The bee., 1912-10-08
MILLP0ND FISHERMkN'S
FIRST SALT WATER BASS

Hank was from the upper middle
section OF the state, where the streams
are small and run one way all the
time Until the day Of this adventure
he had never seen bigger body OF
water than millpond, nor had he
ever caught fish that was as large
as his hand.
Scale fish, in Hanks native section
were about as rare as gold coins on q
church contribution plate. The stand
ard fish was little finger" eat black
and despicable in the purview OF the
coast fisherman; but Hank and his
friends back home thought catching
them was rare sport, and that they
were really game" fish.
Hank was a fisherman at heart.
When he came to the city to take a
position" In one of the stores he con-
tinually Dragged about how he used to
"yank 'em out" and what fine ones
they were. The boys stood Hanks
palaver for a time, until they got tired
of 1t, and then they resolved to show
him what real FISHING" was like. That
is how 1t came about that party was
made up to go for channel bass OF
Bloody Point, with Hank as the guest
of honor
Conditions apparently favorable for
bass. Wind. weather and tide were
precisely right, and the bait was fine
and fresh enough to tempt the appe-
tite of fisherman, much less fish.
But there was noting doing in the line
Of scale fish. Channel catfish and
gaff-topsails and stingarees there
we're in plenty. but never the sign
Of scale In half an hour the bot
tom of the boat was covered with cats
and stingarees. Usually these de.
spised critters are killed and
thrown overheard as soon as caught.
but Hank. as the guest of honor, and
knowing only catfish. was proud of the
big gafftopgailsl and wanted to count
the catch.
As the other fellows we're proposing
to pull Up the ldllick and go home.
Robbins got strike, and 1t was a
heavy one, Now, Robbins is a hand
line man. and does not believe in play
ing his fish. He wants to see the
quarry landed in the shortest possible
space Of time. What's the use
fcolin'," says Robbins; "you come
after the fish; why not get 'em and
go?"
When Robbins got the strike, there
fore, the line came in hand over hand,
and in jiffy great floundering
shape Of silver and drab, long as a
mans body, and half his legs, was
pounding on the gunwale and beating
the green water into heavy show
er that fell over the whole boats
crew.
Hank was electrified. With cry
like wild Indian. he sprang from his
seat upon the thwart, grabbed the big
fish around the throat, lifted it in
board and went down with it among
the catfish and stingarees.
The balance of the company looked
on in literal fear and trembling. There
we're no less than forty of the sea
devils of the poisonous spines in the
bottom of the boat, and there was that
blithering idiot from the millponds
writhing and wrestling and twisting
with forty-pound sea bass right in
the midst of them, II seemed inevita-
BILE that Hank must be filmed" but
the more the men shouted to him the
wilder Hank raved in his delirium of
the kill. Hes plumb crazy" said
Little Finky, the skipper.
A. t.I~r 4. - "A
without sticking Hank with the knife
Robbins cut the fish's throat. In two
minutes more it was still.
Then Hank got up. He was as
white as ghost. There was not the
color of blood in his lips His cheeks
were like chalk, his eyes were CLASSY
and his knees were shaking. Totter-
Ing astern. he collapsed, with head
and arms over the gunway.
II knowed It," said Little Finky:
hes got It good and hard, in a dozen
places: the blamed eejitl Serves him
right. What'je bring a millponner on
salt water Ger, anyhow"
"Aw, cut that" growled Robbins
"Can't you see the mans in great
suffering7 Get the peroxide while we
and the other boys strip his clothes
of and find the punctures."
No sooner said than done. The
strippers had got almost down to ma
ture when Hank revived enough to
say In a weak voice:
Leave me alone, you dang fools. I
ain't bit nor stung nor nothin'; just
swallowed my chaw Of tobacco"
And that was the size Of Ii. The
Providence that protects little chill
dren and imbeciles and drunken men
had steered that "millponner" safely
and unscaihed through what appeared
to be hopeless array OF catfish and