Fish Begin to Bite.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1905, 20 September 1884, Page 6

Fish Begin to Bite.

Therm were eight or ten men in a saloon near the Eastern Hay Market yesterday morning, ■when a dried-np little old man entered and edged hia way up to the stove without saying a word to am \, y\y. Those who gave him second look wondei ed why the winter had not blown him into Hudson's Bay. In about ten minn'i a a second stranger entered, but he was broad-shouldered and fat and talkative, aud he was scarcely inside before he called out : " Well , now, but isn't it cold I Come, gents, what'll you take ? Walk right up and nominate your candidate. I just won 5 dollars betting on a man's weight, and I can afford to treat," All v/alked to the bar and took something, and the stranger continued : " I can generally hit a man's weight purty close — purty middling close. Drink hearty, gents." " How do you do it ?" asked the little old man r.s ho wiped off his chin. " With my eye." " "Sv ell, some folks is awful smart, and some isn't. How much do you reckon I weigh ?" I " Just as you stand?" "Of course. I ain't going to peel off my duds to be weighed." The big man stood back and took a long squint and replied : " Feller sinner, I reckon you'll pull down 145 pounds." The crowd laughed deiisively, and one man said : " If he weighs 145 pounds then I weigh 200." " He'll do better," mused the fat man. " I say he'll pull down 147." " Bosh ! He won't show over 130 1" The fat man laid down a five dollar bill, and it was oovered in a York minute. Then the whole crowd walked down to the butcher's and the dried-up man mounted tho scales. " Just 148 to a hair 1" said the butcher. There was wondering and wailing and oussing, but the weight was there and the stakes were passed over. Ten minutes after the dried-up man and the fat man had left the place a boy came in and said : " I was in the grocery down here when they were strapping thirty pounds of lead and iron on him. and I. thought they were going to drown him." — Detroit Free Press.