OF ANGLING TROPHIES 125 



made on the premises, and point to their creator's 

 inordinate passion for fame a great deal more 

 surely than to his success with the rod. 



If a man should go into a court of law and 

 swear that such and such a thing happened at half- 

 past one by his watch, and should produce the 

 very watch in proof of his statement, he would 

 surely advance his case very little. Yet I have 

 seen men stand in front of the counterfeit pre- 

 sentment of a trout so vast that, in the good old 

 days before trophies were introduced, not a man 

 among us would have dared to whisper its alleged 

 weight and swallow it, glass case and inscrip- 

 tion, without an effort. 



But the most pernicious feature of the trophy 

 remains to be exposed. Unless an angler has 

 casts to show he is looked upon with suspicion. 

 I may expend treasures of ingenuity in adorning 

 the relation of my exploits, but in the presence 

 of my bare walls, my friends say, " We see that 

 you do not care to have your fish set up. Some 

 people don't." There are persons, of course, who 

 cut their fish out of brown paper, and for some 

 years after this method of angling was discovered 

 it enjoyed a considerable popularity among the 

 indigent. But for one reason or another a brown- 

 paper shape is not convincing. The most credu- 

 lous eye sees through it. I suppose it is too easy 



