The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-05-01
VIEWPOINT AC0G ON OWNERSHIP
 OF GREAT FISH
Constable Has Hard Time Settling Dispute Between
 Boys Over Trout.

Newtown, May 30.-S Howell Wright of Cleveland, Ohio, a member of the State Senate, with Mrs: Wright and children are visiting the latter's parents; MT. and Mrs. Levi c. Morris, Main street.
 Principal Dickson of the High school is giving daily military instruc- ton to his classes.
 Herman Oppe, Jr., and Russell Wheeler, students at the Massachu- sets Agricultural college, Amherst, Mass, are on brief visit home.
 MT. and Mrs. A. H. Patterson of South Center are in New York city, the regular army. Saturday his best man at the marriage of Dr. D. c. Patterson of Bridgeport to Miss Marion P. Gibney, by Rev. Dr. How ard c. Robbins, rector of the Church of the Transfguration. After the .cer- emony MT. and Mrs Patterson were present at the reception at the home of the brides parents, Dr. and Mrs. Virgil P. Gibney, 8 Park avenues
 Theodore Wu1ff of Bridgeport, for merly of Sandy Hook, has enlisted in the regular army. Saturday his mother, Mrs. Grace Wulff of Taunton, received a patriotic letter from Fort Slocum, where he is being drilled for war.
 The soldiers guarding railroad prop erty in Newtown for the past month will be relieved by another detach- ment of troops this week. The militia men were drafted into the Federal service today by the regimental major and a federal officer. Before they leave they will be rendered a feast at cyx I1 parations for which are now com p1ete.
 Jean Kelly, Saturday, had an ex- perience in the common law which he does not consider common sense. Hunting up his playmates, he found them playing mumbledy-peg on the banks of Deep Brook after an unsuc- cessful hour of fishing. Unnoticed by the others he seized one of the dis carded rods and batting the hook with night walker angle worm from underneath stone by the road side, he cast into a pool from the state road bridge. It was a lucky throw. Scarcely was the hook in the water before he felt the premonitory tremb1e in the rod, and then a rapid swirling of the line admonished him that the psychological moment had come. He swished from it's hiding place trout beauty and landed him in the roadway safely. He rushed to secure his prize but the other boys were ahead of him, and had the leap ing fish unlocked, and were dancing in glee at the prize, which the owner of the line claimed as his rightful property.
 In vain Jean claimed ownership, at least part ownership. He doubled up his fists and was about to fight when the owner of the land through which the stream meandered, appeared. The latter heard both sides. He is a well known town constable, and after first weighing the fish and certifying to the exact weigh of IS ounces. he told the boys to return in one half an hour for his decision. It. was a stu dious half hour for our local Solo mon. He read all Robinson's e1e- mentary law has to say on the matter The suggestion to divide a fish was almost as horrible a proceeding as shocked the people in the temple of the famous Jewish lawgiver in decid- ing the paternity of the child. No; clearly such a decision was repugnant to our finer sensibilities, and would please no one He turned, then, to the Revised Statutes of Connecticut There embalmed and imbedded in this messy book was more than all in the law and prophecies of the Book of Books
 The fish caught in the stream flow ing through posted land was the property Of the owner of the land. The boys were on and fishing on his land without his permission True they did not catch the fish, and Jean Kelly was on the highway, when he caught the fish from a part of te brook over his fence line. Besides the bait was found by his fence line. The boy had no right to be on the highway, only for purposes of travel, and the owner of property abutting on & highway owns to the middle of ,, the highway as against everything 1 but the collective public. the town. 1 Therefore the youthful fisherman was a poacher and the fish belonged to
 him, the owner of the land. He was | just on the point of consulting the vol | ume of the famous law giver for as | surance sake when the boys knocked | at his door. He called them into his 1 study, and gave his decision, but said l he would re1inquish his claim to the priZe u they would agree 10 OraW lOtS for the ownership. Both contenders 1 absolutely refused to do this. A third and a fourth boy in the l party who were also fishing at the time, but whose lines lay the bank | at the time of the successful landing of the fish, suggested that the boys be allowed to settle the dispute by a
 resort to fsdc prowess, as their re-
 mote ancestors would have done. The
 guardian of the peace and the uphold 1 CT of the majesty of the law in New 1 town was shocked at the temeTity of
 both contestants, and after reading
 them an appropriate lecture on the
 hfdeousness of their proposal, saying
 he could do nothing more, dismissed
 them. That night the constable sent
 the trout to the home of the youth | who owned the line.
 If he thought this beneficiary of his bounty would say nothing about it he was mistaken. By the time the even-
 ing mail was distributed, Jean Kelly
 knew all about it. And now there is blood on the moon-
 STAMFORD YOUNG MAN
 l WILT, JOTN REn CROSS