LET US GO AFIELD 



these early reels. They could not be made as they 

 were, by hand, delicately and beautifully adjusted, at 

 a low price. We always had to pay twenty-five to 

 thirty dollars for such a reel, and one equally good 

 today will cost thirty-five to forty dollars. 



The type of the early casting-reel was rather uni- 

 form. The barrel was long and narrow. The 

 handle might be single crank or sometimes double, 

 or balance-handled. Such a reel would run for 

 thirty seconds or more when the handle was given 

 a strong twirl. The spindle was always of steel and 

 the box of brass, for the old reel-makers knew that 

 steel would cut steel and brass would cut brass, but 

 that steel against brass would wear indefinitely. 

 Sometimes they put jewels at the ends of the spin- 

 dles, but these did not really add much, if anything, 

 to the ease of running of the reel. They depended 

 on the exquisite fitting of the plates, the exquisite 

 high temper of the spindle, and the perfect work- 

 manship which went into the reel. 



It was some such reel as this and a rod eight feet 

 or more in length which made the equipment of the 

 bait caster of twenty years or so ago at which* 

 time, in the belief of some of us, the art was at a 

 higher and more beautiful stage than it is today. 

 None the less it was an expensive art, for few peo- 

 ple could pay those prices for reels. Therefore the 



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