoyle's vestin his camp chest,
thinking it one of the party's vest
ments from having a sporting pa
per IN the inner pocket. But before
leaving home the spouse of Guido
saying, as he had not been i'll for
fifteen years, it surely was now his
time, gave him a libation of pare
goric and lemon punch as preven-
tives, hence the Elusive game of
cribbage not played according to
Hoyle. On the texas deck were
twenty-four pointers, droppers and
settlers, augmented in camp to
twenty-nine and a pack of hounds.
Landing amidst the fierce and pitt
less pelting Of the equinoxial storm,
we were most cordially received by
the Price brothers, who already en-
joyed our respect and soon won our
unanimous esteem.
The cold gale chilled the hitherto
torrid air all the succeeding week.
and rain dotted the prairies with
pools, so we, for the first time, had
not to haul Water for man or dog;
canteens were worn, filled to please
the taste of each huntsman. Three
casks Of ice insured a speck of win
ter in Indian summers lap, and
froze the game for friends at home.
The tent was the perfection of fac
totum, superior to the Nomads or
the Gipsy maids, being a rooted
haymow, one hundred yards long
on one side were tethered the twelve
horses feeding at will; on another
side all the dogs bedded and shell
tered; on one end of the hayrick
slept the four drivers and three
cooks and walters; at opposite end
reclined the club members and
their invited guests. The air was
redolent with perfumes of prairie
flowers and new mown hay, while |
the vision of closed eyes was filled |
with grouse, quails and deer. At
night the quartered venison in
camp gave sanguinary taint to the
air, and thrice we were serenaded
by the sharp, short, swapping howls
Of wolves, which hungrily bayed
The camp-iires, coveting the otfal of
The deer. Daily we divided into
grouse shooting and deer driving
parties; the greater number of deer,
however, were ridden up, abreast.
The result Of the five days hunt
was seven deer, 440 chickens, 50
squirrels, one gobbler, the balance
lualls and rails, to total number of
III. Also two rattlesnakes and
,ne moccasin, not put in the bag,
though the Is rattles were. An
ardent, portly lawyer, who is a wild
pack, dead shot, led the score in
,otal, he 115, Guido vice with ia
lead, they shooting alternately
throughout the hunt. 1t was ex-
,eedingly gratifying to the club
hat both the largest scores ,on
birds and deer were headed by in
yited guests, SD. II. p" and GA. {
:. T." Having beaten the regulars
hey were Immediately booked and '
accepted as junketers for 1878.
Cwenty-six grouse was the best
rag, with nine quails, of any bird
nan one day, and four deer the l
,est deer-slaying day. And when
lrivers and ISLANDERS all met on the j
)anks Of the little LaGrue at 2
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