The herald., 1897-10-24

Many have joked and some have COM
planned that some of our presidents went
away to shoot ducks insted of attending
to the public business. But every one
who hupAs ducks knows that if more of
our public men would seek relaxatio
that way they would last much longer
do more business and do it better. For
there is no other t-of- door amuseme nj
that can more quickly and effectively
Danish all business cares than duck
shooting.
On good duck day, on such ground
as can still be found in many parts of our
country, especially in California, ones
thoughts are diverted by ducks more
than by any other kind of game From
the moment one sees the dotted, line
rising in the horizon one can think of
little else until one can decide whether
1t is going or coming. And while watch
ing its circling sweeps across the sky
before 1T begins to slide down the air on
the long incline that you expect will
bring it within reach of your fire you
would scarcely think of business If you
should try. Equally vain is it to try to
do anything but be amused when. after
spinning around the sky in vast ellipses,
the ducks descend in great spiral that
leaves it long in doubt how near the gun
the end of the line will come. Ard even
about the time you feel certain that the
next second. will bring it close enough
the whole line is often changed into 4
whir of hazy wings winding skyward
in revolving funpel like leaves in the
heart of cyclone. For nothing is more
easy than to scare the whole string with
the slightest movement or by showing
the least bit too much of your clothes.
The pictures by the Great American
artist of ducks ready to alight on the
end of gun, behind which a lubberly-
rascal in bright clothes and big hat
stands in full sight, exist only in the
fancy of those who never saw ducks
outside of oldtime pictures. The pic
ture on the cover of a recent rumber Of
Harper's Weekly is a good specimen of
the work Of those who Gao not know that
people love hunting because it takes
skill and not because it only makes mur-
der more easy. A picture Of a man IN
store clothes holding ducks head uu-
der pile driver would be quite as at
tractive to the real lover of duck hud-
ing as such picture as that, even If it
were true in other respects.
Even when the flight is corfned to
long strings speeding down the distant
sky for supper in some other state The
mind gets a rest in watching them as,
we'll as at those more lively times when
they come whizzing in from every quar-
ter of the horizon
Many of those who have never hunted
ducks think them slow flyers and easy
to hit. On the contrary, the duck is "A
very swift bird, one of the very hardest
to hit except after long practice. and the
ekll required to make anything like re-
spectacle bag, even in a heavy flight,
makes 1t one of the most attractive of
all the game birds 1t is much more
rapid than it seems and the distance one
must aim ahead on the line of its flight,
in order to have the shot at the right
place before the game is past it, is a
ground of stunning surprise to experts
on other birds when they first try the
duck When he aims foot ahead of the
foremost in flock and sees one fall out
several feet behind the duck at which he
fired, the tyro first begins to get an idea
of their speed. And they have such a
knowledge Of the range of a gun, and
such keen eyes for anything unusual in
the reeds or brush along the line of
flight, such strong wings with which TO
climb the air just about the time you are
ready to shoot, that you must be Won
derfully quick in guessing the distance,
In deciding to fire and in firing after de-
Gliding.
The most difficult of all shots with the
shotgun is the double cross on two
ducks passing each other in opposite
directions. To kill both with one bar