Pawtucket tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 1890-189?, 1895-06-17
TALEg OF THE TIMES.
Tho Man From Jersey Tells Few Stin
Yarns an the Fishing Question.


Yarns ON the Fishing Question.
The man from JeTscy had bcop telling n
yarn. 10 was cosk,r, nad cycry ore
crowded round hin. SIR. Pratt ~ lInckcn-
sack sald hc would tncklo n Iitile moro Of
tho stuff, aud he appeared 20 feel fbeiicr
after imbibina II. Tl.on ho cleared HI
thrOat.
"Say, you all know Johnny Conway,
tho PassGic river iishcrmnnY"
There was u general shnklngo of heads, nc
which the man from Hackensnck looked
surprised.
81 thought everybody know Johnny
Conway. He's the greatest fisherman In
Jersey. Why, las knows the habits Of fishes
better than he knows his own mind when
he's sober. Well, Johnny has met with "a
great streak Of luck, and / thought you'd
all like TO hear about IL; but, of course, II
you don't know tho man you won't care. !"
"Tcll us about itl' said the crowd I'm
chorus.
"Wcll, Johnny has been fishing along
the Passaic for years and years IL has
been his habit to build himself little
cabin on tho bank OF the river In winter
time and live there until spring, when he
would go out and fish all summer.
last fall Johnny was about 90 miles up
the river when cold weather overlook him,
but no decided To stay right there until
spring. He looked around for place TO
build cabin and found hard, dry little
island not more than 20 feet across, lying
right in close to the shore. A long plank
would serve as "a footbridgc from the bank
Of the river to the island.
''It was just the place he wanted, and,
getting some old planks together, he built
a neat little hut out on the island, put In a
stove and settled there for the winter He
tried the fishing In May, but 1t was too
cold, and they did not bite fast enough to
suit him, SO he went back into winter
quarters and staid there until the warm
spell came along last week. Then he went
to work to get his lines ready for the work
Of the summer.
lone night Johnny went to bed and
dreamed OF the big catch hc would make
the next day as the beginning Of his work
for the year.
Conway was the next morning when he
awoke and found himself cabin, island
and ALL out in the middle Of the river and
five miles below the spot where he had
spent the winter.
gate and found that the little island which
he had pre-empted for his own was slowly
drifting down the river toward the sea.
Looking closely at tho sides of the
moving island, he saw what appeared to be
clumsy propellers of some sort. A further
investigation revealed the fact that he was
afloat in the middle Of the river on the
back Of huge sea turtle. The turtle
probably got caught far up the river by
the cold weather and laid up there hall
frozen until the hot spell last week thawed
it out, and then it started back toward the
sea as fast as it could go with Johnny
Conway and his cabin on it's back
"Now, Johnny is one of those fellows
who always have an eye on the main chance
and never let coed thing pass him on &
down grade. He did not study over hk
situation more than five minutes befor,
he went to work.
Taking his AK, he chopped hol'
through the shell of the turtle right in th,
middle Of the back. Then, with q knife
| he cut away a lot of flesh, after which h,
| let his stove down into the hole. Building
a roaring hot fire in the stove, he poured
lot of water into the hole, put In some sal
and vegetables, and in an hour he had ter
barrels of rs fine turtle soup as you evel
tasted.
"He made it warm for the turtle, how
ever, and the animal turned in to the shore
at Newark to fight the fire that he mus
have felt raging inside him. Well, the tur
tie ran on a mud bank close to the shor,
and stuck there.
Now, what do you suppose Johnnie
did? Why, he ran out his gangplank tC
the bank of the river and put up sigr
over the door of his cabin