CATFISH, 795 



While they will bite a hook, it reqairea more machinery to catch them than ordinary 

 people can possess without mortgaging a honse. A man has got to have a morocco book 

 of expensive flies, a fifteen dollar bamboo jointed rod, a three dollar trout basket, with 

 a hole morticed in the top, a oordnroy suit made in the latest style, top boots of the 

 Wellington pattern, with red tassels in the straps, and a flask of Otard brandy in a 

 side pocket. Unless a man is got np in that style a speckled tront will see him in Chi- 

 cago flrst, and then it won't bite. The brook trout is even more aristocratic than the 

 white flsh, and should not be propagated ab pnblic expense. 



Bat there are fish that should be propagated in the interest of the people. There is 

 a species of fish that never looks at the clothes of the man who throws in the bait, a 

 fish that takes whatever is thrown to it, and when once hold of the hook never tries to 

 shake a friend, but submits to the inevitable, crosses its legs and says, " Now I lay me,'' 

 and comes out on the bank and seems to enjoy being taken. It is a fish that is the friend 

 of the poor, and one that will sacrifice itself in the interest of humanity. That is the 

 fish that the State should adopt as its trade-mark, and cultivate friendly relations with 

 and stand by. We allude to the Ball -head. 



The Bull-head never went back on a friend. To catch the Bull-head it is not neces- 

 essary to tempt his appetite with porter-house steak, or to display an expensive lot of 

 fishing tackle. A pin hook, a piece of liver, and a cistern pole is all the capital required 

 to catch a Ball-head. He lies upon the bottom of a stream or pond in the mud thinking. 

 There is no fish that does more thinking, or has a better head for grasping great ques- 

 tions, or chunks of liver, than the Ball-head. His brain is large, his heart beats for 

 humanity, and if he can't get liver, a piece of tin tomato can will make a meal for 

 him. It is an interesting study to watch a boy catch a BuU-head. The boy knows 

 where the Bull-head congregates, and when he throws in his hook it is dollars to but- 

 tons that ' ' in the near future " he will get a bite. 



The Bull-head is democratic in all its instincts. If the boy's shirt is sleveleas, his hat 

 orownless, and his pantaloons a bottomless pit, the Bull head will bite just as well as 

 though the boy is dressed in purple and fine linen, with knee-breecbes and plaid stock- 

 ings. The Bull-bead seems to be dozing on the muddy bottom, and a stranger would 

 say that he would not bite. But wait. There is a movement of his oontinnation, and 

 his cow-catcher moves gently toward the piece of liver. He does not wait to smell of 

 it, and canvass in his mind whether the liver is fresh. It makes no difference to him. 

 He argues that here is a family out of meat. " My country calls and I must go," says 

 the Bull-head to himself, and he opens his mouth and the liver disappears. 



It is not cercain that the boy will think of his bait for half an hour, but the Bull-head 

 is in no hurry. He is in the mud and proceeds to digest the liver. He realizes that his 

 days will not be long in the land, or water, more properly speaking, and he argues that 

 if he swallows the bait and digests it before the boy pulls him out, he will be just so 

 much ahead. Finally, the boy thinks of his bait, pulls it out, and the Bull-head is 

 landed on the bank, and the boy cuts him open to get the hook out. Some fish only 

 take the bait gingerly, and are only caught around the selvage of the month, and they 

 are comparatively easy to dislodge. Not so with the Bull-head. He says if liver is a 

 good thing, you can't; have too much of it, and it tastes good all the way down. The 

 boy gets down on his knees to dissect the Bull-head, and get his hook, and it may be 

 that the boy swears. It would not be astonishing, though he must feel, when he gets 

 his hook out of the hidden recesses of the Bull-head like the minister who took up a 

 collection and didn't get a cent, though he expressed thanks at getting his hat back. 

 There is one drawback to the Boll-head, and that is his horns. We doubt if a boy ever 



