216 FISHING GOSSIP. 
as the persons after whom they are christened, are 
evidently of much greater interest to their vendors— 
are recommended by “Otter” as amongst the essen- 
tials of the angler’s equipment. All this, too, when, 
as we have said before, the actual fishing-matter of 
the book, and for the sake of which it is purchased, 
is utterly contemptible. This is the second book 
which Messrs. Alfred, Otter, and Son have thus given 
to the world; the first, Otter’s Complete Guide to Spin- 
ning and Trolling, being, if possible, even worse than 
the present—or, as we once heard it expressed, the 
“wonderful wusser!” It is to be observed also that 
the tendency of this “ oblique” method of advertising 
appears to be to produce a corresponding obliquity in 
the moral vision of the producers, as, unless we are 
greatly mistaken, we have more than once seen letters 
in the Field signed by “ Otter,” referring, in certainly 
not uncomplimentary terms, to ‘“ Alfred,” and vice 
versd—a, sort of “pea-and-thimble trick” by which, 
we cannot believe that the interests of the angling 
public are advanced. 
If the sporting papers are willing to allow their 
columns to be used as a vehicle for about:a hundred 
and fifty letters puffing off “Fage’s Wading Boots,” 
or “ Allies’ Grasshoppers,” or any other wares of 
known tradesmen, it is their own business and not 
ours—(and as, after a short time, nobody reads them, 
they are°of less consequence)—but we do protest 
