The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-04-02

lu6Eb kl6 patched ballh OF the herring IleQeES
sm cks lie white against the background OF
the headlands and mills. Here the sweetest
herring known to man are taken. The
brawuy herring fishers Of the north are here
in greatest numbers. They are sodien,
hopeless, hard. Bus they are brave and as
strong as iron. They have tremendous
frames; are brown Is bronze, and form
groupings OF startling impTessiv eness. They
are simple and peaCeable, am told But
we're pirates wanted; vera fleets tn be fitted
out with men for work giving one a shudder
70 contemplate; these sea giants would fur
nish Incompatible human, hsartless flint
But II they are flint, their wives are steel
Above six feet il hight, broad and strong
as their burly mates with legs corded ike a
mans AID bare to the knees; with arms
long, crooked and feshless as wood; with
fiat, hairy breasts often barred from neck TO
waist, aud tanned by salt, sun and wind to
the color Of the notified alder bark; with
wide jaws, half tOothless lbs, sunKel
cheeks, ewes blue-black and flashing from
deep, yellow sockets and brows bushy AID
ragged with brsIling hairs; with narrow,
creased foreheads, and great, wide saffron
colored ears set straight out from behind
like dirty "wing-and-wlngn sails; and their
square heads crowned by ons black hair ,
faded into snuf7-brOwn like an iliKept
animals, which is matted aud kDotted upon
the shoulders and frequently TO the waist
and you have but the fainUest picture Of this
half animal who subsists upon kelp, dnise,
black cat cake and half-raw fish that the
| buyers, who come to the beaches in their
| carts from Londonderry, refuse as even uu-
worthy Of sale TO mendicant and crouching
! man-beasL of the town.
And the children of thesel
They drag out the same horrible lives {;
help make the British navy; or turn traitor
| to the brood Of half-pjrates behindPbecOm-
| ing the most remOrseless of cosst-guard, or
mountain poteeu-hunting, officers. And
| yet how the old blood occasionally blossoms
| through this limitIes5 degradation. A
| daughter of Just such an one as l have
pictured was the most perfect type OF wild
and simple human beauty | ever behold.
| Bare-legged and bare breasted as her
| mother; brown as a hazel nut; ignorantly
| innocent of fear; for four copper coins she
rowed me across Tough Swlly 10 where
| her fathers work lay mending the seines,
| like an Amazoniau msn-of-war's
while / sat speecnless. contemplating her
| marvellous beauty and me- estic proportions;
hating myself because l was not altogether
| an artist, and wondering, IN all reverence,
| why God, or Gods nineteenth century
civilization, could not wait upon the Afri-
can missions for little, and reach to and
succOr such as these.
| Standing upon the huge headland above
ancient st. Ives, another remarkable pict-
ure is yours. 1t is one of the most interest
ing fishing ports in Europe. The bay itself
| faces the north. At your feet are purple
heather aud waving ferns, parted from the
| waters by glistsntng sands. To the right
and east the green hillocks OF the eastern
shore Then TIE broad, yellow beach of
| Rorth-cocktng, or the Foresand. Dominating
| this ts the great headlanG of Pednolva.
| Beyond, cleaning like q field OF gold, are
the magnificent sands of Porthminster; and
| further still, the headland and rocky islet of
Godrevy, with the latter's white lighthouse
| sitting, cameo-like, between the purple Of
| the sea walls and the tremulous blue Of the
| ocean.
Before you, the silent shimmering bay,
with few white-winged fishing craft
scarcely moving. it seems. the distance is 80
| great from the hight where you stand; the
| ocean beyond, shining and blue and still :;
rhythmic reaches Of incoming tide-waves,
miles in length, advancing and retreating
aud breaking softly upon the shelving sands
| in tiny ridges Of sparkling spume; and here,
TO the west, great jumbled mass of gray
| old st. Ives crouching ia little pocket OF
| the rocks, like a mass Of messy stone in
some shadowy glen. sleeping away the cen
turtles, unconscious OF the thunderous sea.
I Aside. from these, and a half hundred
more picturesque spots that cannot even be
named, there are the sleepy hamlets and
sand shores Of orange from Blackpool to
! Whitehavsn, along the Irish sea; the mites
| OF villages speaking the sides Of the win
some.ses-combes of Somerset and Devon the
| quaint scenes among the fleets and homes of
the fishermen of Penzance, Falmouth, Ply
mouth and Torquay; the countless fisher
| hRunts in the seething chimes Of the win
some isle of Wight; the drearier reaches of
| the English east shore where the battles
| with the storms and tides are ever fierce
and strong; the wild, wailing, woeful coast
1 g.
seemed fated to be the scene OF
the oceans saddest tragedies; the red
roofs, the breezy shores, the cleaning sands
and the tossing spray OF Coldinghsm and
North Berwick, around TO the south Of the
mouth of the Forth; the snug town and
| harbor, the quaint old streets the luscious
bsn dtnners and the screaming fish wives of
Newhaven; the almost somber silence ever
brooding above the piers Of Buck Haven
the rocky walls, the steeIy blue of the Ger
man ocean, the awful storms and the great
| dingy, cherries fishing towns Of the east
coast, from Aberdeen TO Thurso; the brown
| crags. the emerald slopings and the shadowy.
mosnful assures of the Shetland and Ork-
ney shores, with their Dutch and Morse
color in faces and ways; and the drear,
gray rocks and puttin-haunted crRgs of the
misty Hebrides, where the brave, half
starved crofter- fisher battles all his life for
mere existence.
The customs, folk lore and superstitions
which have been the natural outgrowth OF
their vocation have been practically
changeleSs for half thousand years: and
their portents and omens are countless.
In Skye II woman crosses the water
where fishing is in progress and among the
| Newhaven men il the name of "Boungern-
that of an old Newhaven Teprobate who
was the impersonation OF. bad luck aad once
lived among them-be mentioned. fishing
will be at once Discontinued. Skye and
Harris fishermen have been known to beat
their wives dreadtully, not from envy i'll
feeling but to propitiste and attract the
fish.
All British fishermen note carefully the
first person upon whom their eyes alght in
the morning. Their luck for the dsy will
depend on whether the person is well or i'll
favored. A clergyman a pig or a cas- are
the most dreaded OF all objects as fleets are
sailing out of the harbor The sight of
either, or the discovery Of the footprint of
a ast-footed person in the sand, bodies ali
manner OF i'll luck; and to utter the name
of a clergyman or any four-fooJed beast on
board a fishing boat would render the
offender subject to bodily peril, and at least
destroy all hopes of success on that day.
All along the west COASTS Of Corny
Scotland and Ireland, they make better use
Of the dreaded cat They secure favorlng
winds by burying it alive in the sands Of the
| eaaahora with Eta haad npros;ta eao