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

to four. Two lanterns usually to each
gang. or. IN they were lacking. torches,
an axe n a 'whacker' made up the
OUTFIT. The latter was the most valua-
bic thing in the lot.
IL was a heavy club cut from an al
der, bent at an obtuse angle at its
weightier end. This was so one could
stand up and strike the ice a square
blow. the bend falling fiat and level.
Generally the boys would test the
Ice by daylight. In the afternoon: but
even SO. the current kept part Of the
river more open and some spots were al
ways treacherous. hut there WASN'T over
three feet of waker anywhere and our
business kept us4over the shoalest part.
50 the worst that could conn was a cold
splash.
That brook was chock full of big yell
~low-finned. pig-snouted suckers, and
some of 'em would weigh -four and FIVE
pounds apiece. They are coarse and
muddy Favored in summer but the
frosty weather makes them a prime ia
bic hsh. No more sluggish fish lives,
] reckon. at any rate lives in New Eng
land than these were, and that Is why
they became our prey.
w would move quietly and swiftly
along. generally on skates. till we came
TO a shallow cove. where there was not
over eight inches of water. There we
"Oof, ~ use OuI ~ nDlQlDR
ana shading then so as 10 illuminate
the bottom four or five feet ahead. No
glass could be as clear as hat new Ice,
and we could distinctly make cut every
dead leaf that fioated past and the very
pebbles and water-soaked sticks. Sud-
denly a 'whish,' from one would bring
the gang together while the whacker
was poised. and Its wielder carefully CAL
culated the distance and depth OF the
game.
The lordly sucker would be lying list-
lessly on the mud. his dorsal fin almost
scraping h 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
lift the torch to gaze at our prey. There,
with gills distended and saffron fins 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
opening was being cut the fish would
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
III we sat down. Then. too. what a laugh
we would have on the chap who put in a
most elaborate blow on a water-logged
stick, m~istaking II for the real quarry.
i ave 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 yell: The first is
the worst. the econd's the same, the
last Is the best of all the game but gen.
orally. as in all other disagreements.
the victory went to the stronger crowd.
Fifty pounds was not an unusual
string for us to drag homeward after an
sport, and the neighbors
would have baked stuffed sucker to eat
for two days. oh! Give me one of those
old alder 'whackers' in my hands for
five minutes" concluded the reminis-
man. grasping HIS silver-headed
cane with determination. while the
man lodged, "and I'd lay a
big yellow-fin out so bed stay laid out,
by gum. while you dnIg him out OF the
ice with a penknife!'LNew York Sun.