108 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
[Feb. 6, 1904. 
I used to go a-fishing with a man named William — 
commonly called Billy. No matter what. Billy was a 
good, fellow, but serious minded withal. Billy and I 
were one time fishing on a stream called Lunch Creek. 
Why Lunch Creek this deponent sayeth not. Probably 
because there was no place within seven miles of the 
stream where one could get a bite to eat. 
On the day I have in mind, Billy and I had taken our 
luncheon with us. We hesitated at a farm-house because 
we espied a pump on the premises. Now, the farmers 
in that particular part of the country through whose land 
Lunch Creek meandered were averse to the society of 
anglers. In their creed there was no good angler save 
a. dead angler, consequently we were obliged to employ 
diplomacy in our dealings with them. The golden rule 
which they all carefully observed appeared to be, "Give 
nothing unto others unless they give something to you." 
As we entered the gate of this particular farm yard, a 
yellow dog^ of nondescript character, seemingly all teeth 
and no tail, constituted himself the reception commit- 
tee. His greeting was cordial, very — in fact, it might 
almost be termed effusive. A little more reserve on his 
part would have been appreciated. Obviously he was 
seeking to create an impression upon us. Being of a re- 
tiring disposition, Billy directed his nervous step toward 
the barnyard, escorted by the dog. He circled a corn- 
crib once arid a reaper three times. I took a more direct 
course; I was quite thirsty, therefore I may possibly have 
employed more haste than was becoming to my style of 
beauty. 
As we drew near our haven of refuge — I mean as we 
rounded the barn — we "saw an aged, aged man a-sitting 
on a gate." 
Emboldened by the ppesence of his master, the yellow 
dog waxed importunate. Billy, who was describing 
parabolic curves of which the Aged Man was the focus, 
commanded the latter, in language couched in forceful 
expletives, to "call off his dam-dog." The Aged Man 
was deeply engaged in the arduous labor of whittling, 
and heeded us not. And then I had an inspiration. A 
small bottle is a great pacifier, and a "wee nippy" a pow- 
erful advocate. I produced the pacifier ; the Aged Man 
consulted the advocate, and we found ourselves estab- 
lished on a conversational basis. 
We explained that we wished to eat our luncheon near 
the pump, the fates and the yellow dog being propitious. 
He merely stared, as though the explanation were super- 
fluous, and told the dog in passionless tones to "Charge, 
you blankety-blank hunk of sausage meat." The com- 
mand really sounded like one long word. 
Billy laid his rod on the ground, and I leaned mine 
against the corncrib. We sat ourselves down upon a 
v/agon tongue and proceeded to relieve our hunger. The 
Aged Man continued sitting oh the gate, displaying but 
slight interest in our presence. 
We had f-nished our sandwiches and arrived at the 
pickles, when a sudden commotion and a great squeaking 
attracted our attention. 
The Aged Man pointed with the stick he had been so 
deeply absorbed in, and grunted: 
"Hi, there! See the hen? You've ketched him." 
"Great Scott !" cried Billy, leaping to his feet. "I've 
caught a fool chicken!" 
It was the painful truth. An inquisitive hen had dis- 
covered Billy's fly, and seized upcn it with an avidity 
worthy of a better cause. Billy snatched up his rod and 
proceeded to reel in. The hen had taken all the line. 
Billy gave her the butt, and she rose from the surface of 
the earth; that is, she soared aloft with a loud cackling, 
and then came down in a flutter of wings and feathers. 
Every fowl on the place joined in the chorus. 
"What did he have on the hook?" the Aged Man 
placidiv inquired. 
"A fly," I replied. 
"Must be," he drawled. Derndest fly I ever see. He 
went 's high 's the corncrib, by jimminy crimes!" 
He absentmindedly stretched out a long leg and kicked 
the yellow dog. The dog roused himself and looked about 
for revenge. Espying the frantic hen, he made a dash 
for her. The hen "broke water" again, and Billy reeled 
in a yard or more of line. 
"Get the net," he yelled, as the hen came my way. 
