Evening star., 1922-02-05
ISHING is the grand passion, the
. favorite sport, recreation, relax
alton and regeneration of many

~ ISHING is the grand passion, the
X favorite sport, recreation, relax
alton and rejuvenation of many
congressman. OF course, there
are quite a number of them who follow
Speaker Gillett's example and take their
exercise and outings on famous golf
links, but, by and large, the general run
Of members are more familiar with lines
and poles and reels and flies and bait
than they are with the various kinds OF
golf clubs.
Izaak Walton would be able NO re-
cruit a soul-delighting band OF dis
cip1es from the present Congress.
There are men there who have fought
the gamest fish to be found in the
waters on the globe; men who have
caught every kind Of fish known to
the most learned ichthyologist; men
who have fished all over the world;
men who have made most remarkable
catches; men who will tell you where
the best fishing is to be found-and
mon who claim that within easy ac-
cess from the National Capital are
fishing grounds that make this an an
gler's paradise.
With some of these members of Con-
gress fishing is fine art; with all OF
them fishing has code of ethics. Some,
in telling of their exploits, do not
hesitate to take advantage of the fish
erman's time-honored prerogative. ex-
aggeration, while others have done
SO we'll that the ungarnished truth is
as strange as any fiction.
AS a rule, even the most ardent
fishermen in Congress will admit
that fishing is really an agency for get
ting out in the open, to come close to
nature, to enjoy the beauties of valleys
and mountains and forests, and the
bounding deep and the clear pools and
the water splashing over rocks, and
to be out in the great open, day or
night, under the canopy of the sky.
Probably nowhere in the world will
such a body of nature lovers be found
as in the Congress of the United
States.
The newcomer to the legislative
halls, it he be not yet acquainted with
kindred spirits with whom to go fish
one of the first officials he meets at
the Capitol is William Tyler Page.
clerk of the House, and one Of the
first questions Page will ask him is,
do you like to fish," Tyler Page has
gone fishing with more members OF
Congress than any other man alive.
Mr.. Page has fished all along the New
England and New Jersey coasts and
in all the waters anywhere near
Washington.
Another employe about the Capitol
who organizes fishing parties for new
members is William A. Reutemann,
clerk to the Speaker, who specializes
on bass, known hereabouts as rock
fish. So if any member Of Congress
has an inclination to go fishing he can
always find congenial companions to
play truant with him. And when
members go on the so-called "congres-
sional junkets" they usually take
their fishing tackle with them, fol
fishing in the Panama canal or in the
streams of the national parks or of
the Pearl islands Of the Alaskan coast.
{. is impossible to speak individ-
1lally of all the fishing devotees- in
Congress, but few notable ex-
amples will be quoted. AS first wit
ness, here is Representative E. Hart
Fenn of Hartford, Conn.,. oftentimes
mistaken in fishing garb for Theo-
dore Roosevelt, one of whose trophies
IS twenty-six-pound Atlantic sal
mon, the largest fish caught Off New
ioundland during the 1920 season.
Season after. season. when time
could be found from his duties, both
as newspaper man and as q mem
her of the Connecticut house or SEN
ate, or of Congress. angling has been
Mr.. Fenn's chief recreation. and in
the pursuit of sport his lines have
been wet In many waters. From
Newfoundland to Cuba. in the Gulf
of Mexico and even in the far-away
Canal Zone across the Isthmus of
Panama he has pursued the game
fish of the continent. By hook and
line he has taken every game fish
that inhabits tho waters of the At
AAntic or the .streams or-rtvsrs which