The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1901-01-22
A mwHoppERn FISH STORY.
An Old Guide Tells of q TussIe with
Catfish.

Catfish.
/ asked Capt. Hance, one of the
guides of the Grand canyon Of the
Colorado, if there were any fish in the
Colorado river, says w. E. Curtis, in
the Chicago Record. He looked at
me intently for moment, and then,
wriggling all over like an eel, he held
up both hands and exclaimed:
81 should say there was. You jest
ought to seen me the day l had tus-
sic with a catfish. They amt much
but catfish in the Colorado, but
they're terrors, and some of 'em is as
big as whales or what-do-you-call-
'ems. l was'fshin' one day bout four
summers ago, and got terribly sleepy.
It did seem to me as if I couldn't hold
my eyes open another minute, so l
jest natruly hitched my line to my
bootleg and SEE to myself wen have
snooze.
'How long / slept / don't know,
but when woke up was slidin' long
on the top of the Colorado river like
a torpedo shot out of gun, feet fust.
l must have went a mile or so before
l realized what had happened, and
then it came to me all to once that l
was bein' towed somewhere with the
gosh darned fish line tied to my boot
leg. Then, all at once, that thunder
in fish concluded he'd go down to the
bottom, and aspect he dove 500 feet,
draggin' me with him, fur, of course,
! couldn't do nothin' but go too. The
line was tied to my leg and stretched
so taut, and we goin' so fast, that by
the time ] could reach my hand over
to git hold, the leg would be in the
next county; but when that fish
struck bottom he seemed to reckon
he'd rest a spell, and there we laid
quiet 500 or 600 feet below the top
of the water. That gave me a chance
to reach over and keteh hold of
the line, which l did mighty careful,
for fear of skeerin' the fish.
"Hand over hand gradually gath
cred in the line until l got close up to
the beggar that had made all the
trouble. He was catfish as long as
a telegraph pole, and he had head
bigger'n -four barrel. When / wus
putty close to him he opened his
mouth to yawn, and, by ginger, l
thought l was a goner, fur he kind of
sucked in and ] had to swim putty
lively to keep out of the current. 1
seen that my hook was fast in his vi
tails when he opened his mouth, and
they worn't no use trying to save it;
so jest kind of natruly 'bandoned it
there and took my knife out Of my
belt and cut the line just as close as
! could without wurrin' the crittur.
81 didn't wait to coil the line /
jest natruly give a good shove, and
started toward the top of the river
without saying good-by, fur / don't
want no fuss with fish, particular
catfish. Catfish is stupid and mean
and have bad dispositions. The cat
fishes in the Colorado river is partic-
ully unfriendly to white men.
They've gut a grudge agin me, too,
for sumthin' or other. s'pose am
to blame, but then agin I reckon /
amt treated them any worse than
other people. 1t was lucky for me
that the water in the Colorado was
rily tibet day, so that that particular
catfish didn't recognize me. knew
him soon as | seen him. He's the ugli-
est Of the hull lot, and for some rea-
son or mother l could never find out
why he's got grndge aginst your
humble servant"
Last week the Democrats assum-
ed control Of n. c. after six
years of Republican and Populist