The Washington times., 1901-08-18
A RARE FISH STORY.
The Inquisitive Landlord Was Trap
ned by an Angling Guest.

The fish story is IN the air, and try how
you Xix. you can't escape it. The best
way is to carry a sleeping drauSht and
calmly settle yourself in corner when
the ball begins to unrolL. Ecre is one of
the first of the seasonal Renaissance of
last year-as told by "a local railway man
well known around town, wins loves a
good joke and knows as well as the next
how to handle a rod. But he is 50 mod
est that he wouidn allow his name to
be used.
"A true fisherman" said c. -,
under the most trying circumstances al
WAYS keeps cool and never loses his tenn
per or gets angry. For after you get used
to untanEiiug snarled-up fishlines you can
stand for anything. / carried bottle OF
beer about ten miles one hot summer day
until came where | could anchor 1t to Il
cool spring. l had a ham sandwich up
above in the limb Of a tree, and made up
my mind to make for this spot about
noon. When l arrived l was as hungry as
wild animal, and you can imagine my
feelings when l opened the paper and
found swarm of red ants Incorporating
my only sandwich.
Il reached for the beer, congratulating
myself that l had that. i placed 1t under
looking log that would make good seat.
As / did this filled my pipe with tobac-
CO, but in locking for a match discovered
that they were all gone This was such
shock that the bottle of beer slid out and
struck on q stone.
"A combination of this kind never gives
anybody a license to invent words, but a
real fisherman never takes advantage of
such opportunities. and therefore, l made
a break for a shaded nook, where l let my
flies skip and jump over an old log while
| tried to forget my TRIALS and tribula-
tons. l fished all the favorite spots COM
ing down that stream and could not even
attract a sunfish. AS it was Fourth of
July ! even went so far as to string up
my leader with red, white, and blue flies,
and still the fish were not patriotic
enough to catch on. / was about to start
for home when all of sudden l went in
to the air like a skyrocket. / thought for
a minute that l had stepped on a live
wire. Ii was only a blacksnake about
four feet long
My first thought was to draw my re-
volver, but my hand shook SO that l was
afraid | would shoot myself. As last
resort l put my faith ig. the butt end of
my steel rod and commenced moving the
atmosphere, at the same time advancing
step by step toward the mad. kissing rep
tile. A minute more and 1 was a hero. l
coiled his clod, cIammy carcass in my
basket, covered him with grass and put
in for the tavern at 2:40 gait
/ had it in for that hotelkeeper, and 1
made up my mind that before / got
through with him he would think there
was something doing. 1 arrived in time
for supper, swung the basket to one side,
took of my coat, and started in to fit up
little.
Just at this time my man sauntered in.
/ knew ii would not be long before he
would be going into my fish basket, as he
was always doing this, and sometimes il
rather embarrassed me to have him show
up empty-handed. But at this particular
time he could go as far as he wished. As
he ran his arm down through the grass
and felt of the many coils, which he sup
posed were all speckled beauties, he ex-
claimed. You've got some beauties in
there, haven't your
Yes i replied, holding the towel be-
fore me to hide smile, take one out and
show the boys. AS / said this all eyes
were on the basket. and at the same time
he whipped out this monstrous snake.
The proprietor made a few jumps toward
the door and disappeared. leaving the
room rather blue with unmentionable az
Jectives, and by the time / had put on my
coat the snake and l owned the hotel
Rochester Herald.