The shadow of a gun

Front matter

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Part II. Game Birds Of The Mid- Dle West

Prairie Chickens, Pintails 264

Kansas Prairie Chicken 265

Partridge Drum . . ." 272

Green Wings and Blue Wings. 297

Canvas Back and Red Head.. 301

Keep and Smith 309

Game Trial at Cambridge for

Illegal Shipping 310

Game Trial at Cambridge. . .311 Game Trial for Possession of

Stock 314

Conspiracy of Warden and

Chicago Dealers 316

Enforcing Game Laws Makes

High Prices 317

Game Warden Seizes N. Y.

Shipments 318

Game Warden Sues for

Heavy Damages 319

Trial Brings Proof I Shipped

Only as Agent 320

Verdict for Defendant 321

Game Dinners Unfashionable. 322 Great Neglect of the Game

Warden 323

Part III. Evolution Of The Gun

Origin of the Gun 324

Garden of Eden 326

The First Weapon a Sword.. 327

Weapons of the Jews 328

The Assyrians 329

Use Sword and Bow 330

Persian Arms and Xerxes... 331 The Weapons of the Greeks.. 332 Greek Weapons of Alexander. 333

Alexander's Invasion 334

If Alexander Had Gone

Westward—Egypt 337

Phoenicians 339

Greece and Italy 341

Page Roman Arms in First Century ,..342

Rome and Julius Csesar 344

He Attacks Gaul and Briton.346 Iron and the Weapons of

Britain 347

Roman Weapons 348

Roman Empire . Defended

Against the BaVKft^ians. . .349 British Weapons Compared

with Roman 350

Final Refuge of the Britons. 351 German Hunters Become

First Invaders 352

The Franks 353

Bows Most Common 354

Sarmatians and Scythians. .355 English Bows and English

Archers 357

Roman Empire Shows Signs

of Decay 358

Romans Contest Advance of

Scythians 360

Wealth Devoted to Luxury.. 361

China S62

The Wonderful Chinese 363

Greek Fire from China 364

Instances of Use of the Fire. 365 Cleopatra Coquettes with the

Romans 366

Luxuries are the Ruin of the

Romans 367

The Dead Trunk Makes Little Shade 368

Greek Fire 370

Greek Fire After Zenobia 371

Materials Well Known 372

With the Exception of Nitre They Were Same as Gunpowder. Greek Fire Becomes an Explosive 373

In the Fourteenth Century.. 374 Greek Fire Helps the Romans 375

The Bow Always Remains

with the Scythians... 376

Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra. 377 Goths Quick to Learn of the

Romans 378

Commerce Between Syria and

China 380

Fall of Rome and the Goths. 381 Romans not Great at Invention 383

Romans Improve Arms 384

Romans Build Ships of War.. 385 Romans not Given to Abstract Truths 386

Constantinople 388

Constantine 392

Constantine Dies 393

Mahometans and the Seventh Century 394

Constantinople Attacked by Arabs, Chasroes 395

INDEX OF SUBJECTS— Continued.

Page The Avars Retreat from Sudden Fire 396

Constantinople Besieged 397

The Arabs Were Masters of

Science, Mahomet 398-399

Spread of the System in Ten

Years 400

Mahometans Terrorize Three

Continents 401

Callinichus and Greek Fire.. 402 Only Sulphur and Bitumen.. 403 Callinichus but Little Known

and Fortunate 404-405

Greek Fire Saved Constantinople 406

Mohammedan Empire Falls

Back Again 407

The Saracens— Their Religion 408

The Saracens — No Images 409

Romans Prospered in Spite of

Nature Worship 410

Christianity 411

Fall of Rome and Christianity 412

Crusaders 413

The Turks and Crusaders 414

Jerusalem Conquered and Then Lost 415

Page

Benefit of the Crusades 416

Christian world Revives at Close of Crusades 417

Gunpowder Follows Greek Fire 418

Gunpowder Handmaid of Artillery 419

Mahomet II Takes Constantinople 420

Cannon Made to Shoot Five Miles 421

Christianity Gains by Past Mistakes 422

Improvements in Artillery. .423

Improvements in Hand Guns. 425

Cap-Lock the Crowning Invention of the 19th Century. 427

War Brought Gunpowder 428

Reformation Cleans Out Old Abuses 429

Present Age Will Ignore the Arms of Antiquity 430

What Gunpowder Has' Wrought 431

The Reign of Gunpowder Seems Permanent 432

The Gun is Palladium of Liberty 433

Poems 439

INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Portrait of Author.. Frontispiece

