40 WINTER TALKS ON SUMMER PASTIMES. 



the prediction that he would take no office that would pre- 

 clude him from these annual visits to angling waters. In 

 1816 "Hayes and Wheeler" were the candidates of their 

 party, and 1 was proclaimed a false prophet. But I not 

 only knew my man, but the fascinating pastime of which 

 he was a votary, and the result vindicated my piediction. 

 He more than once mysteriously disappeared from his place 

 as presiding officer of the Senate, and while others were guess- 

 ing his whereabouts, his more intimate friends knew he had 

 gone a-fishing. His robes of place were laid aside for the 

 garb of the angler, and the restraints and formalities of his 

 office for the quiet and freedom which can be found nowhere 

 so perfectly as in the primitive forests and on the crystal 

 lakes and flowing rivers where the veteran angler finds his 

 most refreshing rest and highest delectation. 



Although the ex-Vice-President is as skilled in all the 

 mysteries of the craft as he is in all the intricacies of the 

 civil law, and with all the prof oundest principles of states- 

 manship, he affects the troll rather than the fly, and is 

 oftener seen leisurely floating over the silvery surface of 

 the beautiful lakes than casting in either brook or river. 

 While this mode of angling does not come up to the highest 

 standard of the art, and fails to satisfy the more ardent, 

 robust and enthusiastic of the brotherhood, it is full of 

 attraction and affords supreme delight to the more repose- 

 ful and contemplative. Indeed, the most enthusiastic of 

 the craft even those who fancy they would soon weary of 

 the sport if they could not "cast" for their prey are often 

 lured by the pleasure available to those who spend the 

 sunny summer days casting along the picturesque shores 

 and among the fairy-like islands of our charming inland 

 waters. Every measure of the oar reveals some new bit of 

 landscape to be admired. Sunshine and shadow are ever 

 busy painting pictures of ever-varying beauty. The gentle 

 summer zephyrs float down from the forest-crowned moun- 

 tains like heavenly benedictions. The balmy air, as free 

 from the germs of disease and the odors of decay as the 

 mind of the angler is from strife and contention, fills his 



