SOMETHING LIKE A STORY.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 106, 2 October 1874, Page 3

SOMETHING LIKE A STORY.

[From Land and Water.)

Two or three officers who were guests of one of the old genuine Irish esquires, had been out salmon fishing, and after a good day’s sport, they were proud of exhibiting to their hospitable host one or two salmon of unusually large size, and at their wine after dinner they were boasting pretty freely of their morning’s exploit. Whether or not this nettled their host I cannot say, but he immediately responded to their boast in pretty near the following words:—“Ah! gentlemen, that’s nothing to what I sometimes do in these waters [i.e,, near Athlone). once in particular, and it’s as true as I sit in this chair. I had been out for a ride, and on coming home booted and spurred, as gentlemen usually are when they ride, the keeper came up to me out of breath, saying, ‘ Yer honor, there’s a splendid salmon in the hole below the house, and he’s rising as bold as a lion. Come quick, yer honor, come!’ Well, gentlemen, on hearing this I seized my rod and line, without stopping to take off even my spurs, and hastening down to the river, there, sure enough, the fish was, and no mistake about it either; so putting on my my best fly, a true Dublin fiery brown, and creeping round to a bush where I was pretty Avell hid from the water, my first cast flapped down the • fly to within an inch of where I had seen him rise, and I was quite startled at his size when he dashed furiously at it. Well, gentlemen, I saw at once that I had hold of a good one, and I thought sure enough that ho would have smashed my tackle outright without a chance of luck or skill on my part to save it—and it was some of Dublin’s best, too. This went on, a face-to-face fight, for a good hour and more, when the sound of the dinner-bell reminded me that I had invited two friends to dine. Well, gentlemen, you will understand the sort of fix 1 was in, and so becoming impatient, I made a desperate effort to land my big fish, and I succeeded too, so far as to bring him to a gravelly bank, where the water shallowed pretty handsomely, when I threw down my rod upon the bank, and before the fish had time to discover his mistake, I dashed in behind him as quick as thought, and, gentlemen, it’s as true as I sit in this chair, I got my legs astride the fish, a 40-pounder at least, and booted and spurred as I told you I was, 1 rode him, hand to hand on each gill, and a spur behind him, safe and sound to shore; and my two friends, wondering where I was, came down to the river just in time to see the fun. Now, gentlemen, say what you will, but that’s as true as I sit in this chair. ”