CHAPTER XXVIII
BORROWED LINES
"Oh I could wish the lord to say That all the twelve months Should be May."
GEORGE BORROW.
"I borrow no man's tackle."--"FRANK FORESTER."
=Nature.=--"Solitude has its charm and its reward and Nature offers to mankind the proper blessings, be they indulged in with care and consideration. The mind that has been oppressed by following civilization's rut will find ample comfort in the solitude given man by Nature."--R. P. L., _The Sportsmen's Review_.
=Save the Fishes.=--"We who love wild life and long ago abandoned the many instruments of extermination and who have come to a more considerate mode of recreation should do all in our power to discourage its destruction and to encourage the propagation of the wild life which has been so generously and graciously given us by our Creator. Only extremists insist on terrible slaughter of fishes, birds, and quadrupeds."--E. M. Hermann.
"=Improvement.="--"No building enterprise, no 'betterment' ever spares a tree. Insects and lack of care kill what 'improvement' leaves."--New York _Evening World_, Aug. 18, 1914.
=Jesus the Fisherman.=--"Had not the Saviour of Gennesaret understood fishermen's signs, such as the riff on the water, the schooling of the fishes, the hovering gulls, there would have been no miraculous catch of fishes."--Charles Hallock.
=Society where None Intrudes.=--"I had pined so much, in the dust and heat of the great town, for trees and fields, and running waters, and the sounds of country life, and the air of country winds, that never more could I grow weary of these soft enjoyments."--Blackmore, _Lorna Doone_.
=The Call of the Wild.=--"Lying hidden away in the back of the brain is the primitive longing for adventure and the tingle of the nerves that awaits it. Under the veneer of what is called civilization lie the racial and elemental passions, just as Mother Earth lies beneath the asphalted streets of the city."--Adele M. Ballard.
=Gold Fishing.=--"When all green places have been destroyed in the builder's lust of gain; when all the lands are but bricks and piles of wood and iron; when there is no moisture anywhere and no rain ever falls; when the sky is a vault of smoke and all the rivers reek with poison; when forest and stream, the moor and meadow and all the old green wayside beauty are things vanished and forgotten; when every gentle, timid thing of brake and bush, of air and water, has been killed because it robbed them of a berry or a fruit; when the earth is one vast city, whose young children behold neither the green of the field nor the blue of the sky, and hear no song but the hiss of the steam, and know no music but the roar of the furnace; when the old sweet silence of the countryside, and the old sweet sounds of waking birds, and the old sweet fall of summer showers, and the grace of a hedgerow bough, and the glow of the purple heather, and the note of the cuckoo and cushat, and the freedom of waste and of woodland and all things are dead and remembered of no man; then the world, like the Eastern king, will perish miserably of famine and of drought, with gold in its stiffened hands, and gold in its withered lips and gold everywhere; gold that the people can neither eat nor drink, gold that cares nothing for them, but mocks them horribly; gold for which their fathers sold peace, and health, and holiness, and beauty; gold that is one vast grave."--Ouida.
=Heaven.=--"My heart is fixed firm and stable in the belief that ultimately the sunshine and the summer, the flowers and the azure sky, shall become, as it were, interwoven into man's existence. He shall take from all their beauty and enjoy their glory."--Richard Jefferies, _The Life of the Fields_.
=Modern Savagery.=--"Civilization is a nervous disease."--Clarence King.
=Humanity.=--"Reading and writing are not educational, unless they make us feel kindly towards all creatures."--Ruskin.
=Walton's Depth.=--"In Walton's angling works a child may wade and a giant swim."--John Ryan.
"I shall stay ... [the reader] no longer than to wish him a rainy evening to read this ... Discourse; and that, if he be an honest Angler, the East wind may never blow when he goes a-Fishing."--IZAAK WALTON, _The Compleat Angler_, 1653.
APPRECIATIONS:
PRINCETON, MAY 30, 1900--"The Determined Angler ... the most pleasantly written, the most sensible and practical and instructive volume I have ever seen of its kind."
THE ART OF ANGLING.-- ... a book on the art of angling, with a hearty indorsement from the most famous of latter-day fishermen, former President Grover Cleveland. It fully deserves this indorsement.--_New York Herald_, September 22, 1900.
THE TROUT AND THE WHALE.-- ... rare sympathy and genuine knowledge. Mr. Bradford undoubtedly knows, as did his sainted forerunner, that "there are fish, as namely the whale, three times as big as the mighty elephant, that is so fierce in battle," yet a single salve-liner fontinalis of "just a little over two pounds and a quarter" is the single luxury he allows himself. Mr. Bradford's dealings are with those sophisticated denizens of much-fished streams, that have to be approached with the finesse of a diplomat and handled with the swift skill of a fencing master. In all that pertains to this difficult and studious art one feels that Mr. Bradford is an adept, and that the graceful, commendatory letter from former President Cleveland is amply merited.--_New York Evening Telegram_, September 8, 1900.
PRACTICAL.--Practical advice.--_New York Sun._
ANGLING CONVERTS.--There is always a real charm about what is written on the subject of fishing, by real disciples of old Izaak Walton, and the reason may be found in the fact that the spirit of the greatest of anglers has come upon them. _The Determined Angler_ is no exception to the rule. It is good reading, full of wisdom and instruction. And while it will prove very useful to the beginner and even the veteran, it is also calculated to make many converts to the rod and line. The book is full of wise counsel and information.--_New York Evening Sun_, September 8, 1900.
