A POACHERS' EXHIl3ITION.
CERTAINLY the promoters of the Chicago World's Fair deserve some credit for the thoroughness with which they are carrying out their original conception. It was pro- posed, we believe, to make an exhibition of every phase of human life, of everything that could be created by the hands of man, of every possible art and industry, both ancient and modern. It was not possible to bring over to America the Pyramids or Windsor Castle, or we have no doubt the Exhibition Committee would have done so ; as it is, they were fain to content themselves with models of the original build- ings. But in the case of more portable objects, their ambi- tion has had free scope, and they seem to have fairly ransacked the whole habitable globe in search of specimens of human enterprise and ingenuity. To such lengths have they carried out their scheme, that they have now included in their list of exhibits all the procurable paraphernalia of the burglar and the criminal, and within the last few days have issued a notice to English gamekeepers and landowners inviting them to supply the Exhibition with any tools and implements of the poacher's trade that they may have in their possession. The arts and industries of mankind may really be said to have been fully represented when even the burglar's and the poacher's professions have found a place among them. The criminal industries, from what we hear, are to be illustrated in the most complete fashion possible. The " fine art" of murder will be represented in the realistic •and gruesome manner adopted in Madame Tnssand's "Chamber of Horrors ;" the ingenuity of the burglar will be shown in the multi- farious devices of his trade, his "jemmies," dark-lanterns, silent matches, and weapons of defence; the " smasher " will exhibit his false coin; the forger his fraudulent bills ; and the pickpocket,—well, there will be no need to ask his co-operation ; for, uninvited, he will probably be there him- self in person busily plying his trade among those who gape at the cleverness of his colleagues in crime. The idea is a strange one, and fairly illustrates the American determination to make the Chicago Exhibition the biggest and most complete thing the world has ever seen. Perhaps it was with the intention of preparing some kind of counter- blast to this glorification of crime, that the Exhibition Committee have invited the police of every nation to send exhibits of their warfare with criminals, and that the same building which contains these evidences of law- breaking, is also to contain models of every known instru- ment of the law. The French police are to exhibit their curious process for identifying criminals—let us hope that it will not have to be exercised upon any visitors to the Exhibition—and the English police, we suppose, will be represented by some peculiar feature of the force,—the regulation boot, for instance. On the whole, the criminal will not be the person who is the least interested in the World's Fair. A visit to this particular section of it should be of great service to him if he is anxious to keep up with the advancing ideas and newest inventions of his trade, or if he wishes to be forewarned as to the method of his enemy's attack. But except for the criminal himself, and the policeman, we do not know of any one to whom this peculiar display can be productive of the slightest service or pleasure ; and in the interests of the law-abiding majority of the population, we should be rather disposed to deprecate an exhibition which might conceivably widen the knowledge and help the ends of the criminally disposed. We all know that there is an unpleasant and morbid curiosity on the part of even the well-disposed public with regard to crime, for it is• far too obviously displayed in the daily Press to escape our notice ; but it is questionable whether the committee managing the World's Fair have done well in recognising it and catering for it. The poacher's profession, however, stands on a rather different footing. Whatever may be said of the modern poacher, there are many reasons why we have not been able to regard the poacher in the past in the light of a common thief, and why his doubtful means of earning a livelihood have been invested with a certain air of romance. Curiosity as to the man himself is permissible in a country where no game-laws exist, and where the man is not known; and if they are curious about the poacher, they must al so be curious as to his methods.
