The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1871-07-22
PiscatoYial.

/ 3ABC0tOIG81s
All sorts of wild rumon reaching Ottaws
of the abundance of fish At Dayton, it was de-
cided, by a few Of our leading piscatorians, to
make up party and 60 up and just scoop out
the river. The project took like fire, and the
day selected for the feat was Wednesday OF
the present week. The expedition was organ.
lied somewhat after this fashion: Comman-
der-in-chief, Rising: Lieutenant, Kellogg
Commissary General, Howard, of the "Clif
ton ;" Quartermaster General, Carew; chief
cook and bottle washer, Walther; awkward
squad, Beatty, Smith, Riale, Taylor, Wing
photograph artist, Bowman; general squad,
Hull, Croker, Dickey, Lynch, Hook, &c,
making up sum total Of about so.
From daylight until or 10 o'clock the
scene on the road to Dayton resemblcd cir
Gus procession moving through canebrake,
only that the canes accompanied the circus.
By 10 o'clock the canebreak spread itself over
the pretty much dried up bed of the river
below the dam at Dayton. But the fishing
was glorious. The water was scattered
around in pools, at the bottom of which the
fish were supposed to lie hid. 1t was equal to
fishing in tub. BY deity managing the
hook, it was the easiest thing out to impale a
sheep head or cat a. often as once an hour.
Taylor elected tremendous applause by cir
cumventing an eight pound pike and safely
landing him high and dry on the rocks.
But the hero of the day was Crooker, of Men
dota, who went Taylor one better and snaked
out a cat that weighed nine pounds. Be-
sides these the catch consisted of miscellan.
eous sprinkhng Of bass, sheep heads, bull
heads, rock bass, tadpoles, suckers and two
tremendous ducks, (by Beatty and Will Smith
Weighing respectively 1876 and l66 lbs, neck
deep. This sort Of fun was too exciting to
last, and it was happy relief when, about
o'clock, the commissary general blew his horn
in token that dinner was ready.
The spread was made on lovely green
sward near the dam on the east side. The
tremendous catch of the morning had been
duly eviscerated and cooked, but let no one
do our commissary the injustice to suppose
he was 10 lacking in foresight rs to depend
on the catch alone to feed his army I'm;
menss ~ that was he had supplemented it
with bill of fare such as no hotel this side
Of the Clifton can get up, to say nothing Of
the provision he had made in the way Of
fluids, knowing the scarcity rs well as delete
rious character of the water At Dayton. Well
thanks to Howard and Henry wal,her-it
WAS feast to be dreamed over in after days,
and full justice was done to it by as hungry
crowd ~ We ever ssw-you bet.
After the "cloth was removed" speeches
were in order. Lieutenant Kellogg had been
designated % the orator Of the day. and he
proceeded to deliver himself. He said-loud-
Observation-Disclosures! Tremendous APP
plausel Gathered in these outrageous woods
-(dry upl on the banks of this beautiful riv
Or bah y near the romantic town Of Dayton
[hurrah tor Dayton amid the singing Of
singing of--[locusts, suggested Bowman;
frogs, suggested Besttyl-singing of birds,
chirping OF grasshoppers, and creeping pis-
mlres that's Bill, by an unknown hummer.
Bill rose to protest. He was no pismire.
He was the travelling agent Of Mrs. Maloney,
the figure head of the largest wholesale liquor
house in the world, and he'd be he'd be
- here the applause was SO tremendous
that William had to dry up.l Meantime the
orator Of the day had disappeared, and Mr..
Crookcr was ''set up" in his place. Mr.. c.
said he was Mendotian-had always been
down on Ottawa-had favored dividing the
county, and moving the court house to La
Sale. But the company before him gave him
new ideas about Ottawa. 1t was composed OF
- the of the most delectable set
Of Of bummers and scaiawags Stem
torial cries of dry up-put him out duck
him de-, amid which Mr. Croker escaped
into an adjourning corn field
This dried up the speech making, which
was succeeded by series of athletic exeIcis-
es which we have no language to describe
but which were immensely celebrating to
spectators as we'll as participants. BY 5 o'clock
the commandment chcf announced the pro-
gramme of the day exhausted, and the party, as
rapidly as they could be gathered up, climb
ed into their vehicles and took the road home
The Peoria Democrat says "Thc ku-kluy
examinations bid fair to overturn the whole