CHAPTER XIV 



TROUT ON BARBLESS HOOKS . 



MOST women who indulge in fishing are, like chil- 

 dren, mere fish takers, not Anglers, but the craft is 

 honored by the association of many fine female de- 

 votees who study and practice the gentle art in its 

 fullest meaning a devotion to the poetic, artistic, 

 healthful, and humane elements in piscatorial pursuits. 

 Dame Juliana Berners, who wrote the earliest volume 

 on gentle fishing (1500), was the first celebrated exam- 

 ple of the artful and merciful woman fisher, and Cleo- 

 patra the first female to make notorious the coarse 

 and ungodly method in fishing for pastime. Sweet 

 Dame Berners believed in angling the desire of fair 

 treatment to the quarry, correct tackle, a love of the 

 pursuit superior to greed for number in the catch, and 

 a heavenly admiration of the general beauties of nature 

 in the day as well as in the play; and brutal Cleopatra 

 believed in mere fishing, the killing of the greatest 

 number, regardless of means, mercy, or method. 



Our modern Dame Bernerses and Cleopatras in the 

 fishing fold are many. The wife who aids the net 

 fisherman the marine farmer whose calling emulates 

 the professional duties of Jesus' disciples, Peter, 

 Andrew, James, and John does not count. Her part 

 in fishing, while by no means angling, is as honest as 

 the work of the upland farmer's helpmate, and God 



87 



