Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1891-03-28 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

IMAGINATION OF ANGLORS.  Writing in the Field on the imagination of anglers, a correspondent says: I was sitting the other night with a friend, smoking over a blazing are, with cnr sherris sack, in the shape of whisky and water, at our elbows, and this inspired him to tell me a yarn of how he caught that big pike. He. was out trolling on Lake Maggiore one day, and lost his last spoon bait and part of his tackle in a rock, which it fouled whilst the boatman was stopping rowing for a moment to take a nip for Luck. They had two miles to row home, and it did seem such a pity not to trail something behind the boat, so he rigged up the tackle as best he could, and, being at his wit's end for a bait,made fast his gold signet ring just above the hook by way of an experiment. He felt a little bit nervous about it _certainly, as he let it go over the side of the boat; but it glittered splendidly, and that was all that was wanted. They might perhaps pick up a jack as they went home. They had not rowed many strokes before there was a tremendous pull at the line which almost stopped the boat. The biggest pike he had ever seen jumped out of the water some way behind them, and then the brute ripped and tore at that line until he gave his ring up for lost, never expecting on such bad tackle for an instant to land the fish. At last the fish was drawn up to the boat and pulled in, but to his horror the ring was gone; this was the last straw—he was so fond of that ring. Sulkily he turned to break the brute's neck, when he saw something glistening between its ugly jaws, and 'inside its mouth was the ring, after all, which had somehow got loose and slipped down over the hook. Observe now the charity of the brother angler ! I did not pass him across my card to announce that I was "a bit of a liar myself," as I have seen such people do before now. I did not cress-question him as to how, if the hook was stuck in the pike's mouth, the ring managed to slip right over it. Not a bit of it.. I just pulled myself together, 'congratulated him on the recapture of his ring, which he shelved me on his finger, and then proceeded to cap his story with one of my own. Twelve years ago I was salmon fishing on Loch Em. In those days we did not all have fine metal reels, and mine happened to be , made of wood. Anyhow, I hooked a big salmon, and was playing it comfortably, when something went wrong; my reel came off from the rod, fell into the water, and disappeared instantly. The gillie swore badly—of course I did not—and we rowed back to the house to get another reel, in a proper bad temper. Two or three hours after we were pulling about half a mile or so from the scene of the catastrophe, when I noticed a queer piece of wood floating on the top of the water near us. We went to it, and I picked it up, and it was my lost wooden reel. The strangest thing of all was that, on winding it up, I found the salmon still attached; the reel had worked so freely in the water that it ,ad played him to perfection, and we reeled in a 25-pounder at his last gasp! Oh, it is a beautiful thing, this child-like confidence between anglers! The fact of the matter is, that fishing stories are meant for fishermen, who know the difference between inventing and imagining; whilst other prosaic people, who cannot imagine anything at all, do not understand how fancies can have the reality of facts, and call them by nasty names when they , claim it.  A woman's body, with head severed, has been found on the Great Western Railway line, between Stockwood and Melbury Bubb, Dorset. It is supposed to be a case of suicide. The deceased is believed to be a member of a family named ,Nealp, living at Chetnole, about two miles from the place where the body was found. A well-known Protestant living in Chuchma, a tmvn in the province of Bessarabia has just been sentenced to banishment for life Bessarabia, Central Asia, with forfeiture of all civil rights. He was found guilty of spreading Protestant doctrines among his friends. He is now in gaol in Kisheneff, whence in a few days he is to be forwarded as a convict to his place of exile_ The Scarborough magistrates have disposed of a. curious charge against the directors of the local Aquarium of having permitted gaming. A theatrical performance was recently given in the defendants' premises, and one of the scenes represented the card-room of a club. Some gentlemen who had been invited to sit at the card tables introduced into the scene, it is alleged, played "Nap" for money. The police heard of the matter and instituted proceedings. The witnesses called were the persons who qt re alleged to have played cards on the occasioa in question, and they refused to answer any ques.. tions calculated to criminate themselves. The summons was dismissed. - -"  ------ The coroner's inquest into the death ii of the victims of the Utopia disaster has resulted in the issue of a warrant for the arrest of Captain M`Keague, the commander of the ill-fated vessel, on a charge of manslaughter, in neglecting the ordinary rules of the road in entering a harbour. He as arrested, but later was released on bail.