Evening star., 1896-01-11
A TRUTHFUB1FIsH STORY.
sf@.s .3L-I2I
The Sise of One fntaheRfver Near the
GrentsEalfa

The Sise of One fntaheRfver Near the
Great Falls.
A lot of them were sitting around telling
fish stories, although It swas cold enough
outside to freeze bait inf a bottle, and a
Star reporter was tak1ng4n the wild, weird
tales with more or Tess Discount. when a
member Of the South Mountain Rod and
Gun Club took the floor, qand at once, by
his calm and confident manner assured all
hearers that whatevsr might be the lack
Of veracity in the preceding tales there
would be none in what she was about to
unfold. >.
to believe that it is true!fi There may have
been time when mad doubts on this sub
ject, but they Were dispelled last year by
an experience l had at Great Falls.
What were you fishing there for?" in
qC1red an expert, in scornful tone.
Il was with party of amateurs on a
sort OF a picnic" responded the narrator.
who does not like to have his skill brought
into question But to resume. AS I was
saying, was up there fishing last summer,
or spring rather, the only time, you know,
bite, and had gone over to the Virginia
shore and was monkeying around there
about 100 yards above the falls. I don't
Know whether you gentlemen are acIuaint-
Potomac water comes down with a rush
that ought to bring enough mud to Wash
mgton to subsoil the insides of twice as
many people as live in the capital city.
Then it breaks over the bluff and goes
sWishfPg and swirling, and huStling and
hurting, and twisting and twiriing around
over the rocks and boulders below, until
you would think Satan himself had set up
water so his tenants couldn't get any for
drinking purposes AS I was saying, l
was monkeying around above the falls
making cast now and then just for the
fun of it, when all of q sudden l got a
jerk at my line that was SO sudden and
spirited as to cause me to lose my footing
on the slippery stone where was stand
ing, and the next thing / knew l was in
that they seethed thousand times more
on close acquaintance than they did at long
range.
Fortunately, I held on to my rod as I
was swept away, because it was valuable
one, and I didn't want to lose 1T. In half
a second after I struck the water I was
sweeping down toward the falls, and l
yelled for help. but of course help was
impossible, and I knew that in another
second l was going to be on my way to
eternity. I had just begun to think Of all
the sins had committed, when l felt my
self slowing up, and then almost instantly
l stopped and began going back up stream.
The current was so strong that my
resistance to it was very nearly as un-
pleasant as the going down was, but I
felt that might yet be saved, and the way
I gripped that rod and caught onto 1t with
both hands was a lesson to beginners in
active industry. 1 couldn't account for it
at first, but by the time had been dragged
back to still water it occurred to me that
it was the fish had caught that was doing
it, and my sportsman instincts took the
place of fright, and I began to figure on
how to land that fish. But couldn't do 1t,
and after several vain attempts, I had to
let go the rod and swim ashore. I'm quite
sure that in all my experience have never
caught larger fish than"
1.-The one you didn't CATCH" interrupted
a veteran member Of the club, and nobody
else had q word to say