The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1910-06-17
A COOKED UP MOOSE HUNT.
How Ralph and Remington Secured :
Bull Apiece.

How Ralph and Remington s~u'"
Bull Apiece.
Sir william Van Horne. Of the ,an'
adian Pacific railroad. once told MI
4 hi Jarrett how be furnished Julian
Ralph aud the late Frederic kemlns
tnn a rnnllete moose hunt, which WAS
Jnly described aud depicted In Harp
er's magazine a few years ago. iInr,
AZ, moose were there, were shot, ahl
photographed. but how they happened
H. he there il another story, MI
barrett auotes Sir William rs follows
In The Bellman (Minneapolis);
I was sitting In my office one Jay
when Two cards were brought IN bear.
ing the names 81 Julian Ralph and
Ff.deric Remington. ] knew the
names aud told my secretary 10 show
m, gentlemen In. They came and pre-
scnted a letter from Harpers Maya
zine, from which II appeared that they
had been sent, the one To write ahd
the other 10 illustrate Canadian
moose hunt. The editor OF Harper
magazine asked me 10 show them any
conrtesies which would assist them IN
their object.
Now i hadn Z a notion whether there
was a single blessed moose along the
whole line Of the Canadian Paeihe, but
wasn't going 10 say 30 TO TWO men
from New York. So
~ understand. gentlemen, i SAID
"that YOU have come here 10 SHOOT
moose. y They said that was the ease.
'well. now" | continued, 81 sup.
pose that | can take IL for granted
that YOU are gentlemen and have a
proper sporting instinct. IL turn
YOU loose YOU are not going TO go
Strengthening our moose and filling the
woods with bloodf' .
No. no. no; they wouldn I think OF
such a thing.
our herds Of these noble animals''
"Why. certainly not.
al presume that one good bull moose
apiece would satisfy your And their
ewes glistened as they said that indeed
Ii would. son that understanding.
! said, ~ III give you letter to our
agent at Mattawa."
The reason why / chose him was
because il there was n moose TO be
found in Canada, Pat Murphy was the
man 10 find il when told to. II there
WASH I moose in the country, l knew
he could take a joke. So ! wrote:
Dear Murphy: This will introduce
to you Frederic Remington. the we'll
known artist. and Julian Ralph, the
equally well.known writer, who have
come in the interest of Harper s
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. j trust to you
to see that they get them. Yours, etc.
Now il was up to Murphy.
| had forgotten all about the matter
in the press of business when, couple
of weeks or so later. the same two
cards were brought to me again and
once more | met Mr.. Ralph and Mr..
Remington. They were delighted.
Had they got their mooses. or meese, or
whatever it is? OF course they had.
They had had a simply glorious time,
and couldn Z say enough in thanks to
me or in praise of Murphy. In due
course the article appeared in Harper g.
One of them sent me copy, and a
rafting good article it was, pictures
and all. But what puzzled me was
how it all happened Murphy told me
some time later.
When they arrived with my letter
he didn t know whether there was a
moose within five hundred miles. He
hadn I heard of one for ten years, but
he wasn't going to give us away to
any New Workers any more than !
was. Besides, | had said that he was
to see that these men got their moose,
and he prepared to do it.
He made excuse that his best
hunters happened to be away for
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. / don't know how many
Indians and Others he got to work, but
they beat for all that was in them.
From somewhere up in the Arctic
regions, from east and west, the entire
population of the country came con
verging toward Mattawa, with dis
tinct 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.
Ihey went. Inc skill InOSe men
showed in reading the moose signs
impressed Ralph and Remington as
simply marvellous. Within 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 with his
own rifle good Canadian bull moose.
Within few miles of the line of
the railroad, to strike off at random
into the woods and pick up moose as
if they were prairie chickens-what a
paradise for hunters!