PROS AND CONS,
QUESTIONS AND
SOME DOUBTS

To the Editor of the Press,
Dear sir,

 Anent that fish allegedly caught by Messrs. Knoeppel, Dadant and Dadant:

 I have had occasion recently to use the Power House records of water surface elevations in the tailrace. On Tuesday, August 24, the total drop in elevation between 5:00 and 6:30 P. M. was just sixteen inches, and the greatest drop in any fifteen minute interval did not exceed five inches. So the report of the water receeding nearly two feet in “the short time of a few minutes” is pure bunk. And the above mentioned self-styled fishermen have confused their fishing license (if they have any) with poetic license.

 Furthermore, I have spent nearly all my time during the past two weeks trying to find a witness to the actual catch. The only people there were apparently some professional fishermen; and when questioned they refused point blank to discuss the matter. That leaves us with only the statements of Dadant, Knoeppel and Dadant to establish the authenticity of the story published in the Press. I leave it to you to interpret the silence of the professionals.

 As to the size. Why did they use an iceman’s scales? And how come the dressed weight (ask George Cosgrove) is said to be only twenty pounds? And when the three musketeers posed for those three dozen pictures, why was the fish always placed three feet in front of the alleged catchers Any child could make a whittler look that big in a photograph.

 I also protest against the unseemly display of vulgarity on Broadway which followed. When three men whose position in the community demands that they be models of decorum act that way, it is high time that the public knows what they use for bait on a so-called fishing expedition.

  Yours for greater civic virtue,

   John Wells

P.S.--In my opinion, a fish which is so dumb that it lets itself get stranded when the water takes fifteen minutes to drop five inches--probably is just tired of living, or disappointed in love, or something.

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