Tlt'O TALES (>l : TKOl'HIM. 21 



very slow attention, so that much of the time this indispensable 

 requisite was also deficient. My photography was. therefore, almost 

 as bad a failure as my fishing. 



Having had experience with the ways of black servants, mv wife 

 took a maid down with her, who was to relieve her from the trouble 

 of issuance of supplies, supervision of purchases and manv other house- 

 hold duties. She was particularly faithful and conscientious and we 

 were all very fond of her. After having been in Xassau a few 

 weeks she took to her bed with fever and weakness, which the 

 doctor decided was due to tuberculosis. Instead of being of anv 

 assistance to my wife, the latter was obliged to nurse the girl con- 

 tinuously for over three weeks, until I grew very anxious for the 

 effect on her own health. Fortunately, by the help of a resident 

 physician, we were able to get passage for her on a comfortable 

 steamer going north, under the care of a nurse who was traveling 

 hv the same vessel. All this we felt of course morally bound and even 

 glad to do. but naturally we got no service from her and were put 

 to heavv expense on her account. 



So hard luck pursued me and mine throughout the whole winter, 

 everything seeming to go wrong when there was the slightest opjx>r- 

 tunity to do so. Such continued worries and annoyances cause a nerve 

 strain that cannot be beneficial to one's health, and the result was 

 that I came home again far kss well than when 1 went. So my 

 winter in Xassau failed to fulfill mv hopes in fishing, photography, or 

 health. This bad fortune continued until the very end. finishing with 

 a railwav wreck as we came west from Xew York. 



It is very probable that, on going to Xassau another vear. one 

 would find none of the natural annoyances which 1 have described : but 

 1 intend to devote mvself, and ask fishermen in general to join me 

 in this, to preventing the recurrence of such troubles as come from 

 defective tackle, by using the weapon of publicity. From now on I 

 shall trv to publish the names of everybody who sells me defective 

 material, and also of those who sell me good and satisfactorv stuff. 

 and. if other fishermen will do the same, joining in a crusade for the 

 protection of fishermen, honest dealers and honest manufacturers, 

 against unscrupulous dealers and rascally manufacturers, who make 

 and sell tackle that thev know to be bad. such troubles cannot often 

 recur. 



I laving given so long an account of my had luck, let me now 

 describe one of the- few bright -pots that lighted up the prevailing gloom. 



