The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1910-06-03
No, no, no; they wouldn't think OF

such thing.
"You don't propose to decimate
our herds of these noble animals?"
Why, certainly not.
81 presume that one good bull
moose apiece would satisfy you?'
And their eyes glistened as they said
that indeed it would. "On that un-
derstanding,' 1 said, ''I'll give you a
letter to our agent at Mattawa."
The reason why I chose him was
because if there was a moose to be
found in Canada Pat Murphy was the
man to find it when told to. If there
wasn't a moose in the country I
knew he could take a joke. So l
wrote:
Dear Murphy-This will intro
duce to you Frederic Remington, the
we'll known artist, and Julian Ralph,
the equally we'll known writer, who
have come in the interest of Harpers
MAGAZINE to describe and illustrate
moose hunt. They have promised not,
to kill too many of the noble animals,
but to be content with getting one
good bull moose apiece. I trust to
YOU to see that they get them. Yours,
etc.
Now it was up to Murphy.
had forgotten all about the mat
ter in the press of business when,
couple of weeks or so later, the same
two cards were brought to me again
and once more l met Mr.. Ralph and
Mr.. Remington. They were delight
ed. Had they got their moOses, or
meese, or whatever it is? Of course
they had They had had simply
glorious time, and couldn't say
enough in thanks to me or in praise
of Murphy In due course the arti-
Gle appeared in Harpers. One of
them sent me a copy, and a rattllng
good article it was, pictures and all.
But what puzzled me was how it had
all happened. Murphy told me some
time later.
When they arrived with my letter
he didn't know whether there was
moose within 500 miles. He hadn't
heard of one for ten years, but he
wasn't going to give us away to any
New Workers any more than I was.
Besides, I had said that he was to see
that these men got their moose, and
he proposed to do it.
He made excuse that his best hunt
ers happened to be away for a few
days and it would be necessary to
wait till they came back. Then he
sent out runners. He sent them to
every point of the compass to start
the Indians beating the woods toward
Mattawa. I don't know how many
Indians and others he got to work,
but they beat for all there was in
them. From somewhere up in the
Arctic regions, from east and west,
the entire population of the country
came converging toward Mattawa,
with a distinct understanding all
along the line that any man who let
moose through would be shot out
of hand.
1t took six days, but they got 'em.
By the evening of the sixth day men
came in and told Murphy that they
had five moose, two bulls and three
cows. safely cornered ten miles off
in the woods. So Murphy announced
| that his hunters had come back and
would be ready to go out next day.
They went The skill those men
showed in reading the moose signs
impressed Ralph and Remington as
simply marvellous. Within a few
hours they were on the track of
herd of five, and early next morning
one of the ambitions of the lives of
| both was realized, for each had shot
down with his own rife a good Can
adian bull moose.
Within a few miles of the line of
the railway, to strike off at random
into the woods and picl. up moose
as if they were prairie chickens
what a paradise for hunters!
So far Sir William Van Horne.
never had the opportunity to talk to
Remington about the story, but
told it in detail to Ralph in London
one day soon after his return from
South Africa 1t was the first inkling
| that he had had of the facts. He
tried at first to poohpooh it; said
that there really was necessity for
the delay at Mattawa and so forth,
but he spoke without conviction, and
all the while it was plain that he
knew the story was true