THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 211 



she desired, he sat down at his desk, pressed the button that called 

 his stenographer and, after placing a fresh stogie in the starooard side 

 of his mouth, dictated the following reply, which in our humble opin- 

 ion should go down in literature as a masterpiece alongside of Web- 

 ster's famous reply to Hayne: 



May 22, 1915. 

 Dear Madam: 



I am in receipt of your letter of recent date and am pleased to 

 inform you that ladies are permitted to angle for whitefish in the 

 manner which you mention. 



I sincerely hope that you are situated so that you can go fishing 

 often and that you catch lots of fish and BIG ones, and I trust your 

 example will be followed by all your lady friends, for besides being 

 good to eat and the fun of catching them — fishing gets one out of 

 doors in God's fresh air, and we all need lots more of that than we get, 

 and especially does this apply to the ladies. 



Wishing you good luck, I am, 



Very respectfully, 



A 1916 SUGGESTION. 



The Lacey Act, the Federal Law regulating the importation of 

 certain animals into this country, prohibits the traffic of the mon- 

 goose. In discussing the regulations, Hon. I. N. Pleischner, one of the 

 Fish and Game Commissioners, was reminded of an incident which 

 occurred to him when he was visiting in Egypt a few years ago. He 

 said that he was standing in front of his hotel one day in Cairo as 

 an Arabian peddler was passing. Following at the heels of the Arab 

 was a long, slender animal which was new to Mr. Fleischner. He 

 asked an acquaintance of his what the animal was, and was told that 

 it was a mongoose. His friend then told him the story of a man in 

 Chicago who was walking down the street one day carrying a large 

 covered market basket. He was approached by a friend who asked him: 



"John, what have you in the basket?" John replied that he had 

 a mongoose. 



"What in the world are you going to do with a mongoose?" his 

 friend exclaimed. 



"Well," said John, "you know I have been getting home from the 

 club pretty late the last few nights, and every time I go home I see a 

 lot of snakes and I bought this mongoose to kill the snakes." 



"Why!" his friend replied, "these snakes that you see are only 

 imaginary snakes." 



"Well," said John, "that is the kind of a mongoose I've got in 

 the basket." 



