The Annals of the Porch Club 163 



culated, and, strangely enough, the world is better for it, 

 and the gayety of nations assured an everlasting imperish- 

 able perpetuity. 



The Porch Club has several thousand members scattered 

 over this country, England and Germany. There are no 

 dues. No one ever saw a list of members, nor did a mem- 

 ber ever confess that he was one ; yet the Porch Club exists ; 

 has a president, an hourly session, and all the real fish stories 

 of a violent and inexplicable character emanate from here. 



The Hague may be a remarkable machine for promoting 

 peace and good international digestion, but it could take 

 pointers from the Santa Catalina Porch Club, which is at 

 peace with all the world, even with the fishes, it is said, as 

 its members will not go a-fishing; they sit on the porch, 

 and in lieu of angling, tell what they once did on these 

 charming waters of the Kuro Shiwo, to the wonder and 

 consternation of the stranger and alien. 



About four-thirty P. M. the Porch Club is in full session, 

 and the conversation falls on light and heavy tackle, long 

 or short butts, whether one thinks in words, or whether 

 chum should be shoveled over, or whether boatmen should 

 all be good-natured, or whether they should have some in- 

 dividuality or none. And then, the fresh-water anglers 

 thresh out the question of worms or flies. 



" Let's talk of graves, of worms and epitaphs." 



" Speaking of worms," said a Professor from Yale (and 

 the Porch Club stops rocking and listens), "reminds me of 

 the extraordinary and true experience of a friend of mine. 

 He had been tied down to business for a year or two, and 

 had come down to New Haven to have a few days among 

 the trout streams of his boyhood. You can realize his feel- 

 ings, as he started out one morning, to cast in the same little 

 pools he knew so well as a boy. But sawdust and other 

 things had arrived, and late in the afternoon he wandered 

 into a farm-house, dry, disgusted and troutless. He had 



