duce an instrument absolutely reliable under any and all conditions of use and abuse. There was wanting a reel that should be light and compact in form, simple but powerful in its makeup and above all, one not easily deranged by the constant "wear and tear" inseparable from its use. With a full recognition of these exacting conditions they started in to make the reel that since has made the State of Kentucky famous. In all the years that have passed by since 1839 they have never deviated from the course originally laid down for its production, namely: the invariable use of the best obtainable material and upon such material the bestowment of every resource of ingenuity and painstaking workmanship. As a practical endorsement of this policy it is of record that the first Milam Reel, turned out by them in the year 1839, is still in perfect working order, and still giving a good account of itself on the bass streams of that state.

The following letters from two illustrious personages, addressed to the maker of this reel, attest its quality and a right to a place in angling history equaled by no other American multiplying and click fishing reel:

"B. C. Milam, Esq:

"Executive Mansion, Washington.

"My Dear Sir:-I have received, through Messrs. Blackburn and Breckinridge, the beautiful reel which you have sent to me, and I beg you to accept my sincere thanks for the same. I think it is the finest piece of work in that line I have ever seen and the sight and handling of it makes me long for the time when I can put it to

use.

I have no doubt that it will be the means of affording me much pleasure, and I hope that my performances may do your handiwork no discredit.

Yours very truly,

GROVER CLEVELAND.

St. Paul, Minn.

"Dear Sir:-In reply to your note, I beg to say that I have used one of your reels for 18 years and it is yet in excellent order. The make and fashion of your work is quite unsurpassed.

"Faithfully yours,

"JOSEPH JEFFERSON."

The "Milam" is a combined multiplying and click reel, and is therefore equally available for fly or bait fishing. It multiplies four-fold and so light is the friction of its moving parts that a single smart stroke of the handle produces hundreds of revolutions of the spool. In bait casting the reel is used "clear," i. e. without either alarm or rubber, and with a little practice, the bait may be dropped with ease and precision on any desired spot within 50 or 60 yards. For fly fishing it is customary to use the drag, and when desired (as is usually the case), the alarm or "click," but any of these features can be utilized singly, or all of them collectively at will. Thus, by their use, the reel may be transformed progressively into a multiplying, click, or a free running reel at your pleasure. These changes are produced by sliding disks on the side of the reel and do not complicate its operation. Pinions and pivots are of tool steel carefully tempered and fitted with greatest accuracy. No castings are used in this reel; nothing but wrought metals. Plates, caps, handles, etc., are all cut from hard-rolled sheet metals. The reels are still made by hand, with painstaking care, now, as always since the industry was started about eighty years ago, and they are made in the same little Main street shop in the city of Frankfort, which is located on the Kentucky river, near the Elkhorn junction, both streams long noted for the black bass found therein.

Interesting History:

Judge Shackelford Miller, of Louisville, Ky., rendered an opinion in the suit of B. C. Milam & Son, asking for an

injunction to prevent the corporation, "B. F. Meek & Sons (J. H. Sutcliffe and others)," from using the words "Frankfort," "Kentucky" or either of said words in describing a fishing reel, and, further, that the defendant be compelled to disclose profits and that plaintiffs be given judgment for all profits made by defendant on reels so manufactured and sold. Judge Miller granted the relief sought. The facts as brought out in the case will prove of interest to fishermen, as they show a concise history of this famous reel and give credit to the real institutors of this commodity. The product put out by Meek today may be all that is claimed for it, but the angler must bear in mind, after reading the following facts brought out in the trial, that Milam and not Meek invented the reel, and should be given credit accordingly:

The evidence shows that crude reels were made in Kentucky before 1830 (investigation has shown that as early as 1810 a reel was made in Paris, Ky.) Mr. Theodore Noel, a watchmaker, made a reel in Frankfort about 1830. B. C. Milam was an apprentice under Mr. Noel's brother. Noel quitting the business, Milam went to work with Jonathan Meek. Not liking watchmaking, he (Milam) took up the reel business and developed the multiplying reel to its present state of perfection. He has devoted his whole life to it. For over sixty years he did nothing else. The first reels he produced were stamped: "J. F. & B. F. Meek," then "Meek & Milam" then "The Frankfort, Kentucky Reel, B. C. Milam & Son." By constant application he has built up a great reputation for his reel, built it under different names, but the same reel all the time. At last he was forced to go to the courts to ask protection for what he had been so many years honestly acquiring, and the courts sustained him.

