The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-06-07
A LONE FISHERMAN.
Tranquil Fishing, Donkeyback, His
Years of Adventure Round.


. Years of Adventure Round.
''The picture of a man sitting on
burro in mid-stream, in the heart of
the southern Sierras, miles from any
where, has nothing remarkable in it"
said the naturalist; "but when you con-
slider the burro as asleep, and the rider
holding fishing line with one hand
and a well-thumbed copy of Gdipus
with the other, which he is reading
through clou5s of smoke from a we'll
filled pipe, the scene takes on another
phase.
"Such man l met one day in the
great river of verdure known as the
Arroyo Seco, that winds away from
Los Angeles up through the San Gabriel
valley, entering the Sierras at Pasadena
and for miles passing through a region
of varied delights.
"'Senor - | began.
Sebastian he replied, without
looking up.
"'Senor Sebastian l continued, 4
regret, in these solitudes, to be obliged
to inform you that you are infringing
patent right of mine
GLOW SOP retorted Senior Sebastian,
glancing up from the book, which he
now dropped into the pocket of his COR
duroy coat
"'In this: I was the originator of
fishing on horseback
"'Ahr said the senior, you may be
the inventor, but l am the improver,
III
that the line was fastened to a hole in
the tip of the burro's ear. If you have
ever observed. said the fisherman, the
habits of the burro, or we will say his
head, you will have noticed that the
ears are always moving back and forth
It's just the motion | want in fishing,
SO | adopted it, and see
LAS he spoke the line stiffened out,
the burro's ear, or, to be exact, his
right ear, bent forward suddenly, and
the burro himself awoke with a start.
"'Watch him., said the fisherman.
The burros eye had first settled on me
in an inquiring way, then realizing
that something was Juggling at his ear,
he drew the member up to the hori-
zontal, at which the trout, for such it
was left the water with a bound, and
in its return drew the ear down again.
The burro now seemed to concentrate
all his energies in the contest, and the
ear gravitated between the upright and
the horizontal You see,' remarked
Senior Sebastian again, the burro plays
the fish, and L. suiting the action to
the word, pull him in And, with the
air of the philosopher he was, the
speaker unlocked the trout, dropped it
into pocket of his coat, and having
impaled fresh worm and cast the line,
the fisherman felt for his Qdipus, and
the burro fell asleep.
81 deem it, con tinued the senior,
after reiighting his pipe, the privilege,
if not the duty, of man to take life at
the normal angle, or as near it as pos
sible; in other words take solid COM
fort. | have seen the hard side of it
right in sight of these mountains. l
came here forty years ago, when the
whole country was a sheep ranch. /
walked across the Mojave desert in Au-
gust, and l see now they find men dead
who have tried it. Yes, l was after
gold and adventure, and got both.
d" 1t came about in this way, and the
senior, getting no further bites, rolled
up his line and joined me on the trail
up the arroyo. 4 was living in Santa
Fe in the fifties, trading mostly, and
one night man rushed into the saloon
where was and said a man was dying
and wanted to see a priest | was a
Catholic and the next best thing, SO |
went along. You Know where the old
palace is to-day in Santa Fe? Well, he
took me down a street back of that,
and in an old adobe l found man, a
half breed, with death in his face. He
had been sta bbed in a brawl an hour
before, and was SO near gone that l
didn't have the heart to tell him was
not a priest. He sent the others out
of the room, then babe me lock the
door, and with his mouth to my ear
told me to remember what he said. He
had been a bad man, had killed sew
.eral men, and wanted to 90 something
to expiate his crime, SO told his secret
to the church He told me to pull off
5.is belt, which l did, and in it was
Il row of some of the biggest chunks
of gold | ever saw in this coun-
try. In another part was an old piec
of sheepskin, and on it map, rude,
but good enough, of these very noun
tains He said that he and two others
bad discovered a valuable placer in the
n.cuth of canyon where you could
pick up pieces like those, and confessed
that he hau killed his partners to get
control of it all. The murder was
done on the desert at Coyote Springs,
and after he had covered the bodies in
the sand he started back to the placer.
He got there at night. Said he: 4
don't know how 1t happened, bat the
next knew | found myself in herd
er's cabin, and he said he found me
crazy on the desert. got better and