Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-11-19
OLD-STYLE ,FISHING.
M. Quad Yearns for the Jolly
 Days of Boyhood.
The Glorious Time Preceding the Intro- duction ofPatent Rods, Reels and Hooks When "Goin' a-Fishing" Meant
 More Than It Does To-day.

If were boy again I'd go a-fshing, writes M Quad in the Detroit Free Press. When a man goes a-fishing it's all solid busl- ness and no romance. He makes his cal culations days ahead, figures on just how many minutes he can spare, and every nlb- ble is reckoned at so much money. He is always out of pocket. and always comes home mad, not to try it again for a whole year. With boy 1t IS ad- venture anS romance. He has nothing to lose and every thing to gain. He has all the time there IS, and if he doesn't catch all the fish in Roaring river 1t is not his fault.
 I can remember all about 1t. In those 'way-back days a real fish-hook was per sonal property, something to carry to school tied up in a rag and exhibited only to the large boys-boys old enough to appreciate it. At home 1t was hidden away under the bureau, and its presence was kept a sacred secret. Most any sort of a string would do for a 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 slnkers were wound upon a maple chip and tucked dsaway to wait for the fishing season, it was a red-letter day. l would have taken a dozen of the worst hckings a boy could receive rather than give up the treasure, and, had q stranger come along and offered to trade mo a horse for the outfit, 1 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 a boy could hardly jump across in places, it was mighty river to me, beside which the discoveries of HenAlrick 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-wor1n and break the hook. There were sharks which might seize us if we waded over a | ri file ankle deep, and we had heard of the | devil-fish which turks under the fiood-wood waiting for a barefooted boy to come along | with his dinner. True, we never en- countered any of these monsters of the l deep, and that was the reason why we got l safely back home, and why mother heaved | great sigh of satisfaction and said:
 "So you are home! Well, l never, never expected to see you again!'
 | A boys way of fishing is the best way 1 ever invented. They may bring out their tancy rods, reels, flies and patent hooks, l but the boy who sticks to the home made 1 ish-p pole, the old-fashioned hook and the twine fish line rubbed down with beeswaZ isn't going to be left very far behind.
 The first we used to pull out-yum! Now l adays those you don't catch are the largest l A quarter of century ago things were different. Of course. we had some big btes-awful bites-reguiar old monsters, 1 but we didn't lie about the size of the biters 1 We nevor put ono down at over q hundred pounds, though we could have doubled the weight and found ready believers, In those days nobody ever fished without spitting on his bait. If he wanted to catch an awful
 big fish he spit twice. There were times l when splitting on the bait didn't bring |; | bite but no boy ever got discouraged 1 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 a man will si
 on a wharf or a log and bob and jaw. auG
 bob some more and growl, and haul up hi: line and blast every body's eyes, because i he hasn't caught pickerel eighty-tivt | 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 mans finger. it was | triumph to last for three months. Jus thlnl of a patent bobber-a self-acting one l at that-and compare 1t with the cork WI 1 used to steal from the molasseS jug! Ant
 what are these patent sinkers comparot
 to couple of eight-penny nails or an ol'
 door-key which sunk our hooks! They ar'
 doing their best to reduce It to a business
 and to destroy all the romance and antlci
 patton, and 1 for one don't-lize it ;s bit. Il
 the way-bacl1 time a fishing excursion wa
 set down for month ahead, and it depend
 cd on how well we got along with the pc
 tatoes and corn We got our outii i ready fortnight ahead of IiI1lc l We hunted out the best spots 10 1 fish-worns, planned every detail over ant
 over again, and dreamed of creek
 and fish and fish-hooks right along ever
 night. The day seemed never-endinG, bu l when we could say ''To-norrow" we du 1 bait enough to catch every thing in Lax l Erie, gave our poles and lines last lookir l over and went to bed an hour earlier so q 1 to hurry the night along. Hurry: It wa
 the longest night of the year! We wen
 over the ground dozen times, pianne 1 every thing anew, akd got up a score 0 1 times to see if the weather was likely {
 change and bring bad day. We tumble
 and tossed, mapped and talked, and Whe ] the old clock downstairs struck the hour 0 ! four we slid out of bed and out of the hous
 to find the morning purple staring us ln tn 1 face. The fish were waiting for us, and W
 couldn't keep our pace down to a walk, an
 we likewise baited our hooks as we ran.
 Fishing! Well. the boy of to-day doesn' l realize the meaning of the term! He ma l catch his score of bass or his dozen of pick
 erel, but he never feels the jingle along tn 1 nerves which came to the old-fashlone
 boy as he felt 9 siX-inch sinner take tn
 hook and turned with a pale face to whisper
 "Every body look out, for I've got on
 this time, sure!'
 ! Equilibrium of the Sexes.
 ] In Europe there is a greater excess { i th., S+a. q