Pickerel

In Bedford Hills, N. Y., one blazing summer day, Emil Schoor fished a handsome little pickerel from Cross River Reservoir. When a game warden stretched his tape along its belly four hours later the fish measured n inches, just one inch under the legal limit. Stoutly Emil Schoor contended that his prize, when caught, was a full foot long, that the sun must have shrunk it. Police put the pickerel on ice.

Two weeks later, just before the case came to trial, Schoor decided to pay a $12.50 fine. Having summoned the jury, however, the presiding justice of the peace let the prosecution call its witnesses. From the New York Aquarium came an ichthyologist to testify that no pickerel in his experience had ever shrunk more than a quarter of an inch. Indignantly Emil Schoor changed his mind about dropping the case, asked for a change of venue. The court refused the petition, clapped the defendant in jail. Released on bail, Schoor went to the State Supreme Court, got his change of venue. The pickerel stayed on ice.

Three weeks later the case came to a second trial before a jury of anglers. The defense demanded to see the pickerel. Said the chief of police: "Your honor, several days ago it became a case of either the fish or the police leaving the station house. Even the cat was disgusted. We threw the fish away."

Mr. Schoor's experts stretched the maximum pickerel shrinkage to three-quarters of an inch. The jury was out two hours. Said the foreman: "Guilty." The judge: "$50." Emil Schoor threatened to appeal.

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