January, 1920 
FOREST AND STREAM 
19 
been regarding him for some time with 
considerable interest. My curiosity was 
aroused owing to the long distance to 
which he cast his minnow, and the 
rapidity with which he reeled it in a'gain. 
While we were enjoying our pipes 
after luncheon, beneath the shade of a 
gigantic beech, he joined us. After 
filling and lighting his pipe he sat down 
with us to be neighborly. He was curi- 
ous to see my little rod, and after ad- 
miring it asked where I had purchased 
it. I informed him that it was the work 
of my own hands. He evinced no sur- 
prise at this, saying that he had not 
been able to find a jointed rod, suitable 
for black bass fishing, at any tackle 
store in the city, or for that matter in 
New York or Chicago, of less than ten 
or twelve feet in length or much less 
than a pound in weight; consequently 
he preferred a natural cane rod weigh- 
ing but a few ounces. 
I questioned him as to his long casting 
and rapid retrieving, which he said was 
due to his excellent reel. The reel, he 
explained, was a multiplier of very fine 
workmanship; was made by an expert 
watchmaker and silversmith in Frank- 
fort, Kentucky, and was known as the 
“Frankfort” reel; it was used by a few 
anglers in Kentucky, southern Ohio and 
Indiana. He added that it cost twenty- 
five dollars, but he considered it cheap 
at the price. 
I FOUND time, occasionally, to leave 
the musty college rooms for a breath 
of fresh air in the country. Thanks- 
giving Days were devoted to shooting 
quail on the uplands, which greatest of 
all game-birds was very abundant at 
that time, whereas at the present day 
Bob White, through no fault of his own, 
is relegated and included in the song- 
bird class in Ohio, and enjoys a per- 
petual close season. Early in the spring 
I spent a day or two in southern Indiana 
in quest of the nimble young gray squir- 
rels when they were feasting on the 
newly-opened buds of the elm trees. 
During the summer vacations I managed 
to find time to interview the black bass 
of the two Miamis, and became pretty 
well acquainted with his versatile and 
protean characteristics. With the light- 
est trout fly-rod I was able to procure I 
essayed fly-fishing, using such homemade 
flies as March brown, gray drake and 
coachman, also brown and ginger 
hackles, all of which proved both at- 
tractive and successful. I found fly- 
fishing more congenial and convenient, 
and withal more sportsmanlike than 
bait-fishing. While the fish taken were 
not quite so large as a rule, they were 
more lively and gamesome, and not so 
easy to bring to the landing net with a 
supple fly-rod. 
My quondam and enthusiastic friend 
who indulged in classic lore as well as 
fishing, witnessed several captures on 
the fly-rod. He found it hard to express 
his unbounded admiration of the strug- 
gles without resorting to his favorite 
metaphoric comparisons. He declared 
that while the fighting of a black bass 
on a bait-rod was comparable with the 
bravery of Horatius or Leonidas, and 
not at all exaggerated, he considered 
that the only apt comparison he could 
think of concerning the fighting of a 
black bass on a fly-rod was that of 
Spartacus at the river Silarus, where he 
met his defeat and death at the hand of 
Crassus while fighting to the last gasp. 
I forgave him freely. 
After attending three courses of lec- 
tures I received my degree of Medicinae 
Doctor in the merry month of May, 1859. 
In conformity with established custom 
and conver tional usage I hung out my 
shingle, an.i for two years in the city 
of Cincinnati I devoted my ability and 
knowledge, for better or worse, to the 
alleviation of the ills that flesh is heir 
to, and faithfully responded to all calls 
whether extended to “Doc” or Doctor. 
Early in the summer of 1860 I was 
surprised to receive a visit from John- 
nie, who had resigned from a good 
position in St. Louis, and was returning 
to Baltimore to await the culmination 
of the struggle between the politicians 
The stream was rocky at this point 
of the North and South, and in the 
event of a war between the two sections 
he had resolved to cast his fortunes 
with the South. I was much perturbed 
and concerned at his determination, and 
used every convincing argument I could 
think of in the endeavor to dissuade him 
from his intention. Johnnie really had 
nothing at stake but a mere matter of 
sentiment. 
