Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 August 1871 — Fishing for Bass. [ARTICLE]

Fishing for Bass.

A strange story is tpld on board of the steamer City of Hartford, which runs up tho Connecticut River from her landing at Peck Slip in this city. While she was lying at Pratt’s Ferry, a few days ago, waiting for a messenger from Hartford (says the Hartford Times), the second mate thought ho would improve the time by fishing for bass. So he got out his line and hook, and bait, and mode everything ready—lighted a cigar, and, casting a line into the water, sat down patiently to wait the result. On board was a young colored boy, one of those amphibious Kanakas who come to San Francisco from the Sandwich Islands, and eventually turned up as a boat hand on the City of Hartford. Like all of his amphibious race, he can remain a long time under the water. He took it Into his head to play a joke upon tho mate; and, divesting himself of his clothes, he jumped into the water on the opposite side of the boat from where the mate sat, hopefully but dreamily awaiting a “ bite.” Presently that official was startled by “ a strong pull and a long pull ” at his line. His slumbering eyes openod wide, his breath and thick, for he thought he had captured one of the biggest of the “big” bass which abound in tho river. He attempted to pull in his hook, but it resisted all his efforts! Then he thought ho would “piay” the fish fora little while; and so he would let out a few fathoms of line, and then draw in again. This was repeatcd several times, until finally the boy, thinking ho had carried the joke far enough, held on to the line and came to surface with it, just at the time the mate, with bigger eyes than he ever exhibited in all his life before, expected to land a big fish, and so shouted to the men on deck. The astonishment of that of flsh-al can be better imagined than expressed when ho saw the woolly cocoa-nut head and rolling eyes of the Kanaka emerge from the waves! At. first he thought lie had caught the “devil fish” that Victor Hugo Wrote about; then he didn’t know what it was; bnt lie ally, as the boy, blubbering and blowing like a porpoise, struck out for the boat, and the laughter of some of the hands who were in the joke rang in his ears, he acknowledge i himself “ sold,” and treated all round. This good story is in every particular a true one.— N. Y, Commercial Advertiser. Piiof. Dubois, whose curious experience in trying’:to eat corn from the small end when he first saw it on a table has been recorded, writes from Providence, R. 1., that this was not the last of his blunders. On one occasion, after paying his bill at a hotel, the landlord told him he .wns square. “ I told him,” says the ProKS» r 'r. “ T never knew I was square- bo- ; fore.” ‘ Good by," said he. “ You'll be j round soon.” “I foought you said I was | square ?” ■ “Oh t yeg,” said be; “but I i mean you 11 soou be round—you won’t be I long?” “Of course,"l replied, “if lam square, I will neither be long nor round.” The Professor has made so many of these comical mistakes that he has entered the lecture field, taking “ Blunders," for his subject.