May 28, 1904,] 
441 
"Another day came — but why talk on? Give your im- 
agination full play, join us on that third day of life and 
happiness, and the day after, which was one of those days 
of rest called Sunday. On this day we sat by the big 
open fire-place and fished the three days all over again, 
while outside it rained, refreshing mountain and valley 
alike. Nature took a bath and looked sweetly refreshed 
as we drove to Livingston Manor Monday morning at 
an hour so early that the sun could not see us off." 
T. E. Batten. 
In Violation of Law. 
A Jacking Experience. 
If the quantity of game killed is to be any criterion 
of the, amount of pleasure obtained from hunting ex- 
peditions, I must say, that our day had been nearly a 
failure. Since early morning my friend and I had been 
tramping over bog and meadow; but evening found us 
at home, hungry, thirsty, and' exceedingly tired, with 
only a paltry half dozen birds between us. But, after 
a generous meal had banished the gnawing demon in- 
side, and the genial warmth of the open fire-place 
soothed us, as a loving mother soothes a fretful child, 
the recollection of the glorious October day, the keen, 
clear air, bracing, rejuvenizing the very scent of the 
departing vegetation, almost intangible, yet ever pres- 
ent, and over all the great, round sun shining from the 
deep blue sky, unobstructed by even a single cloud, 
soon put us in a frame of mind to appreciate the 
pleasures which we had enjoyed, and to philosophically 
moralize that it is possible to obtain sport without 
necessarily harming a living creature; but, a few more 
birds would have been wonderfully acceptable. 
Under these circumstances it was not strange that 
ous conversation eventually turned upon the method of 
extracting the greatest amount of pleasure from the 
least amount of sport; I maintaining that the pleasure 
was more in the anticipation than in the realization, 
while my friend stoutly declared that the things which 
yielded the most enjoyment were those which were ac- 
cidental in nature. In defense of his views he told 
me the following anecdote: 
"Some years ago I was in charge of the erection of 
an electric power station in a small town in Northern 
New York, and in a more lonely place I was never 
located. I managed to keep fairly busy during the 
day, but when the long summer evenings came, all I 
could find to do was to sit and think, and smoke a 
corncob pipe until I was so pickled with tobacco smoke 
that if some mosquito, braver than its comrades, dared 
to bore a hole in my epidermis, after one draw,_ it 
would drop over on its back, and, with a few convulsive 
movements of legs and wings, give up the ghost. 
ReaHzing that I should get desperate before long, I 
began building a boat to while away the time, al- 
though what I should do with it when finished was 
more than I knew. As I intended it for individual use, 
it was quite small, perhaps ten feet in length by three 
feet beam, and of the sharpie build— fiat-bottomed, 
sharp at one end and square at the other. 
"By no means did I lack for company while building 
this boat, as the workmen soon began to gather at 
the carpenter's shop, as soon as their suppers were 
bolted, and sat around and smoked and offered advice 
in solid chunks— advice generally about as valuable as 
a pauper's promissory note. Among the workmen was 
a Canadian Frenchman, one Joe La Fontaine by name, 
who, while saying very little, watched the completion 
of the craft with an eager eye. He was a magnificent 
specimen of physical manhood, standing over six feet 
in height, brOad of shoulder, upright in bearing and 
with that grace of movement which only perfect 
physical health and spirits can bestow. His only blem- 
ish was the loss of his left eye, the absence of which 
he informed me was occasioned by 'One man Canada 
hook it out wit' hees thumb, w'en Ah'l have des'pute 
'bout some fish w'at she'll ketch, an' bimeby she'll fin' 
on ma string.' 
"The boat finished, it was put overboard on Satur- 
day, and the next day I gave it a thorough trial. I 
think I can truthfully say that a more cranky boat 
never floated on the surface of that stream, at least; 
talk about a canoe being easily capsized, this boat 
was as bad as any canoe ever thought of being. Why, 
for the first hour I had to breathe through my mouth; 
for if I drew my breath through my nose and one 
nostril chanced to be stopped up, the equilibrium would 
be destroyed to such an extent that it would dip water 
on the opposite side. Fact. 
"Well, I finally found the hang of the thmg, and 
every pleasant evening and some Sundays were passed 
in leisurely floating around the pond and up and down 
the creek. One-man pastime soons palls, however, 
and I began casting around for something to sand- 
wich in between. 