Mr. Lincoln had been already nomin- 
ated as a presidential candidate, while 
the Democratic convention had been 
split into two factions at Charleston, 
one of which was to convene at Balti- 
more that summer. Johnnie was much 
concerned about his “Southern Rights,” 
of which he was fearful he might be 
deprived in the event of Mr. Lincoln’s 
election. Although my sympathies were 
with the South, I could see no reason 
for following or obeying the dictation 
of a few hot-headed politicians who were 
committed to the policy of rule or ruin. I 
said as much to Johnnie, and added that, 
in the event of any infringement of 
Southern Rights by Mr. Lincoln or the 
Congress, I was ready to cast my lot 
with him, but that I was not ready to 
endorse, much less to aid, any cold-blood- 
ed, cut-and-dried scheme that might end 
in a dissolution of the Union. I tried 
to impress him with the fact that che 
only way for the South to preserve its 
rights was to remain in the Union and 
under the protection of Old Glory. I 
resolved to go to Baltimore with Johnnie 
to prevent him from jeopardizing him- 
self and his prospects if I could possibly 
prevent it. 
When we arrived in Baltimore one of 
the deferred Democratic conventions 
was convened and in session. In a few 
days I looked up some of my old friends, 
most of whom I found thought as John- 
nie did that a civil war was imminent, 
and they had deoided to go with the 
South in such an event. I learned from 
Andrew, one of our old comrades, that 
he and Johnnie had already “enlisted” 
in the Maryland Guard, a local militia 
organization, that was recruiting and 
drilling regularly for service in defence 
of Southern Rights. This was “pre- 
paredness” with a vengeance, for be it 
remembered this was in the summer of 
1860, and though Mr. Lincoln had been 
named as the Republican candidate, 
neither of the Democratic candidates, 
Breckinridge or Douglass, had as yet 
been nominated. 
Excitement was rife in the city and 
ran high; all the talk was of the coming 
conflict, and such epithets as “Yanks” 
and “Rebels” were freely exchanged. I 
was sorry that my old comrades could 
be so misguided and deceived by the 
catch words and mock heroics of the 
hour. I was thoroughly disgusted with 
the apparent jealousy, dishonesty, lack 
of patriotism and unscrupulous selfish- 
ness exhibited by the chief plotters and 
leading politicians of both North and 
South who were most active in the un- 
holy crusade against truth, right and 
justice. So, after serious consideration, 
and deliberating the matter by and 
large, I resolved in the last analysis to 
remain neutral, so far as bearing arms 
was concerned, though I might offer my 
services, in case they were needed, to 
the medical corps of the Union army, 
and with a sad heart I returned to the 
city of my adoption. 
I N THE spring of 1861, after hostili- 
ties had actually begun at Fort Sum- 
ter, and the “Pride, pomp and circum- 
stance” of the inglorious war was only 
too evident, I was negotiating for a po- 
sition as assistant surgeon in one of the 
regiments raised in the city in response 
to the call for volunteers for three 
months. Before they were fully organ- 
ized the regiments were disbanded and 
enlistments were begun for three years 
or during the war. 
There was an urgent call for physi- 
cians at Cynthiana, Kentucky, and vi- 
cinity, as most of the doctors had gone 
to the front. My preceptor, who com- 
manded a good surgical practice in that 
neighborhood, advised me to locate 
there, especially as he was about to re- 
move to New York City. Accordingly, 
I closed my office in the city and went 
to “God’s Country,” as the Blue Grass 
section of Kentucky is popularly known, 
and not without reason. There, in re- 
sponse to the call of afflicted humanity 
I drove and rode in the pure, free air of 
Heaven, along the smooth turnpikes, 
wooded roads and shady lanes, my ears 
attuned to the music of the birds, the 
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