The American Boy's Handy Book

by Daniel Carter Beard

  Hunt for a half dozen round stones about the size of large marbles, or, better still, take six leaden musket-balls, warp each ball in a piece of an old kid glove, buckskin, or cloth, as shown by the diagram (a, b, Fig. 128). Take three pieces of string each five feet long, double them in the centre, and bind the doubled parts together; a few small feathers may be bound in to add a finished and Indian look to the bolas. To the ends of the strings attach the bullets (Fig. 128). To cast the bolas, grasp it by the feathered part with the thumb and first finger, whirl it around your head as you would an ordinary sling. When you let go, the loaded ends of the strings will fly apart, so that the missile will cover a space in the air of five feet in diameter. If a string strike a bird it will instantly wrap itself round and round the body; if the loaded end strike the game it will, of course, stun or disable it. One of these instruments cast into a flock of birds is certain to bring down several.

  For target practice, use in the place of the ordinary butt a number of reeds or sticks stuck upright in the ground about a foot apart; after measuring the distance for the marksman to stand and marking the spot, let him see how many reeds he can level at a single cast of the bolas. The one who makes the biggest score can assume the title of “Big Injun,” and wear a feather in his hat, or an appropriate badge, until some more skilled hand beats the record and wins the title and the badge. No shots should count unless made in a regularly appointed match.

  The Elastic Cross-Bow.

  (A NEW KIND OF CROSS-BOW.)

  Select a piece of thick pine or cedar plank and saw out a piece of the form shown by A, Fig. 129. Trim it down with a jack-knife until it becomes more finished and gun-like in appearance. With a gouge, such as may be borrowed at any carpenter or cabinet-maker’s shop, cut a half round groove from the butt to the muzzle of the barrel. The groove must be perfectly straight and true (B, Fig. 129). Bore a hole in the piece (E), for the bow to fit in. The bow in this case should be made perfectly stiff, so as not to bend in the least when the line is drawn and the gun set. The bow may be bent into the proper form by steeping it in boiling water until the wood becomes pliable, and binding it firmly into the required position. After it has become perfectly dry the wood will retain the form and the bindings may be cut off. Trim the bow nicely into shape, and make it of such size that it will not bend when the string is drawn. Fit the bow into place, not like an ordinary cross-bow but in a reversed position, as shown by the diagram C, Fig. 129. It might be an improvement to set the bow back toward the stock an inch or two further than the one in the illustration. For a bow-line use two pieces of strong elastic, with a string for a centre piece. The centre cord prevents the bow-line from wearing out as soon as it would if it were all elastic (Fig. 129, C). Make the trigger in the manner described for the plunger pistol (Fig. 134, page 164), but instead of fastening it upon one side with a screw, set it in a slot cut for the purpose in the middle of the barrel near the stock, and let it move freely upon a pivot. Cut a thin, smooth piece of pine just long and wide enough to cover the gun-barrel from stock to muzzle, and fasten it on with a couple of small brads at the muzzle and a screw at the stock (Fig. 129, C).

  There is always a certain amount of danger attending the use of firearms which is avoided by the cross-bow, added to which advantage is the fact that the twang a bow-string makes is so slight a noise as not to alarm the game, and if the young sports-man be inexperienced he may shoot several times at the same bird or rabbit without frightening it away. With a little practice it is astonishing what precision of aim can be obtained with the cross-bow. I know boys who seldom miss a bird even with the simple elastic sling, consisting of two pieces of rubber bands attached to a forked or a straight stick (Fig. 130).

  Footnotes

  * “I have seen a dog killed on the spot, its body being nearly cut in two by the boomerang as it fell.”—Rev. J. G. WOOD.

  CHAPTER XXII.

  HOW TO MAKE BLOW-GUNS, ELDER GUNS, ETC.

