THE JOYS OF ANGLING 27 



manly sportsmanship, and in which both victor and 

 vanquished may fairly be credited with honors nobly 

 won." Is any further assurance needed that this 

 man makes good rods? Anyway, we will say right 

 here that he does beauties. 



The acme of perfection in angling-rods " the 

 rod fine-tempered with elastic spring " is realized 

 only in one built properly of six strips of split bam- 

 boo. In the maximum combination of the qualities 

 of resiliency, balance, and lightness with power, 

 quickness, and smoothness or sweetness of action, 

 such an one is unsurpassed; and the split-bamboo rod 

 of the best American manufacture has no superior 

 the world over. In making this statement we are 

 not heedless of the improvements upon this standard 

 model that have been attempted, principally by our 

 English cousins across the big pond. Various pain- 

 fully ingenious combinations have been achieved, of 

 bamboo without and steel core within, steel core 

 within and braided steel, copper, or bronze ribbands 

 outside, split cane inside and whole cane outside, and 

 all sorts of other arrangements, in eight strips of 

 cane, in nine strips, built double in twelve, sixteen, 

 or eighteen strips modifications leading all the 

 way up or down to the rolled tubular whole- 

 steel rod of American make. Most of these varia- 

 tions are possible only for the butt- and middle- 

 joints of a rod, the top-joint or top or as Ameri- 

 can anglers say less explicitly, the tip being gen- 



