The News & Observer

Mentioned for the Place.

Special to the News and Observer.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 25.

It is Dr. W. R. Capehart, of Ayock, near Edenton, N. C., who is mentioned for Fish Commissioner. He is very highly endorsed and is a man of practical experience in the work. He is largely engaged in the fish business and is personally acquainted with most of the wholesale fish dealers along the Atlantic coast. He understands the commercial features of both coasts better probably than any other man mentioned in this connection. He operates at home, on the Albemarle sound, one of the greatest fisheries in the country. His seine is drawn by two steamboats, and in the shad season is laid and pulled with clockwork regularity every six hours, six days in the week. In addition, he has been engaged in practical fish culture as long, probably, as any other man in the country.

Superintendent Stephen G. Worth, of the Fish Culture Station here, says of him:

Dr. Capehart is one of the most admirably qualified men for Fish Commissioner to be found in the United States. His intellect is brilliant and his alertness and penetration remarkable. He is of lightning rapidity in sizing upon a situation, and directs all kinds of mechanical, agricultural and fisheries work with accuracy and pushes it forward with energy. No man has a readier knowledge of the technique of the fishing industry. He is a master of practical fish culture.

"Dr. Capehart started a hatchery for shad with private funds in 1876. He foresaw the value of artificial methods and anticipated State action by two years. The shad at his Sutton beach seine only averaged 29,000 before he started his hatchery, but in 1886 an increase was noticed, and since that year he has never caught less than 60,000. Some years the number reaching 100,000. His fish are packed in the most admirable manner, and dealers always know what to expect from his shipments before they see them."

The name of Dr. Capehart being urged just at this time when several of the old candidates are withdrawing from the contest, makes him a very prominent candidate.