Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1894-08-29
MILLIONS OF
Enough of the Tropical Fruit I'M
ported TO Girdle the Earth
Twice,

The banana trade runs all the year
round, but just about now is the last of
the busy season. August 10 IS the date
set for the wind-up, but bananas don't
stop with a jolt any more than oysters
turn nasty on the 1st Of May.
Just about now the native fruits be-
gin to come in-the sapid fruits with a
real flavor to them, peaches that taste
peachy and plums that are plummy,
and occasionally an apple that you can
tell from a piece Of ~muskmelon even
though your eyes be shut. In the matter
of apples. though there is no question
that the country has completely gone
to the dogs. 1t used TO be that there was
about a pint of juice to each apple after
it was pounded on a fence-rail to mel
Ter it, but nowadays apples have all
turned to elder-pith and cork.
It is petty hard for the old-fashioned
folks who al remember the apple in its
palmy days to extract any real satisfac-
ton from the banana, but there is no
doubt whatever hat it is the most popu-
lar fruit in this country. New York
handles about 100000 punches of ba-
nanaS every year., and the trade IS IN
creasing. This does not include the great
banana trade from New Orleans, from
which nearly all the Western and middle
states are supplied. There are from 100
to TO bananas on every bunch. Call 1t
120. and New York handles 5O0,OO0,OOO
bananas every year. Allow that each ba-
mana is 61h inches long, and put all these
bananas end to end and they will make a
yellow trail about $4,000 miles long, and
since the earth has the misfortune to be
but $4,000 miles around the waist, the
bananas which come into the port OF New
York, would go around twice, which is a
''great plenty" to spare.
If you want to see the banana as 1t
ooroo off tho shin Saws fDn Now York
World, you must go either to the East
river side. near the Ward line piers, or
the North river side, say at the foot OF
Vesey street. On the east side they have
the old system of private sales, and there
isn't much excitement outside Of the nov
city of seeing the bananas unloaded. On
the west side the fruit is auctiOned off,
and the bidding is lively and folks jump
arOund more.
On either side the pier is alive with
teams and teamsters and bad boys look
ing for a chance to fitch bananas, Or quiet
nuns, with a basket, silently begging for
some of the fruit to give to the sick or
aged. 1t is all hustle and anxiety. Carts
come up loaded with hay, to put between
the lunches to keep them from bruising,
and somebody is always getting robbed
of the hay which is his just due, and
informing the world at large of the
injustice which is put upon him. Since
there are three wagons to each hatch
way, to say nothing Of the freight cars
on the float alongside the steamer, it
can be understood readily that the hay
man is pretty busy.
The wagons are in threes, according to
the grade OF the fruit-"Special," No.
] and No. =. For each WACO is q ma
chine like the register on street cars,
not the clOck-faced ones, but the square
ones that the conductors call ''oyster
cans" AS fast as the bunch comes up
from thp dpnfhS of the hold the boss de-
cides what grade it is, and it goes into
Special" No. / or No. : wagon, as the
case may be, and every time Il bunch goes
into his wagon the watcher for that
wagon pulls the string and rings up one
more bunch.
In most Of these steamers the bananas
are passed up by hand. The decks are
light frames of planks pretty wide apart
to let the air circulate freely. Stages are
fixed between these. Away down IN the
hold two men take hold Of a bunch and
swing It UP on a cushion. Two more
men swing it up the length of their reach
and rest 1t on another cushion, and two
more men have to do the same before it
rests on the cushion under the eye of the
boss. who keeps up a running fire Of: NO.
/; No. 1 again: look out, Mike, that
bunch'n tumble off: No. ?; No. lively
there with hat hay-NO. /, again; No. /
won't take your check; your cash is better
than your paper; No. you heard the
price and so on. all punctuated with the
jingle of the register bells.
With all this racket going on, you
would think the punches of bananas
would be bounced about as roughly
rs sacks Of salt. but the two men who
handle each bunch are as gentle with
The fruit as If it were babies they were
fetching up from the hold. In some of
the steamers they have a hosting appara-
tus which saves labor. A d~onkey-engine