The Mission of 



Those who have been fortunate 

 enough to hear the fervid eloquence 

 of Henry Ward Beecher, and even 

 those who have only read what he has 

 written, cannot overlook his fishing 

 propensity so constantly manifest 

 that the things he said and wrote were 

 fairly redolent of fishing surround- 

 ings. His own specific confession of 

 fealty was not needed to entitle him 

 to the credentials of a true fisherman, 

 nor to disclose one of the never-fail- 

 ing springs of his best inspiration. 

 When these things are recalled, and 

 when we contemplate the lofty mission 

 so well performed by this noble an- 

 gler, no member of our brotherhood 

 can do better in its vindication than 

 to point to his career as proof of what 

 the fishing habit has done for hu- 

 manity. 



