The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-05-20
Hartford Courant.

OSASAASs - ~ 1AONeAAJ e"lANi 4HtOl ct11J
Now that the fields rcsound with the "Yo,
heave ho!' of the merry trout hunter, it will
be timely to indulge ina few instructive re-
Elections upon the benefits to be derived from
this invigorating occupation. Its usefulness
has been questioned by some unsanctified cav
ilers, who were unwilling to admit that as
patriotic, national recreation it could be placed
on par with rfle-shooting. bug hunting, base
ball, or horse racing. A few plain facts ought
to be sufficient to silence all ignorant detrac-
ton. And first note the matter of physical
development resulting from the pursuit of the
trout. The boy who is entirely lacking in vi
tality to hoe row Of potatoes, even with yo-
heave-hoe to help him, or whose back is de-
plorably inadequate to to the simple and pleas
ing 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 usefulness of cooked fish as
brain food, the uncaught and perhaps nom
existent trout is a wonderful muscle stimuant
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 underworted 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
mot hIc farti DIT
when the mellow notes of the trout are heard
he brings out his fifty-dollar, six-splint 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 land HES him to Toll
land county or elsewhere, where he devotes
half the gentle Springtime to breaking down
The farmers fences, letting down his bars,
trampling his Winter wheat and cultivating
his own intellect in planning the stories 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 Ar
eopagitica refused to count that as virtue
which had never been tempted "That which
purifies us, he said, sis trial. and trial is by
what is contrary" 1t is 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. 1t
is equally we'll known that the great and good
George Washington, while devotng 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 venera-
BILE father that he had caught twenty trout
and given them to the sick widow Custis
George was far different in his habits. If he
had only developed his moral nature with the
rod and the reel he would never have con-
feSSed to the cutting down of one small sap
ling. He would have boasted the destruction
of whole orchard with no tree less than a foot
in diameter. History is full of illustrations of
the usefulness OF trouting in cultivating and
strengthening the tendency to strict truthful
ness by wholesale. Mr.. Eli Perkins is re-
markably successful fisherman, as is Mr..
Froude, the English historian. And speaking
of Englishmen, it is worth recording, as an in
terestiDg fact, that the late Mrs. Opie was as
accomplished in the matter of trout-catching
as Samuel johnson, Esq, the dictionary man.
A recently discovered Greek manuscript is
said to indicate that Mr.. Ananias stands first
on the list of trouters, his daily average seldom
falling below sixty, the smallest of which
weighed seventeen ounces. There is rumor
among the monks of Jerusalem 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 a distance of fifty yards
from any stream he discovered a five pound
trout with blood in its eye chasing horse-f1y
up sycamore tree. With we'll aimed blow
with his trusty scimeter he killed the monster
and took it home, where he could only con-
vince Sapphira that he had not bought it at a
private trout pond by taking her into the woods
and showing her the identical horse-fy. The
story may not be substantiated by later re-
searches, but no genuine fisherman can ques-
tion its inherent probability since it is in COM
plete accord with the latest scientific develop
ments. Some corroboration may be found,
even at this late day, on the fact that no ex-
pert ever reports less than sixty trout for
days work, although naturally the average
weight has somewhat increased since the days
of AnaniaS