Morning journal and courier., 1880-05-13
Fronting, Physically and Morally.
 From the Hartford Oourant1

Now that the fields resound with the "Yo. heave ho!" of the merry trout hunter, it will be timely to indulge in few instructive re- factions upon the benefits to be derived from this invigorating occupation. Its usefulness has been questioned by some unsanctified cav Hers, who were unwilling to admit that a patriotic, national recreation 1t could be plac- ed on par with rife shooting, bug hunting, base ball, or horse racing. few plain facts ought to be sufficient to silence all ignorant detraction. And, first, note the matter of physical development resulting from the pur- suit of the trout. The boy who is entirely lacking in vitality to hoe row of potatoes, even with 70 -heave- hoe to help him, or whose back is deplorably inadequate to the simple and pleasing duty of turning grindstone, can easily turn over half an acre of ground after sundown for worms, and make better record than the champion pedestrian in skirting a stream next day. His efforts prove that whatever may be the facts as to the useful ness of cooked fish as @ brain food, the caught and perhaps non existent trout IS Q wonderful muscle stimulant. Nor are the
 benefits confined to the boys. No one secures greater amount of physical and intellectual
 nourishment from this ennobling pursuit than
 the adult man-especially the overpaid and
 underworked professional man of the city who
 is cooped up nearly all the year within brick
 walls, pining for the pure air, pure water and
 sweet repose of the country. No inducement
 would compel him to buy and cultivate a
 small farm, or go to the country and help his
 venerable father plant his potatoes and dis
 seminate his spring fertilizer. But when the
 mellow notes of the trout are heard he brings
 out his fifty dollar, six split bamboo rod, with the latest reel and book of flies, at which any well educated trout would smile He hires horse and buggy, filling the latter
 with mysterious packages, and hies him to Holland county or elsewhere, where he de- votes half the gentle spring time to breaking
 Ll-.G 1mAk bars, trampling his winter wheat, and culti- vating his own intellect in planning the stor- ies he will tell when he returns with the few fish which he has purchased of the farmers truant boy.
 But after all the greatest benefit of the trout is moral one. Milton in his famous Areopagitica refused to count that as virtue
 which had never been tempted. ''That which
 purifes us,'' he said, Sis trial and trial is by
 what is contrary" It is a remarkable, or at
 least noteworthy fact that no West Pointer
 ever trouts, and it is equally notable that the
 one thing West Pointer will not do is to de-
 viate from strict accuracy in his statements.
 It is equally well known that the great and
 good George Washington, while devoting his
 early years to wood carving, was never
 known to rise before daylight to dig worms,
 spend the day in the woods playing cards
 with four friends, and return at night to tell
 his venerable father that he had caught twen-
 ty trout and given them to the sick widow
 Custis. George was far different in his hab-
 it's. If he had only developed his moral nas
 ture with the rod and reel he would never
 have confessed to the cutting down of one
 small sapling He would have boasted the destruction of 8 whole orchard with no tree
 less than foot in diameter. History is full of illustrations of the usefulness of fronting in cultivating and strengthening the tendency to strict truthfulness by wholesale. MT. Eli Perkins is remarkably successful fisherman, as is MT. Froude the English historian. And speaking of Englishmen, it is worth recording as an interesting fact that the late Mrs. Opie was as accomplished in the matter of trout catching as Samuel Johnson, Esq, the dic- tionary man. recently discovered Greek nanuscript is said to indicate that MT. Anan- jas stands first on the list of trouters, his dai ly average seldom falling below sixty, the smallest of which weighed seventeen ounces. There is a rumor among the monks of Jeru- salem that in the early spring of the year '65 A. D., Ananias started into the country one Sunday morning to hunt for trailing arbutus to decorate the Sunday school. At distance of fifty yards from any stream he discovered five pound trout with blood in it's eye chas- ing Q horse-dy up sycamore tree. With 8 well aimed blow with his trusty scimetar he killed the monster and took it home where he could only convince Sapphira that he had not bought it at private trout pond by taking her into the woods and showing her the iden- tical horse-hy. The story may not be sub- stantiated by later researches, but no genuine fisherman can question it's inherent probabili- ty, since 1t is in complete accord with the lat est scientific developments. Some corrobora- | tion may be found, even at this late day, in | the fact that no expert ever reports less than sixty trout for days work, although natur-- | ally the average weight has somewhat increas- l ed since the days of Ananias.