The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1891-05-24
DOWN SOUTH IN DIXIE.
Some Of the Fishermen who Live on the
Lower Mississippi.
CRAFT ALWAYS GOING DOWN STREAM.
A Community that Extends over Thousand
Miles Of the Father OF Waters
Juggling and Blocking.

Paul to the Gulf, but the further south on
goes the more they take on the characteristic
OF the great stream and put of the leading
strings of conventionality. Upon the uppe
riyer-that is. above Cairo-they often com
bine some other avocatOn with that OF hsh
ing They are farmers IN small way o
ferryrnen. or find employment more OF les
precarious and of doubtful permanency IN IN
towns. But even on the upper river they as
sert themselves. They will not wholly TAX
on the WAYS of the land. They scorn TO liv'
in frame house They will have Johnny
boat though they have been known 20 com
promise on shack" in the woods or CABIN
on an island.
20 find the genuine "old salt" A writer in
the Chicago Tribune thus describes him He
Il as different as is the Chesapeake oyster
man different from the New Bedford whaleI
or the man-o-war's man. The lower river
fisherman is lust himself There is no other
criterion by which he may DO measured. lie
submits himself 10 no rule by which we fix
the stature of others. He partakes somewhat
of the river. which is moody and sullen or
sunny by turns, which IS suspicious AM
stable And he partakes, too, OF the great,
free woods whose depths hem him in. and
whose aisles he knows in vague way-tOr
does he moi creep through them with his an
tique musket. relic of the war, which has
somehow found its way TO his keeping and
is treasured as a trusty friend
Take the fisherman all in alias class,
now remembeT-and he may not measure up
90 that nice moral sense which split differ
ence between tweedledee and tweedledum.
On occasion hemay appropriate such articles
of minor importance as a blanket or tent
fly. few lines. or Ratchet that catches his
fancy. But then he expects that YOU will do
the same thing if he gives you the opportu-
nifty. His language would be positively
shocking if one happened 10 be little rigor-
Gus about the elimination of profanity from
the form of every day speech. He is unkempt
to degree which would place him in
the category of the most abandoned tramp.
But on the other hand, he Will divide his
last pound of cOrn-meal or give you his
buffalo fish or catfish if you happen
TO be hungry. He may guard with grave
jealousy the secrets of what bait he uses
and where he sets his lines, but he has no
other secrets. He is willing TO share all his
condolences. and he does it with that captiva-
ting innocence which is found only in child
hood or those who live close TO nature
The lower river fisherman adapts his life to
the necessities of his calling. Perhaps he lives
In a cabin in some isolated spot. hidden in the
woods close TO the river and few miles from
the town which furnishes a market for the
fish he catches. Maybe there is no town with
in twenty-five miles of him. You find his
johnnie boat tied demurely up under some
protecting point on a lonely stretch of river
and wonder how he lives here. Well, he is
fishing for some plantation back over the
levee. which may be two or three miles away
through the woods and cane. On the great
bare sand bars you often find his cabin
boat beached high and dry, or see the
weather-beaten sides of his little tent that
gives him shelter. During the day you will
not often find him anywhere about. He is
running his lines" or with a raft" of fish
In tow IS of for the distant market At night,
too, the spark of red fire glowing in the dis
tance as you look over the river from camp
tells you that this dweller in the solitude is
lat home" And while yOu sleep rolled up
in your blankets the fisherman Is ont in the
night, leaning over the edge of his boat as he
draws himself along his anchored line, exam
ming each one of the 300 or 400 hooks. taking
of the fish he may have made captive and
dexterously replacing missing bait The
swift currents, the floating drift, the treach-
erous eddies have no terror for him. IL is
simply n part of his work. and as such he
goes about it methodically, not mixing sent-
ment with duty.
The simplest way OF fishing and the one
generally followed by the professional fisher
man is by means Of set lines. These some
times have as many as 400 or 500 hooks on
them each hook upon line of its own. two
or three feet long ana dangling from the
main line at intervals Of rs many feet These
set lines are anchored at the ends and thrown
up and down the river or quarter across the
current at very moderate angle. float at
each end shows where the line is and enables
the fishermen to draw it to the surface when
he wants 10 run it." Sometimes set nets
are used at the ends of points, but the profes-
slonal seldom depend upon them.
In travelling long distances Juggling" or
blocking" is favorite pursuit TO block
down the river 800 or 600 miles IL no uncOm-
mon thing for a fisherman. The blocks, if
made of wood. are carefully cut from we'll
seasoned pine. They look like the cOrks
which the boys use III pursuing the agile sum
fish TO his lair, except that they are Us large
as a silk hat and taper down almost TO point
at one end. Into tins small extremity q staple
is driven. and attached TO this is line. the |
length of which IS regulated by the depth of |
water IN the river, the object being to keep |
the hook about a foot off the bottom Armed |
with a number of these-and il must always |
be an odd number, for the superstitiOus fish |
erman would never 60 out with an even num- |
berthe hardy oarsman pulls ont into the |
stream. and, when he gets into the current, |
drops his blocks in line across the river |
Then he floats along behind in his skiff
When the channel cat catches sight of the |
tempting morsel drifting by he darts at it,
strikes as vlciously as salmon and plunges |
violently off with the hook fast in his mouth |
and the big block tagging on behind and ex- |
haustlng his strength. If it is six or eight |
pound cat the chances are he will bite more |
feroclously than forty-pounder The block
RONo WIN a Suuutu DluDRG lndI |
throws the spray ten feet in the air aud pro-
duces a conclusion that can be be heard a |
quarter of mile on the water Ii reap
pears in moment one hundred feet from
where II went down. and its coming up is as
vigorous as its going down Az if the fish were
suddenly loosened. the released block shoots
clear of the water and when it falls back it
lies perhaps as idly as though the game
were gone. If the first wild fight has not re-
leased hm-that is. if the hook has a firm
hold IN the bones and muscles of the mouth
then the fish Is only resting and presently he
starts of again. towing the big block around
the river, and now and again carrying il I'M
der with convulslve plunge. The fisher
man follows a. fast as he can until
he overtakes the block. can draw the now
tired tish to the surface, and striking the gall
into HIM can transfer the suffering creature TO
the boat or TO a line TO tow astern like
captive in Roman triumph. When there
are half dozen blocks drawn at once on a
crossing, and the whole fleet is going away
among the currents. Juggling is very lively
work and has an exhlarati0n only compare
BILE TO the whipping of fresh trout stream
, But While blocking is the pastIme largely of
the penpatetic fishermen, II Is also often
resorted TO by those who have a fixed place
81 residence. Thus a fisherman who has set
lines out frequently make il a habit TO block
over certain stretch Of river several
Imes day. But because he can only float
ms blocks with the currert this has the
serious objection of necesstating a long pull
up as often a. one floats down Nerv nj ron ,