Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-09-22

luxuriant in growth than the whiskers of q
ten-pound ''mudcat." He reflective1y cx-
pectorates, and, climbing slowly into his
boat shOves off into the current.
The bait is lying in the bottom of the
boat. There are pieces of liver. chunks OF
meat chicken gizzard, but-no angleworms.
Catfish might take the worms but the cur
rent is strong, the hooks are big, and what
is required is substantial bait, and bait
that will not wash off, Bait for the big
fellows; no small fry need apply. And as
he drifts out into the stream the fisherman
begins on his hooks and carefully bats
each one, hooking on the pieces of meat
and liver. the bits of chicken and gristle.
and making sure that each bait is firm on
the barb. land after the line of hooks is
baited he lifts the block line from the bot
tom of the skiff and lets 1t slide overheard.
The blocks float here and there with the
current. and the angler follows with little
need of exertion on his part Boats go by
and the idle 'roustabouts look at him
alphabetically. He blinks back from under
his queer haif-rimless headgear and
current golden brown in spots and in places
muddy, ambles by in curves and turns,
with occasionally a piece of driftwood ris-
ing from the surface.
After an hour has elapsed and the line of
blocks has bobbed down the river some
miles the fisherman rouses himself from his
STOPPING position in the boat and rows list
lessly to the floating objects on the tawny
current. Here he runs the line along the
edge of the skiff, and, sitting in the stern,
he unhooks and throws into the boat what
ever fish have been caught. Sometimes he
will get as many as four or five fish in an
hours drifting. Most generally they are
yellow-belied "mudcats," with pggish eyes
and low foreheads, and weighing all the
way from four to eight pounds. At times
the fisherman is lucky enough to get big
channel cat on the hooks or a whopper
of the mudcat variety. This sometimes
causes the native to forget his demeanor
of lassitude and he suddenly develops
cessfully landing a big "cat." If he gets
three or four fish he is satisfied to row
painfully upstream again to land at the
home dock and drag his catch back to his
cabin. If he finds nothing the hooks on
his first search he rebaits any hooks which
may have lost their lures and casts the line
of blocks adrift again. His stronghold is
his absolute patience. Not even the Indian
of the plains an Esquimau watching by
a hole where a seal has disappeared has
any more tenacity.
On the households the occupants of the
queer, Noah's Ark like craft bait the hooks
and let the chain of blocks down into the
river, and when the line of wood has float
ed downstream some distance one of the
people on board will drop into a skiff and
overhaul the lines. Sometimes 1t is a man,
gaunt and brown, who SOULS after the re-
treating line, and at times woman, sun
burned and angular, plies the oars until
the hooks are reached. At all times the
blocks do honorable service for the Arabs
eight-pound cat are delicious eating.
There are no bones, for the meat is sliced
right off the homeless part of the fish. They
fry these steaks. and the interior of Mis-
sissippi houSeboat has IAN ancient and a
fishlike smell'' where the process goes on.
The negroes along the river have the
system of block fishing down to a fine
point and in many a rude cabin by the
river banks the aroma of frying catfish
rises in the evening air and permeates the
surrounding atmosphere like sword blade
through sheet You can always tell when
the Afro-Americans are frying fish. 1t is
the most apparent thing along the river.
The especial beauty of this style of Walton
ianism is its absence of strenuousness. 1t
is rowing lotoS-eating and stepped in
high, Lethean calm. There is no call to
spin the reel and place" the 1.-THE and
nimble frog: there is use in hurting the
gaudy fly into space. nor in guiding the
glittering spoon" The phantom minnow
or the alluring pork rind'' has here no
place. This is the apotheosis of the lazy
mans kind of fishing. AS such it will al
going inhabitants of the Mississippi val
ley.
And under the half tropic SUM- with the
hoarse whistles of the river boats echoing
along the muddy waters of the great inland
chanrel, the block fisher pursues the
even tenor of his existence. And in the
Skillet of the alive, with Scant clad
white child and kinky headed pickaninny
looking on in eager anticipation the hum
BILE 'mudcat'' works out his destiny