The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1892-07-09
SOUP.
How Rhode Island Fishermen Got Thorn
Out of the Sea.


Late in April the great schools of
porgies rush on the southern New
England ocean coast and for several
weeks all the fishermen from Stoning-
ton TO Newport have the liveliest kind
OF work tending their great pounds
on the seashore. The fish usually ap-
pear first in Rhode Island waters. in
which state they arc called soup. and
then the news is flashed along shore
to . the Connecticut fishermen. At
once the latter begin to set their
pounds. for no time Is to be lost il
money is to be made at soup fishing.
They erect n Melted fence from the
strand straight into the ocean for
many hundred rods, and at the end OF
the fence set n great he~art-shaped
pound in which the fish are captured.
A pound is Il big and costly thing
and costs from 81, 500 to 81, SOC. says
n Now London correspondent of the
New York Sun. In the height Of the
season 100 or more barrels OF soup
are taken daily from each one OF the
pounds along the Connecticut and
Rhode Island shores. In two weeks
fishing at Quonochontaug. "a few miles
east of Watch Hill Captain Andrew
Laughear took over l. 900 barrels of
soup out of his traps. Most other
poundmen have had almost equally
good luck. The fish are sold mainly
in New York. and in the rush OF the
season not less than l, 900 barrels OF
porgies are shipped thither each night
hu tho hir on,nI hnuta fporn Stamina
ton. At first the fish bring $12 a
barrel. bat the price drops rapidly as
soon as the fish become plentiful.
Often there is a glut in the market
and then the price in the New York
market is not sufficient to pay the ex-
penses of the fishermen.
A few years ago the fish were taken
from the pounds by means Of soil
boats. but now the men use the
%capacious menhaden steamers. The
first soup taken last year were sold In
local markets for 25 cents a pound
and five days later the price was 5
cents or less. Last year the porgy
run was immense and one Stonington
pound fisherman. Leander Wilcox,
cleared S., 600.
AS a rule the first easterly blow
after the porgy u sets in sends them
scurrying back into the depths of the
ocean. thence they are not apt to re-
turn till another season. An easterly
storm came last year, and the Con-
necticut and many of the Rhode
Island fishermen, concluding that the
season was over. took up their traps
but in doing 80, they made a great
mistake. A few days later there was
tho greatest run of soup aver known
in the history of both states, and the
Rhode Islanders whose traps were out
made tremendous hauls. All the traps
between Point Judith and Seaconet
were running over with porgles. and
the steamers Seven Brothers Cora P.
White Mabel Bird. Beatrice. King
fisher and Fearless lifted in four days
out OF pounds between the places
named II, 900 barrels of fish.
Fishing for soup Is always precari-
GUS business. The time Is short to
catch them in. and not infrequently a
cold storm. a few days after the run
begins drives them off the coast and
the season is q failure. In one heavy
blow recently 4. 700 barrels of soup
got out of the seines off Newport The
crafty Rhode Islanders recently de-
vised a shrewd and successful plan by
means of which they have soup on
tap pretty nearly all summer. They
rig their fykes in a peculiar way. so
that great schools OF soup are diverted
into the salt water ponds that dot the
Rhode Island seaboard; then the pond
outlets are closed and the capricious
soup is bound to stay there until the
willy fisherman that owns him is ready
to send him to market Twenty-Five
or thirty years ago soup were 80 plen-
tiful that frequently they were sold at
the rate Of two good-sized ones for q
big red cent The great fykes and
pounds however. have rapidly thinned
them in number. SCI