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.


APPRECIATIONS:

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