HOW TO TIB FLIES. 



take up fly dressing as a means of a livelihood* ; 

 though, of course, they are primarily intended 

 for the instruction of the amateur fly dresser. 



In this connection I cannot refrain from 

 quoting the following short passage from Robert 

 Louis Stevenson's "Virginibus Puerisque." He 

 is contrasting literature with painting as a hobby, 

 but his words have a very evident application to 

 our present subject. 



" But painting, on the contrary, is often highly 

 sedative ; because so much of the labour, after 

 your picture is once begun, is almost entirely 

 manual, and of that skilled sort of manual labour 

 which offers a continual series of successes, and 

 so tickles a man, through his vanity, into good 

 humour. 



* * * 



" A stupid artist, right or wrong, is 

 almost certain he has found a right tone or a 

 right colour, or made a dexterous stroke with his 

 brush. 



***** 



" It would be well for all the genus irritabile to 

 add something of skilled labour to intangible 

 brain work/ 5 



* I am afraid I cannot advise anyone to take up fly 

 dressing as a means of a livelihood. I know several who 

 have tried it and been greatly disappointed. ED. Fishing 

 Gazette. 



