250 
FOREST AND STREAM 
June, 1921 
charge of the Angling Pavilion, which 
contained the largest and most varied 
collection of fishing tackle and angling 
accessories ever exhibited, and one not 
likely to be surpassed or equalled for 
many years to come. 
The Jury of Awards for the Depart- 
ment of Fisheries consisted of one 
member from each foreign country and 
three from the United States. The 
foreign contingent not being very well 
versed in American methods and ad- 
vancement in this direction, the work 
devolved mainly upon the American 
jurors. One day while judging the fine 
exhibit of Japan we came to a booth 
of angling supplies. Among other 
things was a case of artificial flies on 
barbless hooks, and wonderfully natu- 
ral in appearance, and in the inimitable 
Japanese manner of construction. They 
were suspended in bunches from the 
sides of the open case, and lifting one 
of the clusters on 
the point of my 
lead pencil I saia. 
“Now here’s a 
lot of flies that 
look as if the 
moisture could be 
squeezed from 
them, so natural 
is their appear- 
ance.” 
Just then one 
of the flies separ- 
ated itself from 
the others, anu 
after soaring 
around for a few 
seconds d i s a p 
peared’ in the sky- 
light above. The 
onlookers gazed 
i n astonishment 
as they followea 
the flight of the 
insect. I was dis- 
concerted for an 
instant until I 
saw that it was a 
moth that h a a 
been feeding on 
the fur and feather of the artificial 
creations. 
During the six months of the Expo- 
sition there was scarcely a day when 
my office was not visited by enthusi- 
astic anglers, and especially black bass 
fishers, most of whom knew me only 
through my “Book of the Black Bass,” 
and I felt well repaid and amply re- 
warded for the many years I had de- 
voted to the cause of that incomparable 
game-fish, in the congratulations and 
commendations of my brothers of the 
angle. One day the door of the office 
opened slowly and a smiling face 
peered in, and a pleasant voice said 
softly : 
“I’m not coming in; I know you’re 
busy; I only want to say God bless 
your black bass soul!” 
Another day Governor George W. 
Peck (Peck’s Bad Boy), of Wisconsin, 
dropped in. We had been fishing chums 
on the lakes near Oconomowoc. Draw- 
ing a chair up to my desk he seated 
himself and said: 
“Ever been to a clam bake? I’ve 
been down East and among other ex- 
periences I attended a clam bake that 
was also attended by a lot of promi- 
nent people and ^official dignitaries. 
After we had done full justice to the 
delicious little-neck clams and other 
eatables and drinkables, there were 1 
some after dinner speeches. I was 
called on for a few remarks, and to 
add a little humor to an otherwise bald 
narration, I several times alluded to 
the little-neck clams as low-neck clams. 
Whenever I did so a Jerseyman sitting 
next to me would tug at my coat and 
cupping his hand to his mouth would 
say in a hoarse whisper, ‘little-neck, 
little-neck.’ When the trouble was over 
I was strolling about enjoying a cigar, 
when my Jersey friend came up and 
said: ‘Well, Gu’vnor, I noticed that you 
kept calling our little-neck clams low- 
neck; I suppose you don’t have any 
clams in Wisconsin.’ ‘Oh, yes,’ I re- 
plied, ‘we have plenty of clams, but 
we don’t have much water, and we 
have to drive them several miles to the 
river every day, and it makes their feet 
sore.’ Shortly afterward I overheard 
him say to a group of the company: 
‘That Guv’nor may be a smart man out 
in Wisconsin, but he’s a dum fool in 
Jersey ! ’ ” 
O NE day it occurred to me that 
August 9, 1893, would be the Ter- 
centenary anniversary of Izaak 
Walton’s birthday, and as the Chicago 
Fly Casting Club had asked me to pro- 
vide a location on the Lagoon for cast- 
ing events, and as a headquarters for 
the club, I thought it would be the 
proper thing to build a fac simile of the 
Fish-House erected by Charles Cotton 
on the river Dove for himself and 
Izaak Walton. This would be a tribute 
to Izaak Walton on the anniversary 
of his three hundredth birthday, and 
at the same time it would serve the 
purposes of the club. On broaching 
the matter to members of the club they 
eagerly embraced the idea and in due 
course the replica of the Walton and 
Cotton Fishing Lodge was erected on 
the bank of the Lagoon, and was the 
scene of many casting events, and 
proved to be the Mecca for thousands 
of anglers from all over the world. 
I wish to acknowledge the kindness 
and interest taken in the affair by my 
friend, Mr. R. B. Marston, editor of 
the “Fishing Gazette”, of London, 
England, who at my request promptly 
forwarded certain data concerning the 
Fish-House, and photographs relating 
to Walton to be enlarged for decorating 
the interior of the little structure. I 
may be pardoned, and perhaps justified, 
in saying that notwithstanding the 
hundreds of angling clubs in England 
the tercentenary of his birthday seems 
to have been overlooked or unnoticed, 
which view seems to be shared by Mr. 
Marston, who in the introduction to his 
interesting book, 
“Walton and the 
Earlier Fishing 
Writers,” says: 
“Although I have 
printed on the 
front of the fish- 
ing Gazette the 
date of Walton’s 
birth and death 
every week for 
getting on to 
twenty years now, 
it was not until 
Dr. Henshall, who 
has charge of the 
angling exhibit at 
the Chicago 
World’s Fair, 
wrote to me a 
month or two ago 
to say that they 
intended to cele- 
brate Walton’s 
birthday (as de- 
scribed in his let- 
ter to me quoted 
on page 104) , that 
my .attention was 
drawn to the in- 
terest connected with August 9th, 
1893.” 
William Senior, angling editor of the 
London (England), Field, attended the 
Exposition in the interest of the Lon- 
don Daily News He seemed to be 
much interested in American methods 
of casting bait and fly, and was espe- 
cially impressed with the long casts 
made with the multiplying reel, inas- 
much as the anglers of Great Britain 
used the single-action reel for both fly 
and bait fishing. He gave me a prac- 
tical demonstration of dry fly fishing 
which was then becoming popular in 
England. 
We left the little Fishing- Lodge late 
one evening just as the sun was sink- 
ing in the west, gilding the domes, 
towers and turrets of the group of 
stately and magnificent structures that 
comprised the wonderful “White City”, 
and the most remarkable exhibit of 
architecture that the world has ever 
seen, enhanced as it was by’ its pic- 
turesque site on Lake and Lagoon. We 
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 266) 
The Fisheries Building at the Chicago World’s Fair 
