The morning journal-courier., 1907-12-18
DUCKS ON MISSOURI
How 8 Hunter Got 6 Wagon Load or 8 Boat
 Load.
CAUGHT BY THE LEGS
Duck-Hunting in These Days Nor as III What it Used
 to be.

After hearing Charley Biederman tell some of his early day duck hunt ing stories his friends concluded that time, while dealing gently with his physical well being has impaired somewhat his memory. Or perhaps the veteran hunter is something of q joI- |. CT. For instance:
 "One day l went down the Missouri /. river duck hunting and landed on big sand bar" says he There were ID trees, no vegetation of any kind where I could build 'blind'-nothing but the level sand bar. The ducks were dying-out of range-and didn't know what to do for while i Finally happy thought came.
 T got in my boat and rowed across to watermelon patch near the river bank, where I picked out the largest melon I could find. l cut off one end and hollowed out the aed meat; cut openings for the eyes and place to breathe through, forming one huge mask. Then I rowed back to the sand bar and put out my decoys,
 I placed the watermelon mask over my head letting it rest on my should CTS Then I waded out among the deeoys so that only the watermelon appeared above the surface of the water.
 The ducks came in droves. They settled all around me. All I had to do was to move about cautiously and grab the ducks by the legs. I1erked them out of sight and then twisted their necks while I had them under water In that way I killed a wagon load I mean a hoatload-of ducks"
 MT, Biederman lives at Thirty fourth street and Prospect avenue. Much of the seventy eight years of his life he has spent out of doors with his dog and gun, During the early days in Kansas City he killed ducks for the market. He supplied several of the hotels and restaurants with fresh game MAny of tho travellers who en- joyed blue wing meal or 8 mallard at the old Coates House or the St. James Hotel were indebted to Bieder- man. He sent the game home and his wife dressed it for the market. Mrs Biederman said that her husband used to kill an average of ninety ducks !, a day during the hunting season, and that she generally sold 200 pounds of feathers.
 MT Biederman rarely permitted any one to accompany him on his hunting excursions He had better luck he thought, when he was alone When Milton McGee was Mayor of Kansas City he asked the hunter for permis- sion to go with him on duck shoot ing trip Mrs. Biederman objected at once She was afraid that the Mayor was not accustomed to handling gun and that her husband might be
 wounded. MT McGee agreed to give
 Mrs Biederman one of the best lots .. In the McGee addition If he wounded her husband, and finally the trip was arranged The hunters boarded
 train on the old narrow gauge rail road the Northern Missouri line : now the Wabash and went to Nor
 borne, Mo. In two days several hun . dred ducks were killed,
 On the return trip the. engine struck COW and was wrecked Persons
 who gathered around the train after the accident stole many of the hunt CTS ducks Mir McGee gave away the rest of the ducks, 1t is said, so that
 they had no game at all when they reached home
 Where there was one man shooting
 ducks in the old days there are hun
 dreds now Biederman said There
 were no gun clubs and clubhouses ; when ] first began hunting If hun
 ter fell into the water he could go : into the woods and kindle fire to dry
 his clothes that is, if his matches did not get wet, If the matches were not
 saved he could strike out and walk to ; the nearest farmhouse
 The guns, too, that hunters use now are very different from those } owned by the old-fashioned sports
 men When I was young man we 7 din't have breech loading guns. We
 owned the muzzle-loaders, and you 7 know how much trouble it was to got them ready for business. used to : carry two guns when I went hunting; the large one I used for killing swans
 and the small one for ducks"
 When MT Bederman began hunt s ing, swans were numerous in Missouri. : He remembers the first bird of this s kind that he killed He shot the ? swan and it fell in lake. He did { not have a boat and the water was too l deep to wade, but he made up his mind to get that swan. The next S morning he returned with horse and
 urged the animal far out into the pond and picked up the precious bird, But !, as he was returning to shore a mis- . hap occurred The horse stumbled and the hunter was greatly chilled ' before he reached the nearest farm } house
 When MT Biederman went to Wa terloo and Lake City before the rail-
 roads were built he rode a pony. Of ten he was compelled to walk back F home, because the pony could not car ry him and the game too
 This veteran sportsman came to
 Kansas City in 1863. During the war he repaired firearms and sharpened swords, but for this labor he was
 poorly paid It was while he was at
 tending business college, shortly after
 the war that he began hunting He
 was persuaded to buy gun by hear ing an enthusiastic hunter tell of his experiences.
 MT Biederman took his new mug zle-loading shotgun and went to