  THE fierce and savage head hunters of Borneo go to war armed with the same implements with which the school-boys shoot peas or pellets of clay at unsuspecting citizens as they pass the ambuscade of tree or fence. The blow-guns used by the Dyaks of Borneo are called sumpitans, and instead of clay balls they carry poisoned arrows. A spear is also attached to the side of one end of the sumpitan, after the manner of a bayonet on a modern rifle. In speaking of the sumpitan a recent writer says: “This curious weapon is about eight feet in length and not quite an inch in diameter, and is bored with the greatest accuracy, a task that occupies a long time, the wood being very hard and the interior of the sumpitan smooth and even polished. It is not always made of the same wood. The surface is of equal thickness from end to end.” Among the South American Indians the sumpitan is represented by the long delicate “pucuna,” or the heavy and unwieldy “zarabatana.” All savages use poisoned arrows in their blow-guns instead of harmless pellets of clay or putty. Taking a few hints from the primitive warriors and hunters of Borneo and South America, any boy, with a little care and small expense, can construct for himself a blow-gun which will be handy to carry around and will shoot with great accuracy. Mr. W. Hamilton Gibson, the well-known artist, has acquired such skill with the blow-gun that he seldom misses the mark, and often brings home birds and other creatures brought down by a clay pellet blown from a glass sumpitan.

  For twenty-five cents a glass tube, three or four feet long, can be purchased. With these tubes can be made the best of blow-guns, but they are objectionable on account of being liable to break at any moment from some accidental blow or jar. With some flannel or woollen cloth and an old piece of cane fishing-pole a cover and a case can be made to enclose the glass and prevent its being broken by anything short of a severe knock or fall.

  To Make a Blow-Gun.

  Select a good straight piece of glass tube about three or four feet long. To discover whether the glass tube is straight or not, hold it horizontally level with the eye and look through it, and any deviation will be quickly seen. Wrap the tube with strips of flannel or woollen cloth, as illustrated by Fig. 131, A. The cloth will make a soft covering or cushion for the outside of the glass and render it less liable to break. With a red-hot iron rod, or some similar instrument, enlarge the hollow in the centre of a piece of cane until the blow-gun can be slid inside the cane. With putty, shoemakers’ wax or beeswax secure the tips of the tube in place. Trim off the ends of the cane until they are flush with the ends of the glass. You will then have a blow-gun that can be used to hunt with (B, Fig. 131). For missiles may be used arrows, tacks, peas, or clay. The arrows must be very small, and a pin with its head filed off makes a simple point; some raw cotton bound on the butt end to make it fit the inside of the gun finishes the missile (Fig. 131, D). The tack is prepared by fastening short pieces of worsted or carpet ravellings to it just below the head with shoemakers’ or beeswax (C, Fig. 131).

  This not only fills up the space inside the blow-gun, making it fit, but the yarn also acts as a feather does upon an arrow and causes the tack to fly straight and point foremost. The worsted-headed tack is a “tip-top” missile for target practice. The clay pellet will bring down small birds, stunning them, but doing them no serious injury, so that if the birds are quickly picked up they can be captured alive.

  Along the Mississippi River, from New Orleans to Nashville, there are still some remnants of the Indians that in olden times paddled their canoes up and down the Father of Waters. The boys among these tribes make splendid blow-guns out of cane. When the inside is bored out they straighten the cane by heating it over hot coals, and then, after attaching a heavy weight to one end, suspending it by a string attached to the other end. The heat from the hot coals makes the cane pliable, and before it becomes cold and hard, the weights make it almost as straight and true as a rifle-barrel.

  Squirt-Guns.

  Some time during the summer of each year a boy used to appear with a squirt-gun made of a piece of cane. Squirt-gun-time then commenced, next day four or
five guns might be seen on the playgrounds, and before a week had passed the curb-stone in front of the little frame school-house presented a line of boys all busily engaged in seeing who could shoot the greatest distance; the dusty macadamized street registered every drop of water by a muddy spot. I found that by adding a quill as a nozzle to my “squirt” it would throw water much further than the others. It is a very simple thing to make a good squirt-gun, and one may be manufactured in a few minutes.

