The herald., 1894-04-22
jogging FOR TOMC0D
INTERESTING DESCRIPTION oF.AcoN-
NEcTlcuT BUSINESS AND. .PAsTlME.

How the Art which works Such Havoc
Among tho Tomcods Was Discovered.
Not to Jig Along the Thames River Is to
he Put Down as Eccentric. ....
"It'sa good thing that virtue is its
own reward, :" said aman from Connect
icut "That is about all the recompensc
it ever gets, even in Connecticut. Now,
for instance, take the confding and
credulous tomcod Like all fish, the
tomcod has habits Unlike many fishes,
none of theitomccd q habits is bad. Yet
the most innocent and touching Of them
leads the tomcod to his inevitable undo
ing over in Connecticut, especially
along the Thames river. His very vir-
tues are his ruin He might better be q
vicious, rollicking, thieving dogfish, the
tomcod might, ten times over'than his
own highly reputable and Innocent self.
He would live many times as long as he
does and have heap more fun, because
then folks qwouldn'tl Jig for him. A
good many scores Of my compatriots
take advantage Of his trustfulness and
jig him from his chilly but congenial
home by the bushel. s3 afs f'9ri
Never jigged for tomcods? Then il
is plain that you are SO unfortunate as
never to have lived in Connecticut--any-
way not in any Of those parts of that in
comparable state where tomcods are jig
ged Not to jig for tomccds over there,
especially along the Thames river, is to
be eccentric aigi ,auSQ NGh
"The fatal habit of he'tomcod is to
be caressing. If you never noticed this
peculiarity of the tomood, make point
of doing it the very first chance you get.
A good place to detect him at it is from
the end of some pier that rises from wa
ter he frequents. You will see him come
up in schools around the supporting
pieces of the pier and rub himself
against them, passing all around them,
always in gentle contact with them,
turning first this side and then that side
to the pile, rubbing his nose against it
and fondling it il many ways, as a pet
cat might rub itself against your leg.
But piers are not the only objects OF the
tomcod's Is fondness He caresses all sorts
of jetsarn and even ventures to the sur
face and pays his addresses to cold and
unconscious flotsam. He puts his trust in
anything that offers. His credulity is
boundless. His confidence is sublime.
And the jigger plays them for all they
are worth.
People in Connecticut are very OBJ
servant folk, especially along the
Thames river. One day long ago one Of
my fellow citizens sat musingly upon
the bank of that storied stream. He held
In his hand small oak bough on which
leaves were clustered. At last he aim
lessly dropped the bough into the river.
Iffell near the shore, and the punches
of leaves sank somewhat below the sur
face Presently tomcods came swim
ming up to the leaves, obtruding them
selves into the line of my fellow citi-
zen's pensive vision Scores of them sur
rounded the oak leaves and SWAN in a
fondling way among them and about
! wriggles on bunch OF catnip
''After awhile this strange affinity
between the oak leaves and the tonlcods
gradually gave my fellow citizen al
idea. Pensiveness gave way to the prac-
tical. He got up altd went homo and
then tied some sharp hooks to tho end
of a long stick Then he returned to the
river. The oak branch was still lying
close at hand in the water. He manip-
ulated its leaves beneath the water gen.
tly, and as the caressing and trustful
tomcods responded to their undulatine
movements my follow citizen yanked
them out with tho hooks at the end of
his stick So long as he kept the bunch
of oak leaves moving in the water the
tomcods swarmed about it, unmindful
Of the play Of the destructive gaff among
them. Nowand then my fellow citizen
would remove tho bouglr from the wa
ter. Then tho 'tomoods would instantly
disappear. The oak back again III the
water, back would come the tomcods
and were aware OF no other presence.
Soon the shore was lstrewn with the un-
suspecting fish, and the sport becoming
monotonons my fellow citizen filled his
basket and went home. --..
"Of course this Interesting discovery
in piscatorial Psychology, SO to speak,
soon absorbed attention in those parts,
and experimenters lined the banks Of
the Thames river daily. These expert
ments at last took on the accepted name
of jigging, and tomcod jigging became
popular recreation in Connecticut and
isyet.
IAN expert with bunch of oak leaves
and a jig can fill wagon with tomcods
in few hours if he wants to, and if
every tomcod that swins was ina school
around one bunch of leaves and the Jig
ger at that bunch could stay and jig
long enough he could make the race of
tomcod extinct, for every toIncod would
come right up to that bunch of leaves
and be everlastingly jigged. A great
many good Connecticut people protest
that they jig for tomcods not for plea
sure or pecuniary profit, but because of
the great moral lesson they learn from
it Whether that is so or not, the fact
remains that the toothsome tomcod is
the most confiding, credulous and inno-
cent of fishes. New York Sun. 81.
Cracks In Bread Loayes. ~ 9S
Tho o1.oclyc in. l,4axzoe,. a 80 oa,,eoI ,,.x,o!