Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1882-08-27
r,,rr,,nondepoe OF tse sundqy Register.


ov all the dime novels, the tales OF Indians
he warns of old hunters and trappers, and
asst, but not least, by the fish stories OF
;portsmen and anglers and the psuedo
,uide books published at the present time.
Most of the guide books to the backwoods
and waters of Maine are about as much OF q
guide book as would be the leaves OF a
SOrn out medicine almanac guide TO
health; but there is enough Of overdrawn
adventure, which never happened, In these
books. to set the boys crazy. This crazlness
has also extended to the grown up men, or,
AT least, some OF the men in growing up
have not
OutsroWn the F0llies OF their Youth
inspired by these tales, Most of these
guide books introduce the boy adyenturer
at once to the killing of a bear or two; the
wounding of three or four moose, which
quickly follow the young hunter up a tree I;
the slaughter OF five or six caribou; with
deer sandwiched in as thick as rabbits.
None of these books take pains to mention
that there is a fine OF $40 for killing deer
in either Maine or New Hampshire during
the summer months: that not half dozen
moose have been killed in Maine WITHIN q
connie of wears by all the efforts OF old
hunters anu eAA
killed in New Englend in year
CouId be Counted on the Fingers OF One
Hand,
and that the killing is all done by exper-
fenced trappers. The guide books are
written, for what purpose? To draw
travel to certain little steamers which ply
up and down certain lakes during the sum-
mer season and to draw sustom to certain
stopping places-styled camps-at different
spots along these lakes. Boys don't read
these guide books-advertisem
the pix CHI OF r q ION necessary TO true con
ception of what life in the woods means.
These boys are like other reaSoners OF Older
growth, concerning religion and other sub
iects; they believe what they want to be-
lieve. and hence
Swallow the Whole oft.
The trouting craze is only another form
of the breaking out OF this spirit of boy ad-
venture. engendered by dime novels and
Indian stories. Two-thirds Of the able-bod-
led men in Wheeling would like to go away
in the woods trout fishing. The tish.rod
business done in year is something Won
derful. A single firm in Boston does fish
ing-tackle business of over 5000, 900 per an
mum. 1t is possible that the fishing gear
sold to go to the Maine lakes in year is
not less in value than 100000. The value
of the rods alone-estimated by actual
count from one pOSitiOn-carricd into the
and Rangley lakes in a yearly
the four routes, Upton. Andover, BemlS
and Phillips, cannot be less than $4,000.
The cost OF railway and other fares paid to
reach these lakes in year cannot be less
than So, 900, and the cost of living at the
hotels along the way and at the camps
must be at least $4,000 more.
In ordinary seasons 1t Is estimated that
all
Average Of a Trout Apiece
is all that the fishermen who follow the
Maine lake craze obtain. Old guides. who
will tell you what they know, can set the
number of trout obtained ut vory. low
figures bur thOy do not like TO do this; 1t
hurts their business. TO place all the trout
aiken at the Rangcley and Richardson
akesi in aseason at 10000 pounds would be a
very liberal estimate, and, if only $500 in
actual expenses is paid out, the trout count
he takers at s. per pound, beside the cost
)f time. In fact, old sportsmen, who have
been TO these lakes every season for years,
IRE in the habit of estimating the cost of
heir trout at about 80 the pound. The
Trouting Craze IL n Costly One.
md good deal of the cost must be set off
against the account of fun" or sport"
This fun is funny, to say the least OF it.
Brook trout fishing is full OF fun. Take a
split bamboo rod, which will cost you 500
a reel, which will cost 81, a line costing
so, an outfit of artificial flies costing
with book to hold them, s., then go to a
trout stream which it will cost you $50 to
reach and return. Fish this stream one
day. 1t runs through the woods and under
brush-all trout streams with any trout in
them do. You fish this stream. Yes.
What do you catch? A dozen trout, il you
are more fortunate than 20 other fellows
who have
Fished the Stream Before You,
and fifty others who will fish it after you.
How big are the fish? As long as your
finger. Good; you have owned up to part
Of the truth. What do the whole dozen
weigh? About two pounds. What is the
value of the whole string? Estimated by
the value of other fish, 10 cents. What is
the state of your tackle? The scored is
broken. The fly book, flies and all, you
have lost. Your reel and line you dropped
into that pool, and some boy will find a
prize at low water. Your shins are bruised,
your feet are wet. You have burst ont a
pair of long hunting boots which cost you
$40. Your clothes are torn. And last, but
by no means least, you are
Mass of Black Fly and Mosquito Bites
"a sight to behold. You are poisoned by
their ho-rid stings, so that it will take a
week to get over it. To be sure, you took
plenty Of netting to cover up your face and
hands, but the brush and limbs of trees
soon tore that off You also took along a
bottle of Mr.. Tackleseller's celebrated fly
and mosquito surepOp, made OF tar and oil
and pennyroyal, and you daubed your face
and hands with this till you looked like a
red Indian and smelt like the navy yard OF
Uncle Sam.
This operation stopped the flies for a
time, but you dropped the bottle, top down
ward with the cork out, and you had
NoTar For Second Application.
Then the insects had a chance at you. You
we're up the stream a long distance from
any means of defense. Fun, all through.
read like the guide books,
though. Noble sport Twenty-dollar rod
with two-ounce trout at the end! Just TO-
300 fly bites TO dozen trout bites, all for a
$50 outfit anda trip which cost you $50
more Fun; cheap fuR-SlO0 worth of it; a
weeks time gone, and laid up at home,
tired out, another week-sicS
from fly bites and over eXertion. Glorious
recreation! Majestic sport, Builds a fell
low up like nothing else. 1t will give him
strength TO 60 through another years hard
abor in the close heated city; or rather, at
The end of another year, he will have just
gotten up strength enough to live through
another trouting siege.
But the trouting craze is widespread. 1t
affects both great and small men. Some
men get the fever every season, and it must
nave its run. The mania affects high aud
ow alike. Some will say that this reverse
-ide of the trouting picture is oyerdrawn;
lot all the sport of trouting is assailed with
and black flies and broken rods,
md sickness afterward. Granted, but there
ire always plenty of mosquitoes and flies in
he woods in early summer and trout do
lOt bite at any other season. Besides, not
me person in twenty can carry an improy-
d anglers outfit through a trouting siege
md bring il out without more or less in
ury. Not one person in forty can pilot a
lice fishing rod through a trout stream
worth fishing without breaking the rod.
Well. says writer OF the guide books or
defender of the trouting craze then