  First cut a joint from a piece of an old cane fishing-pole, being careful not to disturb the pithy substance that almost closes the hollow at the joints. Insert a quill for a nozzle at one of the joints and see that it fits tightly; leave the other end open. With your pocket-knife fashion from a piece of pine or cedar the plunger (B, Fig. 132); leave the wood a little thicker at both ends and wrap a rag around one end, making it just thick enough to fit snugly in the cane after wetting it. This completes the “squirt” (A, Fig. 132). To use it, immerse the quill in water, first push the plunger in, then draw it out slowly until the gun is filled with water. Take aim, and when you push the plunger back again the water will issue from the quill in a sudden stream, travelling quite a distance. One of these water-guns is quite useful in the garden; by its means the insects infesting the rose bushes and other shrubs may be knocked off in no time. When the owner of an aquarium finds dead animals or plants that should be removed, located in some crack or cranny that is difficult to reach, the squirt-gun is just the thing to dislodge the objects without disturbing the surrounding rocks or plants.

  Elder-Guns and Pistols.

  When the author was a very small boy he was taught by some playmates to make an elder gun, a simple contrivance, made of a piece of elder or any other hollow stick. A long notch cut in one side admits a spring made of whalebone (Fig. 133). By pushing the spring back the short arrow shown in the illustration can be propelled quite a distance. If instead of the awkward whalebone spring a piece of elastic be used, a much neater gun can be made. Fig. 134 shows a pistol made with an elder barrel and a stock of pine. A plunger, similar in many respects to the one used in the squirt-gun, is made with an edge to catch in the trigger. An elastic band is bound to the barrel with string, and the loop fastened to the butt end of the plunger. When the latter is drawn back to the trigger it stretches the elastic. By pulling the trigger toward you it loosens the plunger, which flies back with a snap, sending the arrow out with considerable force. The barrel of the pistol may be fastened to the stock by two strips of tin or leather. The diagram shows the form of the trigger, which should be made so as to move readily backward or forward upon the screw that fastens it to the stock. Fig. 135 shows how a pistol can be made to work without a plunger. In this case the barrel is partly cut off from A to B. The arrow should be made to fit in the groove, so that when the elastic is loosened it will strike the arrow in the same manner that the string of a cross-bow does. Both these pistols, if made with good, strong elastic, will shoot quite a distance, and if the arrows are armed with a tack or pin in the head they can be used in target practice. We now come to a gun in which the spring is the principal part.

  The Spring Shot-Gun.

  A certain old gentleman was at one time very much annoyed by fine bird-shot which at all times of the day came rattling against the window-panes of his study. Being somewhat of a philosopher, the old man at last became deeply interested in investigating the cause of his annoyance. From the window he could see a house separated from his study by a deep back yard, a vacant lot, and another yard. While peering out between the blinds of his window he saw a boy appear at one of the windows of the distant house; the boy held something in his left hand which he pulled with his right; almost instantly there was a rattling of bird-shot against the old gentleman’s window glass, and the boy disappeared. But so great was the distance that separated the two houses that it was impossible for the old man to distinguish what sort of an instrument the mischievous lad used to propel the fine shot so far and with such force. The youngster was at last waylaid, and the mystery solved. The machine used proved to be a spring shot-gun. No powder or explosive is used with one of these guns, neither does it possess stock, trigger, or sights, but simply consists of a stick of whalebone or any other elastic material, one end of which is armed with a large quill, corked at its lower end.

  When the quill is filled with fine bird-shot and the end of the stick grasped by the left hand, the contents of the quill can be thrown an amazing distance by bending the quill end back and allowing it to suddenly fly forward, upon the principle of the whip bow. If instead of a small piece of whalebone a large and very elastic rod be used, with a tin tube in the place of the quill, an effective weapon will be produced useful for hunting and collecting purposes; although the shot cast from the tube will have sufficient force to stun a small bird, it will not injure the specimen by making ugly holes in the skin and staining the feathers with blood. All of the weapons described in this and other chapters should be used with care, for many of them are capable of inflicting severe wounds. Never aim a bended bow with arrow set at a companion or friend, for a little slip may cause irreparable harm. Even a blunt arrow propelled from a barrel-hoop bow has sufficient force to destroy an eye or make a severe bruise. A true sportsman has the greatest respect for his weapons and handles them with scrupulous care.

