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The land immediately about was largely owned by the Canal Company, and these idlers took a squatter's claim, built cabins, and were spending a free and easy life. They were pre-empting the best fishing-grounds, and making a monopoly of the business. They were turning the Sabbath into a day of hunting and sport. They were gambling and running houses of infamy to the ruin of scores of young men. They were killing the cattle of herdsmen for meat, and were becoming insolent of what they called their rights.

It came to pass that the land-owners of the region, to get rid of this bad citizenship, decided to cut the embankment, and let the lake into the river. The law formally protected the company; but the whole canal scheme having failed of its purpose, there was no utility in the lake, and if cut, in case of resuscitation of the canal project, the lake could be restored at an expense of a few hundred dollars. There was a plot to cut it out, but it was a plot in the interests of decency and good morals. The time set to cut the embankment was on a certain November night. A particular wild Irishman-a land-owner, professing friendship-gave the plot to the fishers; and, unexpectedly, these forty or more men, when they had reached the place for the cutting,

found as many or more fishermen, armed to the teeth, and in possession of the embankment. Shovels and pickaxes were of no service against pistols and shotguns; so there was nothing to do but to retreat in good order, if possible. The hot-headed among the fishermen were urging war on the spot. They proposed to make use of the advantage. The land-owners scattered and dismounted, and stood behind their horses. The cool-headed among the fishermen were disposed to be peaceable. In one sense they had the advantage; but to make use of it would avail little. In an attack in the dark they could not hope to kill many of these law-breakers, and there would be a hereafter. The fishermen were disposed to parley. Under the shadow and covert of a thick grove of walnut-trees, the landowners had quietly gathered for council, and had decided to ride off, leaving the men in possession, when the leader of the other party called out in the dark:

"I will meet your spokesman, and he shall not be harmed."

The leader of the citizens thereupon walked out with four others, and held a consultation with them. The fishermen said they were there to protect their property interests. They admitted the count of bad morals and thieving, and prom

ised to lead in a reform. The parley closed with an agreement that the lake should stand two years, to give the fishermen time to wear out their nets, and then the dike should be cut. But at the end of the two years the fishers were better equipped than ever.

On another blessed November night, at the late hour of eleven, the old clan met at the place of its former defeat, armed to the teeth, and with trusty pickets and scouts to guard the workmen while the embankment was being cut through. Before daylight there was a stream running through, two feet wide and eighteen inches deep. Before night next day, the crevasse was fifty feet wide and ten feet deep. What a fearful torrent and flood of water rushed out to flood the low-lands beyond! What multitudes of damagesuits followed! Several arrests were made for the destruction of public property; but nothing came of them, except a number of fat attorney's fees.

All this is incidentally preliminary to a great fishing time. After the water had run about half down in the lake, some parties staked the crevasse, and kept the bulk of the fish from entering the river. They had finally to resort to the bed of the creek, which was three miles or more in length, and to an occasional bayou, and

to an original shallow pond covering about forty acres. With the approach of winter the water froze over, and on the ice fell an eighteen-inch snow. The fish were so packed in this confinement, and so shut off from the air by this covering, that when a hole was cut in the ice, they rushed up to it like pigs to a trough. They could be taken out with any sort of snare or sharp instrument. The common tool used was a pitchfork. The news of this sort of fishing soon spread over the country, and the creek and pond were lined with men with teams, and hundreds of tons were taken within a fortnight. I cut a small hole in the ice near an old log, and in two hours and a half took from it fifteen hundred pounds of fish. Alas! there was no skill in this, and there was no luxury in it. The whole community was surfeited with fish. Besides, the goose that laid the golden egg was slain. I have had a thousand regrets about the destruction of this beautiful lake of water. With that, my fishing days were ended.

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"Stinkingest of the stinking kind,

Filth of the mouth, and fog of the mind,

Africa that brags her foyson,

Breeds no such prodigious poison."

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NE afternoon, I was sent out over the neighborhood to invite hands in to help raise the new barn-timbers next day. I had made my way partly around, and passing through a woodlot, I fell in with a boy who had been to Hazelgreen in the forenoon, and had purchased a new style of Star-plug tobacco. He was chopping

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