202 BOOK OF THE BLACK BASS. 



from the credit or just due of any one in this matter, but 

 rather to render unto Caesar those things that belong to 

 Caesar. I will present only such evidence as is entirely 

 trustworthy, having been obtained from authentic sources, 

 and put it on record here as reliable data in regard to the 

 early history of the American split bamboo rod; and in 

 so doing I hope to do justice to an obscure, but worthy 

 brother of the angle. 



The first split bamboo rods were made by Mr. Samuel 

 Phillippi, a gunsmith of Easton, Pennsylvania, about the 

 year 1848. Mr. Phillippi was an angler of some local 

 repute, and died about 1878. Mr. Charles H. Luke, a 

 veteran angler of Newark, New Jersey, formerly lived in 

 Easton, and was a near neighbor of Phillippi, with whom 

 he fished and hunted on many occasions. He naturally 

 spent much of his spare time at Phillippi's gun-shop, where, 

 about 1850, he watched him for hours at a time making 

 split bamboo trout fly-rods, in which, being a fine and exact 

 workman, he took great pride. 



Mr. Charles F. Murphy, of Newark, New Jersey, famous 

 as one of the best makers of split bamboo rods, and who 

 has few, if any, superiors as a fly-fisher, corroborates Mr. 

 Luke's testimony, and says that Phillippi used split bamboo 

 for fly-rods, certainly as far back as 1848, and further 

 says: "I am certain you can give Phillippi credit for the 

 discovery of split bamboo for fly-rods, without fear of con- 

 tradiction/' 



Dr. W. W. Bowlby, of New York City, a gentleman 

 well known as an angler, says : " My earliest recollection 

 of the split bamboo rod dates back to about the year 1852. 

 At that time I lived in New Jersey, near Easton, Penn- 

 sylvania, and fished in the same waters in New Jersey and 



