Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-11-01
WHAT THE DREDGE BRINGS UP.
Many Strange Things Found on the Bot
tom of the Bay.

sometimes IL Is different thlng from
mud that the dredge brings up from the
bottom of the bay. Usually it is mud, how
eyer-mud and gravel, bits Of rock, and
long strings Of slime. 1t is clean mud,
however, and the dredger thinks nothing
Of plunging feet foremost into it in search
of anything bright that glitters for mo-
ment in the sun as the jaws Of the scoop
are iersled open above the scow. Close up
to the docks the mud is not so clean, but
the chances of finding something valuable
are so much greater that the difference is
not taken into practical consideration.
Sometimes it is silver dollar that glittors
in the sun and finds Il resting place in the
sc0W; once in Il rare while watch, made
useless by long contact with salt water,
comes up to excite in the dredger the
biistering regret that it cannot he sold or
pawned, and quite frequently knives Of
strange shape and rusted out of all sem
blance to edged steel Join forces with bits
Of broken glass, to cut the feet of the
dredger who treads unwarily along the
bottom OF the scow. Twice the harbor
dredges have brought up, within the past
year, a bright-bladed knife, showing along
its point and edge eerroded stain, as
though blood had stuck there. Once the
sharp Jaws of the scoop cut off both feet of
a drowned man, and the tide carried the
body beyond the reach of graphing hooks.
A human hand, with one Of the fingers
bruised as though q ring had been torn
from it by great force fell ont Of the scoop
several months ago. The dredgers
thou hit that the man from whose arm the
hand had been torn had been led down to
a dock while intoxicated and robbed and
thrown overheard by the members of
gang" 1t is common practice, bat
the dredge rarely disturbs the body
An immense dragnet stretched across
the Narrows would catch a multitude Of
strange and mysterious things. 1t would
be a storehoGse ten times more CHASTITY
than morgue There is tradition that
years ago murderer was convicted by
blood-stained knife brought up in dredge.
The names and dates are lacking. An
other tradition says that dredger once
brought up his own runaway daughter
from the bottom of the river. A CHASTITY
death. The dredger beat his brains out
against the barred door of an insane asy-
ium two years later. He had lived sane
long enough to murder the man tliat ran
off with his daughter, and a mercitul Court
sent him to an asylum for the insane. \
third blood-curdling tradition is to the
effect that a dredger nursed a grudge
against another dredger for many years,
hoping for vengeance, At length, when
the enemy got between the jaws of the
scoop to fasten loose rivet, the jaws
closed on him, and he was swung out over
the water. Then the dredge went down
slowly, and the last thing that the dredger
saw on earth was the face Of his murderer
grinning triumphantly over the edge Of
the scow. These traditions have no facts
to make them real, but the dredgeTs be-
lieve in them. An old Spanish proverb
says: "for the character OF the people
look in the bottom Of the canal New
York would not find much Of a character
in the bed of the East River, or in the
slips adjoining the mouths OF sewers.
When the water closes over the unlawful
deed done in the darkness Of the night,
only the dredgc can bring ii back 10 life.
How many bodies weighted with lead lie
in the mud beneath six iathoms of water,
can know How greatly the number of
Gltth6tONGfeu uSsi'l c"tcSiiN tAiS utHui'ti VI
unknown dead reported by the police can
never be estimated.
Other than ghastly things, however,
come up in the dredce. Down the bay, Il
few days ago, a big crab was found in a
copper kettle, ard an eel was found con-
fined in q long-necked bottle much too
small for him. While still young lie had
made the bottle his home, and had grown
50 rapidly that he could rot get out 4
lizard crawied out Of rusted musket last
summer in Burling-slip, and big bull
head was caught i'll a rat-trap. A three
foot shark came up on the end Of broken
fishing line, all two sting rays were found
dead in a cra5hers dip net. Hammers,
hatchets, Saws, AIDES, pieces Of ships stoves,
pots, kettles table dishes, and various arti-
cles of ships outiittiGgs seem 10 strew the
bed OF the river Few Of them are of use.
Only the new ones pay the dredger for his
trouble in fishing them out Of the mud in
his scow. Those that are of 10 value help
fill up the channel again VIXEN the scow IS
dumped. Some time in the future they
will be dredeed up again in order that the
channel may be kept clear Some people
grumbie because the scows are not dumped
far ont at sea- on the ebb tide, so that the
channel will not become choked with the
refuse The drodger must live, however,
and to live he must work. To work he
must have dredging TO do, and if the chan
mel is not allowed to fill up he viii be
thrown out Of employment. Some people
are very unreasonable-[N. y. Times.