Morning journal and courier., 1884-04-17

deal of it is sent speeding away overland ol
the ears again before it has been on shor
two hours. The Fult q Market commission
dealers have customers as far west as Nevad
| and as far south as Baltimore. They senC
some fish mp in New England, but Boston
usually manages to take care of that trade
The market quotations are sent to hsh-deal
ers in the smaller cities by telegraph, anG
/ they in turn order by telegraph.
The best timo-in fact the only time-tC
see the New York Billinsgate in all its excite
ment and tumult is between four and nine
O'Clock on a Friday morning; and Friday
morning during Lent is better than any other
Friday morning. Though most other parts
of the city are silent in slumber, here all is
/ life and hustle. Here is a picture of the
| slip at four o'clock last Friday morning
| The atmosphere cool and clear and the sky
starry. Moored IL a bunch at the end of the
pier are q half-score of belated fishing
smacks waiting for daylight and the tide.
The vessels bring in their fish on Wednes-
days and Thursdays and 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 following weeks market There are
some odd-looking craft in the group, of all
sizes and builds The dirty and dumpy
sloop, almost as broad as she Ia long, and
equally round at bow and stern, is hawsered
ClOES TO Gl6 A1ttAo 5LAlhCh Win AO4ysbOQGQ
decks, as trim as new spring bonnet.
Three open f'punts" bob up and down on the
water, the wriggling 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 distance. Early as it is, a
hundred venders' wagons are drawn up in
line beneath the lamp posts in South, Fulton
and Beekman streets. 1t is yet too early for
buying so the drivers huddle in the saloons
and coffee shops.
Meanwhile curious scene is going on in
the slip. The surface of the water is GOV
cred with fish cars, floating boxes, about
twelve feet square, with lattice e-work bottoms
and sides. Each car is filled with live fish
Sure footed men, with rubber boots lanterns
and nets, dart hither and thither, dragging
the fnny denizens of the deep into the open
air and leaving them houndering aud Writh-
ing on the platforms. A Times reporter
meekly addresses 8 ruddy-fscsd man with a
merry eye who is roaring cut orders through
a speaking trumpet like a boatswain.
''Ssems as though you had nothing but
Goldfish in there, he remarked.
The boatsWa removes his trumpet long
enough TO answer: "WeI, they may be cod
when they're in the water, but they're all
founders when we fish em out.''
The reporter subsidies and sits on a crate
to recover and watch operations. In short
time the surface of the cars are covered with
Wrigsling cod, weighing ali the way from six
to thirty pounds. Boys and men run around
hitting them on the head with stout sticks
and piiing 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 him
self out of the meshes of big spiders web
One or two fortunate fellows on the edge of
the outer cars do succeed in rolling Off into
the water and disappear from view. As fast
as the heaping baskets of dead and wounded
fish are dragged to the rear others are hauled
up to take their places. The baskets are
quickly hoisted on creaking pulleys and dis
appear into the f1sh-house, that bourn from
which no fish ever returns. This time the
reporter accosts the captain of one of the
sloops who is smoking his pipe in the cabin
door
Don't they put anything but cod in those
crates ?n he asks.
mot at this season of the year," is the re-
ply.
''Where were those fish caught ?''
''AlI of thsn within one hundred miles of
Sandy Hook"
''Can you tell the value of all the fish in
those eighty cars ?"
''Well, they hold about two hundred fish
apiece-at rough guess 1 should say $4,-
8OO'
1t Is broad daylight, the sloops are sailing
away in the distance, the lights on the bridge
are out, the Sound steamers are beginning to
appear, and the city is waking up to another
day of turmoil and traffic. By getting into
an out-of the~way nook in the market one
can see the fish sold. The scene is animated
and obstreperous. The ground floor is divi
ded into stands all heapIng with shiny fish,
which noisy men are bidding off at auction.
The horde of mongers crowd and jostle one
another in their eagerness to get bargains
like brokers on Change. However they can
manage to make themselves heard in the
Babel-iike storm raging around them Is hard
even for fish peddler to understand. Bur
ly men in dirty blouses push their way
through the crowd and shovel the fish into
huge scales. To do this without tagging
them or cutting them in two is one of the
tricks of the trade. There are scores of wo-
men among the buyers, hard-faced, loud
voiced women, some of them half clad In
mems garments, shouting, swearing, push
ing, lifting and bargaining as eagerly as tn
men. When three or four of them get into
a 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. police
mans club is the only check to it. All kinds
of fish are tossed into the scales-the mighty
cod, the lordy turbot, the royal salmon, the
lsrge, white bellied hslibut, the toothsome
haddock, the diminutive smelt and the deli
cate shad. In one portion of the room bush
els of CLAIMS are heaped in bin, live crabs
and Holsters tangle each other up in zinc
tray, and pots of prawns and shrimps are
displayed to catch the eye-and the dollar.
For two hours a fierce war wages under
the flaming gas-jets. The peddlers pile the
fish up in their rickety wagons and the COM
mission men grasp the shining silver in their
greasy fingers Along one side of the build
ing a swarm of men work like beavers, pay
ing no regard to the buying and selling.
They pack the fish in long boxes with pow
dered ice and start them off on huge drays
for the railway station. At the long sink, in
one end of the room, young men flourish |
keen knives and dexterously ''oress" a fish |
before man can count twenty. HuBgry-
looking children and ragged women hang |
around the offal tubs ready to seize on any |
thing edible which may be cast therein If a |
hurried peddler drops herring in transit it |
is gone before he can turn around 1t Is no |
ticeable that nearly every dealer has some |
speciality which is not to be found in any |
other stall. On man has an abundance of |
sod, but he hasn't any mackere1, while his
neighbor on the right is disposing of them
oy the hundred. So another, who is roaring /
'halibut" at the top of his voice, shakes his
head in despair when called upon for shad,
md points to a sharp-faced Yankee who
'eems to monopolize the supply. One man
8 Yelling "blueish," and his helper tos5es
tiff and stark objects into the scales.
'Ihem bluehShS sir, says the dealer in
to a remark about their being out
If season, ''was caught last August and /
roze"
The scene outside the market is hardly
ess active than it is inside. South street,
Seekmsn street and Fulton street are iammed
nth wagons. The drivers of some are Just
$ anxious to get away as others are to come,
nd they struggle vainly to get out of the
lock. A few shippers have thrust the bows
# their vessels right up to the slip, and are
slling their loads direct from the hold
competition is fierce Here's yer herrin', !"
elled man with a wooden leg. ''rlI fill the
biggest basket yer can find in New York for
dollar" As the early morning hours wear
way prices drop somewhat. It will not do
o have stock left on hand. by ten O'Clock
he market is in the hands of the scrubbers,
rho splash and splatter with hose and
oarse brooms. The zinc scales are cleaned,
ne tackle neatly coiIed away, the Aaring gas.
cts extinguished, the keen-edgsd knives put
q leather sheaths, and the cod in the cars
eft to their repose. few men wait around
ntil afternoon to serve chance tardy buyer
After ten O'Clock the fish is nicely dressed
md temptingiy displayed to housewives ia
he market proper. Hotel keepers and res
aurant men always make it a point to be
here early. A great many delicacies are Of
cred the epieure here which never And a t