Arizona republican., 1903-09-09
FIR. CLEVELAND AND HIS ROD.
Constant Fishing Has Made Ex-Presi- dent Genial, Good Humored, Witty.

The eX-president must be mistaken in his impression that he has been wide ly jeered and derided' for spending so much of his time at fishing, comments the Philadelphia Record! Not even MT. Bryan, we believe. has jeered and derided the ex-president for that. MT. Cleveland has inflicted upon MT. Bryan the most dreadful wound that the Ne braska man is susceptible to, and he has done it twice He has led the dem- ocratic party to two victories and MT. Bryan has dragged it down to two de- feats. Consequently MT. Bryan hates Mir. Cleveland to the limit of his hating capacity, which is considerable. He would have jeered and derided MT. Cleveland for fishing if he had felt that thot was a low or unworthy pursuit, or that people could be made to think so.
 Fishing has been sanctified by apos- tOliC practice. It has been embalmed in literature. It has been in1mortalizcd by the kindly spirits and the literary skill of famous men from Izaak Walton to Henry Van Dyke. It is the earliest and intenscst passion of every boy, and by many men it is never outgrown, while few men outgrow the recollection of the harpiest days of their childhood. If there be any callous curmudgeon who could jcer at and deride another for de- voting all his spare time-and an eX- president must have plenty of tito fishing, ne would simply be jeered at and derided for his indL ference to or dinary human feeling.
 In MT. Cleveland angling affords an extraordinary exhibition of it's power to ha IO tn law to ind to tighten the heart ar1 bring | back to man the spirit of youth For many years in Buffalo, Albany and Washington he was too much absorbed by publ duties to fish consta .tly. Dur | ing the interval between his two terms | his interregnum. so to speak-he was practicing his profession. For six years l he has been able to fish habitually. l Mark the change in the man. He meets newspaper men without obvious dis l comfort on either side. In St. Louis | last spring he dined with party of l Washington correspondents. This he could never bring himself to do when president. His state papers have always | been regarded as weighty; unfriendly critics have called them ponderous. A few weeks ago a weekly paper contain | ed a sprightly article by him on the i fascinating subject of fishing. Most wonderful of all, he is developing 2 sense of humor which was unsuspected l There was a vein of gayety about his | speech at the newspaper mems dinner in St. Louis which astonished persons who did not realize what six years ot pretty constant fishing will do for { i man. But his speech at Bourne. Mass. l when he arose full of clans, hot corr | nd enthusiasm, to use his own words was an after dinner speech that corrus- cated with good humor and merry Quip: 1 In other years abnormally sensitive t
 any reference to his domestic affairs | at Bourne to the recent happy addition
 to his family. and combined piscatoria
 wit and paternal pride when he said
 "I put my fish scales into requisitiol and weighed my latest catch honestly
 and the tally was an even nine pounds.
 Is there father or a fisherman in tn
 country who does not feel a little mor
 kindly than ever toward Mir. Cleveland
 The nation will hope that hr. Cleve
 land will not spare the rod, and it i
 confident that he will not spoil the chil'
 for the rod is that of the fisherman, am
 the child is of the sex that does no
 need to have it's hook baited for it. Hi
 father has already referred to him as
 future fisherman added to the popula
 tion about Buzzard's Bay.-Philadel
 phia Record