Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 56, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 March 1913 — Page 2

TARPON-FISHING: A ROYAL SPORT

by A.W.DIMOCK

aHE tarpon is the most beautiful of big fish, the most spectacular of finny fighters, a swift swimmer of dauntles courage, and the one all-around game fish at his every age. He accepts the sportsman’s challenge by leaping into ; the arena in full, flashing armor, and so joyously meeting bis challenger in his own element as to place tarpon fishing for ever In a class by Itself. The photographs present this royal fish as he appears when playing the game with his human adversary. They were taken during two summer months spent on the Gulf coast of Florida by the camera man and the scribe—two months which gave daily proof that, of sports that thrill there are few on earth like fishing for tarpon. We followed them with fly rods, with heavy tarpon rods, and with hand Hues. We were fast to 334 tarpon, of which 63 were on an eight-ounce fly rod. We killed none, although a few were seized and swallowed by big sharks while being played. In fishing for pleasure the sportsman usually keeps within from 20 to 100 yards of the tarpon as he plays him. As we were fishing for the camera, a long-range contest was useless, and we fought the fish fiercely from the time they struck. We smashed five heavy tarpon rods antLi broke lines that would each sustain over 60 pounds. We held our canoe as near the tarpon as possible, and as soon as he seemed tired, pulled It beside him and took the hook from his mouth. Sometimes we found this exciting. The avoirdupois of the fish caught varied from one and a half pounds each to more than one hundred times that weight, while their length ranged from eighteen Inches to over six and a half feet From Charlotte Harbor to Cape Sable we exploited the tarpon fishing grounds; we captured them In the Gulf of Mexico while white-capped waves spilled water over us, and we were towed by them through narrow, overgrown creeks, where sometimes our quarry escaped us by* leaping Into the thick bushes over our heads. The tarpon can be played gently from a light-running reel for hours, or he can be fought furiously’ and made to leap wildly around, beside, over, and even Into the boat of the fisherman. Small tarpon, weighing from two to fifteen pounds, are found In fresh water In creeks and pools near the heads of rivers. Larger fish, of from 20 to 60 pounds, choose the brackish water of streams near the Gulf; while the really big fish, weighing from 80 to 200 pounds, are more frequently caught In the big passes or near the mouths of large rivers. I fished from a light canoe which my boatman paddled, while the cam-era-man sat In the bow of a little' motor boat which backed, filled and hovered on the sunward side of us. On our first day at Boca Grande—the mlle-wlde, ten-fathom pass, home of great sea creatures, from dolphins to turtles, from sharks to devilfish—we found It windswept, but Its turbulent waters were alive with fish of many klfids. Flocks of gulls, tern and pelicans above, and ftplashings of jackflsh and tarpon below, marked the presence of great schools of minnows. The tide was boiling out of the pass when we struck a six-foot tarpon which at once started for the Gulf, carrying us toward the line of foamcrested rollers outside. The motor boat vainly struggled to bold us •gainst tide and tarpon. We were rushing through the water away from

UNREHEARSED, BUT MADE HIT

Climax to DramaWe Act Not What Author Intended, Though It Pleaeed the Audience. Cecil Raleigh, the writer of melodnmii, waa talking; to aa American correspondent in London about stage •Mitretemps. , "In one of my beet plays)* he said, •J introduced in Act 11. a novelty in the shape of a skating pond with real

the breakers, yet minute by minute, as In an uncanny dream, they drifted neared. Soon the spray’ was flying over the canoe while solid water spilled Into the low-sided motor boat, which was ’quickly cut loose and soon found smooth water. For an hour the canoe tossed in the waves while the tarpon was being played, but in the rough water no photographs could be taken. A big tarpon that was fast to my line In Boca Grande jumped beside me and was bitten in two by a great shark which nearly swamped the canoe with a blow of his tail and splashed me with the blood of his victim. Sometimes a shark swallowed a tarpon which I was playing, and the playing continued until the shark was landed on the beach for a final photograph of the tarpon in his enemy’s stomach. After twenty-nine days at Boca Grande and Captiva passes had given us 150 tarpon, and five days In the Caloosahatchee river had added 35 to that number, we sailed do.wn the coast to the mouth of Harney river. The pools and creeks near Its source are filled with tarpon weighing each from 20 ounces to 20 pounds, and In five days I caught 25 on an 8-ounce fly rod. Broad river lies just north of Harney, and in it we found the'fish so large that the fly rod was laid aside, and we took 10 tarpon on heavy rods in one forenoon. Then we broke both of ■our rods and had to sail 50 miles to find tough enough wood from which to make new ones. Hueston river In Chaiham Bend yielded 30 tarpon in three days, after which we finished up

