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Forms to be Filled out for Eacn Interview
FORM A
Circumstances of Interview
STATE New York
NAME OF WORKER Earl Bowman
ADDRESS 86 West 12th Street, NYC
DATE December 271, 1938
SUBJECT "HOW SNIPE HUNTING WAS INVENTED" (An Uncle Steve Robertson story)
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
1. Date and time o7 interview December 23, 1938
2. Place of interview Harry Reece's Book Store, 63 Washington Square, South, NYC
3. Name and address of informant Harry Reece, 63 Washwington Square, South, NYC
4. Name and address of person, if any, who put you in
touch with informant.
(See previous interviews --11/29; 12/15)
5. Name and address of person, if any, accoliTanying you
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms, eacn
bearing the proper heading and the number to which the material refers.)
FOLKLORE
FORM C
NEW YORK
Text of Interview (Unedited)
STATE New York
N:AE OF wORKEP Earl Bowman
ADDRESS 86 West 12th Street, NYC
DATE December 27, 1938
SUBJECT "HOW SNIPE HUNTING WAS INVENTED" (An Uncle Steve Robertson story)
My Uncle Steve Robertson who was a great pioneer of the
very far vest in his day, and which was a very early day indeed,
told me how he invented "snipe hunting with sacks" one time when
we were hunting deer in the mountains on the divide between Price
Valley and Salmon Meadows, in the upper Weiser River country, in Idaho.
We had left our camp on Beaver Creek early in the morning
and climbed up the divide to the summit and then hunted along the
ridge but had seen nothing to shoot at larger than a pine squirrel
and which, of course, did not interest us because we were carrying
30-30 rifles and had we shot a pine squirrel with a 30-30 rifle there
would have been nothing left of the squirrel except possibly the spot
where he had been sitting.
So we paid no attention to pine squirrels but kept on hunting
for deer. Anyhow, Uncle Steve had said that if we hunted along the
ridge we were on, we would 'more'n likely get at least a three-point
buck an' ItGawd, maybe a five -point one, nobody could tell!
Since I was the "tenderfoot" of the two -man expedition
and Uncle Steve, who knew all about shooting bear, hunting deer and
fighting Indians was the "old timer", I was willing to take his word
for it.
But eventually, I got pretty tired and we sat down on a
log to rest. It was my suggestion that we sit down. Uncle Steve,
who was at that time probably about seventy years old, very lean
and straight as an Indian, and whose gray eyes were still keen enough
and quick enough to line an ivory bead -sight dawn a rifle barrel till
it was squarely on the shoulder of a deer while it was in mid-air
between one jump and the next jump, seemed to be rather disgusted with
anyone who got tired enough to have to sit dawn and rest....
"I'Gawd, us settin' here on this log restin' and jest
waitin' for a danged fool buck deer to come along to be shot, instead
of keepin' on and jumpin"em up for ourselves, makes me feel like a
cussed 'snipe hunter' holdin' a sack an' waitin' for somebody to drive
the damned snipes into it for him," Uncle Steve said. "But, I gosh,
that's the way some people are.., they want somebody else to do the
Iscairins up' for 'em, and all they want to do is the ketchin'... they
jest want to set there and 'hold th' sackl'
"That's the way a feller was that was with our outfit oncet
when Bob White and Mam, 'Mani' was Bob's wife, and me were migratin'
from Arkansas out west one time...
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say, 'To start with I don't know much about catchinl snipe and you and
Bob know more about it than I do... and besides, I'm awful tired this
evenin' and would rather set here in oamp and rest!' I'Gawd it got
to be plumb disgustin' so I figgered out: 'If he wants to 'set,' there
ain't but one thing to do an' that is study up some scheme to let him
set... and jest keep on settin... clean through Eternity if he wanted
to; I -gosh, I wouldn't give a damn....
"So that's when I Invented huntin' snipes with a sack.
"The next time he started whinin' for Bob or me to go git
a moss of snipes, I jest up and said: 'Hell, you shore don't know
much about huntin' snipes when you say for Bob or me, one or the
other of us, to go down there and git a MSS& of snipes-- Any clanged
fool ought to know it takes three men to hunt snipes. One can't do
it by hisself nor two can't do it, it takes three to do it... snipes
is damned smart and they've got to be handled jest right or nobody
ever can ketch any!'
"'That's clanged funny,' he said, 'one man can hunt quails
or two men can hunt quails and I don't see why th' blue blazes it takes
three men to hunt snipes... ain't they all birds?' he said.
"'Hell, yes, they're all birds but they're different kinds
of birds and you got to hunt 'em different... The only may to hunt quails
is to hunt 'em with a shot gun, but snipes is different, you got to
drive 'em in a sack and any danged fool ought to know one man's got to
set and hold th' sack while th' other two men drive 'em in it. So,
I'Gawd,' I told him, 'if you want a mess of snipe pie you got to go
with Bob and me and help us git 'em --1
"So, finally he said, 'Well, I'm pretty tired tonight but
if you'll let me set and hold th' sack while you and Bob go and drive
'em in it, I'll go and help you ketch a mess...'
"That's what I knowed he'd say, so I winked at Bob-- we'd
already talked it over and Bob knew the idea I had and the new way
of huntin' snipe I had invented for Babe Slocum's 'special benefit.
So, I told him, 'Well, Bob and me's pretty tired too, but I reckon'
you're tireder an' so you can hold th' sack. Bob and me'll drive 'em
in as fast as we can and when there's a sackful you can yell and Bob
and me'll come and help you carry them to camp.'
"Vie waited till after supper and then we took him up a gully
about a half a mile from camp and which was out of sight of camp and
told him to be shore and keep the mouth of the sack open so th' snipe
could come in it when we rounded up a bunch of them down by th' Old
Platte River and drove them up th' gully...
"And I'Gawd, as far as I know he's still settin' up there in
that gully waitin' for me and Bob to drive them damn snipe into his
sack. Bob and me went back to camp, hitched up and drove about ten
miles further and made another camp-- So, that's the way it was.
"Yeah, I'Gawd, he's probably still settin' there holdin'
that cussed sack open, waitin' for somebody else to drive th' snipe
into it for him.., but some people 's like that; all they want to do
is set and hold thl sack while somebody else does all the damned
welkin' and climbin' and so forth, so they just set.., and set...
and hold th' doggone sack...
"But that's th' way snipe huntin' with sacks was invented,
I know danged well that's the may it was, 'cause I'Gawd I invented
it myself-- Hell, If we're goin' to git a deer between now and next
Christmas we got to go git it... nobody else ain't goin' to drive it
up here on this cussed ridge for us to shoot at, while we're settin'
on this darned log....'"
This must have been the way this ancient American *snipe
hunting game was invented"- for my Uncle Steve Robertson told me that
was haw it came about, and Uncle Steve... "jest couldn't endure no danged
liar or any cussed man that tzaggeratesi"