The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1916-03-17

in Arnerica-the much abused buffa-
10 and the black bear and the wary
antelope-probably agree that it is
we'll to live under a Federal Govern
ment that looks out for the interests
of animal. life, says the New York
Evening Sun:
For these same wild animals, whose
threatened determination has made
sentimental ladies unhappy and has
caused them to form endless anti
hunting societies, are now increasing
SO comparatively fast under protect
ing State and Federal game laws that
\ no one should worry. So stated vari-
Gus delegates to the American Game
and Breeding Conference which has
been in session in New York this
4 week, and at whose meetings game
law experts and ranchmen and pro-
| fessi ona1 breeders have discussed the
social problems of the antelope and
1 the grizzly bear, as we'll as the more
1 ar1stocratic members of the fish fam
/ lily.
The wide open days in American
| hunting are gradually becoming few
| er and more carefully regulated, a
/ fact that has been most tnstrum entail
| inincreasing the chances of the wild
| animal for nnatured existence. No
! longer does the Eastern hunter go
| West when the fancy strikes him SO
| that he can slay several buffalo for
the pleasure of presenting his rela-
tives with the much-coveted robes.
| Venison is not the commonplace ar
ticle of food that it used to be. Be
fore the desolating days in the sos
and EOS, before the government was
forced to interfere in behalf of the
overhunted animals, buffalo and deer
of all kinds were too numerous to
count. When the American Bison
Society first commenced it's protec-
tive work the buffalo might be count
might be counted less than a hun
bred, but since that time, protected
as they are in the State and Federal
parks, they have increased until
there are now almost 1000 in the
United States.
At Wainwright
The largest herds of buffalo, ac-
cording to the Biological Survey, are
hthose belonging to the Canadian gov
ernmentN at Wainwright, Alberta,
those on the Beaver Hills Reserva-
ton In British Columbia and those
belonging to the United. States in the
Yellowstone National park. The Mon
tana National Bison Range also boasts
! q large herd.
One man at the conference prob
ably knows the buffalo better than
any one else-even better than Buff
falo Bill. This man, a ranchman
and an ex-trapper, is Howard Eaton,
who boasts q residence at Eaton's
Ranch, Wolf, Wyo., when he is not
travelling around the country drop
a a
at a natural history museum. Mr.,
Eaton does not profess to be a scien-
list, but having lived a long life on
the plains in daily contact with the
animal, and having travelled with a
herd of them at time across the
continent, he admits that he knows
them only too well. Tt does not speak
highly for Xthe character of the buff
faIo, either, that Mr.. Eaton of Wyon-
ing the buffalo chaperon, cOnfesses |
that he would prefer a journey any
time with some of these English suf-
fragette ladies'" Mr.. Eaton remem- !
bers the day when there were but
twenty-onef buffalo in Yellowstone
Park Twelve years ago. and he has
lived until the present when there is |
a healthy herd of 247- Which is
quite remarkable record and which |
excludes those that have died from |
disease, a natural death, the playful /
attack of their own kind, and also
those that have been sold to circuses
and ZOOS for exhibition purposes.
The Yellowstone Herd
Mr.. Eaton himself supplied the nu-
cleus for the Yellowstone herd, for
when the buffalo was on 3the verge
of disappearance he bought the rights
to any roaming buffalo on the claim
of the famous Charlie A1lerd, an In
dian of note in those days, and sold T
some of his new belongings to the
Federal government. Since that time
Mr.. Eaton's pain interest in buffalo
has been an, educational one, for he
has had the contracts for selling and
transporting to strange parts most of
the buffalo which are the chief at
traction for the small boy at the cir
Gus or the municipal zoo. For city,
state and private organizations can
purchase from the government reser-
vations one or more buffalo or elk.
All they have to do is to wait until /
Eaton
into a crate.
For when a buffalo or an elk trav-
els in solitary state it is packed in a
crate-aH boxed up like an automo-
bile. But when g. herd is transported,
and when the party travels, in what
call "side-door Pullman
cars the animals are lined. up in a
car that resembles a travelling sta
and eternally tied to their surround
ings. They are fed 1uxuriously on al
falfa all the way across the continent,
and Mr.. Eaton and his assistants walk
up and down beforeAthe stalls telling Fl
the wild animals how to behave In
large cities. Mr.. Eaton states firmly ]
that wild animals are the last people
to elect as travelling companions and
that he thinks elk are even more dis !
a greeab1e than buffalo. Elk, when :
tine travelling gets their nerves,
smash the combining lumber with their I
horns, which is annoying and unnerV- i
ing. Mr.. Eaton in his travels has I
left six elk in Argentina. He also +
confessed to the reporter that he once
feared arrest in Philadelphia because
he arrived in that august city with a
two buffalo whom he had christened Z
Teddy Roosevelt and Carrie Damna- :
ton, because he couldn't think Of any =
two names that better described =
their bad behavior. He was, so
of the creatures wicked r
ways that he placarded their cages n
with large signs stating to the world !.
hat such were their fitting names.
philadelphia, however, instead of re-
porting Mr.. Eaton to the police wrote .
asr1 a formal letter after few weeks .
hi. h 81