"It being the close season, hunting was out of the 
question, even had I the time to devote to it, which I 
had not; so fishing was the only thing I could think of. 
Now, some imagine that the height of pleasure is 
reached when they take a coach whip in hand, place 
a gold plated reel on the butt, load themselves down 
with a few dozen leaders, four hundred and fifty-six 
different kinds of flies, the like of which no mortal or 
piscine eye beheld in nature, put on boots reaching to 
the waist, and tramp up and down a trout stream two 
feet wide and occasionally yank a three-inch trout from 
its erstwhile happy home. Others, not content_ or 
financially unable to indulge in what they consider 
childish pursuits, hie themselves to the nearest coast, 
get aboard some sort of craft, go out to the dumping 
place of city refuse, and throwing overboard a half- 
inch rope with a ten-pound weight attached, and baited 
with'a passe clam, proceed to pull in by sheer muspular 
effort, whatever sculpins, dogfish, and flounders, kind 
fortune and a voracious appetite may send their way. 
"Either of these may be of great pleasure and profit 
to those engaged, but for my part there is no method 
of fishing like spearing them at night with a boat and 
jack. I realize that jacking is somewhat under the 
ban,' and justly so in most cases, but for tlie coarser 
varieties of fish, a good boat, a bright light, a spear, 
a good eye and a strong arm, will furnish more sport 
than anything else I know of in the way of fishing. 
This being my opinion, you may realize how glad I was 
when Joe came to me one scalding hot afternoon, and 
the following conversation ensued: 
" 'Mr. G , Ah'l s'pose you ain' prob'ly wan' let 
me borry dose boat some night w'en you ain' goin' 
use him?' 
" 'Why yes, Joe, of course, you may use it any even- 
iiig you wish. I would have offered it, had I supposed 
you cared for rowing.' ' 
'"Oh! Ah'l don' wan' for goin' row, Ah'l wan' him 
for spear some h'eel. Me an' ma ole h'oman got ten 
young La Fontaine, an' she's jus' good for feed it on 
h'eel and sucker, w'at a'n't cos' not'ing as feed him 
on good salt po'k w'at'll cos' ten cents poun' any way, 
prob'ly six.' 
" 'Well, you may have it any time. By the way, have 
you anyone in view whom you intended taking with 
you? If not, I would like very much to go along.' 
Joe's eye twinkled as he replied: 'Say! Ah'l been wan' 
ask it you for come all de tam, only Ah'l git scare; so 
if you wan' go to-night, we go soon as she'll git black.' 
" 'I suppose you have a spear, jack, etc., haven't 
you?' 
" 'Ah'l got spear, an' if you wan' fetch couple gallon 
sker'sene. Ah show you somet'ing will mek you eye 
bung out.' 
"I saw at once why Joe was timid about asking me 
to go, but as I thought the fun would be worth far 
more than two gallons of kerosene oil, I poured that 
amount into a tin pail, and as soon as twilight had 
fairly departed, set forth for the landing, where I found 
Joe stretched at full length, softly singing 'Roulant ma 
boule,' to keep himself company. He pulled himself 
together as I came up and proceeded to show me 
something in the way of jacks, which I had never en- 
countered. At the prow of the boat he had secured 
an old fork stake, on the end of which was fastened a 
piece of half-inch round iron, in such a manner that it 
projected over the water about two feet, at a height to 
be well above a man's head when kneeling in the bot- 
tom of the boat. This iron was bent into a hook at the 
end, and from this hook hung two pieces of ordinary 
fire brick, such as is used for lining the fire-box of 
boilers. The bricks were perhaps four inches square 
by seven or eight long, and were depended from the 
hook by a few strands of iron wire. 
"These bricks Joe placed in the pail of kerosene, and 
noticing the bubbles which arose, I was well assured 
in my own mind that they would absorb enough oil 
to give a brilliant light when they were ready. 
"We placed the duffle in the boat and started out, 
Joe in the bow and I in the stern, using an oar as a 
paddle or a push pole as occasion required. I do not 
remember a more perfect night for jacking, or for 
being on the water either, for that matter. After the 
severe heat of the day the cool evening air was most 
refreshing; the surface of the water was almost with- 
out a ripple, and reflected back a myriad of stars from 
its inky depths, while from all sides were heard the 
voices of the night issuing from hundreds of unseen 
frogs. These voices were of many tones, like the keys 
of an organ, ranging from the treble e-eep, e-eep, e- 
eep, of the wee green fellow, to the alto and tenor 
e-e-eeper,e-e-eeper, of his larger brother, while from 
some old log or patch of lily pads rose the basso pro- 
fundo, ur-urunk! ur-ur-urunk! of some gigantic patri- 
arch of frogdom. 