With us, in England, the, poacher has changed with the changing times. We say that we could not regard the old poacher as a common thief; but it is difficult to look upon the present poacher in any other light; The old poacher was a. villager born and bred, and not unfrequently represented the brightest and most intelligent side of country life. As a, rule, it was not for the mere sake of a cheap dinner that he snared his landlord's rabbits, caught his fish, or knocked over his pheasants; he loved the sport for its own sake, he loved the long days by the country-side, crouching by the river- banks or in the cool depths of the wood ; he might have been a ne'er-do-well, and very often was an idle scamp, incapable of an honest day's work ; but he loved the woods, and his wood-lore was the envy of many better men. Given a velveteen coat and a salary, he would have made, and did very often make, an excellent keeper. It was the life, not the dishonest gain, that attracted him,—attracted him so power- fully that he could not resist, could stick to no other life while Nature called to him to live with her and upon her. And then it must be remembered that the old game-laws pressed very heavily upon the countryman, and that their pressure, half-a- century ago, made, many men poachers against their will. But the modern poachers are men of a very different stamp. Denizens of manufacturing towns, with no instinctive love of the country or of sport, they make their descent upon it in a purely businesslike mood. They do not work singly, but in gangs, and arm themselves with every conceivable abomination in the way of nets for the game and bludgeons for the keepers. It is not the sport but the spoil that attracts them, and they simply regard the pheasants and the rabbits from a poulterer's point of view. They care nothing for the country, or for the country life, and would as lief rob a suburban hen-roost as a pheasant-preserve. For such men, no possible plea or excuse can be made ; though if it comes to the question of apparatus, we have no doubt but that they might furnish the American Exhibition with some very curious and even costly appliances. Nets have been seized before now, which must have cost their owners more than £50 at least, and the whole operations of these town blackguards are upon the same expensive scale; for the modern poacher is no more driven into evil courses by the stress of poverty, than is the professional burglar. Here and there the old poacher may yet be found, though we fancy of late years he has become more and more rare ; and could the Americans get hold of some of his simple appliances for charthing fur and feathers into his capacious pockets, they would obtain something of a very curious interest, though we fear the machinery would be unintelligible without the poacher himself to show its working. As often as not the whole stock-in-trade consists of a simple piece of wire. What a really experienced poacher can do with a piece of wire, both as a snare for rabbits and an unlicensed method of lifting fish, is almost inconceivable. The writer once knew such a man, and is ready to confess, without shame, that he owes much to his kindly tuition. He was rather disreputable and very dirty, but his company was pure pleasure to a boy who thought no knowledge so desirable as that which his com- panion possessed. Since then, the writer has had occasion to study the methods of the poacher in other lands, but never has he seen such manual dexterity as that dis- played by the friend of his youth. You may generally gauge the worth of a poacher by the simplicity of his methods. And in this connection we cannot refrain from telling a story, the truth of which was vouched for by good -authority, and which affords a rare example of poaching ingenuity. On a property where the rabbit-shooting was strictly preserved, upon the southern coast of England, a boy was once caught with two dead rabbits in his possession, and nothing else that would account for their decease. A search of his pockets revealed nothing but two live crabs of small dimensions, the end of a candle, and a box of matches. Under promise of release, the urchin was persuaded to disclose his method of procedure. First he selected a likely burrow, and then he stripped off his clothes, putting his coat over one hole, his trousers over another, and his shirt over the third. He lit the candle-end, dropped a little of the grease upon a crab's back, and stuck the lighted candle thereon, and then put the crab at an unoccupied opening. Straightway the frightened torchbearer fled sideways into the darkness, and explored the innermost depths ; while the boy, expectant as a terrier, awaited events outside. Presently a rabbit bolted into the coat, and boy, rabbit, and coat all rolled over together, the boy rising from the fray with the rabbit in his clutches. What happened to the crab, the history did not relate ; let us hope that the candle was extinguished by other means than burning itself out.
That boy was a born poacher ; but, like most born poachers, he was a good deal more besides. It is quite possible that he himself may be represented at Chicago to-day by some more reputable invention, for he undoubtedly showed a promise of more than ordinary ingenuity, It would be difficult to make a suitable exhibit of such an apparatus as was used in this ,Case ; nor do we know of any of the simpler poaching appliances which would readily lend themselves to the pur- poses of exhibition. Perhaps, as the Americans are so anxious to find some curiosities for show in connection with game, we might offer them a modest suggestion. We know that they entertain their own private opinion as to the merits of the English game-laws and the righteousness of the poacher. 'The opinion is not a complimentary one to English law, but it is their own, and they are entitled to it; though, by-the- way, we may here remark that the man who of late years has -done more than any one else to make those laws hateful and 'contemptible, happens himself to be an American citizen. Well, we would suggest that they should attempt to show some of the benefits which accrue to the community at large from not preserving game at all. They might display, if they have still got one, a solitary bison, and explain how their whole continent, from sea to sea, was once overrun with herds of these noble creatures, and how to-day not one remains,— how they have been wiped-out by hundreds of thousands by American enterprise. Nor is the bison the only animal with regard to which they might make a similar boast; really quite an interesting exhibition might be made of the things which the modern American has improved off the face of the earth. And yet one would have thought that in so big a -continent there might have been found room for more of its original inhabitants.
Previous page
