Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1910-04-01
HUNTER WORKOUT

Slayer Of Many Grouse ant
Woodcock for New York
Markets Is Dying.
One oF Lsst Of Adirondack Gunner
Who Had Followed Pot-Huntlns
for sixty Years and Had Il
Reduced to Science.
Corinth, N. Y.-David Ellis Is one
Of the best known hunters in the val
ley Of the upper Hudson and one OF Its
most successful fishermen. but he ID
on his back now. sick unto death
worn out" the doctor says; Ellis
says the game law broke his heart
Ellis belongs to the old market hunt
er class and is one Of the last OF q
famous line of men-the men who
made business Of supplying the New
York and Saratoga markets with
ruffed grouse (partridge) and wood
cock. As to eating the birds. he would
never have any of that. He began BY
selling grouse at 81 pair and In late
years he received as much as 81 a
pair and on special occasions he got
even "A larger price. Consequently It
seemed like sheer waste and extrava-
gance to eat such birds when one could
purchase chickens for not more than =
quarter. "and chickens are lots better
eating, anyhow" he used to say.
Ellis was 10 when he began hunting.
That was 60 years ago. His father
WAS an old canaler. who made money
and finally became the owner Of q.
number Of canal boats and property
estimated at 100000. They tell Of
him that he paid $50 one election day
for train to take him to Saratoga in
time to vote, for he was good patriot
and a rather shrewd politician. too.
The old mans property gradually dis
appeared and when he died he left his
son a house to live In and love Of
the sporting life. The boy had hunted
and fshed for fun; he now hunted for
fun and money, too.
He was regular old horse down
to two or three years ago." it is said of
him. what he had to do he did like
. steam engine. It was up before day
and to bed at midnight and up again
In the morning with him when flight
Of woodcock was on or the partridge
hunting was good on the hills
Lest he waste any time he fished for
trout. too. He would never hunt in a
: storm, but II the birds were to be had
he would hunt right up to the begin
ming of the storm and then II It was q
trout day he would turn from hunting
TO fishing. Should the weather clear
9 up and the fish stop biting he would
30 back to hunting again. He tells of
starting out with gun and pocket fish
rod many time.
Once he started hunting and about
six O'Clock shower came along That
made good fishing. and for nearly two
hours he fished. Then 1t cleared up
and he could hear the partridges fly
ing down from the shelter Of the hem
locks. So he folded up his rod and
took the gun from the hollow tree and
hunted. Another shower came along
and he hid the gun and fished. So
It went all day. He hunted five times
and fshed four times that day and
when nighi came he had flve pairs OF
grouse. three pairs Of woodcock and
seven pounds of trout.
That's what call good sport" he
said, in telling the story. Sometimes
! feel like l want to fish with one
hand and shoot with the other. /
want to see bird ny up with one
eye and snap q trout as he rises to q
ny under the other eye. That's the
way to enjoy ife-shooting some
thing all day long"
In his prime Dave Ellis, stood six
feet tall. weighed 200 pounds and was
% soft footed ds fox. No ordinary
man could follow him through the
woods all day 'cng. Neither swame
nor valley, ridge nor rocks. nor noun.
tain top daunted him.
He would wade through alderbeds
until near shutdown and then. when
his instinct told him the birds were
in the uplands he would rush to a
mountaintop and. with one muddy
leg twisted around sapling, shoot
birds leaping from the ground spruce
and watch where they lodged 100 feet
down the rocky cliff.
It was kill. kill with him; but there
was method in bis killing. He would
not kill old birds. because they were
better breeders than young and mex.
perienccd birds An old pair would
know how to care for brood and
would always bring up greater pro-
portion Of young birds than an inex-
perlenccd pair.
So the old partridges were spared.
They might fly up before his dog and
he would watch them fly. calculating
that next year such birds were worth
six young ones. He knew the fallacy
In the ndage IA bird in the hand II
worth two In the BUSH"
Some Rare Antiques.
London Through the munifcence
Of Z city merchant. who desires for
the time being to remain anonymous.
the nation is about to become the pos
SCISSOR OF collection of rare and val
uable prehistoric antiquities. from
Peru. They consist of ceramic yes.
Iels Of various kinds discovered by
+. Hewitt Myring. In q tumulus In the