MEN IN COMMON CLAY

Great statesman and former speaker of the house of representatives, who, after years of service in the law- making branch of the government, passes into private life. (Copyright l»tt. by Universal Press Syndicate.)

came with the words, spoken by my heroine, 'Oh, here's the professor — isn’t he wonderful!* whereupon the professor, in fur trim med skating coat, proceeded to perform a marvelous series of grapevine, twists and Inside rolls and w hat-no., tn the midst whereof the curtain fell. "Well, one evening I dropped in at Drury Lane to see the skating pond climax. "My heroine cried with sweet vivacity: Oh, here’s the professor—isn’t he wonderful!* and all eyes centered ex

with five days in Turners and Allens rivers, during which we took 67 tarpon. One of these, which I caught on an 8-ounce fly rod, weighed 150, pounds, and measured six and a half feet. It took three hours to conquer him, during which my boatman was wprn out by the need of keeping the canoe near the tarpon. Our catch during the trip was as follows: Fifteen days at Boca Grande Pass, 84 tarpon; fourteen days at Captiva Pass. 86 tarpon; eight days oil the Caloosahatchee river, 35 tarpon; three days at Marco, 14 tarpon; five days on the Harney river, 25 tarpon; two days on the Broad river, 13 tarpon; three days on the Hueston river, 30 tarpon; five days on the Turners river, 56 tarpon, and two days on the Allens river, 11 tarpon. That gives a total catch of 334 tarpon In fifty-two days. Between the above passes ,and streams are others In which tarpon abound. They can be found scattered through the broad shallow waters and deper channels of the whole great Ten Thousand Islands. ■To object to taking a tarpon for mounting, or other rational purpose, would seem fanatical, but wantonly to sacrifice these beautiful creatures, after they have added so much to your pleasure, is causeless cruelty. They can be measured without harming them, and the cube of their length In feet, divided by two, gives their weight In pounds as nearly as need be. No trust -controls tarpon fishing. No sport on earth offers greater legitimate excitement And half the glory of the game is Its humanity.

“UNCLE JOE" CANNON.

pectantly on the fur-coated professor, and he, poor fellow, shot proudly forth, tripped over something or other, and with outspread arms and legs fell like a ton of brick. “The curtain descended amid roars of laughter. Though we didn’t repeat it, I believe that this accidental cßmax was really more telling than oer right one.” Human Growth Jn New York. Every six minutes a new human being is born in New York.

The Go Ahead Sisonal

The boys in the roundhouse thought it funny that Dannie McCaull should

to him about it Dannie would get out a notebook and pencil and figure on how much more he would be worth in the next ten years by raising pumpkins and ducks and chickens than he would at engineering. But this didn’t fool anybody, because the boys knew that Dannie had been born a railroader and that his only real elepieht was along the shining rails. The thing that made Dannie quit the road occurred wh,en the baby Dan was a little better than two years old. It was a gloomy drizzly day. No. 55 was approaching the town. Owing to the slippery condition of the rails the engineer had had some trouble in getting his unusually heavy train over the road on the schedule. The train was a few minutes l&te, having lost the time coming up the long grade from North River, and Dannie was crowding on the drivers every ounce of steam they would stand without slipping, 'there were several curves, one of considerable length* around a sloping hill just before reaching the place where Dannie lived. As the engine swept around the hill, revealing the long tangent ahead Dannie saw on the rails a small white object which he instantly recognized as a little chap. Instinctively he reached for the whistle lever and then his heart failed him at the thought that it wouldn’t do the slightest good; Little Dannie was no more afarid of a railroad train than he was of Bill Skaggs. He knew that his dad was on that engine, and he felt satisfied in his little baby brain that no harm could come to him when his dad was near. So he toddled up toward the engine with a smile on. his lips and his little arms stretched out. Of course the half-crazed father shut off the steam and applied the emergency quicker than I am telling it, and then, overcome by the horror of the situation, his head dropped on the window as if he had fainted. Bill Skaggs, big ugly old Bill, as soon as he saw the kid, ran along the running board beside the big boiler as lively as any monkey could have done, climbed out on the pilot, stood still for a moment until he caught the baby’s eye, and then gave the regulation railroad signal for the train to move forward. Little Dannie saw it and obeyed orders. He cleared the track. Skaggs was a little wobbly and his leathery face looked odd as he climbed back into the cab. He saw what had happened to Dannie —that his nerve had entirely left him —and so he motioned him to get on the ether side of the engine and took the train into the division himself.

