Morning journal and courier., 1890-06-17
SHARK FOR LIVE BAIT. The Catch Was a TwentY-Footer of the Same Sort. Hut He 6ot Away

The Catch Was Twenty-Footer of
 the Same Sort, Hut Re Got Away.
 From the Baltimore American.l
 'sI don't see why it is," said David G. Weems to-day, an enthusiastic sportsman of Baltimore, and author of the electric railway system which bears his name, "that some men think that because fish story is re. markable 1t is consequently untrue.
 ''The last time was at Cape May there was fine run of sharks, but the hotel guests didn't seem to think it worth while to fish for sharks, which no one can eat. like the sport and know how to catch them. had an old darky catch me four long cells, and bought four pieces of rope about the size generally used as clothes line, each being some two hundred feet long. At the end of as nay arm, using small iron chains to fasten them to the lines. shark will bite off hook fastened to the end of rope just as man bites off the end of cigar. Going out tc the end of the pier strung an eel on each of the hooks, and then tied piece of pine board about ten feet from each hook, using the boards as cerks to keep the cells within Sharks, in feeding, keep in deep water and run along some ten feet from the surface.
 Throwing the lines out as far as I could fastened the ends to a post, allowing the lines to run under chair, so that when e shark swallowed the hook the chair would tumble by way of g signal. I got book, sat in the shade and began to read. In shark fishing always carry along something to pass away the time with. It takes patient man to catch sharks.
 ''I had read perhaps twenty pages when the chair tumbled over and the line got taut The shark had found the eel. Throwing the book aside, sprang for the line and felt the weight of what I considered half grown man eater. He was not so heavy, but he was game. Soon was drawing him to the pier, slowly enough, I thought. to weaken out breaking the hold. Suddenly the line, which had before yielded to my muscle sat- isfaotorily, pulled through my fingers, and then stuck as if caught in log. couldn't budge it, though tried it with all my power. Two men who had been watching ms came to nay rescue, and the three of us began to pull him slowly in. We didn't know wheth- CT we had caught huge shark or got our hook into something that didn't bite, but when we began to play him we could feel that there was something alive trying to take our line out to Eea. It wasn't like fishing. It was more like hauling seine or pulling in dead horse. Finally we discovered that 1t was BAaFK Dy Ea9 way tu0 rope WOulO U0s come slack for few seconds, then get taut again.
 "We decided to draw him, if possible, up to the surface at the end of the pier, and then, as the shark opened his mouth, to drop in two more hooks to make sure of having firm hold on him. We had him within 8 few feet of the pier, though some distance under the water, when the other hooks were ready to drop into his mouth if he should f-turn over to fight. It was az much as three of us could do to lift him to the surface | when we had him right. Presently the ! heavy load came up and we saw it was an immense shark, but we had barely time to observe his great length and size when big mouth opened. There was gulping sound, and out from the sharks mouth came a young shark nearly three fest in length.
 The big fellow gave turn, goed bye ga. lute with his tail and disappeared. We had the little fellow firmly hooked in the mouth
 and soon drew him in. He bore the teeth ! marks of the twentysfooter, who had evil
 dently gobbled him up after we hooked tht young one. Sharks will not eat their young
 except by mistake. We agreed that the biz
 fellow must have appeared just as we haa
 the little fellow Aoundering about, and i
 being their habit to rush for anything strug gling in the water, the big shark had by mis
 take tried to swallow him, and Tces:ssi1z4t z4t give up his prey till we had him almost ou
 of the water and in the sunshine."
 Mr. Weems says he has four eyewitDesse to his story.