The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-12-14

Winter. spring and summer the half
eomnolent citizen who has had his forty
wlnks and is about to turn over on the
other side for another two hours snore
hears . shrill feminine voice, at first
sharp and resonant. gradually expand
ing and elongating the words:
Buy emmy c-a-a-t-f-e-e-shp"
Translated into English this is an ap-
peal to the housewife from peripatetic
vender of catfish. The citizen who is
curious to discover what kind of being
can be tempted to go abroad at that un-
seasOnable hour when the couch has
superior charms to the sidewalk will, if
he throws up his window and peers out,
observe middle-aged or even aged
woman trudging sturdily along, having
poised upon her head broad tray, with
low, slanting sides.
The receptacle is not exactly upon the
bearers skull, but rests upon an inter-
posed round cushion The tray con-
tains the fish, and is balanced with the
dexterity acquired by years of practice.
The fishwoman's head turns on pivot,
apparently, as she looks from one side
of the street to the other, and perhaps
backward, to see if customers are beck
oning to her.
The fish are generally tied in punches
of a half-dozen or dozen, secured by
cord run through the flesh above the
tails. The fish are already beheaded,
skinned md eviscerated, so that there is
nothing more to do with them except to
dip them into crumbs or cracker dust
and egg and then to fry crisply in boil
ing lard.
One of Philadelphia's institutions
which the stranger within her gates is
expected to be treated to during his So
iourn is q supper of catfish and waffles
on the Wissahickon or Schuylkill. There
are several hotels on the former roman
tic stream which are noted for the skill
full preparation of the toothsome fish
This celebrity dates back many years
ago, when, as tradition runs, there were
catfish in abundance in the Schuylkill
and Wissahickon, long before the re-
fuse from dye-wOrks. pulp-mills, print
works and paper-mills had fouled the
waters so that even the obstinate cat
fish had to retire down stream and
abandon his favorite haunts. At the
present time catfish supper at Wis
sahickon hotel survives upon the by-gone
reputation and through means of di-
minutive deceit. The catfish are not
Schuylkill catfish, but are the spoils of
the fishermen of the Delaware. Still,
people go out to the Wissahickon and
pay their S1.25 head cheerfully for
the luxury of catfish, wafiles and coffee,
and depart refreshed.
Mrs. Mary Mood. who resides on
Richmond street, and is vender, has
supplied many thousands of punches of
the appetizing fish for the catfish and
waffle sacrificial frying-pans in Wissa
hickon restaurants, Sometimes Gus
toner sent his wagon all the way to
Twelfth-street market to buy out her
stock when there were no fish obtaina-
BILE at Otis-street wharf.
This is, of all other places, the catfish
At the end of bulkhead,
just above the Kensington water-works,
and not twenty feet away from an
odorous mound of stable manure, piled
up ready for shipment on boats to New
Jersey, the catfish fleet losses at its
at least about one-half of
it does-every morning. Ask any old
fisherman how long catfish have been
sold at this stand, and he will respond
thaG it was away before his time when
the traffic began. The craft that do the
tossing whenever gigantic up-river
steamer plows her way along and sends
" rolleys" into the dock are about
twenty feet in length and are fitted for
sails and oars in case of calms. Some
are provided with bins at the stern, into
which the fish, sall alive and kicking"
are tossed from ''live boxes" to flop
until they are slain.
The fishing grounds are up the river,
near Tacony, at the mouth of the
Schuylkill, in the coves near Gloucester
and Red Bank. The best fish are es-
teemed as the catch of the fisheries
down near Delaware City, and these
are the delight of epicures.
The catching is done with layout
lines and fine-meshed nets. Each fish
ing-boat lows behind 'live box" .
rude board affair shaped something like
Q boat but bored full of augur holes.
Into this the fish are tossed and kept
animate in their native element until
they reach the city. There is q steady
demand for them and quick sale.
Hundreds come down to the wharf with
their kettles and baskets and purchase
a quarters worth" or '.half-dollar
worth" The fish are mostly sold by
weight, but the fishwives and other job
bers buy them by the basket for 81 to
$3.50.
Two men prepare the fish, which are
first dipped into the bins from the live
boxes. One man seizes a sguirmer in
such a way that the dorsal fins, which
inflict serious wound, can not be used.
He encircles the neck with 3 running
cut from keen knife, makes another
cash down the stomach, and losses the
quivering victim into o second bin.
Another workman with one hand
wrenches off the head, and
with it the few intestines, losses them
into the water, and Selling a small pair
of pinchers takes a grip on the smooth
skin and rips it from one side and re-
peats the operation on the other.
Then the carcass is tossed into a pile,
ready for sale.
Sunday morning is the great scat
fish day" in Fishtown. The residents,
who have been reared to regard the
"catty'' with the same reverence that a
Baltimorean bestows upon the canvas
back duck and the terrapin, 60 In
hundreds to the wharf as early as three
o'clock on the Sabbath morning, on the
principle of the early bird. Every fish
erman contrives to be in dock on Sat
urday night. and there is an animated
scene on the wharf about daylight or
wird seven o'clock, when the vics0rs
who have gobbled up the final catfish
depart, the envied of the sluggard
whose voice loses itself in useless, COM
plainings. - "-ia