Los Angeles herald., 1891-03-02
a BARGAIN IN CRABS.
How DIR. yompkins Found Bait Enough
to Fish for Bass All His Life.

Il ike TO co " Hetic Dlttch piiSo ISL
ing now and then," said DR.. Tompkins,
of Penn Yam, "but I'm not one of those
enthusiastic people who can't get along
without it, The other day, though. a
friend of mine came in with fine catch
of bass, and the sight of them rather put
me in the humor of going out and getting
lot myself.
"What did you catch 'em WITH l
asked my friend.
"Crabs," he said.
1--WE call crawfish 'crabs' in Penn
Yam. had heard before that crabs
were good bait for black bass, and think
ing that I might get some fun out of
them as well as anybody else went
over to Lake Keuka outlet to bait. /
banged around in the creek for three
hours turning up stones and stopping
about in the water knee deep, and sue
ceeded in capturing five little crabs.
".Well,' said to myself, that isn't a
very big lot of bait to start on days
fishing with, but l guess won't have
any trouble getting two or three nice
bass, anyhow .
II was about leaving the creek when
l met small boy. He was Penn Yam
small boy and he had nerve, and he
hailed me familiarly and said:
"'Hullo, mister. What you after?
81 told him 1 was gathering crabs for
bait, but that they were powerful scarce.
"'What'l you give me to get you
somey inquired the small boy.
81 thought it would be a nice thing to
have couple of dozen or SO of crabs, for
I'd want to be going out after more bass
the next day, and knowing what tough
and tedious time I'd had getting only
five, thought I'd make it worth the boys
while spending day tugging and sweat
ing among the stones, and so said I'd
give him five cents apiece for crabs.
"'How many II git you? he asked.
"'Oh, all you can,' replied, feeling
that all he could get would certainly be
few enough.
"'All rightr he said, and I went up
the lake a mile or SO with my FIVE crabs
to get some bass for my supper. I fished
all the rest of the day and never got as
much as bite. 1t was supper time
when 1 pulled for home.
"'The next man that says crabs to
me- said to myself, 1T won't go well
with
''After supper was sitting in my
Office, feeling little sore yet over my
days fishing, when knock CAME to the
door. opened it, and there stood the
small boy had hired to gather crabs for
me. had forgotten all about him.
"'Hullo, mister!" he said. Il got
somev
''Crabs were the very last thing was
hankering after just then, but of course
a bargain was a bargain.
"'AH right I said. Fetch 'em in
"The small boy stepped aside and i'm
mediately appeared again, accompanied
by another small boy. Each boy lugged
in big tobacco pail. Each pail was
filed with crabs.
"'Great heavensr exclaimed. How
many haye you got?
"'There's two thousan', mister said
the small boy I had bargained with.
But we'd "a got a lot more if the pals
had been bigger
"Two thousand crabs! If you'll take
the trouble to figure on that you'll find
that at five cents apiece 1900 crabs will
come to just an even $100, and that was
the price per crab had bound myself to
pay. While those boys had nerve I've
an idea that their ideas of financiering
were crude, for after some exceedingly
anxious and apprehensive argument with
them induced them to compromise on
basis of labor by the day, and even
then they made such a good thing out of
me that the next man who mentions
crabs to me will stand an excellent
chance of having the price of that days
work taken out Of his hide. returned
those crabs to Keuka outlet, and any
one who wants to may go there and
catch them-if they can" ."-Louisville
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