Page 132 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

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OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE ^
In his opening paragraphs Mr. Askins describes game and hunting conditions in the South as they were down to twenty years ago, wheri the negroes were too poor to own guns, and shooting was not for them.
SPECIAL WORK OF THE SOUTHERN NEGROES.
It is all different now, says Mr. Askins, and the old days will only come back with the water that has gone down the stream. The master is with his fathers or he is whilingawayhislastdaysonthecourthousestepsofthetown. Perhapsachimneyor two remain of what was once the "big house " on the hill ; possibly it is still standing, but as forlorn and lifeless as a dead tree. The muscadine grapes still grow in the swale and the persimmons in the pasture field, but neither 'possum nor 'coon is left to eat them. The last deer vanished years ago, the rabbits died in their baby coats and the quailwerekilledinJune. Old"UncleIke"hasgoneacrossthe"GreatRiver"with his master, and his grandson glances at you askance, nods sullenly, whistles to his halfbreedbirddog,shouldershisthreedollargunandleavesyou. Heistypicalofthe change and has caused it, this grandson of dear old Uncle Ike.
In the same way the white man is telling the black to abide upon the plantation raisingcottonandcorn,andfurtherthanthisnothingwillberequiredofhim. Hecan cheat a white man or a black, steal in a petty way anything that comes handy, live in marriage or out of it to please himself, kill another negro if he likes, and lastly shoot everywildthingthatcanbeeaten,ifonlyheraisesthecottonandthecorn. Butthe white sportsmen of the South have never willingly granted the shooting privilege in itsentirety,andhencethisstory. Theyhavetoldhimtotraptherabbits,pottherobins, slaughter the doves, kill the song birds, but to spare the white sportsman's game, the aristocratic little bobwhite quail.
In the beginning not so much damage to southern game interests could be accom- pUshedbyourcoloredmanandbrother,howeverdecidedhisinclinations. Hehadno money, no ammunition and no gun. His weapons were an ax, a club, a trap, and ahounddog;possiblyhemightownanoldwarmusketboredoutforshot. Suchan outfit was not adapted to quail shooting and especially to wing shooting, with which knowledgeDixie'ssportsmenwerecontent. Letthenegrorambleaboutwithhishound dogandhiswarmusket;hecouldn'tpossiblykillthequail. AndsoUncleIke'sgrand- son loafed and pottered about in the fields with his ax and his hound dogs, not doing so much harm to the quail but acquiring knowledge of the habits of the birds and skill asastill-huntingpot-hunterthatwouldservehimwelllateron. Thenegrobelongs
to a primitive race of people and all such races have keener eyes than white men \yhose fathershaveporedoverlinesofblackandwhite. Helearnedtoseetherabbitinits form, the squirrels in the leafy trees, and the quails huddled in the grass. The least shade of gray in the shadow of the creek bank he distinguished at once as a rabbit, a glinting flash from a tree top he knew instantly as being caused by the slight movement of a hidden squirrel, and the quiver of a single stem of sedge grass told him of a bevy ofbirdshidinginthedepths. Thepot-huntingnegrohasalltheskilloftheIndian, has more industry in his loafing, and kills without pity and without restraint. This grandson of Uncle Ike was growing sulky, too, with the knowledge that the white man was bribing him with half a loaf to raise cotton and corn wJien he might as well exact it all. And this he shortly did, as we shall see.
The time came when cotton went up to sixteen cents a pound and single breech- loading guns went down to five dollars apiece. The negro had money now, and the merchants—these men who had said let the nigger alone so long as he raises cotton and corn—sold him the guns, a gun for every black idler, man and boy, in all the South. Then shortly a wail went up from the sportsmen, "The niggers are killing our quail." Theynotonlywerekillingthem,butmostofthebirdswerealreadydead. Onthe grounds of the Southern Field Club where sixty bevies were raised by the dogs in one day, within two years but three bevies could be found in a day by the hardest kind of hunting; and this story was repeated all over the South. Now the negro began to raise bird dogs in place of hounds, and he carried his new gun to church if services happenedtobeheldonaweekday. Finallythenegrohadgrownupandhadcom-