48 Tliirli/si.r/li Aim mil Mrrllng 



hiinself, hut lie liad to ])retoiul he knew — just as we do some- 

 times — and finally said: ''An immigrant, I know what that is, 

 it is not quite so big as a raccoon, a little higger than an o])nssuui, 

 l)Ut hell on corn." (Great laughter.) 



'I'liat is just the way with us in the present business of fish 

 cultin'c. We come across this little immigrant,, brought from 

 Europe, or Great Britain, or New Zealand — wherever we may 

 happen to get a supply, new elements for the American fish, and 

 this miserable little immigrant plays smash with our native 

 species. We have lots of cases of that kind — little observed — that 

 sw^eep in among our trout and sweep them off by the tens of 

 thousands. And so we should be obliged to our Missouri friend, 

 who has so carefully explained to us the meaning of the word 

 "immigrant." ( Applause. ) 



Toastmaster : There is a little state in the Union called 

 Maryland, and they have got some peculiar things down in Mary- 

 land. It is a jolly little state to get into, I will tell you, but there 

 is one thing I know we should all like to know about, and thai 

 is, how it is that the fish commissioner of Maryland managed to 

 get an appropriation of $4000, to buy eels to furnish the legis- 

 lature with annually. I will ask Mr. Brooks for an explanation 

 of that apparent anomaly. (Laughter.) 



Mr. Charles F. Brooks, Sandy Springs, Md. : Mr. President. 

 Ladies and Gentlemen : I am not an after-dinner speaker, in 

 any sense of the word. I never undertake to make a speech. The 

 question Mr. Meehan has asked me, I cannot answer at all. But 

 I can tell you all one thing, and that is, if you come down to 

 Maryland — that good old place wdiere they have the terrapin, 

 canvas-backs and oysters and all manner of eatables, to say noth- 

 ing of hog and hominy and backwoods cakes, you wall never re- 

 gret it. He came down there and we entertained him the best 

 we could ; took him out on the rivers, those beautiful rivers along 

 the bay, and did not undertake to drown him or do anything of a 

 serious nature to him. 



Now I want to tell you how different his treatment was of me, 

 when I started to come up here, and I lay it all to him. I would 

 like to know, if anyone can tell me, why he wished to treat a 

 gentleman from Maryland in tins way. In the first place, in the 



