The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-09-27
SHOOTING THE HUNTER.
Continued from Second Page.)

F4L44 Y4aAlA 4oAEp AOUIiA lIlI5 anu bs DE4 at some backwoods lumber camp. Of 1 tener he provided his own meals and
 shelter
 The repeating rifle made its appear
 ance. At first the skilled hunters
 avoided it because they needed no sec
 ond or third or sixteenth shot: because
 it was poorly sighted and it's tightly 1 crimped cartridges were not so accurate 1 as their own, and, until better cart
 ridges were adopted. less powerful, 1 But men who could not shoot well with
 the single shot took up the repeater, and when they missed a deer at the first tri-
 al worked the lever like a pump handle, l firing six, ten, dozen times at the flee ing game. Often they crippled it, and it
 crawled away to die, for few of these | bunglers could follow any trail, even 1 one wet with blood; sometimes they ac- tually got the game. They created some consternation among the ranks of the old hunters, but their bullets were
 of neither wide range nor high power. | and the black powder made so much
 noise it was possible to dodge behind a tree until the ammunition in their mag
 aZines was exhausted. As cartridges showed improvement, the old-timers were won over to the repeater-some of 1 them-and, having reserve magazines,
 their accuracy of fire gradually but
 surely fell off, and they, too, wasted
 many shots anw and then.
 After so many of the one time near l by game fish waters had been depleted
 of good fish, it became popular for per- sons of leisure to go to the backwoods i in summer to fish. At times they pro ] vided their own rude camps, but later
 on the little camp keepers branched out, employed cooks who could prepare a | fairly good meal, and catered to the summer anglers. Some of these, on go- l ing home. engaged quarters at these
 little hostelries for the game shooting season. Presently they took their fam l lilies with them to the woods in sum-
 ner. The presence of women in camp was mildly resented at first by some of the old-timers, but woman's influence prevailed, and the result was larger | camps. then hotels, and railroads.
 Presto! the wilderness became a fash ionahle summer resort, and the disgust ed angler who liked to loaf and wear old clothes was compelled either to don a spiketail coat at dinner or seek other
 quarters. The sons of families sum- 1 mering in the woods must take antlers home with them to boast about in win ter, and, having little knowledge of | woodcraft or the peculiarities of the | grooved tube, they added to the list of human victims. Not to be outdone, their guests must have bucks heads in their homes, too, and presently the wives and sisters of men who had never fired rifle in their lives demanded tro- phies. In short-and in a short time
 the search for antlers became fad, and So large was the crowd of tyros surging here and there in the woods firing at every moving thing, that the hunter, who followed the game purely for the fun of being outdoors with nature, found few places where he could be safe
 from flying bullets when garbed in his
 suit of dun. He must wear scarlet
 sweater, red cap and string of bells,
 or take the consequences of his folly!
 Enter the high power small bore rifle.
 At first it was provided with full man
 tied bullets unsuitable for hunting but
 the makers had advertised its great
 penetrative power, which caught the
 novice's fancy at once, and even staid
 hunters who little while before had
 c1amored for heavy charges of powder and comparatively light bullets of
 great shocking power were carried
 away with the new babble. With the
 tremendous range of these bullets,
 lighter reports of smokeless powder,
 and the absence of smoke, the casualties increased. Men passing through the
 woods suddenly threw up their hands.
 sank down and died in ignorance of whence came the bullets which killed them. Others, feeling a pricking sen- sation, searched for thorn and found blood flowing from a bullet wound. Two men lying side by side, waiting for a shot at game. were both wounded thus. So quickly do Americans adopt anything new, however crude, that the
 best black powder rifles, which, in the 'nineties, were believed to have had their best qualities developed through long trial and experiment. were su.i- uCilly tAt toN II away anu L1lS HlSl pOWGE small bores taken up. So rapidly did the change take place that the powder manufacturers were for a time left far behind in the race, and even the rifle makers committed grave blundcrs iii their attempts to keep pace with the demand for new weapons.
 Sportsmen's shows were held in vari- ous cities and have become popular. Society, as well as the sportsmen, looked into these affairs and decided to
 make a fad of hunting big game. Ex- hibitors explained the power If the wonderful small bore rifles, and men went away and purchased these wedp-
 ons and some cartridges, but did rot consider that practice with them was a | necessity before going to the woods. Thereupon men about town pretended to be wise upon the subject of rifles,
 game and antlers, and influenced by these shows-which iii themselves were worthy-went to the wilds in autumn in constantly increasing numbers, and the acts of recklessness multiplied accord ingly:
 In some of the big woods deer are so
 closely protected throughout the great
 CT part of the year and become so &C., customed to seeing anglers along the streams in summer. that they become very tame, hence the rawest tyro can
 kill his deer without much of an effort;