Los Angeles herald., 1907-10-28

great ships. While thus playing I OBJ
served a small turtle In the shallow
water along the shore and, boy like, of
course caught it.
'While I was playing with it an old
fisherman who was nearby came along
and stopped Ito talk to me. He told me
to carve my initials on the shell of the
turtle and turn it loose and some day
might hear of it again
II was not quite equal to the task of
cutting my initials in the shell of the
turtle and obligingly he did it for me,
scratching A. c. H. and the date on
the back OF the turtle. Then cast him
back into the deep.
.Of course had forgotten all about
it. and two months ago, when Chief
Kern and myself went over to Catalina
for few days recreation I never thought
of the incident
''WeII, we went out fishing, and while
we caught quite few fish there was
ncthlng extraordinary about our expert
cuce until I felt great tug and some
thing began to walk away with my line
at railroad speed.
II, of course, thought I had big fish
on, and played it accordingly, but finally
1 came to the conclusion that it was a
queer kind of fish and I gave up guessing
what it was After an hour and ten min
utes of the hardest kind of work
brought to the surface-what do you
think? A giant green sea turtle, which
weighed all of 600 pounds.
what startled me more than anything
else, however, was that across its back
r. great letters were the initials "A. G. H.
could hardly believe that after all these
years that turtle which as little boy
had turned back into the sea was once
again at my hand.
''Well, all the boys congratulated me
on my haul, but refused to allow the
turtle to be towed ashore, and after care
fully removing the hook from its mouth
gave him a great chunk of bait and
turned him loose.
''Do you know, that turtle looked up at
me as if in gratitude and waving a
flipper at me it swan away into the
depths.
''Ncw here comes the surprising part
of tf.e story Twenty minutes later I
had a strike from a giant sea trout,
which gave me the hardest fight I ever
had. Work as I would, the trout got the
better of me and finally my line broke
in the middle and away went the trout
with several hundred feet of my line.
'I fixed up fresh rigging and was pre-
pairing to make another cast. when there
was commotion alongside the boat and
what do you think? There was my big
turtle and he came right up to the side
or tie boat and poked his great head
out of the water. and in his jaws was
tightly gripped the broken end of my
fish line.
'TIe had caught. that broken line and
played with that tsout until it was COM
pleteiy worn out, and then he brought
the end of the line right up to me, and
waved his flipper as if to say: Here you
are. old man. I am grateful for your
kindness to me and so have brought
you your fish,
''Nveli. we just hauled that trout in and
1t was big one, want to tell you. 1t
weighed fifty-seven pounds eleven ounces.
AS soon as the turtle saw we had the
fish ir the boat it came up close, and
sticking up its head waited until 1 had
patted 1t affectionately and then it swan
away with what seemed like a smile.
"I want to tell you that there is moth
ing like being kind to everything that
lives, for you don't know when that kind
ness will be returned
After the award committee had been
revived the club strong box was opened
and all Of the medals in stock were
silertly passed out and pinned on the
mayors breast. and special appropria-
tion was voted to have the best and big
gest medal ever built to order ITO suit
the occasion. AS soon as the jewellers
are through with it special session Will
te called and the mayor decorated with
1t also.