Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1884-05-29
No. 4.
FULTON FISH MARKET.
A Morning Scene in the Busy Bill.
ingsgate of New York.
Carloads Of Wriggling Cod A Horde
of FishmODgers CrOwding and
JOstling FOR Bnrgains---Out-
side the llart
Now YORK Times.1

see the New York Billingsgate i'll all its e1-
eitelnent and tumult is between and
c'elosb on q Friday morning, and a Friday
morning during Lent is better than any other
Friday mo. ming. Though most other parts
Of the city are silent in slumber; here all Is
life and bustle Here is picture ct the ship
at 4 o'clock last Friday morning: Tue
atmosphere cool and clear and the sky starry
Moored in a bunch at the end 6f + t.e piers are
half-seore Of belated tisting slI,aeks wait
tig for daylight and the tide. The vessels
bring in their fish Oh Wednesdays and Thurs
days AMI drop them alive into the fish cars
which float in the slip They like TO
get out to sea again on Thursday night, in
order to return in good season for the fol-
lowing weeks market. There are some od't-
looking craft in the group of all sizes and
bulbs. The dirty and dunpy sloop, almost
as broad as she is long, and equally round at
bow and stern, is hawsered close to the trim
little smack with holystoned decks, as trim
As a new spring bonn>t. Three open "punts"
bob up and down on the water, the wrig-
Cling mass of eels on their bottoms looking
Shiny and hideous in the faint glare from
the electric lights on the bridge. Brooklyn
looms up, big black shadow in the dis
tance. Early as it is, hundred venders'
wagons are drawn up in line beneath the
lanp-posts in South, Fulton, and Beekman
streets. 1t is yet too early for buying so
the drivers hu Idle i'll the saloons AMI coffee
shops.
Meanwhile a curious scene is going on III
the slip. The surface of the water is covered
with fish cars. Aolting boxes about twelTo
feet square, with la! tce-work bottoms and
sides; Each Car is filled with live fish. Sure
footed men, with rubber boots, lanterns, and
nets, dart hither and thitner, dragging the
fnuy den zeas Of the deep into the open air
and leaving them hoInderin,, and writhins
Oh the platforms In q short time the sur
face Of the cars are covered with wrlgglinS
col, Weighing all the WAY from six to thirty
pounds. Boys and men run along hitting
them with stout STICKS and pilins them into
baskets. The terrified creatures make
frantic struggles to get back into their native
element, but it is of no more Use than for
puny fly to try and kick himself out OF the
meshes Of big SPIDERS web. One or two
fortunate fellows on the edge Oh the outer
cars do sucs .ed in rolling of into the watsr
and disappear from view. AS fast as tho
hcarng baskets of dead and wounded fish
are dragged to the rear others are hauled up
to take their places. The baskets are quickly
Hoiooet oii "a eihii5 Pu.ioC p "iia "''''pPoS"N
into the fish house, that bourn from which iiC
fish ever returns
1t is broai daylight the sloops are sailing
away in the distance, the lights on the bridge
are out, the Sound steamers are beginning 70
appear, and the city is waking up to another
day of turmoil and traffic. BY getting into
an out -of.the- way nook of the market one
can see the fish sold. Tne scene is animated
al. The yrniID1 floor j, d1.
vide into stands all heaping with shiny fish,
which noisy men are bidding Off at auction.
The hort" of nIonscrs crowd and jostle one
Bnother in their eayerness to get bargains
like brokers on Change. However they can
manage to make themselves heard in the
Babel like storm raging around them is
hard even for fisa peddler to
understand. Buriy men in dirty blouss
push tn ir way through the crowd
and shovel the fish into huge scales. To
do this without jagg!ng them or cutting
them in two is one OF the tricks of the trade.
There are SC res of women among the buyer;
hard faced lould-voiced women; some of them
half clad in mems garments, shouting, swear
ing, pushing, lifting, and bargaining as
eagerly as the men. When three or four Of
them get into quarrel as is very frequently
the case the bystander gets an idea of the
vast richness and resources of the English
language of which he never before dreamed.
A policemau's club is the only check to 1t.
All kinds of fish ar. tossed into the scales
the mighty cod, the lordly turbot, the royal
salmon, the large, white belhod ha:ibut the
tootllsome haddock, the diluinutive smelt
and the delicate shad. In one portion of the
room bushels of CLAIMS are heaped i'll q bin,
live crabs and Holsters tangle each other up
in zinc tray and pCtsof prawns and shrimls
are displayed to catch the eye-anl the
dollar.
For two hours a fierce war wages under
the flaming gas-jets The peddlers pile the
fish up in their rckety wagons and the COM
III sson men grasp the shining silver in their
greasy hands. Along one side of the builda
ing a swarm of men work like beavers, pay.
ing no regard to the buy ing and selling.
They tjack the fish in long boxes with pow
dered ice and start them off in huge drays
for the railway station At the long sink, in
one end OF the room, young men flourish
keen knives and dexterously "dress" fish
before man can count twenty. Hungry
looking cnidren and ragged women hang
around the otfal tubs ready to seize on any
thing edible which may he cast therein. Ii
hurried peddler drops a herring in transit
it is gore before he can turn around. 1t is
noticeable shat nearly every dealer has some
specially which is not to be found in any
other STALL One man has an abundance of
CO. but he hasn't any mackerel, while his
neighbor on the right is disposing of them by
the hundred. So another, who is roaring
"haliuut" at the top of his voice. shakes his
head in despair When called upon for shad,
and points to sharp-facel Yankee who
seems to monopolize the trade.
The scene outside the market is hardly less
active than it is inside. South street, Beck
man street, and Fulton street are jammed
with wagons. The drivers Of some are just
as anxious to get away others are to come,
and they struggle vainly to get out of the
block. A few shippers have thrust the bows
of their vessels right up to the slip, aud are
selling their loads direct from the hold. Com<
petition is fierce. Here's yer herrin',"
yelled a man with WOO len leg "Ill ill the
biggest basket yer can find i'll New York fer
ST. As the early morning hours wear away
prices drop somewhat. 1t will not do to have
a stock left ON hand. By ~ O'Clock the
market is i'm the hands Of the scrubbers who
splash and splatter with hose and coarse
broons The zinc scales are cleaned, the
tackle neatly coiled away, the tiaring gas jets
sxtnguished, the keen-eds sged knives put In
heather sheaths, ami the cod in the cars left
to their repose A few men wait arounl ulr'
til afternoon to serve q chance tardy buyer.
An Operatie Item.
4 little girl in town was trying to tell her
-.o.ho, la,,, h autiful1v n carfain ladv poulH