"Not on your life," I shouted back. "I'm afraid of the 
dog" 
"He's the most peaceful hen in the hull bunch," the 
Aged Man volunteered. Billy played the hen for about 
half an hour, while I shied corncobs at the yellow. dog, 
who in turn plucked feathers from the hen's tail. The 
Aged Man was manifestly a mildly interested spectator, 
until the hen suddenly flew straight at him, when he fell 
off the barnyard gate, bringing the hen to the ground 
with him. I anticipated the yellow dog, and captured 
the squawking fowl. And then we held an ante- 
mortem. 
"We'll have to cut the hook out," Billy declared. I 
never saw him look quite so wild before. 
The Aged Man assumed a sitting posture where he had 
fallen, and rubbed his leg. "Ouch ! I bumped my shin," 
he announced. "You suttenly ketched him on the fly," 
he added, meditatively. 
"We had better cut the line and pay the man for the 
hen," I suggested- 
"Well, what's he worth?" asked Billy, turning to the 
Aged Man. 
"He's the most peaceful hen in the hull bunch," the 
latter dreamily made answer. 
"Will a quarter be enough?" Billy impatiently 
demanded. 
The aged one nodded assent. 
We cut the line "as close as possible and released the 
hen. Billy paid the Aged Man his quarter, and hurried 
away from the scene of conflict. I waited until we 
reached home before referring to the painful subject. 
* * * * * * * 
About two months later I chanced to be fishing in 
Lunch Creek alone. I stopped at the Aged Man's hotise 
to see the pump ; he remembered me — the Aged Man, not 
the pump— and was mildly sociable. 
As I started away a black hen scurried across my path. 
"That hen makes me think of the last time I was here," 
I remarked. 
"Yaas," said the. Aged Man, "only he ain't quite as 
"You don't mean," I began. "Say, what became of 
that hen, anyhow?" 
"Nuthin'j" the Aged Man replied. "He ain't as peace- 
ful as he uster be. Barrin' a week or two when he didn't 
lay, he come out all right. See fer yourself," and he 
pointed a long, bony finger at the black hen that had just 
crossed my path. 
"Tell your friend to come out and try some more fly- 
fishin'," he called after me, as I turned away and left him. 
"Got lots of hens and six roosters." 
Nothing but memories ! Yet all the yellow gold of 
Midas could not buy them. The world is bound fast in 
snow and ice ; the trees stretch out their naked branches 
protestingly to the cold sky overhead, and the trout 
streams that we love so well flow through ice-fringed 
channels; but Memory can make the fields fresh and 
green, can stir the rustling leaves with warm summer 
zephyrs, and unloose the ice-bound streams. 
This is the picture that paints itself so alluringly in 
the bright glowing coals of the open fire; this is the 
one great panacea for all the petty ills of this hurly- 
burly life when the rods and the reels and things are 
laid aside for the nonce, and the balmy days of last sum- 
mer seem naught but a dream. 
A winding stream in a wooded vale 
At the close of a summer day, 
Where, as the light begins to fail. 
The trout are jumping at play; 
And the night winds wak'ning amid the leaves, 
Whispering soft and low; 
And the shadows deep'ning beneath the trees, 
Where the ferns and the mosses grow. 
I can hear the voice of this winding stream, 
As it chatters upon its way, 
I can see the pool where the waters gleam 
In the fading light of day; 
And the fringing grasses are trailing there 
In the eddies swirling by, 
Where the big trout lurks in his hidden lair. 
Watchful and wary and shy. 
O, for a touch of the light bamboo, 
And the sound of the spinning reel, 
And a day in the dear old haunts with you, 
With a rod and a well filled creel. ' 
O, to escape the noise of the street. 
And the sight of the hurrying throng, 
And breathe the air of that cool retreat, 
Where the brook sings its evening song. 
Fayette Duelin. 
Public Trout in a Private Cellar. 
Syracuse, N. Y., Jan. 2g.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
I inclose clippings from the Syracuse Herald containing 
an account of a controversy between Hon. D. C. Middle- 
ton and the Anglers' Association of Onondaga. 
We, and all sportsmen and others here interested in 
the protection of fish and game, believe that Mr. Middle- 
ton has done a great wrong, not alone to our association, 
but to all sportsmen and supporters of the law, a wrong 
in using his office and influence to condone an offense 
against the law which it is his sworn duty to enforce, 
a wrong to the whole cause of fish and game protection 
in this State; and has established a precedent which will 
work injury to that cause, and which will come back to 
plague him sorely in the future term Of his office. 
