°EY EV°LUTPN. 



FRANK E. PAGE. 



PAST. 



The piscatory devotee in happy days of yore, 

 Never got his trappings from the Jin de siecle store ; 

 But with his wetted jackknife he trimmed a fishing-pole, 

 Just long enough to overreach the bull-head's farthest hole : 



PRESENT. 



How dif'rent from the forking twig is the modern woven 



creel, 

 And the fastened slip-a-noose unlike the buzzing reel, 

 And the homely bean-pole that the fisher used in lieu? 

 From the modern work of art — the io-ounce split bamboo. 

 Then he went 2,-jishing — never burdened with supplies, 

 Now, he angles, has his waders, and a book of gorgeous flies, 

 And too, he has a — has a — but need a person ask ? — 

 For the feature of his outfit is a nobby, yum-yum flask. 



FUTURE. 



Year by year the fishing vogue is changing more and more, 



Tho' Ananias ever will be keeper of the score. 



Of one thing we are certain, the evolution brings 



A sense that fishing outfits are full of needless things. 



And as a sort of habit, or identifying mark, 



He carved in fancy letters his initials on the bark. 



Then he hied to pasture green, through which the river ran, 



With his nice fat angle-worms in an old tomato can. 



Of the changes promised, the one that's most benign, 

 Enables one to catch his fish with neither hook nor line. 

 So the angling artiste will have fewer traps to lug 

 For his entire equipment will be carried In a jug. 