"I took in all these sights and sounds almost uncon- 
ciously, as I watched Joe get his jack in working order. 
First he lifted one of the bricks from its bath of oil 
and hung it on the hook, next he pulled a piece of 
paper from his pocket, lit it with a match, held the 
paper under the brick, and sis it became heated, gas was 
generated and soon a brilliant light illumined the water, 
revealing every stick, stone, fish and what not on the 
bottom better than by any other jack which I ever be- 
held. It was with considerable difficulty that we kept 
our balance in such a cranky craft, but by dint of eter- 
nal vigilance we managed to keep right side up. 
"I paddled slowly along, keeping an eye on Joe, as 
he knelt in the bow, motionless as though hewn from 
stone, as he waited with poised spear for the first eel 
or sucker to come within striking' distance. A slight 
motion of his hand caused me to swing the bow slight- 
ly to the right, then with a movement quick as a 
lightning flash his arm darted down; then I felt that 
quiver of the boat, which indicates the impaling of 
a large fish, and soon Joe swung his spear up with a 
huge eel squirming and twisting between the tines. 
"Carefully turning around he opened the mouth of 
the bran sack which lay beside him, thrust both eel 
and spear within, gathered it around the eel and strip- 
ping it from the tines, dropped it in the bottom of the 
sack, the mouth of which he tied loosely. Joe turned 
to his work again with the remark: 
"'A' hi t'ink dats mos' one meals for two, t'ree 
young Peasoup.' 
"We proceeded with varying success, capturing now 
an eel, then a sucker, and occasionally missing a stroke. 
By this time the light began to grow dim, so Joe took 
the other brick from the oil, hung it in the place of the 
first one, and lighted it by holding the old one under- 
neath. I expected to see him dip this one in the water 
to extinguish it before placing it in the pail to fill 
with oil once more; but instead, he dropped it into 
the pail, submerging it so quickly, that the oil had no 
time to ignite before the flame was put out. To say 
that I was frightened would be drawing it mildly, as I 
cer-tainly expected to see the whole pailful set on fire, 
while Joe grinned with delight at having caused my 
eye to 'bung out,' as he expressed it. 
"All this time we had been skirting the right bank 
of the pond. Ever ahead of us, and now close at hand, 
we could hear a two-pound frog, pouring forth his tale 
of the inebriety of a certain Irishman whom he called 
'Paddy,' in a voice of muffled thunder. 
"Joe looked toward the spot whence rose the sound, 
saying, 'S'pose you let me look it putty close on dose 
f rawg. Le Doctaire say ma healt' been mos' so bad 
lak I can't h'eat not'ing on'y frawg hin' leg.' Accord- 
ingly, I paddled the boat slowly toward the sound, and 
soon beheld the old fellow seated on a mossy log, ap- 
parently undecided whether to consider the unwonted 
radiance harmless, or to dive to his safe retreat at the 
bottom of the stream. While he was 'makin' off hees 
min',' as Joe said, the flat of the spear struck him on 
the head and he rolled off his perch into the water, 
from whence Joe scooped him, saying, as he did so: 
'Ah'l guess prob'ly she ain' good for you t'roat, stay 
so much in de wataire; mek you putty hoarse in you 
sing.' So saying, he dropped him into the bag with 
the eels and suckers, then resumed his watch for 
more. 
"Slowly paddling, my mind intent on Joe's spear, I 
was startled by a blow on the leg, followed by some- 
thing cold, wet and heavy striking me full in the face, 
nearly knocking me overboard and frightening me 
nearly out of my wits. Whatever it was fell back into 
the boat, and my shout of astonishment causing Joe 
to turn, we found the mouth of the bag untied and the 
floor a wriggling mass of suckers and eels, in the midst 
of which the once stunned, but now decidedly lively 
frog, rolled, crawled, kicked and occasionally jumped 
whenever he could secure a foothold to get a start from. 
