Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 May 1888 — HE CAUGHT A SUCKER. [ARTICLE]

HE CAUGHT A SUCKER.

The Experience of a Man Who Fortified Hie Pocket With Fish-Hooks. . Stockton Mail. “Bill Charters was a very original man—that is, If he was out of a job he’d devise some way of his own to procure the wherewithal to keep a fire in the grate and provisions in the pantry,” said a man in a Main street cigar store the other night. “Bill was also fond of fishing. On winter evenings at home, if he had nothing better to do, he would haul out his*, fishing tackle and inspect it thoroughly, and then, after making two or three new-fangled fly hooks, he’d place the outfit back in its box, at the same time knowing that he’d be unable Io use his tackle for probably six months. “Bill lived in Boston when I first knew him. That was eighteen or twenty years ago. He was a tinsmith by trade. I went up one night to see him concerning some work he had been engaged on for several days. Bill was in the dining room examining his fishing tackle when I entered. After settling our tinsmithing business he began explaining the various methods used to catch the various species of the finny trite.'This hook was fine for trout in the early morning, brown tackle was immense at noon when the sun was shining, and that white moth fly hook was simply perfection in the evening, just about the time the sun was setting. “One huge batch of hooks attracted my attention. There were probably thirty very small eye-hooks, all sewed securely to a jagged piece of cloth—strong drilling—about the size of your hand. “ ‘Bill,’ said I, taking the hook-cov-ered cloth in my hand, ‘did you ever catch any fish with this arrangement?’ “ ‘Yes, sir,’ he answered with a laugh, ‘I caught a sucker on that collection last fall that weighed 160 pounds.’ “ ‘Where and how?’ I asked, hardly knowing what Bill meant, as I had never seen a sacker that weighed more than three or four pounds. ‘“Just this way,’ replied Bill. ‘One night my wife and I decided to go to the theatre. When we reached the box office there was a perfect jam of people, I left my wife near the door while I struggled bravely to reach the ticket window. I asked for two dress circle tickets, and when I put my hand in my pocket to get the money to pay for them I discovered that my pocketbook was gone. ‘Stolen!’ exclaimed I, and retreated.’

“ ‘Mrs. Charters and I walked home. She felt disappointed; she wanted to see the play. A thought struck me instantly, and juit as quickly as possible I put my plan into execution. Turning my money pocket inside out I hastily sawed all the small fish hooks I had to the inside of that pocket ia such a manner that when my pocket was shoved back to its proper position the barbs of the hooks stood out and pointed downwards. “ ‘I took some more money with me—but I p’aced it in another pocket—and again we started for the theatre. There was still considerable of a crowd in the neighborhood of the box office, and once more I began edging my way through for the purpose of procuring tickets. I allowed my fish hook money pocket to take care of itself. “‘Just as I was being handed my tickets I felt a bite I attempted to turn around, when I found I had hooked a very fine-looking sucker in the shape of a wel’-dressed man who wore a shiny tile. I paid no attention to his tugging at my pocket, as I knew after one or two tu£s he’d quit. When I reached my wife she said: “William who is this gentleman with you?” I told her he was a very particular friend of mine. “’An officer standing at the door accompanied my friend and me, at my request, into an adjoining room, where I explained matteis. I recovered my lost pocketbook and gieentackp. It was keeping company with seven other similarly situated purses. I had to cut the pocket out to have the thief handed over to the officer, but it was returned to me after the doctor succeeded in getting the books out of the fellow’s hand.’ “‘Yes,’ continued Bill, ‘he was the biggest sucker I ever caught—must have weighed at least 160 pounds. And th is is no fish story either.’ ” ’