Before going home Dan went up into the superintendent’s office and resigned. He simply told the superintendent that it was a good year for farming and he wanted to get back to the land. Skaggs took his place as engineer and made good. Little Dannie still retains his interest in railroading and will doubtless in time be an engineer himself. He sometimes thinks it funny, however, that his dad quit such a kingly profession in order to hoe in the garden.

Scarcity of Sailors.

Hardly ever before were sailors known to be so scarce, it being almost impossible at the present time for vessels at New England ports to secure crews, says the Kennebec (Me.) Journal. White crews seem to be a thing of the past on board the large sized coastwise craft, and the colored sailors who of late have been filling their places seem to be drifting into other pursuits! Many of the latter secured places as firemen on board steamers at the time of the unsuccessful strike of the Coastwise union last May, and have held on to the jobs ever since. At any rate, very few of them have been seen in this port of late, and, despairing of getting a crew here, the owners of the schooner Clarence H. Venner and Malcolm Baxter Jr., have engaged the Boston tug Baxter to tow the two bessels to Philadelphia, where they are under charter to load coal. The tug will get |625 for the tow, and, with the uncertain weather conditions, she 16 likely to earn it

Something Like a Feast.

Kabyle tribesmen of the Bebt region In Morocco, Africa, a few days ago, celebrated the extinction of the “blood debts/’ which have for centuries caused sanguinary conflicts between them, by a great festival at which half a sheep per head was consumed, eacn guest further accounting for three pounds of boiled rice, one pound of chocolate, and one dozen bundles of red pepper. / £

quit his job as passenger engi-,-neer on the Brookhaven division, by which .he pulled down from $l5O to SIBO a month, and go to raising garden truck just outside of town. When they spoke

MANY PROBLEMS TO SOLVE

Railroad Being Built in Peru Has , Furnished Engineers an Opportunity to Show Their Skill. Another trans-Andean railroad under construction in Peru presents problems unique in the annals of railway building. The road will traverse the territory from the summit of the Andes to the navigable headwaters of the Amazon river—a distance of 250 miles—but in ' that short distance there is a sheer of about three miles that the engineers will have to overcome. The whole length of the line is only about 270 miles, but it is the first hundred which present the greatest engineering difficulties, the hundred miles of tunnels, curves, bridges, embankments and switchbacks from the summit of the Andes down their eastern slope. Here will be employed ffevTc&s ifi 'ranroa< building such as have no counterpart in this country, nor even in the most difficult passes of the Rockies. Marvelous as the railroad will be from an engineering and scenic standpoint, it will be even more notable for its economic Effect on world trade. Although Peru is not more than 500 miles wide from east to west, its transAndean products must take a journey of 20,000 miles down the Amazon and to Europe, returning by way of Panama, in order to reach the commercial cities of its west coast. The new road will permit the interchange of Oriental and Occidental Peruvian products in four days instead of six’ months. The concession for the building of the railway is held by Americans to whom the Peruvian government has undertaken to give $10,000,000 in bonds to the builders, pa. able in installments at the completion of every twenty-five miles of the railroad. In addition Peru will convey to the syndicate 5,000,000 acres of land in the mountain country when the road is completed.

Speed of American Trains.

“Should passenger train be permitted to. run at a speed of 50 miles an hour?” was asked of Mr. H. W. Belknap, chief of government’s inspectors of safety appliances. “No person in the world,” Mr. Belknap replied, “can give an answer to such a question and make it of general application. Fifty miles on some roads may be safer than 30 miles on other is a matter of roadbed, weight of rails, cars, signals and management. Very few American trains, however, reach an average of 50 miles an hour. The fastest of the extra-fare specials between New York and Chicago average 54 miles for the trip, but at places reach the speed of 85 miles. But those are the most scientifically operated trains in the country. They are operated for speed and for safety, and steel cars give some assurance that the worst thing which can be imagined won’t happen even if a rail gives way or a wheel breaks down in the middle. Steel cars, I want to say, are a great protection to life, as was shown on the Fourth of July, this year, near East Corning, N. Y. A standing train lot one buffet car, seven sleeping cars and two day coaches, all made of wood but one of the coaches, which was the second car from the end of the train, was run into by an express going at a high rate of speed. Thirty-nine passengers were killed and 86 passengers and two employes were Injured. The wooden coach was pounded into splinters. The steel coach was bent at the ends, and after telescoping the sleeper just ahead for two-thirds of its length, was torn from its trucks and turned over. Only two fatalities occurred in this, car. It was placed on new wheels, and was sound enough to be taken to the repair shops. The wooden coach and sleeping car, or what remained of them, were gathered up and destroyed by fire at the side of the track.”

