144 
And when he came in after dark, 
He had one little trout, 
That measured just three inches 
Anda half from tail to snout! 
“Et ain’t no good!’’ said Un le Ike, 
‘“* An’ all the thing I wish, 
Is ’at the fish ’ud bite as good, 
Ez when I us’ter fish!”’ 
Reminiscences of «* Nessmuk.”’ 
(Continued from our March issue.) 
On January 3, 1882, we received from Ness- 
muk a few lines of warm gratulations and en_ 
couragement in our publication of THe AMER- 
ICAN ANGLER, at that time only a baby of three 
months: 
“When you started out a little while ago, 
you had my best wishes, with some doubts as 
to your ultimate success. 
‘« Just why I cannot tell. 
“We are a nation of 50,000,000 ; 
half’ of the male persuasion, and at least 
one-fourth of these like to gc a-fishing; say, 
six millions of anglers. The figures are not 
too high, as we all know; our waters are free, 
which is not the case in Europe. 
about one- 
If one in ten 
of our home anglers will support a home paper 
and all subjects connected therewith. you 
ought to be a big success. 
“The fishing Gazette, of England, lives 
and is popular. THE ANGLER ought to have 
the best of support and twice as many sub- 
scribers as the Gazette. If it does not, it isa 
shame to our anglers from Maine to Montana.”’ 
A little later, on January 22, 1882, he wrote: 
“Yes, I think, you will be apt to make the 
rifle. Itis a new departure, and not the less 
likely to go through for that. Always believe 
that every man is a fisherman, and you won't 
be far wrong. The few exceptions who have, 
like Horace Greely, been trying to go fishing 
for the last twenty years, but can’t find time, 
are scarce plenty enough to prove the rule. 
Nine out of ten men go a-fishing, and the 
tenth man is mad enough aboutit. Think 1 
can manage to work out an article for your 
next issue, and it is safe to say it will be on 
some game fish, which means, according to 
the last definition I have seen ‘any fish taken 
for sport with hook and line.’ Also, ye festive 
turtle is a fish. Ergo, the sunny, the pond- 
shiner, the carp, and eke the bullhead, eel and 
sucker, as well as the turtle, are ‘game fish.’ 
(1 once made game of a turtle, a snapper. 
When I look at the reddish, obtuse angular 
The American Angler 
scar on the index finger ot my dexter fin, I 
don’t deny his gameness. ) 
“And the cheerful batrachian, the toothsome 
frog: Shall he pass by unhonored and un- 
sung? He is better on the table than any 
trout, and his gameness is past question. A 
fat, bellowing fellow, big as a pint bowl, took 
my red ibis tail-fly three times in succession 
last summer, on third lake, Fulton chain, get- 
ting dragged and walloped about each time, 
but grabbing the fly all the same the instant 
it was dropped before his nose, scuttling off a 
few yards when freed, but never diving under 
water. I should have relished his hind legs 
for supper, only he looked so much like an 
overfed, naked baby.” 
These reminiscences of the old sportsman, 
which we will continue to publish from time 
to time, elicit warm remembrances among the 
craft. Brother E.S. Whitaker, of Carthage, 
Ohio, writes us: 
‘‘In the January ANGLER your reminiscenses 
of Nessmuk was a touching reminder of occa- 
sions when I met him in the Adirondacks and 
in Florida. Thanks for the opportunity of 
reading his characteristic and charming let- 
tei 
Mr. Whitaker, in some verses, which he 
sends us, on the Adirondacks as a state pre- 
serve, refers to Nessmuk: 
’Tis easily reached and there’s room for all, 
Sportsmen or tourist, with means great or small, 
Or one who, like Nessmuk, so good and so true, 
Camped, carried and *‘ paddled his own canoe.”’ 
The Sportsmen’s Exposition. 
The time for the opening of the Sportsmen’s 
Exposition is drawing near, and reviewing the 
difficulties which have been encountered from 
time to time since the project was launched, 
it must be conceded that the sportsman’s in- 
terests have received an impetus by the con- 
templated holding of the exhibition, the effect 
of which is conspicuous, and should certainly 
create a broader knowledge of the needs and 
requirements of the legion of shooters, fisher- 
men and lovers of field sports and recreations 
that has not existed before. 
The growth of interest by exhibitors is a 
remarkable feature of the exposition. All the 
way from the wilds of Maine will come a 
hunter’s cabin and its immediate surroundings. 
From Colorado Mr. and Mrs. W. C. Wallin- 
ham, who have earned for themselves an en- 
