The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1889-12-07
THE SPORTMANs CORNER.
Catching acknowledgements of the
Wild Duck-A Prosperous Pugilist-
Bluffing Misdemeanor.

Catching acknowledgements of the
| Wild Duck-A Prosperous Pugilist-
| Blufiing u Misdemeanor.
The nastiness of Illinois river in
late years has made it impossible for
any man without brass-lined st0m-
ach and no olfactOry nerves to indulge
In that once interesting sport, ice fish
ing, which would be in season soon
now but for the horrible condition of
the stream when once closed by the
ice. In lieu of 1t there Is, possibly, a
suggestion in the following story told
by a Chicago fisherman, named Has
kell. He says that one morning he
saw man throw in a line and almost
at once pull in catfish that took his
main strength to land and he asked
the fisherman how 1t was done. "Mis-
ter" said he, ''it's easy. The catfish
alias gets close to these bridge butts
AID burrows in the mud for the win
der," and he looked as If he had ex-
planned the whole thing. "Well,"
said l. "Jes' wait til help Bill an
I'll tell ye," and he reached over the
edge Of the tagging and pulled up a
man in divers toys. Then, turning to
me, he went on: "Ye see, Bill goes
down with this hook" exhibiting a
large piece of bent, unbarbed iron,
san hooks it through the jaws Of one
O. them sleepin' cats, yanks the rope
an up we pull in the fish, kills him,
throws him in the box and losses Bill
the hook agin."
That the wild ducks and geese are
gradually disappearing in the north
west is evident to any one who recalls
the famous sport the prairies used to
afford sportsman in years gone by. 1t
Is true, the old prairie slOughs have
been drained out, reducing the area
of the hunting grounds, but even on
the ducking grounds OF the river the
game is growing scarce year by year.
One cause of this decrease is given
by Louisiana SpOrtSmen, who says
that the destruction Is made at the
breeding grounds of the far North
west by parties who gather duck and
goose eggs by the carload to sell them
to the manufacturers of glue. The
consequence is that where years ago
there were millions of birds, there are
now only thousands, and unless some
legislative measures are promptly
taken by parties interested in their
preservation, it will only be short
time until we shall have the wild
ducks eXterminated as completely as
the buffalOs have been. This would
be a good topic for the Sportsmen's
Club of the Northwest TO take up.
George Godfrey is the wealthiest of
the active pugilists in the East.
George owns 5000 feet of land, and
his residence and barn in Chelsea,
Mass, and $1,000 feet of land on
Beach street, Revere, all paid for, and
he has neat little sum besides at in
terest in bank. He has six children,
the Oldest a son in his 18th year. He
is only 80 years old. It's wonder
that Sullivan can't take lesson in
sense from Godfrey, and take advan-
tage of his chances.
A Philadelphia Times writer, by the
way, says of Sullivan: Before he
fought Ryan, John was fine, manly,
modest young fellow, splendid spec
linen of physical manhood, and gave
promise of developing into a really
great pugilist." He thinks John has
been ruined by too much money and
too much herO-worShip.
| The San Francisco Examiner tells a
good story on an old Californian, and
how bluffing became crime in
Frisco. Years ago a young German
reached the coast, and after various
ups and downs in mining camps
drifted into the saloon business, and
in due course became naturally SUI
pervisor. With his other ac-
complishments our German had
a weakness for the great national
game of "draw poker" and withal
held his end up. One evening, how
ever, a comfortable looking miner
dropped in, and from ''high-lOw" and
cnch for the drinks they drifted
naturally into breezy game OF draw.
They played along comfortably for a
time, when at one hand the Supervisor
drew in three queens. He bet them
nobly, but the miner stood pat, and
on his making a hair-raising bet, the
Supervisor dropped his hand, while his
adversary raked in the pile with a
nine-high hand.
They played on until the German
once again caught threes and once
again the stranger stood pat This
time the Supervisor would not be
bluffed out, but saw the others raises
to the end.
FLUSH" said the miner.
The Supervisor saw the line Of black
cards, and with sigh yielded up the
pot.
Pretty soon the same combination
came up again. and again did the
stranger call ''flush" and tear the heart
out of the Supervisors three aces.
They played all night and the
strangercalled no less than five tlushes,
when his adversary was feeling con-
tent behind three Of kind.
When the last ounce Of dust had
| fallen a victim to last fatal flush the
German drew off his specs, when, to
his great surprise, he saw better than
with them on. Some one had substi-
tuted pair made of window glass for
his own eyeglasses, and with the
clearer vision he again looked at the
hand on the table.
His hair raised and he almost blew
up.
That hand, instead Of being all
hearts, contained two diamonds.
The stranger, knowing the Super
viSor's defect Of vision had been play-