6 Tzvcnty -sixth Annual Meeting 



It becomes my pleasure to introduce to you, on behalf of the 

 gentlemen anglers of Detroit who are to entertain us during 

 your stay here, a gentleman who, though old in experience, is 

 not old in years, and who came to the realization after years of 

 activity, that there were other things in life good for men to know 

 besides business. He has developed into one of our most ac- 

 complished anglers and it is unnecessary for me to say he is a 

 most accomplished gentleman. He has left the small streams 

 and l)rook trout as little side issues, and goes to the sal- 

 mon streams for his sport. I have great pleasure in introducing 

 to \ou i\ir, Henry Russel, of Detroit, who will speak on behalf 

 of the anglers of the city. 



Mr. I\ussel : Gentlemen, it is difficult for me to make the 

 few formal remarks which I am expected to make after the glow- 

 ing introduction of my friend Whitaker, but it seems to me in 

 the few words of welcome I can give you I can congratulate you 

 that you have no secretary or treasurer present. Those two 

 offices seem to smack a little too much of business. And if you 

 can dispense with them at this meeting and during your visit 

 to our city, and if you will occupy your thought and attention 

 with other things which we will endeavor to spread before you, 

 I do not know l)ut your meeting will be all the more profitable. 



Your President, and my friend, in whose great knowledge 

 of fish and in whose skill as an angler we all take pride, notified 

 me he would ask me to speak in behalf of the friends of angling 

 and to welcome you to our city, and I assure you it is a great 

 privilege to lay aside business cares, for the time at any rate, and 

 extend to you our hospitality. To some of you whose names 

 are household words in Michigan, I need not say anything in 

 the way of welcome, for you know you are always welcome. 

 Now, Mr. Herschel "Whitefish" Whitaker, as he is sometimes 

 known— and I want to explain at the outset in respect to that, 

 that he is so full of fishing lore, lie has had so many experiences 

 that many of us believe he is the man that took down the short- 

 hand notes of St. Anthony's sermon on fishes — we know he has 

 a shorthand way of casting, and he brings to bear his great skill 

 whenever he strikes a fish — -Mr. Whitaker has not come to me 

 in any way as a lawyer, railroad man, banker, or manufacturer, 

 nor even as a representative business man to request me to ad- 

 dress you this morning, and I wish to say to you I wan: you to 



