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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 27, 1907)
HIJJ1L Oklahoma is Going to R.aise Bison for the Bis Profit in the Industry. 7Zf AMERICAN THZZZSZRve IN PY WILLIAM DUWIDDIE. OKLAHOMA has completed plans for the creation of a new and unique Industry unique, at least to this generation, It is going to raise buffalo for profit not merely & small profit to be derived Irom the sale of Isolated specimens to zoological gardens, but the big profits i In making buffalo meat, buffalo hides. skina. tallow and bones staple articles of commerce. in a. woM, Oklahoma Is going to bring tho buffalo back to its own and with H restock its idle plains. Curiously enough the source of supply for thl ;ing enterprise Is to be The home of the buffalo, w York City. vhc?e a generation ago, It is estimated, 15.000,000 animals pastured and thrived, must now perforce Ro io the population- congested metropolis to save itself from Its own needless sacrifice. A home for the parents of this grreat-herd-to-be has been chosen. Congress has appropriated money to fence and police the reserve and the buffalo themselves liave been arranged for. The Bronx Zoological Park will early next Summer, send 15 or 20 animals from its herd and others may be added from private herds. ' ' Even with these there will be but a pitiful few to occupy the 15,000 acres of the new old home, but with a destiny so great thai: their lives wilt be watched as if they were monarch. From this tiny nucleus, just large enough, naturalists say. to establish nor mal breeding conditions, it is hoped to develop a form of half-domestic animal whose dividend aggregations may total in a generation or two as many as in days of. yore. tOconomic Value cf the Bison. The new suggestion that the buffalo may have a large economic value has given vitality to the efforts to save him. "While he has doubled In numbers in the past 10 years, he has been bred in such t mi ted. areas and under such adverse conditions that there has been no real test of his capacity to increase or of his commrcial value. 'There are In the United States today Mbout 1200 head of buffalo, the majority divided into nine herds. The largest is that of an Indian, Michael Pablo, in Tuonan. Mont., which contains about 235 head. Next in size is the Austin Corbin herd in the Blue Mountain forest of New Hampshire, which numbers 160. Other large herds are: James Philips, Fort Pierre, S. D., 75; Pawnee Bill's, Ola- homa. 55: Goodnight Ranch. Texas, 46. the W. O. Whitney collection at Lenox, .Maes., in which there are 32. Only 34 wild buffalo are known to be living in the United States, of which 29 are In the Yellowstone. -Park, but around Great Slave Xalte in the far Northwest of Canada, there is a herd of from 500 to WO. Most of these remnants are confined In reglonn where the "Winters are severe and artificial feeding and protection are necessary to save the animals. In the Yellowstone, for Instance, there are eight months of Winter, with three to six feet or snow and the temperature below zero for weeks at a time. ArtiHicial feeding, however, carefully done, tends to reduce the vitality of the animals and reduce their breeding capacity. , Besides, but 30 per cent of the buffalo are cows and these calf only every the year. Tn tho new herd to be sent to the Wichita Reserve late next Summer, after the many miles of fence have been built, there will" be a fareful balance to re establish natural conditions and with the mild and almost snowless Winter of the restion they can safely be allowed to graze all Winter. Just as they did before the days of railroads and fences. The care of this little herd will be in the hands of the Department of Agricul lure and they will be aided In every way -possible by the New York: Zoological So ciety and the American Bison Society, the attcr a new organization formed last Soring with President Roosevelt as hon orary vice-president, to aid in the preser vation of the greatest of, the two-hoofed animals. Natural Feeding Ground. One of the most active men in this movement is William T. Hornaday, super- intonrient of the New York Zoological Xark, who is also promiftent in the Bison o 9 J . ........... , , T 3v i V.. ... IW : Society. Mr. Hornaday win maXs the shipment of buffalo from New York, and he Is very hopeful of results. "The Wichita reservation Is the buffa- lo's old Winter feeding ground," said he, "and I am confident that the little herd we shall send there will prosper well. Everything: wiH be in Its favor." In regard to the bison's commercial value, recent experiments have shown that he can be broken to the yoke and makes a stronger and better draught animal than the ok. His meat Is excel lent, quite ag good, if iot better, than beef cattle when well fed. They will a vera ere several hundred pounds more in dressed meat for the market per head. The tanned bide makes stronger and thicker sole leather