THE OPENING OF FISHING

— Let's protect our rivers. — Some Famous Fishermen.

If I believe what some of my friends tell me, the opening was not the most brilliant.

"Eat fish!" they say to good people who complain about the high price of meat. And the good people couldn't ask for more. But sea fish are subject to such transport prices that, in the end, ray, mackerel or whiting cost as much as rib steak, steak or cutlet. As for freshwater fish, it is rarer from year to year. It would be necessary to "stock" the rivers... Alas! I rather believe that we "poison" them, or, at the very least, that we allow them to be poisoned. They would however need all the care, these poor rivers, too often devastated by poaching or polluted by the excesses of industrialism.

“This will kill that,” said Victor Hugo. This is progress; that is the picturesque. Hey ! Well, isn't it possible to reconcile one and the other ? Couldn't industry live, grow and prosper without destroying sites, cutting down trees, tapping springs or contaminating rivers ? Without wanting to harm its development, without hampering its growth, isn't it also just that we watch over the beauty and the natural wealth of the country ? “Where the water flows, all good comes” goes an old adage. Let's not forget that. And that all those who enjoy the charm of our rivers, especially fishermen, who find on their shores the sweet emotions of their favorite sport, never fail to do everything necessary to protect them.

River fishing is an element of wealth for the country that should not be neglected. Do you know that there are 275,000 kilometers of rivers, rivers, streams and canals in France in which it can be practiced ? “Before the war, the State withdrew more than a million from the fishing rights which it charged on the waters which are its property. There were then, in France, about 600 fishermen's societies, and statisticians — isn't statistics applied to everything ? — estimated at more than 2.5 million the number of French people who, either to live on it or to amuse themselves, devoted themselves to industry or the pleasure of fishing. I imagine that number has not decreased. Despite the taunts, angling has its enthusiasts. And they are not always idle; please believe it.

We remember that Waldeck-Rousseau, who was one of our most energetic and wisest statesmen, had a real passion for this peaceful sport. One day, a society of fishermen offered him the presidency of honor. Waldeck-Rousseau agreed: "The presidency of an angler's society," he wrote, "is perhaps that for which I feel myself best prepared by conscientious study and a practice for which I never find enough hobbies. Waldeck-Rousseau was then President of the Council. Admit that his response, in the circumstances, showed as much humor as modesty.

It seems that in the time of Louis-Philippe, there was a minister even more passionate than was Waldeck-Rousseau for angling. This Minister was called M. de Salvandy, he held the portfolio of Public Instruction. However, each day, he escaped surreptitiously from his study and came, under the Pont de la Concorde, to a place which was familiar to him and which he had generously baited, to tease the gudgeon... Because, in those distant times, there was still gudgeon in the Seine.

M. de Salvandy took his place. So he was singularly upset one day when he found her taken by a stranger. The next day, the day after, the stranger was still there. On the fourth day, finally, the minister approached and struck up a conversation:

'So you have leisure,' he said to his competitor, 'to come every day like this to dip some thread in the Seine?'

— Alas! said the other in a sorry tone.

"Why alas?...

Then the stranger related that, as rector of a provincial academy, he had just been dismissed by the Minister of Public Instruction, whom false reports had deceived. He had come to Paris to justify himself, but the minister was never at his ministry, and, while waiting to be able to join him, he occupied his leisure by fishing with a line. The next day, the deposed rector was appointed to an important post in a department far from the Pont de la Concorde, and M. de Salvandy, resuming his place, his good place full of fish, continued to tease the bleak and the gudgeon.

In the theater world, the love of angling is especially prevalent. Rather ask the joyous Augustine Leriche, Fugère, the excellent singer ? Note was a hardened fisherman. But the most famous sinner before the eternal is Silvain, the dean of the Comédie-Française. When he was still only a boarder with Molière, he was already taking fishing lessons from Barré, who was the finest fisherman in all the theaters of Paris.

One day before the opening, Silvain was to play the role of Burrhus, in "Britannicus", and Barré then play Vanderek, from "Victorine's Marriage". When it was time to raise the curtain on the tragedy, the buzzer knocked at Silvain's box. No answer. He enters. Person ! We run, we call Silvain.. Nothing! "Have a look at Barré's," said someone.

We go there, and we find Father Barré, in his shirt sleeves, his sleeves rolled up to the elbows, and Silvain, in a toga, both kneading together, in a terrine, a kind of mortar where the blood of ox , the maggots, the saffron and other ingredients were amalgamated and which spread a nauseating odor in the lodge. These gentlemen were preparing their bait for the next day.

Ernest Laut