Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-05-24
Old Times.

Old Times.
Ed. Register-As I read the article,
"Down East" in the last weeks REG
IsTER, where the writer spoke Of those
clear, cool streams that come jumping
| down the sides of the mountains, it
carried me way back to my childhood
days among those same New England
hills; for my fathers farm lay partly
in the valley and part on the mountain
side. The New England hills and
mountains are not like our hills and
mountains in Missouri: all thrown up
in every size and shape; mountains
pushed right up through the level
plain, with such valleys all around
them - for instance, like Shepherd
Mountain. The mountains of New
England are in long ranges, running
north and south, from the Long Island
Sound up through all the New Eng
land States to the River st. Lawrence
on the north, with beautiful lakes and
valleys up in the mountains; with
clear, cool streams of water winding
in and out among the rocks and
chasms, and deep dells, fringed with
the hemlock, laurel, spruce and hac-
matac-and what lovely places for the
speckled trout to hide in those pools of
water, ever boiling, ever foaming. All,
how many times have / in the spring
time, after the house work was done
up in the morning, heard my mother
say, "Now, you may take your basket
and hook and line and 60 up to the
Fuller brook and get a mess Of cow
slips and trout for dinner" Do any of
my readers know what cowslips are?
They grow along the banks of streams
in the meadows among the grass in
very wet places. The leaf looks some
thing like lettuce leaves, with beau
tiful yellow blossom like buttercup.
While gathering those plants with one
hand, holding my fishpole with the
other, with the hook in the brook, that
went winding through the meadow
after my basket was we'll filled with
cowslips I would go up among the
rocks and boulders, among the hills,
where the brook came jumping over
the rocky lodges, among the trees. AS
you approach one of those deep pools
of water, all foaming and splashing,
you cast your hook in the boiling, bub-
bling stream. AS the hook strikes the
water you feel sudden jerk on your
line and whiz, and you feel thrill
60 all through your body, and as you
give jerk on your pole you bring to
air beauty. How he wiggles and
twists; you almost feel as though you
were harp of thousand strings, vi
brating in every nerve. AS you take
the little beauty in your hand and take
it from the hook, there is feeling of
extasy indescribable comes over you.
How fresh it brings to my mind, Cros-
by's kitty Clyde:"
o, who has not seen Kitty Clyde,
She lives at the foot of the hill,
In sly little nook by the bubbling brook
That carries her fathers old mill.
WIN Udshtt W pun III ueE usu,
Every morning with line and hook,
This sweet little lass,
Through the tall heavy grass,
Steal along by the clear running brook.
She throws her line into the stream,
And trips it along the brook side
o, how l do wish was fish,
10 be caught by sweet Kitty Clyde!
Sweet Kitty, dear Kitty,
My own sweet Kitty Clyde.
All, how many, many times I have
loitered by the side Of the babbling
brook with hook and line. The last
time ever went fishing in those bab-
bling brooks was the Saturday before |
we started for Missouri. My fathers
Oldest brother lived up on the noun
tain, where a large brook came splash
ing and rushing down between two
The house was on the west |
side of the brook, on the lower side of
the road. The farm laid on each side
of the road. Set up edgewise, almost,
on the lower side it sloped down to the
brook, and just above the house on the
side OF the brook was sawmill, and
just below the sawmill the water made
a fell Of ten or fifteen feet over solid
rock into large pool of water below.
How many fish have been caught at
that pool of water do not know. That
was the twenty-first of A pril,
1888. I said to my cousin, a young
man, "Ansel, would like to catch
one more trout before go to Missouri;
please loan me your hook and line.n
He said, "There are no fish in the
brook; the people have fished till they
are all caught" "Well, wanted to
go through the molten ONCE more any
way" So he gave me his hook and
line, after batting it carefully, I threw
the hook out into the water as far as
the pole would let it 60. No sooner