Furry
Fin Flappers and Pelted Piscatorial Prizes
Puebloan Cheiftan, November
1938 Old-timers
living along the Arkansas
River near Salida have told tales
for many years of the fur-bearing trout indigenous to the waters
of the Arkansas near there.
Tourists and other tenderfeet in particular have been regaled
with accounts of the unusual fish, and Salidans of good reputation
have been wont to relate that the authenticity of their stories
has never been questioned—in fact, they're willing to
bet it's never even been suspected. Then, last week, out of
Pratt, Kansas, where water in any quantity large enough to
hold a trout—fur-bearing or otherwise—is
a rarity, came an urgent request for proof of the existence
of the furry fin flappers.
Upon the sturdy shoulders of Wilbur B. Foshay, secretary of
the Chamber of Commerce, fell the delicate task of informing
the credulous Kansan, without detracting from the obvious tourist-attracting
qualities of the pelted piscatorial prizes.
With admirable diplomacy, and considerable aplomb, Foshay dispatched
posthaste a photograph of the fish, obtained from a Salida
photographer and told the Kansan to use his own judgment as
to the authenticity of the species. The photograph sent has
been available in Salida for some time.
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