Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-29

the contest meant life or death to either.
And today the quickest way to drive your
immortal soul out to the tips of your fingers
is to hook a fourpound bass and see what
happens.
Recently Red" the guide and the man
of-all-work about the plantation, three
quarter Pamunky Indian, and l had our
first go at the bass, and what royal sport
it was
mo, don't strike yet" said Red" as the
line went singing far out on Mirror lake.
He's got your mtnny by the tall and Is go
ing down to turn him about and swallow
him. Let him run till you feel a strong,
long pull and then strike, and strike hard"
There, look ouEl He's coming up and
has turned for TIE boat! Reel like good
fellow! Don't give him an inchl There he
goes, right under the keel Don't yell!
Think! Think Think Play reel-give him
the butt but save enough for an emergency.
Play him! If need be, ten, fifteen, twenty
minutes, but play him, and then reel! Reel!
Reel! And with a landing net at hand,
this tiger of the fresh water fishes is safely
slowed away in the bottom of the boat.
You can understand now why bass fishing
has SO many devotees, for that story is the
story of myriads OF men who, tired of cast
Ing line in the office, get out into God S
open. where the fields and forests are ablaze
with color, and seeking rivers and lakes tor
little while forget the carping cares and
listen to the song of the reel.
Gladstone indeed are these auriferous
times to the sportsman, to the man who
loves to hunt and the man who loves to
fish. He needs no calendar to tell him that
this Is the chosen time of the year. LAST
night L heard a faint tuneful sound that
sent a thrill through melt was the
Honk! Honk!' of goose far up in the
air, and l knew that the wild geese were on
their way to the south. Yesterday, too,
heard the call of a quail from toprafl
hard by.
Flaming October! Over all hangs the au-
tumnal haze. adding vividness to the i'm
Scfn fira nfNsa~
in Virginia. 1t is flaming October! Rich and
rtotous in It's gorgeous beauty. The last out
burst of glory in a country whose loneliness
is nowhere surpassed.
For fortnight the guests of Col Town
send will make merry with rod and gun,
and when the night falls, with song and
story, they will live over again the days
when the other Man was born.
The pendulum which has been swinging
away from Virginia since the close of the
civil has begun to swing backward.
and the peninsula formed by the York and
the James rivers and in which Providence
Forge is located is beginning to feel once
more new life and interest. Old estates
long abandoned. being bought up and
throughout all this tidewater region a new
era seems about TO dawn for the Old Do
mnion. The fashion of owning a country
estate which is bringing new life TO the
abandoned farms in New England, is al
ready being taken up by northern men so
far as Virginia homes leads GO and event
ually there will be chain of estates re-
created in Virginia, reminiscent of those
other estates which attained the purest
aristocracy and nurtured many OF the great
est statesmen this country has ever known
The coming and the going of the guests
has been automatically arranged by Col
Townsend. who is as royal a host as ever
lived in the manor house In the days when
Virginia was still a colony. He has plan
ned that this entire company be with him
during the latter part of the present week,
and on Sunday great game dinner, with
venison. wild turkeys, quail, woodcock will
be served in the self-same dining room in
which George Washington and the men of
his time, Patrick Henry, the Randolphs
John Mason-made merry and the sack
flowed freely. EDGAR C. SNYDER