The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-01-16
SPORT IN WHACKING SUCKERS.

I wouldn't be wasting clear cold win
 ter night this way!" exclaimed a stout
 ruddy faced man at an uptown clul
 one evening last week, as he rose iron
 his easy chair and yawned and stretch
 ed. No, I wouldn't be sparklng th
 girls either" he replied sharply to {
 whispered comment by young felloV
 who sat at the other side of the grat'
 fire, "or setting up any little hot birt
 and cold bottle affair, which Is mos
 idiotic of all unless friendly poker bt
 excepted. No, sir! No New 4ork clt1
 rubbish would be botherng me. I'd b'
 seventy good miles away from here or
 narrow, alder-grown stream up II Connecticut with wooden tippet uet
 over my ears and a good big club II
 one hand and lantern in the other I'd have a couple of good friends along
 too, stout husky chaps, with red blooe in their veins, and we'd be out for the biggest lark a winter night aroTds-
 whacking suckers"
 What on earth is that, Colonel?' in- quired the pale man with spectacles
 Tt must be something very outland-
 ish."
 
 the reply of the ruddy-feced one, set | ting down again into his easy chair 1 and lighting a fat cigar. "All the old
 fun that had any snap to 1t or re- | quired any energy is outlandish nowa- l days. Why, my son couldn't carry the club, let alone the light; he'd have to fetch his caddy along sure, and It's only a question of time when the caddy will have some one to do his work for him. and so on. But let 'em go 1t. With their l incapacity to work goes an inability to play. As I was saying, I'd give this quarters dividend on the M. H. and R. stock for one more dark, slashing sip- ping, sliding, sucker-whacking night on the Wepawang. I'll bet the torches and lanterns are flickering along the shores tonight and the new black rubber ice is bending and booming as it gains fresh strength
 why, on the first good night after the river froze over, and before the ice got too thick or the snow came and blanketed it. thered be a score of us out along the creek in parties of from two to four Two lanterns usually to each gang, or, if they were lacking,
 
 up the outfit. The latter was the ma st valuable thing in the lot It was a heavy club cut from an alder, bent at an obtuse angle at it's weightier end. This was so one could stand up and strike the ice square below, the bend falling flat and level Generally the boys would test the Ice by daylight, in the afternoon; but even SC, the current kept part of the river more open and some spots were always treacherous, but there wasn't over three feet of wa ter anywhere and our business kept us over the shoalest part, so the worst that could come was a cold splash.
 That brook was chock full of big, yellow-f filmed, 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 ta- ble fish No more sluggish fish lives l reckon, at any rate lives in New Eng land than these were, and that is why they became our prey.
 We would move quietly and swiftly along, generally on skates, till we came to a shallow cove, where there was not
 
 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 it's wielder carefully calculated the distance and depth of the game.
 "The 1ordly sucker would be lying listlessly on the mud, his dorsal fin al- most scraping the ice, or perhaps he would be moving with the current very slowly, when the fatal stroke would descend. Whack! ard the ice would | echo for mile down stream. Excited ly we would lift the torch to gaze at i our prey. There, with gills distended and saffron fins outspread and still | with gleaming white belly pressed up- ward against the ice, the big fellow l 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 | two shivering hands plunged | in, and out the prize would fly.
 Sometimes the current would roll | the sucker away, and then while new opening was being cut the fish would | revive and sail slowly away into deep l water. Occasionally the whacker wield- ! ed with too much good will, would so smash the ice as to let the whole gang l 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 a Water-logged stick. mistaking itfor the real quarry. l have seen two gange engaged in pitched battle over a big fish winch 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 seconds the same, the last is the best of all the game, but general Iy, as in all other disagrs emnts, the v.c- tory went to the stronger crowd.
 Fifty pounds was not an unusual string for us to drag homeward after an evenings sport, and the neighbors