made on the premises, and point to their creator's inordinate passion for fame a great deal more surely than to his success with the rod.
If a man should go into a court of law and swear that such and such a thing happened at half-past one by his watch, and should produce the very watch in proof of his statement, he would surely advance his case very little. Yet I have seen men stand in front of the counterfeit presentment of a trout so vast that, in the good old days before trophies were introduced, not a man among us would have dared to whisper its alleged weight—and swallow it, glass case and inscription, without an effort.
But the most pernicious feature of the trophy remains to be exposed. Unless an angler has casts to show he is looked upon with suspicion. I may expend treasures of ingenuity in adorning the relation of my exploits, but in the presence of my bare walls, my friends say, "We see that you do not care to have your fish set up. Some people don't." There are persons, of course, who cut their fish out of brown paper, and for some years after this method of angling was discovered it enjoyed a considerable popularity among the indigent. But for one reason or another—a brown-paper shape is not convincing. The most credulous eye sees through it. I suppose it is too easy
