The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1894-06-20
Juggling for TOmcOd.

icut. ''That is about all the recompense
It ever gets, even in Connecticut Now,
for instance, take the confiding and
predulous tomcod. Like all fish, the
tomcod has habits. Unlike many fishes,
none of the tomcod's 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 a
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 a heap more fun, because
then folks wouldn't jig for him. A
good many scores of my compatriots
take advantage of his trustfulness and
Zig him from his chilly but congenial
home by the bushel.
Never jigged for tomcods? Then it
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 tomcods over there,
especially along the Thames river, is to
be eccentric.
''The fatal habit of the tomcod is to
be caressing. If you never noticed this
popularity Of the tomcod, make a 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 in many ways, as a pet
cat might rub itself against your leg.
But piers are not the only objects Of the
tomcod's ~fondness. He caresses all sorts
of jetsam 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
llldllltS llNCI. OIlC huy 1OLS HSO Olt VI
my fellow citizens sat musingly upon
the bank of that stored stream. He held
in his hand u small oak bough on which
leaves were clustered. AT last he aim
lessly dropped the bough into the river.
1t fell neal the shore, and the punches
of leaves sank somewhat below the sur
face. Presently tomcods came swim
ming up to the leaves, o%btruding 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
them, manifesting much the same dumb
delight that a cat does as it rolls and
wriggles ON a bunch of catnip.
"After awhile this strange affinity
between the oak leaves and tine tomcods
gradually gave my fellow citizen an
idea. Pensiveness gave way to the prac-
teal. He got up and went home and
then tied some sharp hooks to the 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 undulating
movements my fellow citizen yanked
them out with the 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. Now and then my fellow citizen
would remove the bough from the wa
ter. Then the tomcods would instantly
disappear. The oak back again in the
water, back would come the tomcods
and were aware of NJ other presence,
Soon the shore was strewn with the III.
suspecting fish, and the sport becoming
monotonous 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
1 the Thames river daily. These expert
ments at last took on the accepted name
of juggling, and tomsod juggling became
q popular recreation in Connecticut anC
is yet.
, "An expert with a bunch of oak leave
and a jig can fill a wagon with tomcod.
/ In a few hours if he wants to, and i
4 every tomcod that swims was in a schoo
= around one bunch of leaves and the jig
ger at that bunch could stay and jill
n long enough he could make the race o
tomcod extinct, for every tomcod woult
come right up to that bunch of leave
;, and be everlastingly jigged. A grea
many good Connecticut people protes
. that they jig for tomcods not for plea
! sure or pecuniary profit, but because O
' the great moral lesson they learn iron
, 1t. Whether that is 50 or not, the fac
; remains that the toothsome tomcod i
d the most coniding, credulous and limo
cent of fishes. "-NeW York Sun.