A man
has got to have a morocco book of expensive flies, a fifteen dollar bamboo
jointed rod, a three dollar trout basket with a hole mortised in the top,
a corduroy suit made in the latest style, top boots of the Wellington
pattern, with red tassels in the straps, and a flask of Otard brandy in a
side pocket. Unless a man is got up in that style, a speckled trout will
see him in Chicago, first, and then it won't bite. The brook trout is even
more aristocratic than the whitefish, and should not be propagated at
public expense.
But there are fish that should be propagated in the interest of the
people. There is a species of fish that never looks at the clothes of the
man who throws in the bait, a fish that takes whatever is thrown to it,
and when once hold of the hook never tries to shake a friend, but submits
to the inevitable, crosses its legs and says "Now I lay me," and
comes out on the bank and seems to enjoy being taken. It is a fish that is
a friend of the poor, and one that will sacrifice itself in the interest
of humanity. This is the fish that the State should adopt as its trade
mark, and cultivate friendly relations with, and stand by. We allude to
the bullhead.
The bullhead never went back on a friend. To catch the bullhead it is not
necessary to tempt his appetite with porter house steak, or to display an
expensive lot of fishing tackle.
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