The Irish standard., 1901-10-19
HUNTING IN CITY -.
oscks and Rabbit. Ar.,
Gunners Within Chicago
Boundaries. %sss

It can never be claimed that Chicago
offers any great variety OF game.
There are elephants, tigers and leops
ards here to be sure, but the animal
keeper at Lincoln park where these
wild beasts are to be found would
have the person who tried to hunt
them locked up as dangerous lunatie.
But nevertheless sportsmen who
haven't time or money to go out to
western hunting territory or the game
preserves in Indiana or Michigan
often sally forth in Chicago and man
age to have good sport and not infrs.
quently get good bag of game. says
the Tribune.
Ducks are to be had in the spring
and fall down along the lake shore
and out in the region Of Lake Calumet
below Pullman, and on the wide ex-
panse of prairie on the southern and
western extensions of the city there
are wild pigeons, partridges, quail in
season and occasionally q prairie
chicken. Clark's station out in the
vicinity of One Hundred and Four
teenth street used to be famous place
for prairie chicken, but they have been
hunted SO much that only occasionally
can one be found there now. Tho
ducks have also been SO mercilessly
pursued whenever they come near
Chicago that of late years duck hunt.
ing has waned as a Chicago sport, al
though there are still any number OF
Chicago hunters who go forth at tho
proper season morning after morn
ing and wage war on all the ducks who
are thoughtless enough to stop over
en- route south or north in Chicago.
The ducks are often lurcd to the city
Mt night by the glare of the electric
shores of the Calumet or in the bushes
on the sandy dunes along the lake.
When morning comes the patient
hunters who have been waiting half
the night begin their fusillade, and
happy be the duck that is able to es.
cape. because the hunters of Chicago,
are as the leaves of the tree, and the
duck who escapes the popping artil-
lcry ut One Hundred and Fourteenth
SlIttN uuu luC IuolllduC VI SlIllll dIuS
at One Hundred and Fifteenth street
and the double company of unclassi-
fled troops at One Hundred and Six
tcenth street will probably fall before
the belching rifles at One Hundred and
Seventeenth. And even if he flew in
safety to One Hundred and Eighteenth
street there are any numbr of more
blocks over which he must fly before
he finally escapes from II city where
the entire population seems banded
together with an oath to slay him.
It's a hard proposition for n bird to
get into n country where once in many
miles there is a party of hunters look
ing for the game, but to get in n hunt
ing ground where there are more
than 2,0000,000 of people to keep full
the ranks of the hunters makes the
unwary bird that flies into this trap
appear in the light of n suicide.
There are ordinances against hunt
ing within the city limits, but out in
the scattered parts of The city, where
q policeman has II beat of four or six
miles to walk, the hunters are abun-
dantly able to wait until the blue
coated minion of tho law is well out of
sight and reasonably certain not to
return again for two or three hours
before beginning their operations.
The certainty of arrest if caught hunt
ing within the city limits only gives an
added zest to the sport and makes it
douhly exciting for the hunters, who
are also the hunted and must keep
only one eye open for game while the
other is on the lookout for policemen.
There is always the possibility in
the gray, foggy dawn of filing some
unwary mechanic on his way to the
shop with Il full charge of No. 4 bird
shot, but that is Il chance, of course,
that the city pot hunter has to tnke
along with the other manifest draw
backs to hunting in region exceeding
ly well settled and populated.
Rabbits are not lacking in Chicago
md during the winter months they are
hunted relentlcssly across the open
prairies down towards Hegewisch and
on the snow-swept truck farms to the
northwest of the city. Policemen
walking lonely beats on the outskirts
of the city seldom hesitate to pop over
a rabbit with their revolvers if the OPP
portunity is good and there is nobody
within earshot.
The Chicago hunter is not much of
n respecter of game laws, A man who
disregards the city ordinance in re-
gard to shooting within the city limits
is not apt to pay much attention to
the state restrictions as to the proper
time for killing game. Besides, he is
not much afraid of the game wardens
anyhow. Game wardens rely on po-
licemen and city statutes to prevent
the indiscriminate killing of wild
birds that stray into the city and turn
their attention to farm land and for
csts, where hunting is properly sup
posed to take place. But the Chicago
pot hunter when he is out with gun
will shoot at any, sort, specie or kind
of wild thing that crosses his path. All
he wants is for Q policeman to be out
of the road. Then he will shoot any
thing from quail to rhinoceros, II
one should happen to come his way.
IT is needless to say that the Chicago
municipal huntsman is scorned by the
true sportsman, but just the same he
goes hunting when he can and there IL
no doubt that he himself is fond of
his happy hunting ground inside Of q 4
great city, even if policemen are more
numerous than quail and rudaed
grouse.
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