ing the flying bait made a swoop for it and sailed away. Mr. Ringer saw 

 five hundred feet of mist-colored silk line reeled away into the heavens in 

 a most amazing manner in the wake of a pair of broad white wings that 

 flashed in the sun. 



" What on earth have you caught? " I cried to mv friend. 



" Blamed if I know," was the qiuet reply, as the whizzing reel spun 

 round, "but I think I have got a cherubim ! " 



A RAILWAY FISHING LINE. 



Perhaps you never heard how our railway obtained the 

 name of the fishing line, said Mr. F. H. Miller, of the C. 

 M. & St. P. R. R., Chicago. It happened in this way: 

 " One of the officers of the road, accompanied by a friend, 

 went up to a favorite lake on a fishing trip several years 

 ago. They were fishing for black bass and mascalonge. Each one 

 caught a large number of black bass, and several mascalonge of fair size, 

 but this did not satisfy them. They \vished to bring home one of the 

 large specimens known to inhabit the lake, as a well-mounted mascalonge 

 in a street window is the best kind of advertising for any railwa}'^ line desir- 

 ing the patronage of anglers. I should have explained that our line, at the 

 point referred to, runs along near the border of the lake for some distance, 

 and then turns at an angle into the wilderness. 



One morning Mr. B and his friend started out on a hand car from 



a little way station, inteixling to take a fishing boat upon arriving at the 

 lake to enjoy a few hours sport among the mascalonge. Just for amuse- 

 ment Mr. B threw out the trolling spoon and perhaps twenty yards of 



line, as the hand car drew close to the lake. The artificial bait began spin- 

 ning swiftly through the water, and in less time than it takes to tell it, a 

 huge mascalonge had seized the lure. The fish turned in its course, after 

 running out in the lake a short distance, and swam along parallel with the 

 shore at marvelous speed. By some means the line became tangled in the 

 handle bar of the hand car, and the mascalonge led the anglers a race along 

 that half-mile course that would put to shame the best efforts of an Amer- 

 ican Derby winner at Washington Park. The water frothed and foamed 

 in the wake of the fish, and the hand car dashed along the rails like a 

 lightning express train. ' 



When the point was reached where the railway line diverged from 

 the lake shore, it was expected that the line would break, but its strength 

 proved equal to the emergency. The hand car was running at the rate of 

 a mile a minute, and the fish was drawn ashore before it had time to use 

 its great power of resistance. The mascalonge was, of course, not familiar 

 with this overland trail and in floundering through the underbrush and 



71 



