The Saint Paul globe., 1905-01-08

FHEOPHILUS NOEL is out with his
autobiography and "reminiscences
He has plenty to tell.
Readers of the Sunday Globe e
will remember Mr.. Noel as the man who
wanted to put the Rev. Sam Small on
easy street for the rest of his life by Civ
ing him $25,000 to go around the country
with Noel and educate the country folk
to the idea of the higher life. 1t has been
told how Small fell short of the expecta-
tions of the philanthropic manufacturer,
who tore up the check he had written for
Small and then delivered to the latter a
farewell that should last him forever.
In his book, which he has turned out
from his own print shop, Mr. Noel tells
all about himself. He tells why he was
poor when young and how he got rich.
He relates almost every interesting ex-
perience Of his life, philosophers upon
events, recites history, local and national,
and gives to the world a set of bear, fish
and snake stories that eclipse anything of
the kind told in recent years.
Mr. Noel is a good story teller and he
has seen things enough to afford him
more stories than he could get into
dozen big books In his autobiography
he has told merely those that came first
to his mind-we have his word for it they
are not the best ones he knows. Of fish,
Mr.. Noel has this to say:
Fish, bear and snake stories are always
in order, because they always have been
and always will be. From the days of
Nimrod and Samson with his jawbone,
and Jonah smoking cigar in a whales
belly, and every one having experiences
in this line will tell of them, and they are
not supposed to lose anything by their
telling and being retold.
School of Whales
My first fish story would start with
the catching of a very small minnow,
in a spring house brook, that grew and
grew and still grows for it is not many
moens ago that 1 saw from my home on
the Pacific coast sight in the bay of
Monterey that had been able to photo
graph it, people would say it was fshy.
just as thousands will say my telling of
it is. Notwithstanding promised this
should be a book of truths.
ga school of 100 or more spouting
whales came in the bay, and I was as
tonished at no ones being surprised so
much as myself, though history. tells that
this was the greatest whaling station on
the Pacific coast up to within the recol-
lection of men now living. This Bay of
Monterey, California, on which Santa
Cruz is situated, was, since the whales
were created, their breeding grounds.
"A few years ago / was visiting my
birthplace, and went at a. m. down to
the DoWaSlac creek III Mlcnlgan, IL not TO
catch, then to see the fish, and to see If
there was any evidence left of what I had
once seen at this point upon the steel
bridge; while standing cogitating upon the
past and seeing no fish going up the stream
as then, an old man came walking down
the road who resembled Father Time
somewhat. He seemed timid and some
what afraid of me. as he might be of a
ghost spoke to him IN as clever a way
as l could command, and asked if he was
an old settler. He said he was, but did
not recognize his face. I asked:
DO the sturgeon ever come UP this
stream any more at this season of the
year to their spawning ground above?'
* He looked at me in wonder and
amazement and said:
never heard of them doing so'
The you are not an old settler?
+ I'm SO taken, was his reply.