The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-08-24
Women and Their interests.
The Newhaven Fishwiyes.

IQo NoWQdV6u rl5uWlVSo.
Most picturesque of all the figures to be
seen In Edinburgh are the Newhaven FISH,
wives. With short, full, blue cloth petit
coats, reaching barely to their ankles; white
blouses and gay kerehief; big, longsleeved
cloaks of the same blue cloth, fastened at
the throat, but flying loose, sleeves and all,
as If thrown on in haste; the girls barehead-
ed; the married women with white caps,
standing up stiff and straight In point on
the top of the head; tive big wicker-work
creels, one above the other, full of fish,
packed securely, on their broad shoulders,
and held IN place by stout leather strap
passing around their foreheads, they pull
along at steady, striding gait, up hill and
down, carrying weights that it taxes mans
strength merely to lift. In fact, It Is fish
wife's boast that she will run with a load
which it takes two men to put on her back.
BY reason of this great strength on the part
of the women, and their immemorial habit
of exercising it; perhaps also from other
causes far back in the early days of Jutland,
where these curious Newhaven fishing folk
are said to have originated, 1t has come
about that the Newhaven men are q 'singu-
larry docile and submissive race. The wives
keep all the money which they receive fox
the fish, and the husbands take what is Civ
en- them-a singular reverBion of the situa-
ton In most communities. did not be-
lieve this when it was told me, SO / stopped
three fishwives one day, and, without mine
ing matters, put the question direct TO them.
Two OF them were young, one old. The
young women laughed saucily, and the old
woman smiled, but they all replied unhesi-
tatingly that they had the spending of all
the money.
''It's a. spent II the hoos,' said one, anx-
ious not to be thought too selfsh-'sit's a
spent the hoos. The men, they cam home
an tax their sleep, an then they'll be al
agen."
at 'ud never do for the husbands to stoop
in tina city an be spendin' a. the money!
added the old woman, with severe emphasis.
Whoever would see the Newhayen fish
wives at their best must be on the Newha-
ven wharf by o'clock in the morning, on
day when the trawlers come in and the fish
is sold. The scene is a study for apainter.
The fish are in long. narrow boxes on the
wharf, ranged at the base of the sea wall;
some sorted out in piles, each kind by itself |;
obatCo, WAN tACil lux baliS, WHICH lux VIC
ious, as ii they could kick; hake, witches,
brill, sole, founders, huge catfish, and her
rings by the ton. The wall is crowded with
men, Edinburgh fishmongers, come to buy
cheap on the spot. The wall is not over
two feet wide, and here they stand, lean
over, jostle, slip to the right and left Of each
other, and run up and down In their eager
haste to catch the eye of one auctionaer, or
to get first speech with another. The wharf
is crowded with women-an army In blue,
two hundred, three hundred at time;
white caps bobbing, elbows thrusting, shrill
voices crying, fiery blue eyes shining, it is q
has an affection for Christie Johnstone, 1t is
delightful return of bis old admiration for
her. A dozen faces which might be Chris
ties own are flashing up from the crowd I:
one understands on the instant how that
best of good stories came to be written. A
man with his eyes in his head could not
done less. Such fire, such honesty, such
splendor of vitality, hndle the women's
faces. To spend few days among them
would be to see Christie tombstone DRAMA
tized on all sides.-H. H., in September At
lantic.
Mrs. Roebling and the Brooklyn Bridge.
That graceful structure, the airy outlines
of its curves of beauty pendant between mas
sive towers-in the words of Mr.. Hewitt,
ss.i. = -----,. "a $3.50 ovuuy, VI une experience,
and OF the knowledge of many men of many
ages-a work without rival among the
wonders of human skill,n could not have
been completed when 1t was, scithout the
aid Of acoman, nobLy rendered at q most
critical moment! Was 1t not hard fate for
SO many social theories, carefully wrought
out and oracularly proclaimed, that they
should thus witt and perish In single hour
in the presence of one stern and incontro-
vertible fact, one example Of icomdnly cour-
age and aoomanly capacity for the acquIsi-
ton of knowledge?
When Mr.. Roebling was stricken down
with the terrible disease induced by inhalinr
the foul air of the caissons, and was inca.
pacitated for the further full discharge of
bis duties,-in danger even of dying.-his
noble wife, instead of crying HISTORICALLY
over his misfortune, and sinking down
nerveless and helpless into the privileged
softnesses to which philosophers like DR..
Dix would consign her, set herself at once
to the task of acquiring the knowledge ne
cessary to enable her to become q helpmate
to him In his scientific labors. He had be-
come SO morbidly sensitive that the mere
sound of strange human voice was unbear-
able. Not one Of the engineers could con-
suit with him, and yet the most intricate
and profound problems in mathematics to
which he alone held the key, had to be
solved. Under his direction, his wife stud
led the highest branches Of mathematics,
mastered them, and applied her knowledge
to the construction of the bridge. She grasped
her husbands ideas and interpreted them to
the engineers, who were astonished at the
acuteness and depth of her knowledge. In a
short time, she became the chief director of
the work. with this BRIDGE" says Mr..
Hewitt, twill ever be associated the thought
of one, through the subtle alembic OF whose
brain, and by whose facile fingers, commu-
nication was maintained between the direct
ing power of its construction and the obedi-
ent agencies of Its execution. 1t Is thus"
he continues Gan everlasting monument to
the self-sacrifcing devotion of woman, and
of her capacity for that higher education
from which she has been too long de-
barred"
Well said, Mr.. Hewitt But perhaps some
philosopher of the Dixian school will rise up
to say that the woman of domestic and
household life was sacrificed to the demands
of science, and that womanhood, In It's best
sense, was blighted. Journal