Document text
Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview
FORM 1
Circumstances of Interview
STATE New York
NAME OF WORFEU Earl Bowman
ADDJESS 86 W. 12th St., N.Y.C.
DATE January 12, 1939
SUEJECT "THEM PTOXICaxED WILD GEESE" ...An Uncle Steve Robertson Story
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
1. Date and time c' interview January b, 1939
2. Place of interview
3. Name and address of informant Harry Reece (Daca)
63 Washington Square South
New York City
4. Name and address of person, if any, wno put you in
touch with informant. See previous interviews
11/29/38.-- "Harry Reece: His Story"
5. Name and address of person, if any, accowpanying you
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms, each
bearing the proper heading and the number to which the material refers.)
FOLKLORE
FORM C
NEW YORK
Text of interview (Unedited)
STATE New York
NAVE OF WORKER Earl Bowman
ADDRESS 86 West 12th St., N.Y.C.
DATE January 11, 1939
SUBJECT "TEEM iTCKICATED WILD GEESE" ...An Uncle Steve Robertson Story
(Narrated by Harry Reece)
My Uncle Steve Robertson, who was a very famous Pioneer
of the Far West in an early day indeed, not only declared many times
(generally as a prelude to one of his remarkable tales) that he
"jest natcherally despised any cussed individual that 'xeggerates
and stretches th' truth till she snaps and flies back and hits him
in his doggone face..." but also often remarked that he was quite
fond of what he called "corn licker" and "specially home-made
corn licker."
Uncle Steve always hastened to qualify his confession
of fondness for "corn licker" by adding: "Howsomever, being a human,
like I am and a Pioneer I ain't in favor of nein' so damned
fond of corn licker they is that I believe a man is justified
iii drinkinl so cuesed much of it at one time that he turns hisself
into a darned wild goose, like some damn fool wild geese I knowed
oncet, an' gits plumb 'soused' and 'toxicated and non compus.
Yeah, I-Gawd, a man -and 'specially a pioneer like me'E got to have
some self-control and not be a darn wild goose when it comes to
bein' fond ol corn licker..."
-2
Up to that time, navin had very little experience as
a Pioneer in the Far West, and even less with wild geese and "corn
licker," I was not aware that wild geese had any degree of fondness
whatever for corn licker, home-made or otherwise, or indulged in
alcholic stimulation to any extent, let alone to the extend of be-
coming "soused" and "non compus."
It ie_s while we were in camp at Malheur Lake, over in
eastern Oregon where Uneie Steve and I had gone to shoot a wild
duck or two, and when I sugLested to Uncle Steve that it was a
new one on me... he told me the story....
"Hell, yes, wild geese is th, most intemperate things
for 'corn licker' you ever seen!" Uncle Steve said, as if surprised
at my ignorance. "Yeah, wild geese jest can't resist corn licker
and 'specially home-made corn licker like Bob White an' me used to
make when we first settled in Salubria Valley up in the Weiser
River country, in Idaho.
"That was one thing us pioneers didn't dare run short
of we jest natcherally had to always have a good supply of
'corn' on hand, 'cause we never could tell when we rilight git snake
bit or something. So, Bob an, me, cein' from Missouri or Arkansas,
as a matter of course always carried a 'coil' we'd brung out from
Missouri when we migrated out to the Far West, and would keep a
good supply made up.
"That's how we happened to find out that wild geese is
plumb fond of, and doggone fools about, corn licker..."
"And it's a good thing we found it out too, 'cause it
helped us bear th' hardships of beinl Pioneers in tne Far -Aest in
the absodemneduletly Early Days indeed.
"People now -a -days don't realize what hardships us
Pioneers went through in them early days in the Far est... I-
Gawd, haw we ever endured it, I don't know!
"T
ace-like when Bob White an' me and 'Man' she
was bob's wife first migrated into Salubria Valley. There
we was jest practically in a raw country with nothilk much but
ourselves to depend on. We didn't have no money, and if we had
a -had there wasn't no stores closer than a week's travel to spend
it at if we'd a -had it...
