The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-03

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to four Two lanterns usually to each
gang, or. if@they We're lacking. torches,
an axe and whacker' made up the
outfit. The latter was the most valua-
bic thing in the lot
1t was q heavy club cut from an al
DER pent at an obtnse5 angle at its
Weightier end. This was so one could
stand up and strike the ice a square
blow, the bend falling HAT and level
Generally the boys would test the
ice by daylight, III the afternoon; but
even sothe current kept part Of the
river more open and some spots We're al
ways treacherousss but there wasn't over
three, feet of water anywhere and our
business kept US oyerstile .sloalest part,
so the worst that could come was a cold
splash. .Fs
That brock was chock full of big, yell
loW-finned, pig-snouted suckers. and
some of EN- would weigh four and five
pounds apiece. They are coarse and
muddy Favored in summer, but the
frosty weather makes them a prime ia
BILE fish,. No more. sluggish fish lives.
reckon. at any rate lives in New Eng
land than these We're. and that is why
they became our prey
I'VE would move quietly and swiftly
along. generally on skates. till we came
to shallow cove where there was not
over eight inches of water. There we
would begin to use our lights, holding
and shading them so as to illuminate
the bottom four or five feet ahead. No
glass could be as clear as that new ice,
and we could distinctly make out every
dead leaf that fioated past and the very
pebbles and water-soaked sticks. Sud
denly 'Whish!' from one would bring
the gang together while the whacker
was poised, and its wielder carefully cal
cuated the distance and depth of the
game.
1.-The lordly sucker would be lying list-
lessly on the mud his aorsal fin almost
scrapine the ice, or perhaps he would
be moving with the current very slowly,
when the fatal stroke would descend.
Whack! and the ice would echo for a
mile down stream Excitedly we would
littthe torch 70 gaze at our prey. There,
with gills distended and saffron fms out
spread and still, with cleaning white
belly pressed upward against the ice.
the big fellow would lie There was
quick work for the lad with the axe
now for the fish was not killed; merely
stunned for three or four minutes. A
hole would be hastily chopped. two
shivering hands plunged in, and out the
prize would fly
Sometimes the current would roll the
sucker away, and then while a new
revive and sail slowly away into deep
water. Occasionally the whacker.
welded with too much good WILL would
so smash the ice as to let the whole
gang in for wet feet. or perhaps worse
if we sat down. Then, too, what laugh
we would have on the chap who put in
most elaborate blow on water-logged
stick. installing it for the real quarry!
have seen two gangs engaged in pitch
battle over a big fish which each claim
ed to have stunned. One side would
say they found and first 'whacked' him.
but the others would veil: The first is
the worst, the seconds the same, the
last is the best Of all the game but gen
orally, as in all other disagreements
the victory wentEto the stronger crowd.
Fifty pounds was not an unusua!
string for us tofdfag homeward after an
evenings sport, and the neighbors
would have baked stuffed suckers to eat
for two days. Oh! Give me one of those
old alder 'whacksrs' in my hands for
five minutes concluded the reminis-
cent man, graspnlg his silver-headed
cane with DISCRIMINATION, while the
specialized man lodged. land I'd lay
big yeloW-tin out 50 he'd stay laid out,
by gum, while you dug him out Of the
ice with penknife! New York Sun.