Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 October 1883 — An Irish Fish Story. [ARTICLE]

An Irish Fish Story.

“Talking about fish stories,”said one Somerville man to another, the other day, “reminds me of a man I knew in Iceland. He was out fishing one day, and caught an eel (I believe they call it a conger eel there.) It was a very large eel. When he had got the hook into his mouth and had drawn him up to the side of the boat, he said to his son, who was with him, ‘ Tom, this is a mighty big eel,’ and Tom replied: * Father, it is the biggest one I ever saw.* They took the eel into the boat, and found, after they had stowed him away, he measured nearly twenty-five feet. When they carried him on shore they put him in a creel and hung him on the outside of the house, and every morning they went out and took a' slice off his tail before breakfast, and, do you believe me, they did that for a year, and the fish did not diminish in size. The fact is, he grew as fast as they cut him up. They ate eel steak for a year, and at the end of that time they measured him, and he was four feet longer than when they first caught him. Having that eel, of course, the family didn’t need to buy any butcher-meat, and they grew rich. In fact, through that eel they bought a farm and became proprietors of all the land in the surrounding region. But they were very generous people, and, when they attained to the ownership of the land, they conceived the idea of bestowing the eel upon some poor family; and when the question was mooted upon which family the inestimable boon was to be bestowed, the eldest daughter of the house advised that the fish should be given to the most immoral family in the village. On being asked the reason for this advice, she replied that “in the possession of this fish they would be able to keep Lent all the year round.’ ” —Somerville Journal. An Indianapolis baby was bitten, Tn teasing a pet Maltese kitten, Before a day ended, St. Jacobs Oil mended, And with iFmothers are smitten. A hunter who lives at Bear Bun, Hurt his arm bv the kick of a gun, The hunt it did spoil, But St. Jacobs Oil Cured him before swelling begun.