The Original "sucker."

"The word 'sucker' originated at the julena mines in Illinois in the f all of 822, at a time when there was a gTeat exodus. A large returning party, while boarding a steamer at the Galena wharf, was asked: 'Vher' ye go.n?' To hum,' was the reply. 'Well,' was the rejoinder of an oíd miner, 'ye put me in mind of suckers, they do go up Jie river in the spring, spawn, and all return down ag'in in the f all.' "