Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1875-09-10
How the Ladies Fish.

THERE'S generally aboutsix of them in
the bunch, with light dresses on, and they
have three poles with as many hooks and
lines among them. AS soon as they get
up to Mosertown they look for good
place to get down on the RATS, and the
most venturesome one sticks her boot-heels
in the bank and makes two careful steps
down; then she suddenly finds herself at
the bottom with both hands in the water
and feeling that everybody in tlAs wide
world is looking at her, and she never
tells anybody how she got there. The
other girls, prOtiting by her example, turn
around and 90 down the bank on their
hands and toes, backward.
Then they scamper over the RATS until
they find a shallow place where they can
see the fish and shout
"Oh! see one"
"Whereg"
There"
ooh! my, so he is"
Lets catch him"
Whose got them baits?"
" Somebody's got my hook"
. You lazy thing, you're setting on my
pole"
Show me the wretch that stole my
worm"
All these exclamations are got off in "A
tone that awakens every lazy echo within
mile around and sends every fish within
three acres square in galloping Mysteries.
Then the girls by superhuman exertions
get worm on the hook and throw in"
with a splash like the launching of a
washtub and await the result. When a
silyer-fn comes along and nibbles the bait
they pull up with Jerk that, had any un-
fortunate fish weighing less than fifteen
pounds been on the hook, would have
landed it in the neighborhood of the new
church on College Hill. After while a
teeble-minded suntish contrives TO get fas-
tened on the hook of timid tisherwoman
and she gives tongue:
"Oh! somethin's got my hook :"
Pull up, you little idgZut!" shout five
excited voices as poles and hooks are
dropped and they rush to the rescue. The
girl with the bite gives spasmodic jerk
which sends that unhappy sunny" into
the air the full length of forty feet of line,
and he comes down on the nearest curly
head with damp flop that sets the girl to
claNing as though there were bumble-bees
in her hair.
"Ouchl Murder take it away Ugh,
the nasty thingn'
Then they hold up their skirts and
gather about that fish as il skips over
the logs, and all the time the one who
caught the fish is holding the line in
both hands, with her foot on the pole, as
though she had an evil-disposed goat at
the other end, which she expected to butt
her at any moment. Then they talk over
it,:
"Howeyer will we get it ofp'
g Amt it pretty?"
Look how it pants"
"Wonder if it amt dry?n
Poor little thing, let's put il back"
How will we get the hook from itY"
" Pick it up saysa girl, who backs
rapidly out of the circle. ..r
Good gracious I'm afraid oft There,
it's opening its mouth at me-"
Just then the sunny" wiggles Off the
hook and disappears between two logs
into the water, and the girls try for anOth-
er bite. But the sun comes down and
fries the backs of their necks, and they
get no more bites but hy-bites, and they
get three headaches in the party, and they
get all cross and scold at the fish like so
many magpies, If an unwary club dares
TO show himself in the water they poke at
him with their poles, much to his disgust
Finally they get mad all over and throw
their poles away, hunt up the lunch bas-
ket, climb up into the woods, where they
sit around on the grass and caterpillars
and eat enough of dried-beef and rusk
and hard boiled eggs TO give woodhor
the nightmare, after which they compare
notes about their beaus until sundown,
when they go home and plant envy in the
hearts Of all their mouslin- delaine friends
by telling what "just a splendid time"
they had - Edst0R Fyee Press,