Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1935-06-28
"Chirps'' ~
from the
Democrats Pen
from the

Well, Sir, these are the days OF
big fishing Ii, I mean yarns. l
reckon some of these disciples OF
Isaak Walton mean all right, but
don't know a situation on earth where
the imagination runs so rife as when
a fisherman is holding on to line.
There must be something in the re-
fractive power of water. Most Of the
biggest fish get away. The anglers
bring the finny fellow up to the sur
face and he must be enlarged by his
submerged position. The ones that
break line, or slip hook are gen.
orally the mammoth specimens.
Now, if you people will look into
another column of today's Democrat,
among the items under the heading,
"From our Exchanges" you'll read
whopper. The story comes from Chin
colleague and tells about two visiting
fishermen from Princeton, N. j. 1t
started out by saying one Of the men
was playing drum. First idea that
popped into my head was he had some
fool way of trying to charm or at
tract the fish. Thought maybe these
Jerseyites had discovered some way OF
making the pesky things bite by play
ing a musical instrument. You know,
these Indian fakirs have a way of
charming the deadly Cobra by playing
on some sort of a weird instrument,
and l thought perhaps our friends
from the mosquito hang-out had found
that playing a drum would induce the
fish to take hold.
Then the next sentence of the story
told me shark came along and swal-
lowed the drum. Immediately, I won
dered why the man-eater preferred to
gobble up the drum instead of the man
playing it. I'll admit was somewhat
flabbergasted by the whole account.
Hom-some-ever, it got through my
limited piscatorial understanding that
the drum" was fish, and that the
shark had simply made a meal of the
animal called drum" before the
man at the end of the fishing line had
a chance to appease his hunger by the
catch.
The Waltonite, tho knew something
was going on down below and began to
haul in. He finally landed the shark
which was ten feet in length and the
drum, two feet in length and weighing
fifteen pounds, was inside the shark.
Now, boys, that's the story that comes
from where lots of Pocomoke boys go
to try their luck, and I'm going to
ask Doc Sartorius, Ems Polk, Stanly
Parks and the rest of 'em, if they're
going to allow those Yanks to come
down here and get away with bigger
one than our own boys can tell. It's
mighty hard to beat an Eastern Shore
man at anything, so Pm waitig for
local fisherman to go those Princeton
ians one better (or maybe two), and
I'll be mighty glad to help out in this
column, guaranteeing 'em the story
won't lose anything by my telling. So,
come on boys!
Speaking of fish, our friend Lynch,
who caught the stingray last week,
wanted to publicize the fifty-six
FOUNDER, and strung it up in one of
Monty Wards show windows, exhibit
ing it with some fancy fishing tackle.
The day was one of those scorchers
we had last week, and it hadn't been
hanging in the window very long, sur
rounded by temperature that must
have been way up in the nineties, be-
fore the boys said its name might
have been spelled with 'k" instead
of "g." An effort was made to
preserve it for while by giving it
a coat of salt, but that, only seemed
to add to the flavor. People said
they didn't know just what sort of
mandatory had started on Clarke
Avenue, and didn't care much about
investigating either. Mr.. Lynch soon
came to the conclusion the fish wasn't
drawing as much trade and it was
flies, and concluded to withdraw it
from publication. Now, that was a
case of "seein' is believin." All I
wish is that had ben on Chincoteague
when they cut that shark open. I'd
like to have seen whether it contained
more than the usual innards. I'm
from Missouri!