than that of domesti cated cattle, and when soft tanned It is almost as pliable as buckskin. For many years to come. If the attempt at com mercial breeding- proves successful, tiie hide tanned with lur or hair on will be more valuable as robes than anything else, as they are ideal for covering. Tfi blion la susceptible ox producing all tnose valuable by-products created in Packlng- town of fame, the mere mention of which causes some of us yet to raise the win- oow with constricted nostrils. Men who are experts. not Utopian dreamers, though possibly given a bit to over ideal ism, say that the bison can be success fully domesticated- arid, that hist market value will be from 50 to 75 per cent great er per head than beef cattle. The problem is whether or not he can be made to breed aain as proliflcally as he was known to do on the sreat plains less than half a century aero. It is believed out of the pens of zooloeical parks and back In his old environments ajid feeding grounds the ounaio win revert to nis norami rate 01 ncrease. The. land which has been selected for this great experiment ts the Wichita Game Reserve in Southwestern Oklahoma. It is a Government park of about 57.000 acres set aside for this purpose, a. dozen or more years ago by act of Congress. It lies In the heart of the Wichita Moun tains, a baby range, as mountains go. but withal beautiful and picturesque. L.yinK between rock-strewn mountains in soft, gentle folds are great expanses of fine grass lands, plentifully watered wiin THE MAKING OF A BY CASPER S. YOST. MY DEAR LITTLE GIRL I Kot your letter just as I was starting to make a bee line for the train. and as I had to make a long jump this trip I've had no QBPorUfnity . to reply until this very minute. I read It through as soon as I got on board. and then I laid back on my seat and laughed all to myself. Now, don"t atet excited, my dean I wasn't laughing at you. Not a bit ot It. But the seri- ous problems which you imagine are just about to overwhelm you right at the beginning; of your married life re mind me so much of the same worries that encompassed your mother "all "round about" like the little old wom an's petticoat. And' the cause of It 1 1 was me; me, your respected and re vered and much beloved old dad. You wouldn't hardly believe it, now would you: out It's a, fact, my " little sweet heart; and, gee whlllikens! what a load she did think she had. Why. Vd be willing to bet a bushel of Ben Davis apples against a peck ' of . railroad doughnuts that she'd have traded me off for a counterfeit half-dollar with a hole in it three months after we were married. She never would -admit it, of course; she was -too sweet and gentle and good-hearted. And then she really thoujrht a heap of me. even when I was furthest below par in her estimation. But It's that way nearly all the time, my little srirl. The trouble with you women is that you pick out a man and then, before you're married to . him, you Iruild a high pedestal of marble or onyx or something1 equally fine, and you cyve pictures in bold relief all around the sides illustrating his transcendant virtues, just like the monuments you see in the parks to THE SUNDAY OREUQMA rORTLAD, JANUARY ST, W0T. i -Sw-j( tv Art (I J ) . ,1 f Y $ c ' i I dear running streams. Reaching in frox the stream beds, at Intervals to the boubjerbound footnills. are forests or scrub oaks and some soft woods, not often of more than a hundred or two hun dred acres in extent. All in all It is an ideal selection for a srrebt srame reserve, and it deserves the kindliest financial consideration of Con- gress, betause it was the former home of some of the best game of America. Deer. antelope. buffalo. elk, bears. turkeys, prairie chfeken. quail, all abounded here In time past. The climatic conditions are just right, not too cold, not too hot. There is natural food the year round. Snow seldom falls and same of all kinds "roush it" successfully at this latitude:' It" was this equable climate and boun tiful supply of grass throughout the sea son. In Oklahoma, which did as much as anything; else to force its opening to the white man. For the plains cattlemen learned years ago that no Winter pasture, unless It was Southwestern Texas, ex celled this section of the country. The hunter killed off the buffalo and the cattlemen,- willy nilly, took posession of the Indian pasture lands for his grrazing the heroes who "fit." bled and plun dered for their country. Then you put the man up on top of this beau tiful pile, and you look up at him with your hands clasped and your eyes moonin' like a calf with the colic and' you say, "My, ain't he beautiful," or, "Oh, ain't he awful nice," or some such emphatic and forcible expression of feminine adoration. You don't have a chance to get a real, genuine assay of him, and you think he's all gold and studded around with diamonds like a birthday ring:. Then you get married and you climb up beside him and you make the terrible discovery that his feet are clay, also his hands and like- wise his head. In other words, you find, that he's Just, plain garden mud. And then you proceed to have a fit.