The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-05
THE BELL FISHERMAN
His Invention Saves Work and Gives
Chance to Sleep.
From the New York Times.

From the New York Times.
"Peg-leg' Anderson, small-weather-
beaten, white-haired, long-whiskered,
well-shrunken specimen of humanity, his
left leg pieced out with a bit of oak
upon which there is a rubber cap, is one
of the interesting characters that may
be found along the river front in the
neighborhood of the Battery.
"Peg-leg," whose Christian name no one
seems to know, is persistent fisherman
who daily casts his Well-baited and we'll
loaded lines from pier 2. East river in
an effort to allure the unwary cells, por-
giles and other jewellers in the river wa
tiers to his little old green basket, whence
they all reach the pan in his little back
tenement room.
"Peg-leg'' is not lazy man, or he
would not fish every day, rain or shine,
but at the same time he has made his
chosen labor as easy as possible by a
device that he employs, and which he
recommends to all other saltwater fish
In speaking of it yesterday he explained
it and the manner of its discovery as fol-
lows:
it saves a terrible deal of walkin', an
when one of a feller's legs is piece of an
old keel it's just as well to be as savin' of
the other as you kin.
you see, it's only a bit of wire, with
little bell ont. that / stick in the string
piece an tie my line to, but it's powerful
l have to do is chuck the bait over into
the water an then wait for the bell to
ring. When it swings just gentle-like, l
knows it's only nibble, but when the OF
wire swishes about an the bell rings loud
like then | knows watts wat, an L starts
the OF stump arter the fish, an sure
enough there she is every time.
Il was ten years tryin' to think Of
suthin or other to save this leg of mine
an never thought of nothin till one
night, when 1 was sitting on the string
comes down with a babby, an the babby
has rattle with bell ont.
Il knowed the nuss-lady, and the nuss-
lady knowed me, an when | got to playin
with that babby's rattle the whole inVen-
shun come over me like stroke. l nearly
<fell offn the stringpiece, l was so struck,
an 1 got the nuss-lady to give me bell
from the rattle Cthis is the one), an
kept it ever since.
1T was wonderful that 1 should ha'
thought of that, cause I'm so SLOW like
l s'pose it's cause half of my lower vital
ity's gone; but it want no time fore
got some more-swapped cells for EN-
an now l strings six lines along the
stringpiece ev'ry day an just waits fur
the fish to bite. an be perlite enough to
ring me up an let me know that they
are ready to come ashore.
It's wonderful solacing thing in sum-
mer to have them bells on bits of wire,
cause then l know business can go on
while I takes a nap at times.
Nav, l don't sleep all the time. 1 got
ter get up sometimes an take the fish
off'n the hooks. ] just come down to the
dock in warm weather an set them lines
an then lay down beside the stringpiece
in the shade, if there is any shale an if
there ant, it don't matter much, cause /
always was a 5000 sleeper, and then
while l sleep the fishes bite.
1T gener'ly takes about four of them
bells to wake me, and so when | wakes I
knows that l got huff fish for nv grub.
] tell you, it makes a pleasure of work to
do 1t in this way. Some people saws 7
amt sporty to fish with bells an I knows
l amt as sporty as | was wunst, but then
/ amt got as many legs as / had wunst
an likes huff that makes some difference
II don't want ter go catchin no trout,
leastwise not with a wooden leg. Eels is
good huff for me. an them that don't
like cells orter be fed with a spoon, cause
cells is gamy, cells is, an you can't kill 'em
without slattin' EN- hard agin the dock
why some cells swallers the hook so far
that if / didn't tie piece of wood across
the line in front of the bell, 1 b'lieve they'd
swaller that, too. But say, don't put that
down. cause that's my joke an 1 don't
want ii to get out.
Didn't you never fish with a bell? No?
Well, now, next time you go out fur cells
you just take a bell along-hello, there
goes that windward bell DO you mind
yankin' up the line. cause I'm conf I able
here?
There, didn't 1 tell youl That cells
gamy Stat i'm. Stat i'm hard! What you