The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-08-04

to give you an idea of how the shad bite
there in April I'll tell you what l did
one day. / went out by myself and
caught 10000 shad in ten hours with
hook and line, and / must have had all
of $4,000 bites that didn't hook the fish
1t took a span of big horses to draw my
catch home. That's what you call fish
ing, though my record don't begin with
some Others
That was the old. old story. The
| figures had not been decreased to $4,000
nor raised to 10000. The fish had never
been named as suckers or mullet, but al
ways as shad. People had been obliged
to swallow the story, tails and all, or
call the colonel a liar, and they had
swallowed and moved on. But the col
oners time had come at last. When he
had finished his story the duellist OBJ
served:
Sir. / have the great honor of calling
you a liar,'
"A liarl Good lands. but what for!'
exclaimed Perkins.
Had you caught one fish per minute
you could have caught only 500 in ten
hours. 1t was utterly impossible. Ten
men could not have done it. You took
me for a fool and lied to me-"
But did you ever fish in the Con
necticut river
Never"
Did you ever fish for shad?"
Never"
Then why call me a liar? Bring a
notary public here and III make aff1da-
Wit to what 1 said. 1 fished for ten
hours and the fish numbered
Sir, you insult mel exclaimed the
duelist, as he arose.
"Shooi"
And he who insults me must fight.
There is my card. Have you friend
here? Let US fight at sunrise"
BY gum, but what a peppery man.
said the Colonel, as the other withdrew.
We'll if he wants to fight I suppose
I'll have to accommodate him. Indeed,
I've got to fight because he didn't be-
lieve my story. 1 never tell story that
I amt willing to back up Will one of
you fellers act as my second in the af-
fair?''
The Englshman volunteered, but the
conspiracy didn't call for a duel. The
idea was to scare Colonel Israel Alex
ander Perkins back to his Connecticut
river and its shad. He was told that he
would be killed, no matter what the
Wea ponS, and was advised to call for his
bill and seek a change of climate. Not
only one man advised him thus. but
half a dozen, but each and every one
received the same reply:
Sorry, sir. but 1 can't do it. The
State of Connecticut would never for
give me, and l could never hope to
catch another shad. The duel must go
on. Under the circumstances couldn't
even accept an apology from the French
man.
When it was realized that the Colonel
was forcing things he was advised as
the challenged party to chose swords,
but he held out for revolvers and could
not be persuaded. There might be
chance to load with blank cartridges.
but they dared not risk it, Colonel
Perkins had a twinkle in his eye that
meant solid shot when he stood up to
aim.
There was nothing to do for D'Arta-
gen but to run the risk or get out, and
as he had no hankering after hot lead
he packed up his grip and was miles
away by sunrise.
Colonel Perkins rose two hours ahead
of time to shoot and to he shot y, but
there was nothing doing. When ne un-
derstood that there wasn't he used a
few cuss words from his Connecticut
vocabulary and then frightened up and
said:
well there is no loss without gain.
Let's sit down and III tell you fellers
how I once caught 10000 shad in ten
hoursl'-(Copyright 1903. by c.. B.
LeWiS.)