Year: 1869

while there's life there's hope, and that persever
ance and patience overcome all Things, and BY get
ting off lot more of old second-class falsehoods
you throw in again. r. =.
i Wait for several centuries, if you calculate &C
cording to your suferings, and meyer get any bite
but one on the calf Of your leg from sixtylegge'
spider, who has been on an exploring expedition VI
your pantaloons. -. :,


Then you pull out and spit on the bait for luck
may be you blow on it, ifyou are superstitous, ant
you throw in and get bite. You pull up severa
hundred times and never catch him: ....<.


Then you get mad; you believe it is an eel, AM
you swear to catch that eel or die. You feel tha
life will be perfectly joyless and destitute Of hap
piness unless you get chance to put your grip o.
that eel.


At last you hooked him and drew him cut d
is active and playful and vivacious He is wrig
gler, and combines himself into letters and G an,
X, and runs through the alphabet generally, ant
slaps you in the face, and gets around your legs
and covers you M over with slime.


Then be tanales your line into hard knot, ant
when you get your foot on him you find he ha
swallowed the hook, And just as likely as not you
got to rip that eel clear open from head to tail
get it out, and when you do he will wriggle away
from you and annoy You as long as you stay there


Eels never die; immortality is their strong point
and they lay themselves out to make you abjectl.
miserable. 60 --


When you get all Strengthened out and throw ii
again you wait for an hour but you only get abou
one frst-class bite during that time. You pull NJ
and you have on an enormous fish, and before yo'
get him near the shore he quickly let's 60 his hol
and drops back again into his native element.


1t is rough on you, I admit, but when you 60
fishing you We got to take it as it comes withou
growing


How interesting it is when you have dropped
the last one of, and you get another bite, to maxi
up your mind to get this one anyhow, and then II
concentrate an your strength and pull up with 1
violent jerk, and sling your line back on to tree
and have it wind around the branches as tight a
if it had been pulled by q steam engine, and ii
such bewidering condition that you can't get II
loose in a week. .,.


This is calculated to make you use hard expires
sons, but not any more 80 than it is 10 have you
cork drawn undergently and steadily, and 60 down
down, down until it is ont Of sight.


"A catfish, most probably" you say; "they al
ways pull in this manner" You draw your line II
gently and the catty tugs at the other end. "The,
always do this, you observe '..--- =


You pull up slowly, so as to keep him on the
hook, and when you get your line out you most pro
baby find an old snag with more branches than tht
Pennsylvania railroad, and covered with mud, ,ant
not solitary fish in the neighborhood, while al
the time there is boy with apin-book and an ole
hank of twine who is catching them so fast that b.
can't bait his hook, and the ground is white witt
them all around him. -,


don't advocate violent language but if, ther'
ever is an occasion when the ten commandment
are temporarily suspended, this is it


A man is legally entitled to relieve bis pent-ul
feelings, and the more so because when he gets VI
to 20 home he finds that his fish hook has caugh
him by the shirt and that there is puddle deeI
enough to float canal boat just where he has beer
sitting.


Of course you cant go home without fish, to b
laughed at; so you go over and try to buy them o
the boy, who not only tries to insult you by asking
you if you "ketched any?'' but feels that he ha
you in his power, and makes you pay more none!
than you could buy out whole oyster-soop for:


No, I don't see any sport in it, and if wanted
to make man utterly wretched; if I wanted tt
hurt his feelings and break down his spirits ant
ruin his morals, would get him to 60 fishing
about once week. Iapprove of abofshing peni
tentiaries and jais, and making convicts fish 70
the benefit of the State