The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-04-26
FISH LIKE MUSIC.
come To Surface To Hear Rocked In
 the Cradle of the Deep.u
From the Washington Post

SA eAiS NdsHllIBlOn W Post.
 Flsh have great many fine traits about them" remarked the veracious and erudlte disciple of old Isaalx Walton. as ne was talking on that subject with soma friends one day during the past week
 You would hardly suppose" he con unued, that fish is fond of music but ne IS all the same, and I myself have had personal observation of the fact and or all the fish that swims, these tayIors that herd by the thousand in the lower Potomac and In all the rivers about inc eastern shore of Virginia, take the cake They like fine operatic music at that and none of this ragtime stuff you can hear darky whistling on the corner any day in the week.
 "l'n give you one illustration,' said the garruluos old gentleman You know was born and bred around in old Acco- mac, and if there is any better fish any, where under the sun l never heard tell of them. Only year or so ago a lot of young people came to me to take them out on sailing excursion, and, of course, l was agreeable, so l took them out one beautiful September afternoon in my schooner-rigged bugeye,' and a merry time they had of 1t, these boys and girls.
 "They had plenty of good things to eat with them, and they didn't care to spend any time fishing, but they danced and sang a-plenty There was one young woman who could sing like an angel She had a guitar with her, and played on it while she sang "The Last Rose of Summer and The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls and all such beau- tiful things, and l am red COW if a whole lot of these taylors didn't come to the top of the water and listen, just as if they were human creatures. I'll take my solemn oath to that,' said the old fisherman "Then, after while, there was a young man who had a voice like a church organ, and he began to sing Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep, and the fish that had gone away when the first music stopped came back Tn shoais' If ever fishes were charmed, these were with that young mans deep-toned meio- dies. He sang several, and the hshes stopped, or, rather, kept up, with us all the time, and l never heard such splash- ing in all my days as they did when ne ended every song. Of course, anybody could tell that they intended that for ap- plause.
 .'rrhen there's another feature about fish I want to tell you about, their fond ness for delicacies-such as people have They love watermelon more than a Geor- gia darky Of course, it's all along caused by the change in flavor of the water in the fruit from river water, but they do love a slice of watermelon amazingly. Now, I got wind of this in about the same way that I did in the fishes love of music.
 And I can tell you something strange hut nevertheless a fact on this subject. This happened also down about the capes iE lower Virginia, just like the Nmuslc yarn did. I had my same old 'bugeye' out with another party on board, and they had provender enough with them to last for a weeks cruise. The provisions were mostly watermelons, big, luscious fellows, red to the rind, like your street fruit peddlers say, and the boys and glrls Just ate the heart out of them and threw the rinds overheard. Well, the fish came up to the top of the water in multitudes after the fruit. They were so thick and close together that a fellow could walk ashore on their backs, and l will make an affidavit before any justice of the peace in town to that. The watermelon that was thrown overheard was gobbled up almost immediately and some of the fish that didn't get a square meal just jumped aboard the schooner and helped themselves to some of the cut slices lay ing on the deck. All of this is solemn truth.
 Well, I don't care if don't take just one more, said the old man, breaking away suddenly from his fish stories; and, please, bartender, don't make mine quite so sweet. So long; goodbye boys" he said as his hearers departed marvel in