Thinks Employes Careless.

All cars are now equipped with selfcouplers,’’ relates a railroad expert, talking of accidents to employes. Still 257 men were kiUed or Injured last year while adjusting couplers with their feet as the cars came together. The cars would have coupled mechanicafty; kicking was wholly unnecessary. It is these little unnecessary risks that habituate men to take all kinds of chances, and some day a passenger train goes into a siding and be is ground to pieces. All railroaders, from the Italian who repairs the roadbed to the president of the company, should have tlje fact driven into their heads and then clinched that they are the custodians of the lives of hundreds of human beings. That, it seems to me, is the first principle of railroading. Furthermore. the railroad is no place for booze fighters, poker players, dreamers or reckless lads who like to experiment with hazards. The service calls for steady, reliable and conscientious and for Intelligent men whose minds act instantly and accurately.”

Elephant Derailed Train.

One of the most uqpsual accidents on record occurred not long ago on the South African railroad. A passenger train .making 80 miles an hour collided with an elephant, with disastrous result. The engine was running tender first, and the elephant, coming leisurely along the track, head on, was expected by the engineer to take to the jungles. Instead, he charged the tender with his huge bulk, only to pay for his daring with his life. His missive body was torn open. The tender and engine were thrown completely off the rails.

Tfopes Deferred ''x f J 1\ \ vJ'/ He worried through the busy days Because his plans so often failed; He sought success in many ways, Obstructions daily he assailed; He longed for honor and for fame. He strove to win a lofty place; His hair grew gray and wrinkles came To write the story on his face. He worked with all the might he had. To prove his worth and win regard; His shoulders drooped, his look grew sad. The path he chose was steep and hard; Deprived of sympathy and aid He struggled on, defying Fate; With talents that were small he made A. splendid struggle to be great. His wife from day to day complained; Her once fair face was ever sad; ’Twas not that he so seldom gained The ends that might have made him glad; Her tones were tinged with deep regret. And sorrow came with her to dwell. Because It was so hard to get Dressmakers who could fit her well.

What He Wanted.

"I have,” said the gentleman with the frayed overcoat and unmanicured nails, “just succeeded in figuring out the exact moment at which life will cease to exist on this planet, and if you will permit me I will be glad to read to you an article —with a view to publication in your valuable journal —which I have written on the subject.” “My dear sir,” replied the subeditor, "if you can figure out the exact moment at which life will cease to exist in the ticks of our boarding house beds I will be more than glad to consider any article you may prepare on the subject.”

Still Young, Apparently.

"Simeon,” his wife protested, “please do be careful. Remember that you are not as young as you used to be.” “Pshaw!" he replied; ‘Tm not getting old. I have never been referred to as the Nestor or the dean of anything.”

Unfitnes of Things.

"Burlison is having his new house finished up with a lot of quaint-look-ing contrivances. He has bought a big, old-fashioned brass knocker to be fastened on the front door.” "I thought he claimed to be a charter member of the anti-knocking society."

Gratification.

“Why do you belong to the golf club? I have never seen, you playing.” “I get so much satisfaction out of sitting around and watching the men keeping the greens in order. I once had to work for a living myself."

Pointer Wanted.

“Officer, arrest that man! He just walked up to me and whispered that I was the most beautiful woman he ever saw.” “Very well, ma’am. What shall I charge him with—insanity?”

Her One Advantage.

The heiress who marries a titled foreigner has one advantage. She needn’t be afraid that he will ever complain that her cooking isn’t as good as his mother’s used to be.

Description In Brief.

"What kind of a fellow is Binksley, anyhow?” “Well, I think I can best describe him by saying that he keeps Lent in bls wife’s name.”

When to Quit

There would be fewer divorcee 11 women would quit talking when it had been conceded that they have, won the debate.

The Trouble.

A man may be religious without belonging to a church, but the trouble ii that he generally isn’t

It Began With Adam.

Denouncing the government is tht oldest profession in the world. -.4 *