FOR FAIR FISHERMEN.--Appeals to those who fish fair.... Charles Bradford, the modern American authority on angling.--_New York Press._
FOR GENTLE READERS.--Much good advice and very pleasant entertainment for any gentle reader.--_New York Observer._
SUMMER AND WINTER.--Pleasant reading whether by the winter fireside or the shaded banks of summer.--_New York Evening Post._
ANGLING EXPERIENCE.--Mr. Bradford is no novice in this line of literature.--_New York Athletic Club Journal._
ANGLING PHILOSOPHY.--Breathes the very essence of philosophy; the result of much experience.--_Brooklyn (N. Y.) Eagle._
WALTONIAN SPIRIT.--Pervaded by the spirit of Izaak Walton.--_The Outlook._
THE GENTLE TROUT.--The author is an enthusiastic devotee of the sport [angling], upon which he writes with a contagious enthusiasm ... an angler of very positive convictions; he has a fixed aversion to fishing with the scarlet ibis, and confesses to a personal preference to sober colors in flies for all seasons and on all waters. Above all, he insists upon the use of the most scientific methods, since "a trout is a gentleman, and should be treated as such and lured with only delicate and humane weapons." A facsimile of a letter of warm commendation from ex-President Cleveland serves as frontispiece to this agreeable volume which is attractively printed.--_New York Commercial Advertiser_. September 13, 1900.
THE GENTLE ART.--A gentle exponent of a gentle art.--_Denver (Colo.) Republican._
WILD BROOK TROUT.--The announcement of a new book on fishing interests a class of the community, especially those confined to the cities, which is increasing year by year. This work depicts a trout fisherman's paradise. It is from the same graphic pen as _The Wildfowlers_, and divulges many a secret of the fisherman's craft. One may learn from its pages where a gentle creel of real wild brook trout may be made in a morning's pleasant angling, "in a free and comparatively virgin gameland--a wild and naturally beautiful country, embracing all the charms of scenic splendor for which the American brook trout regions are famous," and its pages contain an abundance of practical detail concerning tackle and methods of casting the fly, and playing and landing the game ... it makes a notable addition to the sportsman's library.--_New York Home Journal_. May 10, 1900.
THE ANGLER'S ART.--Mr. Bradford gives eminently practical hints on the angler's art.--_Salt Lake City (Utah) Telegram._
A STUDY OF FISHING.--The advice comes from one who has learned many things about fishing.--_Utica (N. Y.) Press._
COMPREHENSIVE ANGLING.--One of the most comprehensive bits of angling literature we have had for many a long year, and thoroughly deserves the generous praise it has received ... the most delightful fishing book of this generation--_The Amateur Sportsman._
THE ANGLER'S LIBRARY.--deserves a place in the library of every fly-fisherman.--_The Sportsman's Magazine._
A FISHER OF MEN.--Mr. Bradford may well be proud of this tribute, for Mr. Cleveland is himself a determined angler and an experienced fisher of men.--_Spirit of the Times._
SECRETS OF THE FISH.--What he has to tell of the secrets known only to the fish, himself, and a few others is marvelous.--_Montreal (Canada) Gazette._
PHILOSOPHY AND FISHING.--With this kind of man philosophy and fishing mix well.--_Rochester (N. Y.) Herald._
QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY.--Mr. Bradford writes for those who see more in the trip than the frying-pan.--_Savannah (Ga.) News._
WALTON'S FOLLOWER.--A true disciple of Izaak Walton.--_London (Eng.) Post._
ANGLING ENTHUSIASM.--An accomplished and enthusiastic angler.--_Cincinnati (Ohio) Star._
CLEVELAND'S WORDS.--Charles Bradford writes practical and sensible books.--_Philadelphia (Pa.) Public Ledger._
ANGLING ANTICIPATIONS.--Mr. Bradford believes fishing is a means and not an end.--_Albany Argus._
JOYOUS MATERIAL.--He has gathered material to make the heart of the fisherman leap for joy.--_Boston Transcript._
WOULD PLEASE WALTON.--Izaak Walton, Christopher North, and the other mighty fishermen known to fame, would wag their wise heads approvingly over Mr. Bradford's book. The Pilgrims who told King James that they desired to go God and catch fishes would accord Mr. Bradford's volume a place beside the Bay Psalm Book.--_Pittsburg (Pa.) Gazette._
ENTERTAINING.--Mr. Bradford has written before on angling, and very entertainingly.--_Saturday Evening Post (Phila.)._
CONTEMPLATIVE MAN.--Charles Bradford is one to whom, as Washington Irving said, "There is something in angling that tends to produce a gentleness of spirit and a pure serenity of mind."--_Dundee (Scot.) Adv._
UNIVERSAL READING.--The descriptive matter is both interesting and instructive. Fishermen in all parts of the country will find the book well worth reading.--_Bay City (Mich.) Tribune_, July 19, 1900.
Transcriber's Note:
* Obvious punctuation and spelling errors repaired.
* Changed "water-proof" to "waterproof" for consistency. Both forms appeared in the original text.