Evening star., 1901-09-28
REAL SMOOTH ALL THE WAY

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well. pom my wairdr' exclaimed the
swagger fisherman. ~
He looked nonplusssd. He was nom
plussed over his olackl Of success In that
particular spot ofthe stream.
The bsirelegged, boy Who was fishing on
the other side of the little stream with q
bent pin grinned.
Upon my waafd.' repeated the swell
fisherman. He meant e say upon his word.
but he belonged to a. country club and
played golf. and had studied the phraseol-
ogy of the great golfsts from abroad who
had visited the links 6f his country club.
and so he made it ''Waird." He had a
right to, at that for he looked the part.
He was nightly smboth-looking fisher
man-the kind YOU see the pictures of,
standing in brooks In long rubber boots.
casting the fly. He had the rubber boots
and the khaki fishing- -and-hunting uniform,
with the tidy tapped pockets. and he wore
checked fore-and-aft cap. His fishing ap-
pliances were nothing but works of art-ali
silvermounted, and embodying all of the
patents virtually down to the minute. He
looked like one of those fishermen who
write those long, cool stories about speckled
trout for the periodicals devoted to the In
tereSts OF gentlemen sportsmen. He had a
neat Van Dyke beard and he looked like a
man who knew just how much Scawteh to
drink without drinking too much of the
same.
On the bank of the stream reposed his
two-fiapped basket containing his choice
luncheon of chicken sandwiches and min
erai water and Chateau something or
other that fixed when the bottle was
opened, and about $43o worth of patent
flies and things of that sort.
BY Jove, yknow,'' he muttered peev-
ishly to himself. as he made another cast,
but it's blooming odd, l must say!'
And the barelegged boy, who was sit
ting under the shade of a broken straw hat
and fishing with a bent pin, grinned again,
this time sardonically.
Now, all the conditions appear to be ia
Vorable, the swagger fisherman went on
mutterinS to himself, land 1 know that
they are here, because 1 got them here in
quantities last year. What on airth can be
the matter, I'd like to know"
The boy with the bare legs and the bent
pin croaked in his glee and wriggled his
toes in the damp soil of the streams verge,
but he volunteered no remarks.
The swagger fisherman with the nice
khaki uniform drew in his line and tried
another kind of fly. Then he made numer-
GUS other casts, each time without success.
MY ward, but this is stranger he grum-
bieo, ana then the bare-legged boy with
the bent-pin fishing apparatus just rolled
around the bank In his joy.
L believe" said the dead swell fisher
man, half to himself. that I'll go further
up the stream Might change my luck.
Yes, I'll do it,"
So he took in his line, waded back to the
bank, picked UP his basket, placed his pole
over his shoulder and strobe along the
path ana disappeared while the bare-legged
boy Just dropped his gnarled branch pole
into his lap and laughed until his sides
ached.
AT the close of the afternoon, when the
sun was beginning to throw long. reddish
shadows through the autumnal foliage, the
sWagger fisherman and the bare-legged
urchin met each other as they were both
bound back to the village, and
then. Of ha-
tween fact and fiction. Right at this stage
or the story Is the parting of the ways be-
tween truth and pipe-dreaming. At this
crossroads in the narrative loom In view
the diverging paths between what the
funny ones Of the earth set down in such
cases made and provided and what actually
happens at least nineteen times out of
twenty in such circumstances.
The conventional termination of this
story, according to Abe long established
tenets Of the professional evokers of mrth,
would be to picture the bare-legged bo--
upon meeting the sWagger fisherman with
the expensive outfit, as wearing an express
sion of the most CALLING derision upon his
countenanace ASH he points to the heavy
string of large, fleshy mountain trout which
he is carrying upon his shoulder, and as
asking the swell fisherman If he caught
anything. Then the man with the beauti-
full fishing equipments would be portrayed
as wearing an exceedingly creStfallen look
as he handles the lovely fish caught by
angle worms of the common or garden va
riety and as rernarking that it's burned
odd, considering the expense he's been to
to purchase the right kind of fishing gear,
that he hasn't been able to get so much as
a single bite during the entire dayi then as
wind-up, the sWagger fisherman would be
exhibited in the act of winking solemnly
at the bare-legged brat and digging up a
neat ffve-dolar note wherewith to reward
the boy for his days labors, and then the
swell fisherman would take possession of
the boys string of fish. walk over to the
hotel at which he's stopping and proudly
display them as the result of his days an
Cling and get himself photographed along
side the fine string by the village photog-
rapher
The swagger fisherman and the bare-leg
ged urchin met each other as they We're
both bound back to the village. and the
swagger fisherman, bending under the
weight of the heavy string Of choice fish
that he had caught further up the stream,
hailed the bare-legged kid.
Hey, bud,' said the swell fisherman to
the small boy, who was toting a solitary
palld- looking and under-sized eel at the
end of a piece of string, Gust carry this
bunch for me, Will you, and I'll give you
two bits" passing the string Of fish over
to the boy, who had nothing but an eighth
of-an-ounce eel to show for his days sport.
Yes, SIR" replied the boy eagerly. TAX
ing the string, and then they went to the
village.
That's the way 1t happened. And it never
has happened nor never will happen the
other way except in the pages Of the vari-
hued weeklies and comic supplements de-
voted to the button-breaking and seam
bursting business.
Fight With n swordfsh.
From the New Bedford Standard.
The crew of the Gloucester sloop KIon-