THE FLY 69 



ness finds expression in words, not deeds ; in printed 

 words that do not expose him to the risk of immediate 

 physical retaliation. Of retaliation other than physical 

 he has no fear ; in his blatant self-conceit he is im- 

 pervious to the slings and arrows of adverse criti- 

 cism, and verbal abuse merely affects him with a 

 pained sense of the coarseness of his abuser. It 

 shocks his delicate sensibilities, but fails to reach his 

 intelHorence. 



That is, I know, a libellously untrue rendering of 

 the character of the dry-fly man, but if it resembles, in 

 any respect, the likeness in which he appears to the 

 angling public, he has himself to blame. His enemies 

 are those of his own household, and he, more than any 

 one else, has cause to pray that he may be delivered 

 out of the hands of his friends. It is to one of his 

 fraternity we owe the contemptuous description of wet- 

 fly fishing as the " chuck and chance it system " — a 

 description significant of much. 



In reality he is not the stupidly prejudiced person 

 some of his foolish advocates would lead us to believe. 

 While maintaining, as he has a perfect right to do, the 

 general superiority of the floating fly, he readily admits 

 its limitations. He knows that it is not of universal 

 application, and, in circumstances which preclude its 



