The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1915-05-06
"Got any sarmon yet?" asked Jed.

| "Got any sarmon YETI" asked Jed.
| "Naw-w-w, this weir is no good, don't
believe it ever was" said the owner.
What We using for bait?" innocently
inquired Jed.
'Bait-whaddye mean, bait?" and
Smith pricked up his ears.
| wall, you are rurnin' this ware and
| it amt none O. my business, but gen 'rly
We have to use bait to catch fish,
The city man swallowed the lure, hook,
| line and sinker, and spent the day ac-
cording TO Jed's suggestions in loading
the pound with shucked clans, beef
| bones, fish-heads and almost anything he
could find that fish ought to eat, ac-
cording to his own ideas.
The elder Hartman ventured mild
protest, but Smith muttered that he had
fooled away his time long enough and he
! was glad he had found man who would
give him point or two. He limited very
darkly that it was 'frame-up" among
the other weirmen just because he
wasn't native, to get all the salmon.
Batting weir is venerable, moss
grown joke among the river folks, from
the same chapter as digging clans at
high water. P. Higginson Smith could
hardly sleep that night and dreamed of
ulpp1IR OU-pCQliu SdlIllOu anu lOdlilIS Ills
dory with the great shining fish until it
was nearly swamped. He was at the
shore before the tide had turned. He
was wild with delight when he saw the
| water in the pound fairly boiling with
fish as soon as the ebb set out.
Salmon are the most dainty and fasti-
dious of fish. They avoid anything like
offal, foul or contaminated water. They
are the aristocrats of the sea and swim
into weirs simply because they are max
ing their way to the spawning grounds
and running too close inshore encounter
the obstacle of the hedge, and nose along
until they find an opening which leads
them into the pound. They are not look
ing for food.
But there are scavengers, who will eat
anything-the cells, sculpins, founders,
skates, ling and such. Mr.. Smith had
set out grand banquet for them and
they had come, and all their friends and
relations, bushels and shoals of them.
AS the water receded the pound became
one squirming. wrlggling mass. The
city man gazed with establishment
There was every kind of fish in the col
lection that he had ever heard of, except
salmon.
FLOCK OF CROWS CAV DERISIvELY.
A flock of crows cawed derisively
from the pines on the top of the bluff,
seeming the peal, and gulls whirIed and
pound.
Mr.. Smith padded ashore, sat down
uDon a stone and mopped his brow. He
had stood the gaff Of State street for
more than aquarter of a century. He had
gone down for the count of nine more
than once and came up with smile and
confidence that he could land the punch
and often did. But just at that moment
he felt as he did when his first $500 flyer
was wiped out with couple of chalk
marks, when he was sure that nothing of
the kind could possibly happen.
He was in this state when a stranger
came trudgihg along the beach with a
sea bag over his shoulder and a roll of
charts under his arm. He was CHEEKY
sort of chap and greeted Smith with
merry "Howdy, Cap'n-w would We lend
me match?'
The stranger pulled away at his short
pipe, which reminded the city man that
a cigarette wouldn't go bad.
Jest in from newfoundland with
picked herrin' for Cap'n Tom Nick O.
Bucksport-less-se might you be the
man mat DougnC LnlS place!
Mr.. Smith allowed that he might be.
''Ketched any sarmon YETI" queried the
man of the sea. ''Naw-w" grunted the
owner of Penobscotside.
"Wa-ll you'll get 'em all right later
this is as good a privilege as there is.
Worked here for the OF man Ludlow one
season and we got lots of 'em."
Mr.. Smith gradually narrated his ex-
perience with the weir and finally-"and
spent yesterday batting it up in good
shape. and still not salmon, but about
everything else in the river-it's no
good"
1T ANTEDATED THE GOLD BRICK.
''You baited the. ware-you baited it
-haw-haw! great halibut-you baited it
who told We to do that?" and the skip
per roared again.
Just about that time a light began to
break in upon Mr.. Smith Of Brookline
and Boston. He gathered from his new
found friend that he had been the vic
tim of joke that antedated the gold