  Autumn.

  CHAPTER XXIII.

  TRAPS AND TRAPPINGS.

  SUMMER is over. Again the air becomes cooler. The straw hats are discarded, so also are the linen suits; we begin to look up heavier clothing, for although the sun still shines brightly, the nights are growing chill. Even at midday we no longer seek the shady side of the streets or roadways.

  In the woods all the little inhabitants are preparing for the approaching winter. Backward and forward, from the beech tree to his nest under the wood-pile, runs the nimble little brown-coated, striped-back chipmunk, each trip adding to the pile of beech nuts secreted in the storehouse of this provident little fellow. Scampering along the top rail of the fence the gray squirrel may be seen, also busily engaged in laying up a supply of winter stores. The birds are gathering in large flocks, with noisy twitterings and excited flutterings, preparatory to their yearly pilgrimage to the Sunny South. The bouncing hare is thinking of discarding its summer coat of brown and donning its white winter furs. The leaves of the ivy vines shine like red fire wreathed around the tree trunks. All nature seems busy going through a transformation scene—an air of preparation is visible everywhere.

  The reports of the sportsmen’s guns may be heard, and their dogs may be seen in the stubble-fields manœuvreing like well-drilled soldiers promptly obeying every command of their masters.

  And far and wide—in the cold Northern regions, in the pine woods of Maine, in the Rocky Mountains of the West—the hardy trappers are busy collecting their traps and making preparations, or are already engaged in their annual campaign against all fur-bearing animals.

  In order that my reader may not be behind the season, this chapter is devoted to the description of a few simple but effective traps and snares, such as may be made of the material always at hand, with the aid of a pocket-knife, hatchet, or other tools within the reach of boys.

  Rats.

  We have in North America more than fifty kinds of rats and mice, the largest of which is the muskrat. Next in size comes the great, ugly brown rat.

  More than three hundred years ago the black rat found its way from Europe to this country, settled here with our ancestors, and, like them, increased and prospered. The black rat is rather a neater and prettier animal than the now omnipresent Norway brown rat. The latter is of Asiatic origin, and appears to have made its way to this country since the advent of the black rat, which it has supplanted and almost exterminated. The roof rat in the Southern States came originally from Egypt, and the little brown mouse that creates so much mischief in our closets is of Asiatic parent-age. All rats may be caught in traps, and for an amateur trapper the house rat is a go
od subject to practice on. By no means a fool among animals, possessing a due regard for his own safety, and looking with suspicion upon most traps, the Norway brown rat is not so easily caught as one who has never baited a “figure four” might suppose. A very successful way to capture house rats is to carefully close all the doors of the kitchen, barn, or room infested with them, and after removing all small objects from the floor, bait each hole with crumbs of meal and cheese; over the holes place little doors made of tin or wire, hung on with strings or screw-eyes, these doors open but one way and are so arranged that the rat can easily push the door open from the inside, but as soon as the animal makes its appearance in the room the door falls back into place, thus cutting off all retreat. In a short time the room will be overrun with rats, and if allowed to remain undisturbed for a few hours they will all escape through new holes made by their sharp teeth; if a terrier dog or a few cats be let into the room, not many rats will live to tell the tale of the massacre.

  The Paper Pitfall.

  Over the top of an earthenware jar fasten a piece of writing paper, tightly binding it with a string or elastic band. In the centre of the paper cut a cross as shown in the illustration (Fig. 136). Set the jar in the closet and suspend by a string a piece of toasted cheese over the centre of the jar. If there are any mice in the closet the bait will attract them, but just as soon as the first mouse reaches the centre of the paper he will drop into the jar, and the paper will fly back in place again ready for the next comer. A trap arranged in the same manner can be used for the capture of field mice, shrews, and harvest mice, some of which make odd and amusing pets. All of these pretty little animals may be found in the fields or under brush heaps in the clearings. A barrel covered with stiff brown paper can be used for common rats, but they will gnaw out unless the barrel be partly filled with water.