A bounty past

~ Performer captures naturalist John James Audubon and his times.

America was once a place where fish could be scooped from streams by hand, herds of buffalo filled the prairies and roosting birds were so numerous they snapped tree branches.

This was the America that naturalist John James Audubon once knew and documented. Performer Richard Johnson captured both the man and his times at a performance before 213 spectators at the Chautauqua celebration behind the Osage Community Centre Wednesday evening.

"I remember scenes that even today would make you think I'm imagining them," he said. "Such abundance, abundant wildlife, dense forests, canopy overhead, streams where you could catch fish easily ... nature's bounty, what creation allows us to have without any work. What could be better?"

Cajun fiddle music by Dennis Stroughmatt entertained the crowd Wednesday at Chautauqua, held on the grounds of the Osage Community Centre. (Don Frazier)

Born in Haiti in 1785, Audubon is best known for cataloguing and painting the birds of North America in a lifelike fashion unparalleled by his peers. He moved to the United States in 1803 and traveled throughout the country.

Today he is revered as a great naturalist, but some may be surprised to know he was also a great hunter, once writing, "I call birds few when I shoot less than one hundred in a day."

In the audience, Sue Balsamo did not see this as a contradiction. "People are always surprised by that, but he had to. There was no other way to paint them. He couldn't just snap a picture," she said.

In character, Johnson addressed the fact that this profligacy paired with deforestation might someday lead to the extinction of some of the birds he loved. "Only a time so far in the future I can't imagine it when pigeons would not have the trees, woods, forest and berries they need," he said. "That would take millions of humans. Can that happen? I don't think so."

But it did. Audubon spoke of the passenger pigeon, which was once so numerous that the people of Louisville, Ky., shot them by the hundreds and ate so many they began to smell like the birds.

Audubon dismissed the notion that their numbers would ever decrease. "The destruction and hunting has not affected the pigeon's numbers at all," he said.

The passenger pigeon became officially extinct in 1914.

Audubon also discussed his 1811 visit to Cape Girardeau, where he met Louis Lorimier less than a year before the city founder's death. "He was four-foot, six inches tall with a nose that was three inches long and looked like the beak of a hawk," he said of Lorimier.

Audubon continued up the river during his travels, operating a general store in Ste. Genevieve, Mo., for several years.

Chautauqua is a traveling event that combines education and entertainment. The stop in Cape Girardeau will continue until Saturday with lectures during the day at different sites and nightly musical and historical performances.

"It's just been a great success. We're so overwhelmed by the turnout we've gotten so far. It's very exciting," said Dr. Frank Nickell of the planning committee.

tgreaney@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245