The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1901-09-27
Alliance Citizen Cap
tures a Giant Carp.
TRUTHFUL WILLIAM
Recounts the Narrowing Tale
Everybody Fishing for
Carp in East End
City.

Attorney william M. Roach, of AL
lance, was in Canton Wednesday after
noon. William was prolix, versatile,
fluent. He had Just won case when
the reporter saw him. Hence HIS ver
boyity. Williams style of conversa-
tion is spectacular. There is nothing
reserved about him. 1t is his greatest
pride to string a verdant reporter.
His tales Of how he worked the AL
lance crowd of pencil pushers are in
teresting, II true. Two-headed coons,
wild animals, huge serpents and buried
treasure are his strong points.
Wednesday he was rather sore on Al,
lance. The gas had gone out in his Of
Gee stove owing to a pressure of salt
water. He had no coal stove and none
of the bituminous substance to fill one
IL he had 1t. He had called up the
gas man and talked scripture to him
over the phone, and the gas man had
referred him to that country where
the supply has never been known to
fail. Roach did not go there, but came
to Canton instead.
All the time he was talking he was
vainly trying to smoke a four-for-a-
nickle cigar. The draught of air was
outward and the cigar refused to burn.
ELL borrowed all the matches in the
crowd, but failed to keep the ruby
tip on the cabbage filler.
Yes, sir," said he, "the gas Is done
for over there. There is too much salt
water. The people of Alliance haven
time to monkey with such improbable
things as gas wells, anyhow. They arc
all too busy fishing for carp. Profes-
sional men, business men, laborers
women, children, even the dogs and
cats are living on carp. The stream
is so full of them that often school
will have to bury itself in the mud to
let another lot go by. People angle fol
them with hooks on which are impaleG
bits of cotton and -four, a piece o.
potato, or anything except well regu.
lated bait
carp won't bite at fly or minnow
They turn up their noses at an ordinary
argle worm, but il you offer them q
nice Juicy piece of mud, they snap at Il
with avidity, and the beauty is that ir
fishing for them you always get youl
bait back. When you catch pound o
carp that is all you have-a pound O
animated mud.
"The easiest way to get the carp
however, is to get up early in tn,
morning and catch them when the.
are out on the bank eating grass
Just this morning, Morg Reed wen
out to NOW the lawn. 1t was ver.
early-before the people were astir
and Morg was not dressed for com
pany. He noticed that the grass diI
not need cutting. 1t was cropped OF
short. He could not understand this
and began to cast about him for tn
reason. Suddenly he thought he hear
COW cropping the green herbage, an
he started through the morning mist
to chase her off the lawn.
ut was not cow, but behold
drove of German carp had come up fror
the river and were busy feeding upol
the luxuriant grass. For a momen
Morg was paralyzed. But here was
chance to distinguish himself Pick
ing out the daddy carp Of the Who'll
crowd, he made for him. He spran
upon the fish's back and stuck hi
toes into its gills. After short bu
fierce struggle he overmastered tn
carp and succeeded in cutting its throa
with lawn mower.
Reeds neither extremities, whicl
were unprotected, were terribl
smeared with the slime and ooze Of tn
turbid Mahoning. His skin was ren
and torn by the dorsal fin Of the grea
monster. But he was triumphant. II
had the fish.
"The mighty splash of the drove .
carp as they plunged back into thei
native element awoke the town. The
thought that the gas had pushed tn
salt water out of the wells. so grea
was the commotion. The entire POT
ulace rushed out to see what was tn
matter. Morg in his modesty, pickle
up one of the fish scales that had bee
disengaged in the combat. and screer
ing himself from public view, backe
into his home.
"The fish weighed, as near as the
could figure, either 29 pounds and
ounces or pounds and 20 ounces,
am not sure which.
Good by, boys. I'll see you again."