Show TO THE WRONG MAN The Fresh Young Man Tells of the Characteristics of the Mullysrub The fresh young man sat at the head of the table He was eating a fish A red faced man dressed in a tweed suit came in and was shown by the headwaiter I head-waiter to a seat on the left of the fresh young man The red faced man was an Englishman At least he had an English accent that sounded as if i was his by right and not by adoption rIg gave the waUpr an order and while he was waiting he began talking with j the fresh young man Pardon me the red faced man began be-gan but would you mind telling me what kind of a fish that is you are eating Certainly not replied the fresh I young man beamingly this is a very excellent specimen of what is known locally as th mullygrub I is a fish I I that Is found in great quantities in the I shoal waters of Lake Erie the lake on the shore of which this city stands and so far as I know Is caught nowhere else The mullygrub is a remarkable fish I grows to a length of two feet sometimes but is at its best for eating purposes when about ten inches long I is delicately flavored many persons claiming that the flavor is that of an excellent champagne while others insist that it tastes of Medford rum That point has long been a matter of local contention but J am reliably informed that in the oldei days the Indians who lived originally in these parts distilled excellent rum from the fish so I think the rum partisans of today have rather I the best of it Indeed broke in thg red faced man that is very astonishlng Oh yes continued the fresh young man but i is not the most winging thing about these fish Their greatest peculiarity is the manner in which they are caught T io 1 utterly imorM ble to take them with a hook und line They will not bite at any bait yet Invented In-vented by man N ir is it possible to catch them with i net Their dJrrd fins are sharper than a knife blade an3 when caught in a net hey simply cut their way out to liberty For this reason rea-son fishermen ilo not east a nee in places where he mully ntj are known to abound The jnlv way to atch these fish Is to hire a German band I play the wedding mirch from Lonen grin while standing on the shjre So great an admiration have these fish for the music furnished by Germ bands and for that one tune that they swim up to shore and wriggle their ya out on the sand Then it is easy to gather them up That is the way the entire catch is secured and thus many worthy German musicians are enabled to earn comfortable livings when othervise they would be obliged to walk around the streets for an uncertain income to say the least How very extraordinary murmured mur-mured the red faced man I certainly is went on the fresh young man but there is still another habit of the mullygrub which is unique The female mullysrub does not have the roe common to fish Instead she lays eggs which resemble the eggs of robins being of pale blue though somewhat I some-what smaller These eggs are deposited j ed after midnight in the sand after midnight in the full of the moon and during days when the sun is not shin ing the male mullygrub sits on them to keep them warm The little molly grubs are born with four legs which they use to walk with into the water after they are hatcned In three days these legs drop off and fins appear I can hardly believe i said the red faced man Oh yes yes indeed What I have told you can easily be verified any where in Buffalo Then again when the mullygrub reaches the age of one year it sheds its skin I also has the faculy on occasion of changing its color col-or I have seen a mullygrub when in good spirits change rapidly from red to white and then to blue and after that take on a combination of the three colors with a small patch of stars just where the head joins the body But is it possible you have never heard of this wonderful fish It certainly is replied the red faced man manMay f May I inquire where you live You are an Englishman are you not No not exactly I was born in Eng land but just at present I am engaged i in superintending the large fish hatchery i hatch-ery established in Canada I And the fresh young man fainted1 Buffalo Express |