Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1895-03-16
NUMBER s.
THE MOON AND THE BOTTLE.
Curious Circumstances That Induced =
Man to Swear OF Drinking.

curious circumstances That induced -
Man to Swear Of Drinking.
Among the favorite resorts of the am
glers of New York is Greenwood lake.
This beautiful sheet of water lies partly
in New York and partly in New Jersey,
and it attracts during the season the
famous anglers of this section of coun-
try. Coming down on the train the
other day Newark man told curious
story, which shows that even liquor may
be blamed for things of which it is not
guilty. Seventeen years ago, said my
acquaintance, "since / have touched q
drop of liquor and have not the re-
motest idea of ever touching it again.
1 am not a prohibitionist and my absti-
nence is due to some rather peculiar
circumstances. was spending a week
at the lake, stopping at the club house
of the Greenwood Lake Association.
The weather was miserable, as it
rained most of the time. Finally we
had bright day, but the fish did not
bite very well. Sitting on the portico
of the club house that evening 1 was
watching the feeting clouds and the
usually bright moon, which appeared to
be about first quarter. Ny guide was
lounging near me and was anxious for
sport. [ called to him to get ready and
started across the lake. I cast for
awhile, but as the bass did not rise I
took to trolling. 1 never had livelier
sport and I whiled away couple of
hours in the most intense ENJOYMENT.
such as only an enthusiastic angler can
have. / could not let out twenty feet
of line without catching a bronzeback,
considered this rather curious, but was
thunderstruck when I looked up to the
moon and found it in the glory of full
ness. Was I dreaming? The moon
certainly was at first quarter about two
hours ago and the fish were not biting
at all. Nobody has ever yet explained
the vagaries of the bass, and so I
thought little of this. But the moon
perplexed me. Naturally blamed it on
the bottle. / had purchased a quantity
OF very fine old whisky and had bottle
OF it with me. The fish lost all their
interest for me and my guide wondered
why sat there musing. The more 7
thought of it the more / was worried
Finally handed my guide the bottle
and asked him to imbibe. I have never
IN my life met a guide, no matter
how limited his knowledge of the
habitat of fish. who was not O good
judge of whisky. The guide took
hearty pull and smacked his lips, then.
he declared that it was the finest whisky
that he had ever drunk I called his
attention to the moon and he remarked
that he had noticed it late on the pre-.
vlous evening and had spoken of its
brightness. He said that the moon haC.
reached its full on the previous night.
/ concluded that something similar had
happened to me about twenty four hours
later. / was all broke up and returned
to the club house. / went to bed with
out saying word to anybody, wonder
ing what vagaries my mind would con-
jure up next. Every few minutes I
looked out of the window, but the moon
remained exasperatingly full. did not
dare to say word to anybody for fear
OF being put into a strait-jacket, but I
declared that never would I
touch another drop. I went home bv
the morning train considerably worried.
When I arrived in the city 1 bought q
paper to divert my mind from the moon.
which l was continually seeing before
me in all stages of fullness and empti-
ness. The first thing my eyes encoun-
tered where the headlines, Last Nights
Eclipse of the Moon-V Valuable Astron-
0mical Observations The people on
5he ferry-boat probably wondered why
looked so happy, but to this day have
Kept the VOW | made on the previous
night.