Williams. — Florida's Fish and her Fisheries 167 



as he had described them. The outer door was unfastened. In we 

 went and to bed. Before day in came the fisherman and, to his 

 astonishment and evident delight, he found us in his beds, one on 

 each cot. I offered to relinquish to him the cot I was occupying, 

 but he would none of it, though he had fished all night and was 

 weary. He reclined on the floor and told anecdotes for half an 

 hour or more for our entertainment and kept us roaring with 

 laughter. Many of the stories he told were on himself and equaled 

 anything ever written by the immortal Mark Twain. 



After thus entertaining us, he informed us that his wife was 

 away on a visit and that he was an excellent cook and clean, neat 

 housekeeper and that he would prepare breakfast ; for us to go to 

 sleep and he would have breakfast at sunrise, then wake us up, 

 We protested until we saw that further protest would grieve him. 

 We had a good breakfast; fat fresh mullet, perfectly cooked grits, 

 (something we eat as bread and of which you know nothing, but 

 the sooner you find out the happier your stomachs will be and the 

 less indigestion you will have), and delicious coffee. 



Our host was a typical Florida cracker fisherman, unlearned, 

 talkative, honest, industrious, hospitable, confiding. He was 

 about thirty-five years old. He fished as the law provided. He 

 drank, at times getting drunk and would fight at the drop of a hat. 

 He informed me that he never did anything for a living but fish; 

 that he had $4,200 in the bank and had twelve $20 bills in his 

 pocket, and showed me the bills. He took down another purse, 

 well filled, from the rafters from behind cobwebs. How much 

 money his wife had taken with her on her visit to Georgia he did not 

 say. He had a comfortable little home, a launch and fishing net 

 and about $1,000 worth of hogs. It is likely he fought, drank and 

 spent his money until twenty-five years old and, since marrying 

 (in ten years) , by legal fishing had supported a wife and accumu- 

 lated in cash and other property some six or seven thousand 

 dollars. 



Who, being a man who must earn his bread by the sweat of his 

 brow, would not prefer to be a Florida commercial fisherman? 

 No noxious gas of the mine to suffocate him ; no smoke and noise 

 of the factory to stifle and deafen him; no burning sun to blister 

 him as he turns the furrow ; no hard-hearted boss to find fault and 

 bulldoze him. Pure air fills his lungs. Instead of deafening 