- You don't say, "Woe is me' nor beat your, breast, nor raise the neighbor hood with your cries, like they used to do in the three-volume novelsA Such crudities are no longer fashionable. You do thing: s differently nowadays, but your methods are Just as effec tive. And all this time the man is standing- around on one foot, with a face as Ions; and as solemn as the Presi dent's message, "wondering what in the dickens is the matter. Sometimes by way of diversion, he goes in the other room and kicks over a chair or sneaks out - Into the backyard and throws rocks at the chickens. I have a kind of a recollection that I did something- of that sort myself. You see, my dear, the man doesn't know that he has been set up on a pedestal; he has just been going along: attend ing to his business- same as usual, thinking himself a pretty fair average of a man and letting U go at that. That's the way it's been with BilL I had a pretty good chance to size him 5. - 1 -rt"fii 1 -3 ' m herds, by lease if he could and by btuff if he couldn't. It is astonishing how difficult it is in this land-mad country of ours to get SUCCESSFUL WIFE up while I was loafing around home waiting: for the wedding: to come off, and It was my judgment then, and my opinion hasn't changed, that he's all right. lie's a man. and that's all any woman can reasonably expect. I don't want any cherublns or seraphlms in my family, and you'd find life pretty uncomfortable if you had one of them for a husband. Compared with a good woman, a good man is mighty small potatoes, but when It comes to getting married there Isn't anything better available, and so you women are just obliged to take them and do the best youcan with them. And that, little girl, is the point ,1 want to get at. That's Just what you want to do with Bill or William, if you prefer It. A man Js Just a piece of aoft clay In a woman's hands, and whether he ranks A 1 or double nought as a. husband depends a good deal on how she han dles him. Yes that places a pretty considerable responsibility on the woman, but you needn't blame me. I didn't have anything to do with laying out this arrangement It's that way, and I reckon the Ldrd knows what He's about, of course, some men are too soft and some too tough to do anything; with, but the most of them are plastic enough for practical pur poses, and I'm satisfied your William's one of the majority. ' t's upl to you, sweetheart, to take the material you have and make a good hus band out of it. ; Don't expect nor try to do more than that. Don't attempt to mold him into a figure of Gabriel toot ing a trombone. Don't try to put - too many fine lines in your model. If you do, the whole blamed thing will come to pieces, and then, little girl, you can never, never put it together again. Just remember that your material Is mud. and mud, even In the hands of an expert modeler, has its limitations. Restrain your ambition to the point of making a good husband and when you have accom plished that be satisfied with keeping him go. . How? Oh, my dear little girl, you have CM iMSe 7 YELLOWSTONE FARf? ?1 i4i 3- Congress to set aside any portion of it 'as public domain, and to Bet it to ap propriate adequate funds for its upkeep and protection afterwards. Xhe Wichita Reserve is no exception to this rule. In spite of the fact that there will be mil lions and millions of mos fertile open prairie land, unexceptional for agricultural purposes, and thinly populated when the game reserve project was first agitated, there were sufficient lobby kickers filled with land greed to keep this comparative ly rough and useless pin point of terri tory from being set aside as a National park for several years. It wag claimed as the land of the poor Indian, and that it was most vauable agriculturally, that it was filled with mineral wealth. .Only the persistence and perseverance of pub- lic-spirited Oklahomansflnally obtained the reward of favorable leg-islation and saved to the people of ,the new state one small place at least in which the once abundant game might have promise of fair ' protection and a chance to thrive. -Game Unprotected. As a matter of fact the game has not a better counselor than I right at home. I'm not saying that your mother did a very good job with me. but. bless her heart. It wasn't because she didn't ltnow how. The trouble was with the material. She can tell you mucji more and much better than I can what and how to do. And yet there are some pointers 1. can give you that may be of value to you, mainly because they will enable you to get a view of things from a man's stand point. X have intimated that a man is pretty generally what women make him. JJis mother gives him his start In char acter building, and his wife puts on the finishing touches, but It Isn't good