We know you to be a firm supporter of the game laws, 
and believing that they have been outrageously violated, 
we ask you to republish the matter. If you will do so, a 
statement of the work and character of our association 
may not be amiss. 
The Anglers' Association of Onondaga was organized 
in 1890 for the protection and propagation of fish in the 
public waters of Onondaga county, later adding the pro- 
tection of game as well. We are not a sportsmen's club, 
have no preserves, and do no work as to private waters 
or preserves, but all of our work has been donb to aid 
the State in the enforcement of the fish and game laws, 
and to assist in the labors of the Commission. 
We began immediately upon organization to employ a 
protector, and excepting in the months of December, 
January, and February of each year, we have kept a man 
at work every year since. Our protector has captured and 
destroyed hundreds of nets, has made many arrests of 
violators of the law, and convicted them. The value of 
the nets we have captured and destroyed since our or- 
ganization has easily averaged $2,000 yearly, and in doing 
this he has traveled thousands of miles on the lakes, 
rivers, and streams of this county each year. 
In addition to this we have obtained from the State 
and planted in public waters millions of fish and fry, as you 
will see from an extract I inclose from our report to the 
Board of Supervisors of this county, who, recognizing 
the value of our work and its public nature, annually con- 
tribute a sum of money to our assistance. 
All of this work, all of our expenditure of money, 
and all the time devoted to the cause by our officers and 
hiembers are absolutely and entirely for the benefit of 
all the people who choose to benefit by it and are entirely 
on public, waters. 
Our. association , numbers nearly 500 member.s, and 
comprises in its. ranks the best business, professional, and 
working men of this city and county. 
One of the streams which we have spent our time and 
money in stocking is Onondaga Creek. We have made 
it one of the best trout streams in the State outside of 
preserves, and it is from this stream that the trout con- 
cerned in this controversy have been taken arid im- 
pounded, not in a decorative fountain or pond, but in 
an old cellar, and not for decorative purposes, but : for 
table use in their club house, which is a few rods from 
the cellar.. And it grinds hard to think that these trout 
which we have put in that stream for the public and for 
.fishermen to take in a legal and sportsmanlike manner 
should be taken out with nets , and kept for the private use 
of riien who haven't a drop of fishermen's blood in their 
veins and never spent a dollar nor worked an hour for 
the good of the cause which is dear to us. And then to 
ie? tb?it oiir appeal t© tilt ^ommissfooer is 4i§reprded, 
and that instead of upholding our hands and the law, he 
goes over to the side of the pirates and attempts by a re- 
troactive scheme to legalize their piracy ; it is more than 
human nature can endure, and the end is not yet, as Mr. 
Middleton will find out. 
His defense, as reported in the press, is puerile and 
a deliberate falsification of facts, if he has been correctly 
reported, for when he states, if he does, that only about 
a hundred fingerlings were taken and put into the pond 
or cellar, he states what is directly contrary to the report 
of his assistant chief protector, Mr. Leavitt, of his Com- 
mission. Mr. Leavitt reported that there were 106 trout 
in the cellar, and that they ranged in size all the way 
from three to twelve inches in length, and that more than 
half of them were from eight to twelve inches long. 
The Solvay Process Company, who have taken up the 
case of their employes, and who sent their attorney, Mr. 
John L. King, to the commissioner to cook up this 
scheme, is an extensive and wealthy manufacturing in- 
stitution whom we cannot fight, especially with the com- 
missioner on their side. We can only appeal to the pub- 
lic through the medium of the press, and trust to raise 
such a storm of indignant protest around, the head of the 
commissioner that he will have to rescind his action or 
get out. 
The Anglers' Association of Onondaga, 
4.' John H. Forey, President. 
From the Syracuse Evening Herald, Jan. 27. 
