With Rod and Line in Colorado Waters

The Project Gutenberg eBook, With Rod and Line in Colorado Waters, by Lewis B. France
DENVER: CHAIN, HARDY & CO. BOOKSELLERS & PUBLISHERS. 1884.
WITH ROD AND LINE IN COLORADO WATERS.
“Wha ever heard o’ a gude angler being a bad or indifferent man?”
—Noctes.
DENVER CHAIN, HARDY & CO., Booksellers and Publishers. 1884.
Entered according to act of Congress in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-four, by CHAIN, HARDY & CO., in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. DAVID ATWOOD, PRINTER AND STEREOTYPER, MADISON, WIS.
CONTENTS.
“ Poor drudge of the city! how happy he feels With the burs on his legs and the grass at his heels; No Dodger behind, his bandannas to share; No Constable grumbling: ‘You must n’t walk there!’ ”
—Holmes.

Forty years ago—a big slice off the long end of one’s life! A broad river with its low-lying south shore heavily timbered and rich in early summer verdure; a long bridge with a multitude of low stone piers and trestle-work at top; in midstream, two miles away, the black hull and tall masts of a man-o’-war, lying idly; between and beyond, the smooth bosom of the blue expanse dotted with fishing sloops under weather-beaten wings, moving lazily hither and yon; to the north, but invisible save a straggling outer edge of tumble-down houses—a possibility then—now, “they tell me,” a magnificent city; a decayed wharf with no signs of life, and draped in tangled sea-weed that came in with the last tide, the jagged and blackened piles stand brooding over the solemn stillness like melancholy sentinels sorrowing over a dead ambition. The ripple of the waves is a melody and the air is fragrant with a brackish sweetness.