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Poor men ! they only resort to this melancholy pastime 

 in order to put their patience to the proof; and fit them 

 for severer trials; for if the fire be not out and the wife 

 not dead, on there return home, desperate indeed must 

 be their condition. Gentle angler, laugh not at those 

 persons who are thus driven to the water-side, to seek 

 so desperate a remedy for their woes : fchou knowest 

 not what may hereafter "be thy own fate. Pray that the 

 construction of their chimneys, and the temper of their 

 helpmates, may "be amended; "but if, after a twelve- 

 month's absence, thou again mark an unhappy man on 

 the same spot, for pity's sake put the sufferer out of pain. 

 Taking him by the collar of his coat and the waistband 

 of his small-clothes, gently cast him into the water he 

 will have neither strength nor inclination to resist 

 hold him down with the but of his rod for the space of 

 twenty minutes, and then leave 1 him to his beloved 

 gudgeons. Though thou canst not thus expect to gain 

 the medal of the Humane Society, thou wilt have the 

 pleasing consciousness of having relieved a fellow 

 man, I almost said a brother angler, but, with such, 

 brother Bob is the word, of his cares, and of having 

 prevented him from committing suicide. 



Elderly Anglers , who feel weak in the legs after a mile 

 or two's walk, and who seat themselves on the bare 

 ground when fishing, ought to be made acquainted with 

 the danger which they incur in thus incautiously 

 resting themselves ; for " however dry it may seem/' 

 says an experienced bottom fisher, "many, from so 

 doing, have experienced violent cholics, inflammations 