I never saw any living creature act so bewildered be- 
fore or since, he would jump straight up into the air, 
striking flat on his back when he fell and lie there 
feebly waving his forelegs and kicking vigorously with 
his hind ones, until one of the squirming eels would 
roll him over; just as soon as any two legs came in 
contact with the floor he would jump, no matter which 
way he was headed, most likely to strike his nose 
against the side of the boat and fall back to commence 
all over again. He seemed more like a bundle of steel 
springs than a creature of flesh and blood. I have it 
all figured out in my note book, that if the amount of 
energy which that frog wasted in his struggles could 
be utilized, it would take only six such frogs to run a 
threshing machine; and I think that some day when I 
have more time I .sJiall draw up a paper to the Amer- 
ican Society of Mefclianical Engineers, calling atten- 
tion to this fact. 
"Joe made a grab for the frog, and with a 'sac-r-r-ee' 
as long as your arm, dropped him into the bag, picked 
up the eels, one by one, and threw them in after him, 
while I sat and laughed to see him sprawl around in 
the slime and dirt. After Joe had caged his animals 
we got under way once more, and by the time our oil 
was nearly exhausted I had begun to think that if 
Joe intended all those eels, frogs and suckers for the 
consumption of his own family, he must_ have at least 
twenty children, instead of the ten which he owned 
up to. 
"Our jack was burning low, so I said: 'We will light 
up once more, and then I think we had better go home.' 
Joe lit the new brick, and, reaching out, dropped the 
still blazing old one in the pail, but, sad to relate, so 
much oil had been used that there was not enough to 
submerge it and extinguish the flames. _ Instead, a 
column of fire rose twenty feet in the air, singing Joe's 
hair and eyebrows, causing him to jerk his body back- 
ward with a shout of terror. As he did so, he lost his 
balance, sliding over the side of the boat, like a turtle 
off a log, boring a hole ten feet deep in the water, 
soaking me to the skin with the splash, and half filling 
the boat with water, though for some unknown reason 
not overturning it. Before he reached the surface I 
had jumped forward, seized the pail and thrown oil, 
pail, bricks and all overboard. No sooner was it out 
of the pail than the burning oil spread over the surface 
of the water, giving it an appearance at though the 
whole river was afire; although owing to the small 
quantity of oil and the unlimited room over which it 
could spread, there was absolutely no danger what- 
ever. 
"The absence of actual danger was unknown to Joe, 
however, as he rose from the depths spouting water 
and French oaths in about equal quantities, and as he 
scooped the water from his eyes and saw the whole 
world apparently on fire, he gave utterance to a yell, 
compared to which his first one was as the cry of a 
puling babe is to the roar of the hungry lion, and 
promptly tried to get under water once more., 
"Did you ever come suddenly upon a bullfrog when 
he had inflated himself and seen him try to dive with 
his throat still distended with air? 
"Well, that was just the way Joe acted. For some 
reas.on he seemed to be unable to get more than his 
head, shoulders and arms under the water, while the 
seat of his baggy Canuck pants distended with the air 
confined within, rose from the surface like the top of 
a balloon, and two sturdy legs kicked and thrashed in 
such a manner that the boat rolled, and tossed like a 
fisherman's dory in a ground swell, and the waves 
dashed on the nearby shore like those on a miniature 
Nantasket Beach. Paddling as close as possible, I 
seized an opportunity and the slack of the aforesaid 
pants at the same time, I placed the end of my oar on 
the bottom of the stream, which was now rapidly grow- 
ing shallow, and giving a push, managed to get into 
water not more than four feet deep. Jumping over- 
board I stood Joe on his feet, for he was too be- 
wildered to know what he was doing, and held him 
upright while he coughed, choked and tried to replace 
with air the space now filled with water. 
"Finally he drew a long breath and managed to 
sputter: 'By Gar! 'Ah'l t'ink ma ole h'oman been putty 
close bein' orphans doze time. An't you s'pose so?' 
"We drew the. boat to shore, emptied the water from: 
it, and reembarking, soon reached the landing, where I 
earned Joe's everlasting gratitude by refusing to take 
any share of the '^h'eel, sucker and frawg,' and his in- 
vitation to 'come on ma house tomorry, an' ma h'oman 
he cook it some frawg, some h'eel, some sucker an' 
many odder good t'ing;' was sincere and heartfelt, al- 
though I felt obliged to decline. 
"Now, although I had personally secured no trophies 
of hook or spear, although I was wet to the skin, and 
with a new suit of clothes completely ruined, I felt 
that I was more than repaid for my coming." 
E. Davis, M. E, ^ 