In 1835, Jonathan F. Meek moved to Frankfort from Danville, Ky., and engaged in the jewelry business. His younger brother, B. F. Meek, and B. C. Milam went to work

as apprentices. In 1839 he and his brother formed a partnership under the firm name of J. F. and B. F. Meek, B. C. Milam still being associated with them. A few reels were made between this time and 1848, when B. C. Milam was taken into the firm, and the name became J. F. Meek and Company, B. C. Milam being the company and doing the work on the reels and stamping them "J. F. & B. F. Meek." as before. In 1852 this firm failed and Jonathan F. Meek moved to Louisville, where he worked until his death at his trade, watchmaking, for Wm. Kendrick.

January 1, 1853, B. F. Meek and B. C. Milam formed a new firm under the name of Meek and Milam, to continue the business of jewelers and reel making at the old stand on Main Street. B. F. Meek attended entirely to watchmaking and jewelry on the lower floor and B. C. Milam had entire charge of and did all the reel work on the second floor of the same house. The partnership agreement was in writing, and shows that upon dissolution Meek was to have the watchmaking tools and Milam was to own the reel-making outfit. This partnership was dissolved in 1885 by mutual agreement, and, according to contract, Meek took the watchmaking business and Milam took the reel making, both remaining in the old stand on Main street, Frankfort, Ky., Meek on the lower floor and Milam on the upper floor. During this partnership Milam stamped the reels "Meek and Milam" and after the separation he continued to stamp them "Meek and Milam,” although Meek had no interest in the reel business, and so stamped them from 1853 until about 1880, twenty-seven years. During this long period the reel known as the "Meek & Milam" reel, and made exclusively by B. C. Milam, had become famous, not only throughout the United States, but was known to the anglers of Europe.

In 1882 B. F. Meek moved to Louisville and began to make a reel.

In 1898 B. F. Meek, having sold out to J. H. Sutcliffe

and others, who formed a corporation to continue the manufacture of reels, returned to Frankfort, where he lived until his death.

To quote Judge Shackelford Miller, further:

"The plaintiffs, B. C. Milam & Son, now complain that the defendant corporation, 'B. F. Meek & Sons, with the design and purpose to get plaintiff's trade and to deceive the public, is now and has since its purchase from Ben F. Meek in 1898, been manufacturing reels in Louisville which it puts on the market advertised as the original 'Frankfort, Kentucky Reel,' by reason whereof, it is claimed, the public are deceived into buying defendant's reels as the reels of the plaintiff's make.

"No one of the Meeks is interested in or employed by the defendant corporation, "B. F. Meek & Sons."

"Prior to 1882 the 'Meek & Milam Reel," made in Frankfort by B. C. Milam, had become generally known in Kentucky as the 'Frankfort Reel,' and outside of the State as the 'Kentucky Reel,' the 'Frankfort, Kentucky

Reel' and was so advertised by Milam in 1882, and was so stamped by him in 1896. The descriptive term or phrase, 'Frankfort, Kentucky, Reel' was first used by Milam, Furthermore, B. F. Meek was never engaged in the manufacture of fishing reels in Frankfort after 1855, while Milam had been continuously in that business at the old stand, 318 Main Street, in Frankfort, from 1848 to the present time, a period of more than fifty years. Under this state of facts, will the defendant be allowed to use the descriptive words, 'Frankfort, Kentucky,' in describing its reels?

"The plaintiff's reels have become famous during a period of nearly fifty years of exclusive manufacture at Frankfort, Kentucky-in fact, they became so popular as to be generally known and subsequently advertised as the 'Frankfort, Kentucky Reel!' To allow the defendant corporation to reap the benefit of the plaintiff's long and