Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-05-14
"A Dog and A Fish.

A day or two ago party f exposi-
ton people, consisting of Mr.. Arthur
E. Rendle of New York city, Messrs.
Frank and Charles Earle, sons of Mr..
Parker Earle, chief of the horticultural
department of the exposition, and Mr..
L. y. Miller made a fishing excursion
to Davis bayou, about four miles from
Ocean Springs, Miss.
The party was away several days,
and by the united efforts of all the
members thereof they succeeded in
capturing one fish. This was sufficient
to furnish them with material for
capital fish story, which Mr.. Rendle
told a Nea0 Orleans Times Democrat
reporter IN the following words:
While we were waiting one morning
for hsh breakfast that Miller and
Charlie Earle were pledged to supply
us with, Miller noticed long pole in
the water some distance up the bayou,
which is about fifty yards wide at this
point. 1t floated down the bayou until
opposite our camp, and then sudden
ly turned and went backwards quite
rapidly. Then we saw that it was a
tishing-rod and that big fish must be
at the end of the line. All was excite
ment in the camp. Our breakfast was
assured US provided we could capture
that fish. How were we to get it? We
had no boat and the bayou was deep,
the water cold, and our fishy friend on
the other side of the bayou, say forty
rods away. Somebody suggested max
ing log raft, and Frank Earle eagerly
grasped an ak and was about to make
some young pine trees sick, when
Charlie Earle sang out: ''Why not send
your dog for it, Rendle?'
No sooner said than done. Charlie,
my water spaniel, a magnificent water
dog, who likes nothing better than
swimming and diving, had his atten-
ton directed to the fishing-rod by a
stone thrown in its neighborhood. He
swan toward it, OWNED his errand,
grabbed the rod at the thick end, and
proceeded to swim back with it. "Our
breakfast at once noticed that some
body else was bossing that rod, and he
began to object very vigorously. He
tugged at the line, the dog tugged at
the rod, and for few moments it was
a question who would win. Finally, by
a supreme effort, the fish made an i'm
mense dash and actually pulled the dog
(weighing fifty-two pounds) completely
under water.
First round for the fish.
''Charlie" came up looking half
drowned, but still holding the rod in
his mouth. He dropped it, however,
and swan to shore looking very puzz-
led and annoyed. Having taken breath,
he was a second time dispatched to Sc
cure ''our breakfast" which was now
careering madly up the stream, no
doubt chuckling to ''hisself as how he
had fooled that dawg."
'Charlle" again swan to the rod,
grabbed the big end, and began haul
ing it to shore. All was quiet until
about half way to the shore, when the
fish began to give battle. The struggle
was tremendous, but resulted in a
victory for the fish, who again pulled
the dog under water.
Second round for the fish.
The dog again returned to shore,
and was again sent out after our break
fast He grasped the rod for a third
time, and with a look of desperation
on his handsome doggy face, and a
feeling in his breast, no doubt, that the
honor of his race was at stake, he
swan toward the shore. The fish
tugged and tugged, but slowly and
surely Charlie" reached the shore,
and at last laid the rod at my feet, and
then landed magnificent reddish. AS
a matter of fact, this was the only fish
caught on our fishing and ducking ex-
pedition.
We found out afterward that the rod
mad been pulled by the fish at the end
of it from the hands of a farmer
daughter who had been fishing near
her fathers home. We found the own
er, and returned the rod.