Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-04


1.-THE south is rapidly becoming the haven
of the sportsman" said a delegate to the
Southern Industrial Parliament the other
day Many thousand acres have been
placed under rigid protection; some by the
owners themselves who lease out shooting
privileges, others by rich sportsmen who
form themselves into clubs and either buy
the property or obtain hunting rights for
financial considerations, such as paying the
taxes. i
Exceptionally quick to see the advan-
tage of tempting sportsmen, the southerners
are beginning to treat the wild things as
if they were gold. Many hotel owners have
acquired hunting rights over the country
surrounding their property, and they permit
their guests to shoot and fish there. One
hotel man thus controls twenty-five thou
sand acres In ideal game country.
AS a result the south is fast becoming
a magnificent game country. From Tennes-
see east and from Chesapeake south 1t
furnishes today every variety of wing
shooting, from turkeys to snipe; and in big
game it offers deer and black bear.
x x
''Old Man Bear still grumbles his surly
way through the woods of some of the
southern Appalachian mountains and the
forests and canebrakes of Alabama, Mis-
sissippi, Georgia and Arkansas, He is hunt
ed in many ways. Some men like to follow
him day after day sleeping on his trail at
night until the endurance of the wild beast
is conquered by the endurance of the man;
others hunt him with dogs that drive him
to stand at bay. Some of these sportsmen
carry their regard for the ethics of the
chase so far that they bear no rifles
shotguns, but follow Old Man Bear simply
with revolver, SO that when he finally
makes his stand the hunter must go in
boldly and make a distinctly personal mat
ter of it.
"Canebrake bear hunting is the exciting
sport. The yelping bear dogs are trained to
hang just close enough to bear to make
him run and still to keep just far enough
away so that he cannot reach them when
he turns in his recurring attacks of rage.
After they have started him going the
hunters can hear the crashing of the cane
and the splitting and tearing of underbrush
as the big black chap pounds his way
through. When a bear, thus set to run
ming, comes down headlong on man in
the canebrake it means quick shooting and
good shooting Old Man Bear is red hot
and he means to destroy everything from
a bush to a man that stands in the way of
his escape from those dogs.
X X
THE bear lives in cover too thick to per-
chase of this fierce old game would have
been one of the standard field sports Of
the southerners long ago. They try to hunt
nearly all other kinds of southern game
and beasts on horseback.
"A southerner rides on horseback to shoot
quail. He courses wild turkey on horse
back He hunts deer and wild pigs, foxes
and rabbits on horseback. His one sorrow
is that alligators cannot well be hunted on
horseback 1t is the only drawback to the
pursuit of this hard-shelled southern sau-
rian.
Another shooting that is feeling the eff
feet of game laws is the wild fowl shoot
ing along the sounds and inlets of the coast
from the Chesapeake capes to Florida. Els
pecially is this the case in Albemarle and
Pamlico sounds, where the water birds are
protected by all sorts of laws. One law ac-
tually prohibits men from sailing or row.
ing over the waters of Currituck sound on
Sunday for the purpose of locating wild
fowl for shooting any future day. There
are laws covering shooting from batteries,
shooting with any sort of big gun or other
flrearm except a gun held at the shoulder,
laws prohibiting killing of birds before
dawn and after dark, laws covering shoot
ing from moving boats not anchored. laws
providing even for the exact mode OF