The Republican., 1895-10-31
WA RRING ON rHE WOLF.
Some Incidents Connected with the
Bounty Law in Minnesota


lot of otficial-looking paper boxes la
beled "wo!f bounties," with the name
of the particular county from which
they come attached. There is some
red tape about the wolf bounty busi-
ness, and it is just as well that there
should be, for it costs a good deal of
money to buy all the scalps offered, and
the price paid is quite an inducement
for men who have no moral compunc-
tions about doing" the public treasury
to go into the business of raising the
brutes for their scalps. In fact, there
have been prosecutions for that very
sort of thing. One of the northern
counties, Polk, had such a case, and SO
did Otter Tail once upon a time. In
both of the counties named enterpris-
ing individuals had gone regularly into
the business of raising the wolves.
Either Polk is the banner wolf county
or the people up there are the most per-
sistent hunters in the state. The farm
ers turned in two hundred and forty
four wolf scalps in two years. They
took in bounties one thousand one hun
dred and forty-siX dollars out of the
state treasury and one-half as much out
of the county treasury. AT that time
there was many suspicious looking
scalp that was sent back for further
identification. The man who kills n
wolf and then tries to collect the boun-
ty, having no previous knowledge of
what he must do, inevitably comes to
wish he had let the wolf alone He is
brought into contact with nearly every
public officer who has to do with the
paying of public obligations, from
chairman of the board of supervisors of
his town to the state auditor. Of course,
If he gets a couple of wolves day for
a few days in the winter he must do
fairly well.
The wolf hunter does most of his
business in the early months of the year.
for the scalps are most valuable then.
A tull-grown female wolf killed in the
first months of the year is worth fif-
teen dollars to her slayer. A male wolf
or a cub brings only five. During the
summer months the bounty is five dol
lars head for any sort of a wolf The
hunter takes the pelt off his victim, if
he is inclined to be nice about following
the law, and he will show the same to
the chairman of the board of county
supervisors in the town in which the
killing was made. If he cannot get the
chairman of the board he is permitted
by law to exhibit the hide to a majority
of The har,c of 10 hnar1 Wbnro-
upon he will be given certificate and
will deliver the same to the county
auditor, who will pay over the price,
unless he is suspicious, and then he
will insist that the entire hide be shown.
Sometimes the hide is not available, and
sometimes the kick does not come until
the bounty is demanded by the county
auditor or the state auditor. A couple of
years ago there was such case.
A man in a northern county killed a
wolf. His county auditor would not
pay the bounty, and the demand came
to the auditor of the state. At that
time there were no wolf sharps in the
auditors office, and, after they read the
law, they came to the conclusion that
they would have to see the body of the
beast. They could not look at scalp
and do all the guessing the law re-
quired. Word was sent to the hunter
of the decision. 1t was getting warm
in the spring, when one day there
walked into the office a long-haired,
fierce-looking man. Hanging down his
back was the carcass of a very dead
wolf. He threw the wolf on the coun-
ter of the Office and said: There, gimme
my money" The wolf had deceased
some weeks before, and the man got
his money. The wolf was thrown out
of the window, and Janitor Rose, after
long wrangle with the wolf-slayer,
superintended the removal of the re-
mains. He has thought ever since that
there ought to be a law passed repeal
ing the wolf bounty act.
1t cost upward of twenty thousand
dollars in the last two years to keep
down the ambitious wolf. Nearly three
thousand scalps were paid for-exactly
two thousand nine hundred and one,
in fact. They came largely from the
north, and possibly some of them We're
natives of other states, but their nativ-
ity cannot be too closely questioned.
In some of the counties there are pro-
fessional wolf hunters, who put in the
month of January in the business, and,
of course, let cub grow up to the fif-
teen-dollar limit. The rapid settlement
of the remote counties is driving the
wolves further north, and within a
few years the wolf bounty will no long
er cut an important figure in public eX-
penditure. The practice of injecting the
animals with the germs of contagious
disease is decimating the wolf tribe
even more rapidly than anything else,
and wolf raising for bounties is an in
dustry that belongs altogether to the
past.-St. Paul Pioneer Press.
Not Entirely.
Mrs. Billus reading from magazine
article)-"Many a good matrimonial
ship that sails from port with fair
wind and all the omens in its favor goes
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