The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1890-06-28

IL ~ Ont Vi tnb IdfOTlte tTHuitlOub Oh
the Rhode Island coast that one day in
the Spring of 1900 good old Secon-
net deacon went out to the beach to
fish. What II was that he went out to
fish for the tradition does not state,
but he went fishing. A few minutes
later he returned hurriedly and in
great excitement home.
"Mother,r he exclaimed to his wife,
"there's fish swimming over yonder
In the Seconnet river that's moro than
mile long, bluer than the heavens,
an with black fins like the spike the
blessed Martyr was made to jump on
to.r
"Deu tell p said the deacon's good
wife.
The deacon and his wife and some of
their neighbors went over to the beach,
and, sure enough, there was the NOV
Ing streak Of blue, with spikes all over
1t. The astonished old Seconnet citi-
zens soon discovered, however, that II
was not one fish mile long, but more
fish than there was sand ON the beach.
"Waal, | swaow p exclaimed the dea-
cons neighbors, and the deacon and
his wife said;
al vump
Then they raked some of the fish out
of the water with garden rakes. The
deacon took some home, and his wife
cooked them. The deacon tasted one.
Then he took bigger bite. Then he
went at the fish 30 eager-like that In
less than no time there was nothing
left but their bones.
"Mother," said he, rolling his eyes to-
ward the ceiling, ats NANNY In the
wilderness p
Jefferson had been elected President
when this great visitation of fish
swarmed along by Seconnet beach.
The deacon was great Jefferson man,
and he declared that these fish were a
blessing following the great Demo-
Gratis election, and he gave them the
name of Jefferson fish. Old residents
call them by that name yet, but they
are known to the people at large as
porgies, and 10 the men who make a
business of catching them for market
as soup. The coast of Rhode Island Is
its favorite haunt, and the cry that
nine out of ten people one meets at any
point on Narragansett Bay await anx-
iously every Spring is the one of:
"Scup's come p
From the first year of this mystic
rious fish's appearance in Seconnet
river, ninety years ago, it came annu-
ally along tho coast in never-decreas-
Ing numbers until 1867, when the an
nual cry of "Scup's comew was not
heard, for not porgy nor sign of a
porgy appeared anywhere along the
coast. II was the same In 1868 and in
1869, and no one ever expected to see
% porgy hereabouts again. In the
spring of 1870 soup came again, but In
q most unhoard-of way. Instead of
coming In the old-time rush of full
grown fish, they were all young por-
gies, none more than two inches long.
The water along the coast, from Sandy
Hook to Cape Malabar, was filled with
these porgy fry, and in their wake
came immense schools of their enemy,
the weakfish This particular influx of
young porgies was but nine days
wonder, for they disappeared as sud-
denly and mystcriously as they had
appeared II was not until 1878 that
the coast was again visited by soup,
and this time Il came in millions, all
big, fat fish, the growth of the fry of
1870. The next year the run on por-
gies was the biggest Oh record, and
every year since then soup has come
in one solid, compact school of mil
lions, in spite of the enormous numbers
Of the fish that are taken in the fish
ponds along the coast. There are in
terminable labyrinths of nets into
which the fish are turned by funnel
shaped leaders Of netting that inter-
ccpt their course along the shore.
New York, through Fulton Market, Is
the one great distributing point for the
spring porgy catch, aud there Is great
rivalry between the owners of the
| bonfs that carry the fish from the diff.