"Natcherally us Pioneers got along the best we could.
"We jest went and cut down trees an' built a house ant
plowed up some land and planted some corn and potatoes and other
stuff and nad to eat what we raised ourselves or got from the
hills or the rivers...
"I-Gawd, there was weeks at a time when we didn't nave
no meat except venison and bear and grouse and pheasants and things
like that. Of course we always had plenty of trout by jest goin'
and xetchin"em out of th' Weiser River, and when the spring run
of salmon come up th' river we'd spear a few hundred pounds and
silt 'em down an' somke 'em so we'd have 'em jest in
a emergency...
Once in a while Bob ant me would cut a wild bee tree and Eit
three or four hundred pounds of honey, and in summers, Man, Bob's
wife, would can up a lot of huckleberries... Yean, I-Gawd, people
now -days don't realize what us Pioneers in the Far West had to go
through in th' early days when we was jest developin' till country.
"Bob ant me stood it pretty well, but it was shore
hell on Man; and it was worse after Bob an' me had gathered our
corn off th' fifteen or twenty acres we'd planted and had made
-4
up probably thirty or forty adions of licker jest in case we
might need it.
"It was when thl corn was all gathered, them damn wild
geese started comint in and lightin' on the corn field to pick up
what corn Bob an' me had maybe overlooked while we was pickint
the crop...
"I-Gawd, hundreds of 'en would cone honkin' down tht
river, circle around a few times and settle down out there in that
corn field. At first Adam didn't pay much attention to tern then
finally she got such a cravin' for wild goose she couldn't hardly
stand it. So, she said: "Bob, you or steve one or the other's got
to go out there and shoot a wild goose or two I ain't had a
taste of wild goose for so long I'm jest dyint for a mess of goose.
Besides, she said, "anybody'll starve to death if they don't have
nothing but venison and bear and pheasant and grouse and trout,
without ever gittint a change... It ain't healthy to eat th'
same things all the time, so, one or the other of you has jest
got to go out there th, next time them wild geese come in on
that corn field and git a mess of 'em for me..." That's what
Wm told Bob and me an' I-Gawd it worried us a lot, 'cause we
was runnin' awful short of amunition in fact we was plumb out
of shot for our shot -guns and didn't dare use our rifle ammunition
for shootint wild geese 'cause we might have to use it to shoot a
deer or a bear or something like that, or maybe a couple of Indians
or so if they come around and got to botherin' like they sometimes
done.
"But Nan kept frettin' about wantin' some wild geese
till Bob ant me figured somethint had to be done about it, so
Bob said, "Steve, I-Gawd, we gotta do somethint about this an'
-5-
git Some of them wild geese for Man or else she's goin' to drift
me crazy harpin' about wantin' sem, and I'll ue damned, Steve,
Bob said, 'if I know how th' hell we can git 'em unless we shoot
'em an' you know cussed well we can't spare no &munition jest at
this time to shoot no dog -one wild geese, so what in hell -ant
blazes are we goin' to do about it?"
"So, I told Bob jest to leave it to me and I'd figger
it out someway, 'cause, I told him, if there's more'n one way
to skin a cat, I-Gawd, there must be more'n one way to git some
wild geese without ever shootint 'em. Somehow or other I'd
rigger it out, I told Bob.
"i-Ait Boo didn't think we could git any of them wild
geese for Mam unless we shot 'em and wasted some of our ammunition,
which neither one of us thought we ought to do on account of how
the Indians was beginnint to act. Maybe we could make a trap like
a rabiAt-trap and bait it with a nubbin of corn, Bob said, but
who th' hell ever heard of a wild goose bein' caught in a trap?
Wild geese is too cussed smart to be caught in any damn trap,
Bob said, even if it was baited with a half dozen nubbins of corn...
"Bob was jest about discoraged over th' whole thing and
he honestly felt awful bad 'cause Man didn't nave nothing much to
eat but venison and bear steaks and trout and smoked salmon and
grouse and pheasants and sich course eatin' like that and craved
wild goose so damned bad...
