Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1895-09-06
BANQUET LAMPs-EWINe BROS.
THE FIsHERMAN,s RETURN.

He had been up TO the st. Clair Flats
for the day. and as he returned on the
evening boat he boarded a Gratiot ave-
nue. car with a string of six large bass
in his hand. There were twenty other
people in the car, and as the fisherman
sat down he looked around with the
light of triumph in his eyes. He had
his story at his tongues end, and was
waiting 10 be asked if he caught those
fish himself. when a man with deep
bass voice growled out:
Yes; l was up there myself last
week and brought home eight. l
bought EN- OF a punter."
A giggie was heard here and there
among the passengers, and then man
with a squeaky voice observed:
There ought to be law against
such thingsl man who will lie about
fish will lie about other matters!
Three or four men nodded acquies-
cence and looked happy, and an old
chap with a gray goatee slapped his
leg and exclaimed:
was years ago, when | was a bad man.
I bought 'em from the fisherman and
brought EN- down home and lied about
'em-lied, in the most bare-faced Nd
shameless manner! Yes, gentlemen,
that is one regret OF my life.'
There were the six large bass, and
there was the fisherman, and as he
wriggled around on his seat man with
a red nose lifted up his voice and said:
Gentlemen, I don't deny that love
whisky. but I am not a liar! l get
drunk and smash things, butt reyer-
ence the truth. Before I would lie
about fish l would permit myself TO be
tortured at the stalker
Eight or ten passengers clapped their
hands in applause, and then Ratchet
faced Young man rolled up his eyes and
exclaimed:
They not only lie TO the public but
go home and lie TO their poor. innocent
wives and trusting children"
The man with the six black bass
stood up and mOtiOned TO the conductor
that he wanted TO get off. but before the
car came 10 a standstill man who had
been half asleep reused up and stood
up and pathetically said:
Gentlemen, I date my downfall from
that one thing-from the first lie I
told about fish. I hired a man to kill
me a dozen with a crowbar. and then I
brought EN- home and swore l caught
EN- on my own hook and line. lied
about it--deliberately and maliciously
led and Providence"
All off, shouted the conductor, as
the car stopped.
The man with the six big black bass
got down and pulled his fish after him
and stopped on the curbstone.
"And Providence punished me for It,"
continued the man on the rear seat.
Gentlemen. if I was to live my life
over again-if I could only be set back
thirty years. might rob and steal
and cheat. and even do murder, but I
would not sneak off to a summer resort
for the day and then return at night
and buy fish at the wharf and take EN-
home to my cOnfiding wife and"
And the car rolled on, and the man
with the six large black bass stood in
the cleaning and looked after it and
cEnched his hands ard gritted his
teeth and whispered cuss words. And
an hour later a pedestrian stumbled
over something on the sidewalk, and
got up and rubbed his knees and ell
bows md called out q amazement:
well I'll be hanged if some liar
hasn't stopped here to lie and gone
away and left his fish behind detroit
Free Press.