Killing a Deer 55

Trapping Big Game 57

Nelson Joles 64

Mrs. Joles 65

Disturbing a Bear 99

Above La Crescent, Minn 101

Dresbach, Minn : 102

Long Bridge at Potosi 104

A. Collins 107

Specht's Ferry 108

Boy too Busy to Drown 125

Mrs. M. Carried to the Shore. 128

Savanna— Old Town 129

Maquoketa River 130

Dubuque's Grave 131

Rock Cut on the Catfish 132

Dubuque 133

Mouth of Catfish below Dubuque 134

Bridge 134

Eagle Point above Dubuque.. 135 Broken Bridge at Eagle

Point 136

Cassville, Wis 137

Above the Mouth of Turkey

River 13S

Railroad Bridge and Wisconsin River 139

Pictured Rocks Below Mc- Gregor 140

Putty Cave Below McGregor. 141 Adventure with a Rattler,. .,142

Looking from Pikes Peak towards Wisconsin River 143

North McGregor Point 144

South McGregor 145

Boat on the Rapids 150

Dog Loose with Drifting

Boat 157

Railroad Bridge over Little

Iowa River 172

Cat-astrophe 175

The Seyberts with Demi-monde on the Boat 166

Mrs. M. Pulls in Whopper

Catfish 178

Dow Bird 180

John Mapes 208

John A. Lyon 220

Amos Robbins 222

Different Tracks Made by

Game and Song Birds 267

Canvas Back 301

Red Head 302

A Gossip with Fan 446

Cure for Obesity ,...,..,.448

Preface

This is not an autobiography. The woman at my elbow rose indignant at the mention of auto's. She says, "Do you know how they annoy me? They are the plague of my life. They are beggars in disguise who wait on me without solicitation. They have put me down to a certain figure and I must pay up or become friendless. Now I am going to be square with these fellows, but I will bowl them down at every opportunity. The thing is becoming chronic, and I shall demand of these inquisitors that their hands are clean and the goods are sterilized before they go into the market. Ah, yes, I prefer to distribute my own charities without being a web for every genteel fly that buzzes."

I rose to explain we were talking about auto's and not ought-to's. "Oh,' she said, "you mean automobiles, I expected it was some foolish thing you were going into. You know I could not get out when once they started to run away. I like a horse I can say 'Whoa' to and will stand stock still

when he is tired out, but oh, dear, the auto's "

We settled our difficulties then and there, with the autocrats, the autographs, and finally with the autobiographs, declaring we would have none of them, so the whole story will shut up as tight as a clam on personalities which are ours per se. The reminiscences will be short, and if their flavor is not agreeable you will readily distinguish between them and an emanation which comes from decomposition of organized bodies, in which case we would have to preach our own funeral.

To the impartial reader it will occur, we imagine, that this history travels over ground untouched by

10 PREFACE.

other writers. Freezing introduced a new order of shipments and its immense benefits spread shortly from public to private uses. Frost and ice now begin to be fashionable and fire and solar heat were ostracised, and the thermometer became the dividing ground between the champions, while isothermal lines became the rule for every perishable property. The Blue Line cars came into notice about 1875, and the Star Line and others started shortly after, till now we have a net work of moving trains which distribute the goods to all parts of the country. The game business stood at the foundation of these discoveries, which eliminated the great obstacles which had so long opposed progress. We lost the birds but we gained infinitely more than we lost in the general spread of the principles of refrigeration. No amount of nursing could furnish sufficient supplies of game for the cities as they increased in number and in size, while suitable acres for the propagation of game birds constantly decreased. The universal sentiment seems to be to accept the loss as we did that of the pigeons, which was more fanciful than real. The red rag of the hunters which so long infuriated the bull which stands regnant upon the trembling dais which he has overthrown will now be done away. The victory was not worth the taking, and the remnant which was left was not worth saving.

In the description of the game birds of this County we have not thought it worth while to use other than the common nomenclature with which every school boy is familiar. The varieties are few and those only have been mentioned, the hunting of which was profitable.

The poet Horace uttered his indignation against him who first invented a ship, but without our little

PREFACE. 11

craft the adventures on the Little Iowa would have been impossible. Fronk, with his little punt, would not have threatened to clear the ducks out of the whole marsh of Annawan, and Hiserodt, shoving his canoe into the quill weeds, would not have exterminated a hundred ducks at one discharge. Without a boat, the Joles' might not have crossed the Green River with their loads of golden plover, or the Collins' swept the woodcock that infested the shores of the Mississippi and soared far above the grave of Dubuque. Without a boat, alas, how could Charon transport us poor mortals across the Styx into the land of the immortals.

Macauley has said somewhere that if London were to be destroyed by any calamity that the man standing on London Bridge would be able to reproduce in vision the Imperial City. Some day a despairing huntsman, finding as he will that the plough of the farmer has made the prairie, once vocal with wild birds, only a desolate solitude, will reconstruct a map of this wonderful region where the hen cackled on every plain, the quail whistled on every hill, the snipe flew along the marshes, the woodcock whistled through the grove and the ducks swarmed in thousands in every conceivable bayou, a sight grander than any temple and more ravishing to the hunter than the streams of Paradise.

It is not our purpose to glorify any hunter by a display of big bags of game. Mighty hunters are not scarce in Henry County, but they are the survivors, and the game business has passed away in a generation, not by the onslaught of the hunters, however severe, but by the onward sweep of those mechanical forces which have converted wild lands into smiling and cultivated fields. The wilderness is the home of the barbarian, and both are inimical

12 PREFACE.

to civilization. A few snap shots of the camera here and there will give form but cannot restore the dead. If we can set before our readers a photographic view of the changes by which, from 1857 to 1897, a period of forty years, the game has been driven from Henry County and adjoining waters, we shall be abundantly rewarded.

The third and last division of this work has received the greatest attention. The introduction of the gun into human history was one of the most powerful factors in building up the civilization of the present day. The old manner of warfare has been examined with all the minuteness that history could furnish. The Greek Fire has been set further back than the date generally given at the siege of Constantinople, 673 to 67Q, about four centuries, and the reasons therefor. The whole question turns when the Greek Fire became an explosive, a projectile, and later the basis of gunpowder. In the short digression on the causes which produced the "Decline and Fall" of Gibbon, we have ventured to express an opinion that Christianity did not have any appreciable share in that disaster. We prefer to agree with Dean Millman in his notes, and with Sir James Mcintosh, than whom a more scholarly, conservative and judicial critic has not appeared, than to the biased judgment of any sceptic.

REMINISCENCES.