"But I wasn't discouraged, an' told Bob so 'cause a
Pioneer like I was in the Far West in the early days jest could
/-1
not afford to git discouraged. He was takinl too many chancfes
if he did, and no matter what kind of a problem rared up in front
of him he jest nacheraily had to rigger it out. So I-Gawid, I
-6-
knowed I'd have to figEer out haw to git some of them wild geese
without snootin"em. And, I-Gawd, I figgered ner out...
"When Bob mentioned settin' a trap and baitin' it
with a nubbin or two of corn, I got an idea I knowed darned well
ought to work...
"And she did.
"So, I said, I got it figgered out, Boo. Go git one
of Man's wash tubs and bring it down to the corn crib. Hell,
Bob said, you ain't coin' to try to use otle of Main's wash tubs
for a trap to ketcn them wild geese in, are you? Bob told me.
"Hell, no, I told Bob. I ain't so danged ign'rant
as to try anything like that... But I am coin' to mix my damned
bait in the wash tub, I told him.
"Well, Bob and me took Man's tub down to th' corn
crib and shelled it about two thirds full of corn, then we carried
it up to th' nouse and filled it plumb full oi corn 'Acker Bob
and me'd made not long before...
"There, I told Bob, now we'll jest cover her up and
let it set there all night and let th' corn soak in th' corn
licker, then we'll take it down to th' corn field in th' morning
before till wild geese begin to arrive and spread the corn out
and see what happens.
"Well, I-Gamd, th' next mornin' all that corn licker
had soaked in that corn Bob an' meld shelled in th' tub and the
grains of corn was swelled up 'bout twice as big as natural, and
evcry cussed grain was loaded with a hell -of -a -jolt of about th'
strongeL:t corn licker anyLody ever scorched their throats with,
'cause Bob and me believed in makin' it strong when we did make
it.
-7
"So, we took it down to the corn field and spread it
out like we said, then we hid in the brush by the side of the corn
field and watched...
"Pretty soon them wild geese commenced comm' in, and
when they lit they made a bee -line for that
corn we'd spread out... I reckon, probaoly
"I-Gawd, I never seen anybody or
as quick an' as drunk as them dam fool wild
11••••••
corn-licker-soaked
they smelled it.
anything git drunk
geese did. It was
kind of funny but plumb pathetic to see haw cussed intemperate
them mild geese was when they started in on that corn-licker-
soakkd worn...
"Some of 'em would gobbled down a few grains of corn
then a sort of surprised look would come in their eyes if they
didn't jest know for certain what was happenin, to 'em. Others
of 'en would stretch their cussed necks up ant try to honk and
then change their minds and try to craw like a rooster pheasant...
And, I-Gawd, one big old gamier jest up an, tried his damnedest
to howl like a wolf. It was plumb pitiful to watch, but it
didn't last long...
"In danged nigh no time a -tall all them wild geese
was Itoxicated and soused to beat hell, and had jest tumbled
over on the ground to sleep it oil, totally unconscious. So
that's th' way it was...
"Bob and me went and got the mules hitched up to
th' wagon, and drove down and corded all them Itoxicated wild
geese in the wagon, and hauled 'em up to the house and put 'em
in a pen. There was a hundred an' seventeen of 'em Well,
not exactly a hundred an' seventeen, maybe, 'cause one of 'em
jolted out of till wagon as Bob and me WES haulin' 'em to th'
-8
house and we didn't notice it to be plumb truthful an' accurate,
mebbe there was only a hundred an' sixteen...
"But anyhow, there was enough for us to have a wild
goose to mix in with till venison and bear steaks and trout and
things like that for quite a while and Man quit sufferinl so
much for a change of things to eat.
"Yeah, I-Gawd, us rioneers in th' Far West in the
early days shore -as -hell had to do lots of things people now
a -days don't ha\e to do... But, I-Uawd, when he had to, we
shore as hell done 'em
ft
("My Uncle Steve Robertson had no respect What-
ever for anybody who Ixeggerates or who drinks
corn licker an' ain't got no more self control
than a danged wild goose ant gits Itoxicated
an soused.")
END