Evening star., 1905-11-11

the kaiser appears Not till he lights cigar
or pipe do the rest of the jolly, free and
equal party light up.
OF course the kaiser gets the best stand.
Equally. of course, only those who are ex-
tremely high born have the privilege Of
being posted near him. And unless he has
informed all and sundry through his aid
that they are to shoot when they are ready,
it is manners to fire no shot till the royal
gun has opened the ball.
Let Royalty Have First Shot.
If a fine boar. with extra big tushes,
breaks out of the thielSet and runs along the
line, or If the head of a stag, crowned with
thirty or more points. appears among the
trees. it is manners to reserve fire and let
the prize beast reach the royal stand
Things are not quite as bad with the
European pmnces and kings as they are IN
Persia. where 1t is court etiquette to pre-
tend that the shah-in-shah has killed all
the game that falls during a hunt, and
where sharpshootero are posted all around
him to fire at all animals at which he fires,
SO thai game at which he aims never
escapes. But though the two kaisers are
really good sportsmen, willing to play the
game pretty fairly. they are far too much
imbued with the creed of royal prerogative
to be willing to see their guests kill all the
game in a drive before they get a shot at
1t, or to find. after the hunt, when the kill
is laid out in a long line, that the biggest
stays or the heaviest boars have all been
killed by somebody else.
Kaiser William, especially. feels that any
really big stag has been predestined by an
all-wise and properly respectful Providence
to be the billet for his bullet. He wants to
get one that shall be the equal of the grand
head of sixty-six points that was gathered
in by Frederick of Prussia in 1895, and
which was considered such wonder that
1t was exchanged for regiment of sol
diers. The present kaiser's best head of
antlers is one of forty-four points, which
a n 10 hy- ha rIt u
another hunter in the world.
The Kaiser's Preserves.
The kaisers preserves cot Germany east,
west, south and north. In the east are
great domains, kept wild as forests pri-
meval by cunning forestry. where the true
elk still live in herds far more royal
game than our American waplti. In still
other forests are the great deer known as
Edehirsch. 1t is from these herds that
the wonderful antlers come. for among
these animals are deer mightier than any
that the hunters of free Asia, Africa or
America ever may hope to see
There ave boar preserves and pheas-
antries. Quail and grouse are bred by the
thousands every year. In the south of the
empire are chamOis preserves, hanging to
the sides of white mountains. In Lithuanla
there. are even remnants of the wonderful
prehistoric bison of Europe, the wisent,
half again as big our American bison.
Everybody KNOWS lnat the emperor loIl
arm is withered. Few who see him swing
his gun game and shoot steadily all day
long would suspect it. So well does he
shoot that his score since 1872 amounts to
5019S pieces of game. This includes all
sorts of animals, from Wisents and bear to
rabbits and foxes, and all sorts of birds,
from quail to ptarmigans and cranes.
His record of pheasants alone is enor
nous. for he is accounted one of the best
pheasant shots of Europe, excelled only by
Prince August of Coburg-Cohary, who once
killed 997 pheasants out of thousand
shots in the preserves of Ferrieres.
OF course, these enormous scores could
never be made by still hunting or even
bounding, as we understand hunting here.
The royal hunters don't incline much to the
delights of the trail and the spoor They
don't waste any precious time In looking
for their game. Long before they get out
of bed on the morning of the hunt scores
OF beaters have begun to close in on the
preserves from all directions, and the ami
mails are beginning to bunch in the woods
near the stands Then all IS in readiness
for the final concentric closing in of the
ring of beaters and drivers, to force the