LAKE GEORGE, N. Y., Jan. 16—Adirondack guides are predicting that dire misfortunes will befall Wesley Jordan, of Saranac lake, because in the last week of the hunting season he shot a white deer, the second ever known to have been killed in the Adirondacks. A white deer is so rare in the Adirondacks that when one does appear it is regarded with superstitious awe.
    Jordan has received letters from all parts of the country warning him to prepare for trouble, but he takes no stock in the superstition and is having the deer mounted by a taxidermist. The belief that the slayer of one of these animals would meet with some great misfortune has been so general, however, that from time immemorial such white deer as have been seen from year to year have rarely been molested by the arrow of the Indian or the shot of the white man.
    A few deer nearly white were killed in the Adirondacks years ago, but this is only the second, according to some of the oldest guides, that is a perfect albino.
    Rodney West, the Essex county woodsman, says that if a complete albino deer is killed the rest of the deer usually leave that neighborhood and that is why an Indian will not kill a white deer.
    “Six white deer,” said West the other day, “and only one of them a buck, have been seen in America since 1897, and I have had at least one good chance to get $1,000 by killing one, but I don’t want the money bad enough just yet to do that. Where a white deer chooses to haunt the others love to resort. I have seen this many times.”
    The only other white deer known to have been killed in the Adirondacks appeared in Kenne valley in the autumn of 1898 and became very tame. It was a beautiful creature, having a neck and tail of pure white, while the upper part of the body and back was nearly white. The deer had white eyes, though usually the eyes of the albino are pink. The hunters decided not to molest this albino and, when the heavy snow came an attempt was made to capture it alive. The dogs chased it, however, and when exhausted it passed near a traveler, who caught it and cut its throat. The man was not aware of the agreement among the hunters to preserve the doe and he deeply regretted his act.
    A white deer was seen four years ago near Cranberry lake, St. Lawrence county. It was accompanied by a fawn of the usual color, but neither was molested by the woodsmen. One winter several deer were seen near Indian river by Tippecanoe Knapp, a well known guide. The leaders were a big white buck and a white doe. A party of hunters attempted to capture the white deer alone, but the herd got away.

From— The Saint Paul Globe. (St. Paul, Minn.), 17 Jan. 1904. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.