Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1890-09-20
No. 224

turn in TO their hunks for sleep until two
O'Clock in the morning.
All of the Newhaven folk live well IL
is their boast that not even the gentry ex-
eel them. The women bring from the city
a good many dainties to give variety to the
eoarser food; they are noted for cooking
fish and always secure the choicest for
their own homes; and the fishermen, eth
er on short or long cruises, provide
'bountiful locker, as know from personal
experience and enjoyment. At every
breakfast we were furnished boiled or
mashed potatoes, ham and eggs, or fish,
salt or fresh, white bread from the Edin-
burgh bakeries; and oceans of tea with
condensed milk. AT dinner appeared that
universal comfort of the Scotch lowly,
kail-brose or cabbage broth, great platters
of 'duff' and syrup, mountains of boiled
beef and potatoes and more foods of tea.
At supper there were fresh or salt herring,
oat-cakes, cheese and bread and syrup.
At all times there was a bountiful supply
of good butter; and If one became hungry
between meals there was always a tooth
some ''snack" of cold fish or cold boiled
beef with mammoth chunks" of bread,
and hearty welcome to boot.
Newhaven people are best seen during
the daily market hours between seven and
rounded by sea-wnll, with sides five hun
dred feet long, forever covered with dry
ing nets and gear, has only one little en-
| trance, but into this have come perhaps
| half a hundred boat-loads of fish. As
| many more boats are floating idly along
| side. Perhaps no more than one hundred
| fishermen will be seen about the boats and
piers; and these are resting contentedly
from their nights labor at sea. The re
la,- sraw
for a good sleep. The women relieve
them of all responsibility the moment the
boats are docked They even go so far as
to carry the purse and dole out what Jock
or Sandy shall spend while ashore. The
fish have been got out of the boats and are
ranged in boxes, which hold about one
hundred pounds each, in the open space of
| curious old Main street, fronting the har-
bor. In this will be seen more than n
thousand people, six OF seven hundred Of
whom are fislI-wives, the remainder com
prising hucksters, children, curious tour
lists, rifraff from Edinburgh and half
dozen blatant auctioneers. These get six
pence per pound sterling value ON sales.
All fish are sold outright to the highest
bidder for cash: and If the wives of an
| entire boats crew should be sellers of fish
they must purchase their fish in the open
market precisely the same as any other
huckster who may come to buy. The best
prices are secured at the earliest hour; get
ting to the guidwives of Edinburgh before
breakfast-ti time, being counted an advan-
tage. There are innumerable odd charac-
| tiers buying here besides the fish-wives-
weazened old men with hand-baskets, wo,
men and men with dOnkeys and cart.
, | smaller than themselves, saney lads and
saucier lasses, bareheaded, barelegged and
brave in their strength and ways. But fol
three hundred years, Just as it will be with
those who come after themas long as New
haven, Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth
are here, the fish-wives have been those
who undisturbed and unruffied by time
, and change trundle daily away from New
, haven pier with nine-tenths of all the fish
brought to it from the sea.
Their creels contain from seventy &c
eighty pounds OF fish. These carried or
their backs, are held in place by broad
, leather straps about the forehead. Un
, countable are the skirts they wear. Thess
!, | fall Just below the knees, and two or three
,, of the outer ones are gathered back ovel
the launches in voluminous puffs. Stout
| wooden stockings, stout, buckled shoes
and a stout pea-iacket complete the raj
ment; save that the married women wea
; a handkerchief, or 'tmutch" cap, upol
their heads; while the maiden fish-wive
. | go bareheaded. While at their labors eve
ry article of their dress. save cap an
: shoes. is of dark blue wooden goods. ]
shopping in Edinhnrgh, or when visitin
:, among themselves, their attire is of wide
= gorgeous striped linen. petticoat upon pei
4 ticoat, and their frills, furbelows and Jew
= elry, would sicken even the '-show-tiiE
e sies- of Seville with envy Those who N
main at home, and others who during th
), afternoon have returned, gather in mos
=, picturesque groups about the sfair-head
of quaint old Main street, which runs par
: allel with. and next to, the sea-front of tn
village. Here they gossip over local al
e fairs, cobble the nets, bait the lines, AM
: do all odd things that women do in thes
II | strange fishing communities-save quar-
!, rel. They do NOT quarrel in Newhaven
3 Perhaps il is because they are truly rel
J gious folk. For so it is, that when l en-
g tered their Free Kirk on Sunday / say
; more than two thousand of these peopl
. worshiping with great devOutnes
!, Stranger than that, the dark petticoai
h and striped pettieoats were gone. Not on
- garment marking their waterside vocatio
,f could be seen. Sober grays and ric
= blacks. costly as the attire at famous ol
: St. Giles, had taken their place. And as
: stole out again before the doxology wa
: ended, the myriads of creels hanging
deserted stair-heads, miles OF nets dryin
: in the sun upon the piers, and the swayin
: spars above hundred boats rocking in Il
: harbor, were all that could at least civ
. Sabbath testimony that here was Il
/, largest single fishing community, and :
> ways the most self-sustaining and chara
=, teristic one, that the world has ever know
q EDGAR L. WAKEMAN.