The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-06-13
FISHING THEN AND NOW.
lReSks Saal

1 tFSSk S Sana " There are only about a doren men in this country who do not like tc 20 6shinR Many do not go once in ten years, bu, all the time they think they will g6 next week or next month. and they keep think, ing of the fun they used to have thirty or 'orty years ago, when they were boys An old man Who had 6shed every year for fifty years. and enjoyed 1t, came into a business place the other day hmpiuR, with one hand on the smali of hts back, and looking as if he wanted to die
 What luck ?"
 70. 20 luck to speak o!, The Sac. :s my 6shing days are over." said the old man with a sigh, as pain took him in the back. "'Taint wha, 1t used to be, boys, taint what 1t used to be. When was boy would get up before day. light and walk four miles haretoo,ed, with a tamarack pole and strong hne. and wsth piece of pork-rind for bait. | would catch fish till the cows came home. There were no rods and reels in those days, and no artificial aies, that know ot, We would get a bite, and throw the nsh over our heads, out on land, and sec him flop. could catch Ssh enough for our family and ail the neighbors. and enjoy it. Later years, when l became a man, 1 had the fishing fever just as bad and would SO hundred miles to fish, and spend barrel of money, aad work b lrd for week, and it would do me good. would be heavier and stronger when came back, and my brain would work like a steam engine. But now, while have the fever jus. as bad, am ali used ap. It takes me all the fall and winter to get over my aches and pains to get ready for the spring fishing, and the first day go out am used up for q month. Bones and muscles that did not know 1 had years SEQ. ache now % l am perfectly sure where they are. am too old to walk much, and too rheumatic to ride in boat long, and have 10 be petted like child. l have to employ 6 man to row the boat, put on my bait and take of my fish, and my fingers and thumbs are getting SO rheumatic that can hardly turn the handle to the reel Another year and will have my hired man reel in my fsh, while l sit in a chair on the bank, and then 1 want to die. When a man gets so it makes his back ache to cast his bait in the water, and his arms ache when he pulls in a Ash, his legs ache when he stands up. his neck ache when he turns around, his head ache when the sun shines, and every. thing aches when 1t is cloudy and damp and his stomach seems to alt drop ou, an hour or two before lunch time, he is played out as 6she.msn, and ought .c know it. shall never go fishing again never"
 70, you hadn't ought to give up fish ing, uncle," said the clerk. sec by the paper that the fsh are biting splen. didty out in Waukesha county. One mar caught hundred pounds of black bas, in Okauchee yes,eIday.'
 "Nol" said the old man, as he tool his hand of the small of his back ana straightened up to try his back and SC. fit was broke. Say, you pack up n, rod and things aud ge them down to tn, two o'clock train, and will go and talk a Turkish bath, and go out there ior day or two. lf could catch one 6sh ans
 feel just as did when l was a boy, would give thousand dollars. To fee the same freedom that did then, witl the old tamarack pole, walking around II the vet grass barefooted, looking into tn
 water and seeing the fish lasily watchin, me as though they thought was no ac , count on earth, and then noticing th' difference of expression on the mug o 1, the fish after had him out on the bank wouldn't dare wade in stream nos and get my feet wet, because l woul, catch a cold that would lay me up for month. used to be wet from Genesi , to Revelations six days in a week, and
 never knew what it was to have a cold have carried a string of fish tha
 weighed more than ! did, q mile, an,
 whistled all the way. have been 2 tired would go to sleep while scaling
 Ash in the old woodshed, and l was q happy as person could be. But 1t all changed now. Even pleasure is har'
 work, and l realize that must stop fish ing forever. But say, hurry up and ge them things to the depot" and the ol' man who thought he never would hsl any more went out to a tackle store t' buy hooks, and went to the depot, for getting to take his Turkish bath. O, the, pever give up fishing.