·SH441 D3 NOTE. HE following chapters were written by Mr. Dawson sub THE sequently to his retirement from the editorship of the Albany Evening Journal last September. The series was broken off by the author's lamented death in February. The "Talks" attracted wide attention at the time of their publication in the angling columns of the Forest and Stream, and were received with very cordial appreciation. It is thought that their collection into the present more permanent form will prove acceptable. As a political writer of conceded power, Mr. Dawson wielded a trenchant pen; when he turned from the conflict of parties to the praise of the favorite pastime of "simple wise men," his essays, limpid as the crystal streams, are aglow with the soft summer sunlight and melodious with the songs of birds. When angling was the theme, he wrote from a full heart and in closest sympathy with the scenes and pursuits described. These "Talks " are brimful of manly, wholesome sentiment; there is in them all not a particle of cant. Their sincerity and overflcwing spirit at once win the reader, and he perforce shares the author's enthusiasm. The effect is magical, like that of the mimic players in Xenophon's Memorabilia: he who reads, if he be an angler, must go a-fishing; and if he be not, straightway then must he become one. FOREST AND STREAM OFFICE, APRIL, 1883. |
