The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-01-15
A CHICAGO TRAPPER.
'Fxay'' Smith Traps NIinI<s for n Liv-
ing in Chicago City Limits.


Chicago Journal
trap. / saw one of the lunatics run into that
hole in the bank, an he ought to be out
an in the trap by this time. No, gol darn
1T, I haven't got him yet. Well, maybe to-
morrow I'll ketch him.
You don't see any trap? No, course you
don't Old Kay Smith knows his business.
See if you can find it. Don't shove your
fingers .around-they might get kotched by
something"
his rounds, and when his companion from
the city couldn't find the steel trap, which
was hidden under twigs and leaves at the
mouth of a hole in a brown bank on the
swamps edge, the trappers delight was ap-
THAR it u.s." and the trapper showed aside
a bit of leaves and sho we'd rusty chain.
Kay Smith is a little man OF fifty-eigEt
years. His eyes are dark and little, and as
keen as those of the mink he trals BIS
chin is sharp and long. Al its zip it IS
adorned with a bunch of gray whiskers,
which bob up and down in funny way as
the old man talks and The us tobacco. Kay"
tramps about with hickory staff. He wears
heavy, well creased top Doors. Smiths right
hand is MANNED. A bullet plowed its way
through it at Stony river.
I war hit three times inside Of thirty
seconds" explained ne traUpar; lit core
jes that fast. Got it once in the hand end
twice in the shoulders"
When the government sends around it's
quarterly remittance The envelope is adj
dressed to Kellam Smith. I3u- to all Hege-
last seasons record 5 2l2 mink and ! GO
musk rats. He promises to exceed these fig
ureS this year.
Smiths trapping grounds are within the
limits of Chicago. He seldom steps over
the city line. The marshes and moor and
water in the Calumet region are his places.
He knows every hole along Hyde and Wolf
lakes and on the Calumet river. He seldom
goes to Lake Calumet. That's the 'reserva-
ton of another trapper
The country on which Kay Smith oper-
ates is green in spring, brown and unin-
vIting the rest of the year. 1t is made up
of marsh, qucksand and little swells OF
solid ground, where the mink digs his hole.
Kay lives within the corporate limits of
Hegewisch. His frame house is just north
of the suburb on what is known as the Old
Indian Ridge road. He owns several hun
dred traps, and it's morning walk to visit
richest harvest, but the winter finds him
reached when ice comes.
AS Smith started on his rounds this win
ter morning he looked affectionately over
the stretch of moor and swamp between his
house and Hyde lake and exclaimed:
IF they'd just leave my traps alone,
wouldn't leave these parts for the best trap
ping grounds in America an I've been clean
out to the foothills There may be. ies' as
good trapping in some places, but there IS
none better. Why out thar in that blamed
swamp there's $1,000 muskrat and can't
get 'em. 1 get some of them, though"
This last with a chuckle for the old man
thought of the 637 skins he had taken so far
this season.
on the swamps edge where his mink traps
were-the ordinary steel traps such
rats are caught with.
AN the beauty is the trappin' is jes' as
good now he said, pretty near as it
was twenty year ago. L came to these
parts jeS tWenty-one year ago, an I've
trapped ever since. Earned my living that
way, an have had lots of expense on ac-
count of sickness of my daughters. Had
three daughters, but lost two Of 'em.
but in spite of it all, l owe jes' $40 IN the
hull world. Me an my wife war jes' balanc-
ing up our accounts jes as you came along
the ridge.
Whoa! Coin to rain"
As the trapper jerked out the last ne
stopped and pointed to a garter snake which