The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-02-26
PERCH APLBN7Y.
Washington Lefferts of Sus-
sex Tells a Fish Story
Of Great Magni-
tude.
BELIEVES IT TO BE TRUE
Will Not Guarantee the Facts,
But You Can Ask George
or Charley.
BELIEVES 1T TO BE TRUE

Whats the news from Buttle's Cor
ners?" asked the Newark Sunday Cali,
man on Wednesday morning addressing
a tall, spare individual who was sitting
in a Market street restaurant eating a
plate of pork and beans.
Nothing much,'' said the Sussex man.
glancing up from his plate. tits kinder
slow up our way, ard there amt much
news at any time, leastwise nothing worth
putting in the paper. 1t Amt like beng
in the city. where there's a fire or a muir
der or a suicide every day. When / was
correspondent for the Sussex Record, I
used to find it hard to get three or four
items a week"
The Sussex man was Wash Lefferts.
and there was reason to suspect that he
had a story about him somewhere, but he
is like almost everybody in the city and
out, when asked If he knows anything.
new. Wash is no different from
others in this respect. In fact, he
is slightly better than the average
man in knowing what constitutes a
matter of interesting news. Ask your first
1SNqAdiArta1pNO WtC yO0 AinHa ACilCl
row: Whats pew?'' and he will answer,
Nothing" 1t may be that he has just
seen two prominent clergymen exchang-
ing bows in front of the Post
Office, or has witnessed n exciting
runaway accident, in which a society wo-
man and a couple Of children were i'm
periled. but he answer will invariably be:
Nothing" Hold him for a few seconds
more and you will find that he is boiling
over with the desire to tell what he has
just seen, but the question: What's
new?' has m~omentarily paralyzed him.
1t was SO with Lefferts. A few seconds
later he said:-"Know a man canned
Charley Charles here in town? Great fell
low to go fishing. He was Up our way
a short time ago with George Dunnam.
George ON from up our way. but
works here in town, and IS a mighty nice
fellow. I don't know Charles, but George
is all right, not saying that Charles amt
all right, too. but I DON'T know him, and
I feel sure that Durham wouldn't be
with him if he wasn't all right, for I've
knowed George since he was a little boy
and I never knowed him to tell a lie,
and his middle name amt Washington,
neither. not as I know of, Ieastw.se no
body ever calls him Wash, like they do
me. Now this Charles has been up to
Culver's and Long Pond a good many
times with Harry and Iffland and other
men from Newark, and from what I've
always heard hi is a man who ALWAYS
gives a modest story about his catch, and
don't like notoriety. He was I'D once
with a fellow named Creelin, who told a
TGrrihia SfOrV aI011tf q fobf ,xy;+t, = Ia =,
that bit the heel of his boot but from
what I've heard, Charles always refused
to back Creeiin up in that story. and
said that the eel didn't weigh more than
nine or ten pounds. But Their CHARLES
hasn't got anything to do with the telling
OF this story, nor Durham, neither, as ac-
cording to all accounts it reflects credit
on them as being dead game sports.
got 1t from Bob Hiker, and he says he
was with them. You can ask Charles
about it if you know him, and then see
durham about it. 1t amt much of a
STORY anyhow and I don't know that it's
worm botherin' about"
After this long preamble the ..cal1, MO-
ieit sure fnat 1T must be extraordinary
and waited patiently for Wash to swallow
a big piece of pork and a mouthful of cold
Deans. Wash chewed away slowly. took
a swallow of beer and then meditated for
a moment before saying
NOW, mind you, I didn't get this from
one man alone, but three or four others
backed 1t up. There was Bill Marsh. lit
tie Ike Tucker, Horace Slocum and Mahl
owens, all said they see 1t. III tell YOU
an ABOUT 1T. George and Charley came up
iIoH NeWark one afternoon when the
Meatner was quite soft and lowed to so
n niaht nsXt DAY: 1t come up cold that
nlgnt, and everything froze stiff. When
they started off on the ice the thermome-
Ter showed only 8 degrees above zero.
Hiker and one of the boys began cuttine
noles, ana Charles built a fire ON the
Snore. Mahl Owens had a pint flask Of
Paterson whiskey and that was ali the
drink there was in the crowd. He put it
ON the sled and whilst they were Cutting
twenty holes it froze solid in the bottle,
As 1ast as Bob cut the holes little
Ike run from ONE to the other keeping
them open with a stick, and Mahl rugged
up the tip-ups. When Mahl felt dry and
cold he went for his whlskey and found If
al frozen up. He took 1t ashore, where
CharleS was tending the fire and George
was smoking cigarettes, and laying the
bottle alongside of the IRE ne raked hot
ashes over it. When all the tip-ups were
sot the crowd waited around the tire, and
watched the red rags until one fell. Then
Ii40t liOlCs dlIQ WITCH
they hauled in the line they found a
pound perch ON 1t. They hadn't more
h sot !. again before they got another,
and before the line was fairly down again
another perch Bit. The rest of the tip-
ups wasn't disturbed, and not a pickerel
had been heard from. Mahl said that
where there was three perch there was
three hundred, and getting the ice chisel
he chopped until he had a hole nearly
three foot across, and all hands began
fishing In forty foot of water. They had
struck a deep hole, where all of the perch
in the lake had huddled, and the fish bit
Just as fast as the lines We're let down.
The two Newark men fished Until they
were tired. and at least two barrels of
perch were freezing on the ice. Then
whilst the country boys were busy snak-
ing them out, Charley and George kicked
the live fish into the n~eighborfng holes
and let them get away. They reckoned
that the party caught a wagon body full
Of fish before 10 o'clock in the morning,
and that they showed fully half of them
back into the water. The singular thing
about 1t was that nearly all of the fish
were of one size and they were nothing
but yellow perch.
Next day they tried shallow water for
pfckerel and got sixty-three. When they
oof nos, 1xr 10 onnna hcp,oo <bo4 1ftaunoo~