Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1888-08-22
OLD-sTYLE FISHING.
n. Quad Yearns for the Jolly
Days OF Boyhood.
The Glorious Time Preceding the Intrs-
duction ofPatent Rods, Reels and Hooks
when Z" Coin a-Flshing" Meant
Mere Than 1t Does To-day.

More Than 1t Does To-day.
III were boy again I'd go a-fishing,
writes NJ. Quad in the Detroit Free Press.
When man goes a-fshing it's all solid busi-
ness and no romance. He makes his cali
culations days ahead, figures on Just how
many minutes he can spare, and every nib
bic Is reckoned at so much money He is
always out Of pocket, and always comes
home mad, not to try it again for
whole year. With q boy it is ad-
venture and romance. He has nothing to
lose and every thing to gain. He has all
the time there Is, and il he doesn't catch all
the fish In Roaring river it is not his fault
L can remember all about it. In those
'way-back days real fish-hook was per-
sonal property, something to carry to school
tied up in rag and exhibited only to the
large boys-boys old enough to appreciate
1t. At home it was hidden away under the
bureau, and its presence was kept a sacred
secret. Most any sort of string would do
Tor fish-line, and the old hunter who once
gave me two bullets for sinkers is remem-
bered with deepest gratitude to this day.
When hook and line and sinkers were wound
upon maple chip and tucked away to wait
for the fishing season, it was a red-letter
day. l would have taken a dozen of the
worst hckings boy could receive rather
than give up the treasure, and, had q
stranger come along and offered to trade me
horse for the outfit should have prompt
ly refused his offer.
When we went to fish in a creek which
was as much as two feet deep in spots, and
which boy could hardly Jump across in
places, it was mighty river to me, beside
which the discoveries of Hendrick Hudson
and De Soto were bantam chickens. There
were whales in there, and our only fear was
that one of them would nab our angle-worm
and break the hook. There were sharks
which might seize US if we waded over q
rifle ankle deep, and we had heard of the
devil-fish which turks under the flood-wood
waiting for barefooted boy to come along
with his dinner. True, we never en-
countered any of these monsters of the
deep, and that was the reason why we got
safely back home, and why mother heaved
great sigh of satisfaction and said:
$50 you are homel Well, never, never
expected to see you againr'
boys way of fishing is the best way
ever invented They may bring out their
fancy rods, reels, flies and patent hooks,
but the boy who sticks to the homemade
ish-pole, the old-fashioned hook and the
twine fish line rubbed down with beeswax
isn't going to be left very far behind.
The first we used to pull out-yumi Now
adays those you don't catch are the largest.
A quarter Of a century ago things were
different. OF course, we had some big
bites-awful bites-regular old monsters,
but we didn't lie about the size of the biters.
We never put one down at over a hundred
pounds, though we could have doubled tho
weight and found ready believers. In those
days nobody ever fished without splitting
on his bait III he wanted to catch an awful
big fish he spit twice. There were tunes
when splitting on the bait didn't bring a
bite, but no boy ever got discouraged
over that. He hadn't given just the right
pucker to his mouth, or his hook didn't
hang right, or the sky was too bright or too
cloudy.
In these degenerate days man will sit
on wharf or a log and bob and jaw, and
bob some more and growl, and haul up his
line and blast every bodys eyes, because
he hasn't caught pickerel eighty-fve
feet long. The old-fashioned boy would
tramp three miles up and down the stream,
and never a word of complaint over the
absent nibbles If he got dozen horned
dace, as long as n mans finger, 1t was a
triumph to last for three months Just
think of patent bobber-a self-acting one,
at that-and compare it with the cork we
used to steal from the molasses jugl And
what are these patent sinkers compared
door-key which sunk our hooksl They are
doing their best to reduce 1t to a business,
and to destroy all the romance and antlci-
patton, and for one don'tclilse it q bit In
the way-back time fishing excursion was
set down for a month ahead, and it depend
ed on how VII we got along with the po-
tatoes and corn. We got our outfit
ready a fortnight ahead of time
We hunted out the best spots for
fsh-worms, planned every detail over and
over again, and dreamed of creeks
and fish and fish-hooks right along every
night. The day seemed never-ending, but
when we could say Tomorrow we dug
bait enough TO catch every thing in Lake
Erie, gave our poles and lines last looking
over and went to bed an hour earlier so as
to hurry the night along. Hurryl II was
the longest night of the yearl We went
over the ground a dozen times, planned
every thing anew. and got up q score of
times to see if the weather was likely to
change and bring bad day. We tumbled
and tossed, mapped and talked, and when
the old clock downstairs struck the hour of
four we slid out of bed and out of the house
to find the morning purple staring us in the
face. The fish were waiting for US, and we
couldn't keep our pace down to q walk, and
we likewise haited our hooks as we ran.
Fishingl Well, the boy of to-day doesn't
realize the meaning of the term He may
catch his score of bass or his dozen of pick
erel, but he never feels the tingle along the
nerves which came to the old-fashioned
boy as he felt a six-inch sinner take the
hook and turned with pale face to whisper:
Every body look out, for I've got one
this time, surep
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS body servant while
he was President was Barney Norris, a
Virginia negro. who lately died at lialenn