policy to let biro, know that you are working on him. A good deal has been said about the contrariness of women, but sue isn't really in the same class with a man if he thinks somebody is trying to im prove him. So whatever you make up your mind to do with William, don't, for heaven's sake, give him a hint of your designs. And, as I said before, don't try to do too much. In the first place, my dear, you'd bet ter get the fact buried deep in the middle of your gray matter and keep It there, that the most important point in the making of a good husband is the making of a good wife.. That takes time and experience, but two processes can go along teide by side, for you needn't expect rMU to be ready for the last coat of var nish by day after tomorrow. No, indeedy. little girl, you can't turn out finished husbands like you can hot waffles: and speaking of waffles brings me- right to the starting point' In the home industry I'm talking about., That's a little matter of feed. It's a fact so old that even Eve got a hint of it that the first principle In the management of a man is the satis faction of his stomach. Whatever else he may be, no matter how full of brains his head, he's an animal and he wants to "be fed. Why, I've seen the greatest apostles of the doctrines of sweetness and light sit down to the table and eat like 'a blue ribbon porker with his feet in -the trough. Yet comparatively very few women anoreciatA the, lranortanra nf i iVkr YOA'A' ZSTV WJJICtt AJ T6 ThJE? WICHITA GAMS been protected to any measurable extent in spite of the earnest efforts of Game Warden Morrlssey. The "Warden catches the poacher over and over again meta- phorieally and literally red-handed on the reservation. He presents his evidence to tlie gra ncl Jury and they fail to bring an Indictment. When indictments are ob tained tttt court seldom convicts. These Western juries of neighborhood men can- j not be made to see anything unethical or ! morally lllna-al in a man'tt killing; a deer or shooting a bar of birds. Their sym- patliics are always witt. the poacher and "agin the Government and the law in its. to thorn, petty tyranny. In attempting to protect the one small herd of deer, now numbering only about 25, Morrlssey had his share of trouble and dangers. On one occasion the father of a boy against whom Morrissey had suc ceeded in securing conviction and a short sentence for flagrant poaching laid out In the brush with a rifle week after week watching for a chance to kill him. The father probably would have succeeded If Morrissey had not been tipped ofT from time to time as to the whereabouts of the would-be assassin. Kven at that. Morris sey took a shower of long-range bullets on an occasion or two. So active have been the poaching trap pers and hunters on the reserve that to day no frame exists except the Small herd of deer, wolves, coyotes and thousands Of quail. Not so many years ago bear, otters, .mink, deer, antelope and turkey were fairly numerous. Until last year the game warden did not possess the authority to make an arrest, but acted only in the capacity of an informer, making official reports and protests to the Interior Department. This has been wisely cnangred. so that now he is an officer of the law with eight depu ties. With this added authority and as sistance Morrissey has been able to keep it so hot for the poachers they have been largrely forced to give up their depreda tions. ' When the buffalo-rearing project first NO. 3 THE MANAGEMENT OF A MAN this fact, and. many a home is ruined by the theory that anything that happens to be handiest will do for dinner. It won't. Give him the best his income will afford and see to It yourself that it is properly cooked. The average man isn't hard to satisfy. He doesn't hanker after the strange and weird dishes you'll find in the cookbooks. Tie donsu't care for airy wafers and delicate ices. He only wants something plain and substantial and fill ing, like roast beef or bacon or ham and eggs, or something equally gross and juBt as bully. Fill him up with such truck and then he'll lean back and beam at you like a father of is. if It's cooked right. a first baby.' That If the steak comes fried hard, if the to the breakfast table eggs are swimming in grease or the bis tise as weights on got a kick coming. cults heavy enough to the cuckoo clock, he's And it will come. It may not be just to himself until he then. He -may keep it collects an assortment, and then let them out all at once. But sooner or later the kick will come, and the longer he holds it In the harder it will come out. So, my dear, I say to you solemnly and prayer fully, see to it, personally, that William is well fed. - Maybe that's what's the matter with him now. Maybe he's al ready got the grouch of the under-fed or the badly fed. Better figure on that a little, my dear. And then, little girl, make home so com fortable and so pleasant that he won't want to leave it, except to go down town