On September 14, 1903, it was reported to the officers ■ 
of the Anglers' Association of Onondaga that on a farm 
of the Solvay Process Company in the town of Tully ; 
there were held in captivity a large number of trout ' 
which had_ been taken from the waters of Onondaga ' 
Creek and its tributaries in violation of the game laws of I 
the State. i 
Protector Perry was at once sent out to investigate 
and report. He made his report on the morning of Sep- 
tember 16 that he found four tanks in the rear of the 
house of Hugh Graham in which there were thirty-nine 1 
trout, varying in length from eight to eighteen inches, 
and in an old cellar, from which the house had been re- 
rnoved, which had been cemented upon the bottom and ' 
side walls and into which a supply of spring water had 
been conducted, more than 100 trout, varying in length ' 
from three to twelve or more inches each. This cellar, • 
measuring about 30 by 20 feet, is on the property of the ; 
Solvay Process Company, and adjoining a club house re- 
cently erected by this company for the use of its em- 
ployes in that vicinity. 
As the case was of an entirely different nature from 
any other ever brought to the notice of the association, • 
the president considered that the best thing to do was 
to report it to the authorities at Albany. This he did on ! 
September 16, requesting that a State game protector be j 
sent home at once to investigate and that legal proceed- 
ings be begun at once against the violators of the law. 
A few days later Assistant Chief Protector John .E. i 
Leavitt came to Syracuse and with Protector Perry made | 
a visit to the trout-filled cellar in the Tully Valley. He | 
reported to the chief protector at Albany that the charge? ! 
made by the Anglers' Association had not been over- j 
drawn, and that the parties who were responsible for the ' 
possession of the trout did not deny having procured thern { 
from the public waters. He further reported that from . 
what he could learn they had been doing something of a 
business along these lines, retaining the trout for dinners 
at their club house, and to send to officers of the Solvay ^ 
Process Company as occasion required. 1 
As is the usual custom with the Forest, Fish, and Game I 
Commission in cases of reported violations of the game I 
laws, the accused parties were given an opportunity to be e 
heard before legal proceedings were instituted. A short I 
time afterwards John L. King, attorney for the Solvay j 
Process Company, appeared before Commissioner Middle- .j 
ton at Albany and succeeded in making an arrangement 
whereby the trout in the tanks at the Graham place ' 
should be returned to the waters from which they had ; 
been taken, but that the trout held in captivity in the i 
old cellar should be allowed to remain, as it was con- I 
strued that this cellar inclosure was to be considered a 
"pond or fountain for decorative purposes," and that it :' 
v/as proper that this company should be permitted to * 
maintain such a pond or fountain and keep therein a 
certain number of trout. 
_ This stipulation or decision was rendered by Commis- 
sioner Middleton on October 8. After repeated inquiries i 
by the officers of the Anglers' Association as to what ' 
was being done in the case a copy of the stipulation was ' 
sent to them on December 5. 
At the regular meeting of the association held on De- 
cember 14, a special meeting of the executive committee 
was called for December 16, at which the entire matter j 
was fully discussed. The unanimous expression of th-: ,\ 
members present was that "the authorities at Albany have ' 
not treated our association fairly, have exceeded their 
authority, have undertaken to exercise and legalize a 
flagrant violation of the game laws of the State, and that,-i 
in order to appease public clamor and the law-abiding 
sportsmen of this county, the commissioner should at , 
once rescind the stipulation of October 8, and that a 
State game protector should be sent at a very early date 
to the farm of the Solvay Process Company in the tov.'n i 
cf Tully, with orders to liberate and restore every one of I 
the ■troin_ held iri captivity to the waters of Onondaga ! 
Creek, frim which they were illegally taken." . • 
On November 15 President Forey and Protector 
Perry drove out to the Solvay Process Company's farm 
and paid a visit to the trout-stocked cellar, where they, 
counted 104 trout. According to President Forey, under 'I 
the gam.e laws of the State, someone should be prosecuted 
and fined as follows : 
For violation of Section 40 $1,065 
For violation of Section 43 ■ 60 
For violation of Section 57 1,065 
For violation of Section 40, relating to trout less than six 
inches long, about 525' 
Total $2j715 
"The anglers of Onondaga have labored hard and faith- 
fully for nearly fourteen years,"- said President J. H-'li 
Forey, president of the association, "and have expended ' 
thQi|S^nc}s Qf io\hv% m stocking an4 protecting the 
