Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-01-12
A TRIFLE FIsHY.
Some Yarns One Hears Spun Around
Hotels of Rainy Days.

There are a lot of fellows in
GAINESVILLE who can beat the world
on fish stories. They frequent hotel
corridors and rotundas take the best
seats to be had and make the man
who is paying his good cash for il
stand up. They seem to feel their
importance more than any class OF
beings eXtant, and take a vast
amount of trouble to let the guests
know they are on hand. The guests
find it out, however, by the scarcity
Of unoccupied chairs, and by variou-
other little luxuries their presence
,lways bring. AS rule they are
more numerous this kind of weather
than at any other season, and it is
amusing sometimes to hear them
talk, if you do have to brace your
self against the wall to listen to
them. The snow was pouring down
last evening and had driven them
all to shelter. They began their en-
trrtainment and kept it up AS long as
they had an audience. Many side
splitting experiences were told, of
which the following is fair sample
Away back before the war, when
fish were plentiful in the Cumber
land, a party concluded they would
make drag" Every man who
knows anything about fishing knows
what this is. 1t is simply a net work
of brush long enough to reach across
the river. The drag is put in the
river and pulled down stream, carry
ing the fish before it. This party
started at the mouth Of McAdoo and
were to drag the river to the seven
mile ferry island, several miles be-
low, and land on the sand bar. Laws
Clardy was employed as diver, to
go to the bottom and unfasten the
drag when it struck a hang. Laws
was then in his prime-One Of the
most powerful negroes in the whole
country.
The run was made from the mouth
Of the creek to the ferry without in,
cident, or accident, but when they
began dragging the imprOvised seine
out on the bar at the island they
found that they had caught more fish
than they could land. The fish were
50 numerous that they began tearing
the drag up and getting back into
deep water. The order was given for
every man to jump in and catch him
a fish and land him. This was just
into Laws hand, and "kersplash'
he went in and straddltd a yellow
cat that was afterwards found to
weigh 140 pounds.
So soon as Laws caught him he fas.
tened him in the gills, and the mon
ster fish in turn took a saving hold on
his riders hands, The fight then
began in earnest, and in the struggle
they went through the drag, the
fish making straight for deep water.
Laws saw he was in for it and locked
his feet around the fish to hold his
equilibrium. The cat had the adj
vantage OF his rider, being in his ma
tive element, and "kersouse' ne
went under with him. When Laws
woody head popped up he was at
least twenty feet away and still trav
cling. He stayed up just long enough
to clear his lungs Of water and take a
breath, when under he went again.
This was kept up until Laws got his
1teed head steered for a sand bar on
the opposite side Of the river, where
he rode out on dry ground and killed
the fish with fence-rail.
The narrator stated that the fish
was sold to the old Southern Hotel,
and that it lasted all the summer
they say that Laws hair turned
gray during his swim, and that when
ever you name a bush-drag to him
now he takes on a scare that lasts
him clear home. lie don't want any
more of it, and even to this day ht
1 ~ 4 l., e /, Is. l..