and hustle like a good fellow for the woman who presides over It. When I see a man jump for his hat when the. quitting bell rings and make a bee line for the first car that will get him home. I say to myself, "That fellow doesn't have to go chasm' around nights lookin' for amuse ment. He's got all he wants at home": and when a man has that he's bound to be contented, and being contented he's bound to be happy, and being happy hc'8 bound to be good-natured, and being good-natured he's bound to be a good husband if he's rightly managed on the intellectual side. I'll have a word to say on that side presently. It's the purely ohysical side you want to look after first Biofeto Mew York's 2 oo- logical ParK will Supply the Nucleus for Great Herds. IK Vl.V AS TO itt I took form it was considered absolutely essential that Congress be asked to make a minimum appropriation of S75.UOO for tlie purpose of erecting a strong high fence about the reserve and fur the construe tion of weather sheds for the animate. It became evident that Congresa wbs nut in generous mood, tli&t tne amount was scaled down and paid again until the insignificant sum of $1S.OOO was loffls- ated. and the plan of inclosinir the entire 57.000 acres dwindled to feneluK 10.0x acres and using wooden posts iifiteud of Iron pillars as at first planned. Contracts for this work have already been let, and the building- will ro on this "Winter. A very attractive Beneme i on foot to build a JoOO.000 hotel at the point of the park's greatest scenic splendor, The capi tal will be furnished from private sources and tire promoters prophesy suO(fia for trie project because of geoBTaphlc situa tion of the Wichita Mountains in an im mense planial territory. Both as a Sum mer and Winter resort it will command visitors from a large area of Texas. Oklahoma and Kansas, as well as the trflirist who will come to sec the game on its' native heather and stay for the beauty of the scenery and the saluhil ousness of the climate. For camping parties no more beautiful section or country could be selected than Wichita Game Preserve, provided, of course, that the wanderer Is not seekinu high altitudes, hazardous mountain climb- in? on the one hand, or the charms or ocean shore and deep-sea- fishing;. The region is easily reached, as it is surround ed by a network of Frisco and Roclc Island Railroad lines. -Tf Comrress would spend a few hundred thousand dollars in inclosinK the entire property'and stockinB It well with speci mens of American game still extant, there would be promise to the American people that in one tlnv soot of the United States at least would be preserved and propa gated a few hundred or a few thousand of the many species of fast disappearing wild animals 'of the Northern Hemisphere. After he's been fed, let him have his easy chair, his elippera and his cigar. Don't keep everything so spick and span and shinv and straight up and down that he s afraid to sit down anywhere because he might disarrange a piece of Battenberg or a sofa pillow. What women call a good housekeeper Isn't always a good wife, not by a long shot. If a man has to sit up In a splnille-back new art chair as stiff as a reinforced billiard cue, he's going to sigh for something different, and the first thing you know he'll be sneaking out on business about three nights In the week. No, my dear, let Bill feel that right at home he can get more solid comfort than he can have anywhere else on earth and you've got him anchored for keep.-. And yet that Isn't everything, for In- stance, if you were to fall into the. habit of strolling over 'to a neighbor's every evening while he reads the papers he'd have good cause to grumble, and probably would. He married to get a companion. not just a housekeeper, and he wants you with him not all of the time, but most of the time, when he's at home. He wants vou to it on the other side of the table by the fireside: he wants to read to you or have you read to him: he wants to gossip with 5'ou Just like pals: he wants to tell you of his hopes and ambitions; he wants you to help him tn his struggle with the world, by your sympathy, your encouragement and your advice; he wants to hear your troubles not tho endless repetition of the daily string of annoy ances which come to every wife, but the real troubles, the problems which you Ond ft hard to solve for your.-jelf: and. over and above all. little girl, he wants to feel the gentle caress in touch and speech: the little evidences of the love that does not die with the honeymoon, but lives on and grows stronger and stronger with each passing year. That's the intellectual side, sweetheart. That's the side that gives married life It sweetness and, beauty and makes home a home of happiness; but it will peter out mighty fast under a diet of soggy rolls and weak coffee. Just remember that, lit tle girl; just remember that. Your affec- tionate dad, JOHN S.NEBD. (Copyright. 1906. by Casper S. Yost.)