452 



RECREATION. 



with the odds adverse, has been won; this 

 is sport. After the struggle, instead of be- 

 ing greedily intent on more fish the captor 

 does not hastily thrust his prize into the 

 creel to be hauled out at the end of the day, 

 dull, shrivelled and stiffened in curves, a la 

 fisherman ; it is quickly killed, cleaned and 

 packed away in grass or leaves, to be a 

 pleasure to the sight by lamplight, and in 

 its honor a pipe is smoked while memory 

 stores the incidents of the conflict. En- 

 deavor to imagine a trout fisherman notic- 

 ing, to say naught of appreciating, the 

 scenery of his day's outing. He is after fish, 

 not scenery. 



Killing for the gratification of blood- 

 thirstyness, for food or for business is not 

 sport, and to abstain when the conditions 

 are unsuitable is as distinct a sign of 

 sportsmanship as to observe the proprieties. 

 While the motive of the trout fisherman 

 and of the pot hunter can not, under certain 

 conditions, be justly condemned, especially 

 on reflection of their being part of the na- 

 ture of the beasts, the appeal is made to the 

 man of refinement, to so deport himself in 

 -the company of the gentleman of fishes as 

 to arouse emulation. 



Should he be favored by the rabble with 

 the title of crank, the angler may console 

 himself by recalling the fact that at times 

 cranks are indispensable for turning things, 

 and that when trout fishermen are turned 

 into sportsmen, the existing condition of the 

 sport of angling will have developed into 

 one affording more gratification to the high- 

 er nature of the animal man. 



Meanwhile, let us insist on a recognition 

 of the distinction between a trout fisherman 

 and an angler. 



A WOMAN'S ANGLING EDUCATION. 



JUSTINA JOHNSON. 



It is surprising how much a woman can 

 learn about angling ; gven a woman who 

 has never seen a fish caught and who knows 

 only by faith that her angler really catches 

 the fish he brings home. The truth is she 

 stands in the best possible way to become an 

 authority on certain phases of the subject, 

 especially those requiring a calm and un- 

 prejudiced point of view. The angler him- 

 self is too much interested to be a fair ob- 

 server. He is either gazing ahead through 

 the bright glasses of anticipation or back 

 through the gloom of the might have been, 

 and can hardly be aware what he discloses 

 in either attitude. 



First of all, she learns when the season 

 opens and the consideration this event de- 

 mands. This may seem to the uninitiated 

 a simple proposition ; secure a copy of the 

 game laws and there you are. Not so in 

 reality. This A B C of fishing lore the 

 woman probably learns abruptly in the 



days of her youth, perhaps through heed- 

 lessly accepting an invitation for her new- 

 ly acquired angler to dine out on that 

 all important day. His look of horror, dis- 

 gust — nay, of despair — when she gaily an- 

 nounces this fact to him and lightly adds 

 that she supposed he could go fishing any 

 time opens her eyes and lays a solid foun- 

 dation for her angling education. 



Soon she discovers that anglers are not 

 as other men are in the matter of health ; 

 that they tramp all day in wet clothes, de- 

 light in wet feet, scorn umbrellas and rain 

 coats and for every ill, mental, moral or 

 physical, prescribe for themselves a day on 

 the river. She soon accommodates herself 

 to these idiocyncrasies and, since they do 

 not kill her angler, ceases to worry. 



She learns other things. In early days 

 had she received 2 letters the same day 

 from her angler she would have smiled 

 tolerantly and imagined it indicated the 

 fervor of his affection. Had she then the 

 knowledge that years bring, she would have 

 known that something shocking had hap- 

 pened to the fishing to have kept him from 

 it and she would have been secretly grati- 

 fied that in the distressful occurrence he 

 turned to her for sympathy. 



The years teach her other things. When 

 she first heard the story of the mythical 

 angler, condemned by all, who went fishing 

 as soon as he returned from his wife's 

 funeral, she resented this act. It is easily 

 possible that, in some moment of de- 

 pression, she exacted a promise from her 

 angler to do otherwise. But, as the years 

 slip away, she will see his heart turn to the 

 woods in many a joy and in many a sor- 

 row; she will find that nothing can solace 

 him like the balm Mother Nature pours 

 out; and she will no longer object. She 

 learns, too, that as a topic of conversation, 

 angling challenges the world. _ Wars and 

 rumors of wars, strikes and epidemics, sci- 

 entific discoveries and presidential candi- 

 dates, all sink into insignificance before it. 



I have frequently wondered how long art 

 angler's enthusiasm would hold out were he 

 absolutely debarred from showing his fish, 

 from relating and expanding his experi- 

 ences, and from reading or writing fishing 

 literature. Not infrequently does my angler 

 return from a trip with fish, the usual 

 guilty conscience and vain regrets, and an- 

 nounce that he is now absolutely through 

 with the whole thing that he is not going a- 

 fishing for a long time ; perhaps never. He 

 puts away his tackle with an air of finality 

 and looks virtuous. Then he begins to tell 

 how he did catch them and why he didn't 

 catch them to anybody who will listen, and 

 by the time he has told the story a few 

 times his enthusiasm has revived to such an 

 extent that he is ready to order his horse, 



