Evening star., 1925-05-05
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

First we read that the President
said fishing was only boys sport
and then we read various statements
| by various spokesmen for the Chief
Executive, who declared that what ne
really had said was that nobody ought
to go fishing except boys!
Whatever 1t was President Coolidge
! said about fishing-or did not say
we strongly agree with him. We
| never have been fishing, and we are
proud of 1t.
Personally, we always believed that
numbering little fishes in the name
of sport was a mighty poor way to
spend ones time. AS for us, we
would much rather be honest, and
| loaf, pure and simple than sit on a
! bank all day intriguing innocent
members of the piscatorial tribe, and
| call it fishing"
Maybe we are wrong in this at
titude. Perhaps, after all. fishing is
a sport. When the bass catches the
bait and makes a mad dash for its
liberty, and the angler works for
many minutes landing the fish, after
all there may be something noble in
it.
When the great tarpon drags a boat
ana several fishermen for hours
through the water, until, exhausted
at last, 1t gives up the struggle, may
be that, too, rightly comes under the
name of sport.
We cannot say, since we have
never been fishing, as stated. And
If one takes the word of the followers
of the immortal Izaak for. it, all this
Is simon pure sport, of the very first
water.
But We. able to sit on a bank, as it
were, and watch the antics of the
anglers hn 10 OBJ
the fish. wonder what it is all about,
and just why the business of trap
ping fishes must be called sport"
Our idea of sport" is base ball, or
good prize fight
A sport is some game or endeayor in
which sides or individuals are more or
less equally matched. Our great ma
teams Of men, all about the same age.
all experienced in what they are
doing, and tells them to go to it, under
equal rules and conditions.
mat goes for one side goes for
the other. and men called umpires-
sometimes empires" alas-are paid
big sums to see that the encounter
throughout its nine innings remains
true to the name of sport"
The prize ring offers a good EXAM
pie OF true sport" reduced to its
elemental proportions, in which not
NUMBER OF men engage, but in which
one man opposes another.
Despite the popular outcry against
boxing In its essentials it remains a
very good sport. When two men.
trained right down to the minute,
enter the squared circle against each
other there are prospects of tall
doings.
sweet ladies may call the set-to
cruel, and others inveigh against so.
called prize fights" but in reality
tnere Is not much cruelty in the aver
age bout between husky fellows who
are making life business out of the
thing.
Were the average citizen iolted on
the point of the chin the blow might
snap his head off, but your pugiIist
mas well developed neck muscles, so
that when the K. o. comes it does NOT
XIII MIN. AS a matter of fact, the
knockout scarcely can be said to hurt
him.
These, then. seem sports to me.
where is it?
Personally I would just as leave
butcher hogs as fish. 1 do neither. I
leave the pig g-sticking to the profes.
slonal slaughter house men and the
fisherman
Perhaps there is no occupation in
which there is more bunk" pure and
adulterated, than fishing in this dav
and age.
1t Is one of the old traditional oc.
cupations, along with hunting, that
nave come down to us from the ages
Wnen men were forced to hunt and
fish in. order to live.
TODAY fishing iS p,ora ~. 1o.o 20 :
myth. 1t is true that there are en-
thusiastic fishermen in every commu
nifty. The amount of talking they do.
too, is notorious. The tales of a fish
| erman about his fish are proverbiaI.
Taking your population as a whole,
however, there is only a very small
per cent that goes fishing. Their
right to do so, of course, is granted.
Every man to his taste.
AS a matter of cold fact. Fisherman
are such enthusiasts that they have
| bulldozed the remainder of us into
silence, on pain of going counter tn
a race tradition. So it takes some
moral courage, If you will permit me
to say so, to fly in the face of the
| fishermen.
| Very few men will admit that thew
do not care for fishing, and practical
| ly none VIII admit that he never has
| indulged in the sport.
Yet If one can catch his specimens
off guard, he is very likely to sur
| prise a majority of them into admit
| ting their non-interest in the sport :"
and maybe he will wiring from them
the truth-they never have been fish.
| ing in their lives,
l remember one night, amid a
party of friends. where a fishing party
| was being planned, 1 had the temerity
to declare that 1 had never been
| fishing.
What kind of a guy are you9"
spoke up the fisherman of the group-
| the man who was getting up the
party. Say, do you mean to tell
me you have never been fishing?"
The remainder of the party eyed
me with scorn. Such an attitude, you
know, Is quite necessary, If you
would avoid being impaled, like a fish
on hook, on the sharp scorn of
your fisherman friends.