Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-02

and their horses and automobiles and cigars,
but no fisherman has ever divulged what he
spends for his sacred sport 10 measure
the value of his fish by dollars would be to
the true angler like trying to estimate the
financial value Of the dewdrop In the heart
of red rose.
Yet no other sport has enlisted so many
eloquent tongues and so many genius-tlpped
pens In it's praise. No other sport supports
such an army of shopkeepers. No other
sport is so important that the railroads is-
sue tons Of printed matter about 1t every
year, as they do about the fishing along
their lines.
An Army Of Anglers.
There are a thousand men who go a-fsh-
ing to every single man who goes automo-
bling. The army of golfers alongside OF
the army of anglers would look like min
now pail compared to the ocean. The hunt
ers Of the country probably would not show
up in a ratio of one to ten anglers.
But one cannot go a-trouting or even a.
cat-fshing with an automobile tooter or
with the frank publicity Of the golfer or the
tennis player. There must not be a crowd
as there is in the hunting field. The angler
may not display himself as much even as
the yachtsman.
In fishing one Is company and two is
crowd. More than two is anathema.
Thus it is that this. the greatest sport
number of people, producing an enormous
annual revenue to railroads, hotel owners,
guides. tackle makers and boat builders,
has never won place in the statistics of
the United States. And it's q good thing.
We don't want statistics In 1t. Even honest
old 1zaak never was too anxious to weigh
his goodly fishes with a steelyard. He pre-
ferred the better way of estimating their
size by bordering their outlines and "heft
with the eye of love.
Yet 1t would be interesting II we could tell
just some things in fgures-for instance,
how many thousand men go eel fishing
every day. and how many thousands go
trout fishing. and how many tens of thou
sands of cells and hundreds of trout they
catch daily.
They catch a great many more than p.o-
pie imagine. The funny man has succeeded
in convincing the non-fishing public that 1t
Is the inalfenable and invarable privilege OF
the angler to catch nothing: but as mat
ter of fact, fishing throughout the United
States is amazingly good, and II the total
daily catch between the Atlantic and the
Pacific and the Canadian line and the gulf
could be shown, 1t would startle everybody,
even seasoned and hardened anglers who
have listened these many years without a
culver to campfire stories.
Twelve Tons a Day.
We do know that on an average day in
the salt waters actually within the harbor
Of New York the daily catch OF fish of all
kinds by the amateur anglers alone Is about
fifty thousand which. at an average weight
of half a pound, means more than twelve
tons day: and New York's waters are not
by any means superlative fishing waters.
1t is easier to tell what is caught than
how much is caught. Or, rather, it is
easier to tell what isn't caught.
About the only fish that the amateur
angler within the confines of North
America does not catch with rod and
reel are whales, porpoises and swordfish
Sharks and sawf1sh are common trophies
Even dolphins are taken with the hook
during the season. Salmon, catfish, mus
callonge. trout of more than a dozen
varieties. eels sunf1sh. tarpons, Goldfish.
bass, barracuda. tunnyf1sh-a good thou
angled for throughout the continent.
Weather and climate make no difference.
While the men Of the northern states fish
through the Ice, the men of the south are
fishing on sunlit beaches There is never a
cessation OF American fishing for sport
of the country and you will be sure to
catch flying glimpses of somebody fishing.
1t may be only a wayside ditch; yet every
angler on the train will strain his eyes to
watch the man with the line, for one Of
the beauties OF American fishing IL that
you can never tell what a ditch may hide.
In some mysterious way It may be home
for mighty old mossbacks of hookjawed
trout or bronze, small-mouthed black bass
with red eyes and redder tempers.
Even near the biggest cities there are
always some spots whose secrets are
miraculousiy kept, SO that after one has
grown old In crowded neighborhood he
still may cherish the hope that some me
morning before he dies another old angler
may take him. by the hand and teed Hun