Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1894-08-29

runs an endless chain up from the hOld,
and this endless cham carries a series OF
canvas shelves into which the punches
are laid, and run up to the upper deck.
The greatest possible care is k to
keep the hold cool and well ventilated,
but, in spite of all, the fruit ripens III
transit. There are always small dealers
hanging around to look out for bargains
in ripe punches that they can take right
to their carts. The ripe fruit tumbles
from the bunch at all stages of the game,
and when a banana ship comes in the pier
swarms with people looking for some
thing tOYlick up.
Of course the sisters come, but what
they receive is a gift, and not a cleaning,
but there is a furtive air about the 9th
erS. Look at one of them steadily for
half a minute and he gets uneasy and
changes his place, looking back to see if
he is still watched. Follow him and he
will either break into q run or hide him
self. 1t is a kind of joy to a timid man
to find out how easily he can terrify 9th
ars. The most of the characters are boys
whose dumpy figures and pig faces an
nOunce them to be tOughs. They sneak
in and out, looking for ripe bananas,
which they snatch up and hungrily de-
YOUR.
One such stumbling, fearsOme creature
had just damned his mouth full of dead
ripe banana, and generously gave a cart
horse what was left of the sticky lump.
To compensate himself for the pleasure
he had given the horse he wiped his hands
on the animals tail.
'1That'll do, you. That'l do, you!!'
called out the driver. I'VE amt keepin'
horses to be napkins for the likes of
youse."
1t takes considerable m~anoeuvering to
get q cart around IL such q narrow space
as on some of these piers, but the driver
that isn't just VI to the mark gets
laughed at and guyed by his associates.
They make remarks which must be very
embarrassing. Some of them are not
suitable for publication, but a nice guy
fit for parlor use was: "Ah-h-h, Reilly.
so buy a book and learn how to drive.."
1t would seem from this that there is a
handbook on the subject of teaming.
A few cocoanuts come with every
steamerload of bananas, but the %cocOanut
business is no good any more, SO they
say. The cOcOanutS will hardly run
more than $4,000 or so in a cargo. They
are all husked when they come aboard
ship. The men dump them into baskets
and hoist them up on deck and on the
pier, where there are a lot of sacks. One
man holds the sack open and the others
take the nuts two by two, crack them
together. and if the NUTS are sound, toss
them into the sack. calling out one for
every two nuts up TO fifty, when the
scorer is notified. The defective and
broken cocOanutS are tossed on one side,
ana the SOUND DuI Inferior MUS are kept
apart. to be sold at a less price to the
east side fruit stands. There is where
the c%ocOanut is genuinely enjoyed. All
the dirty little fruit stands i'll Hester
street nave pieces of cocoanut soaking in
milky fluid in old candy jars.
After the ~cocOanutS are taken out the
ship has to be cleaned. Great heaps of
decayed fruit are shoveled up and thrown
out on the IiiCr, and then the hold is scald-
ed out with steam. What becomes of all
that stuff? 1t is carted off to the dump
and then taken out in the garbage floats
to come back on the tide to beautify the
beach somewhere. 1t looks like wasting
an awful lot of pig feed. 1t may be that
the pigs wouldn't eat it, but it ought to
be worth while trying, for the stuff is
sweet and Starchy and ought to put Il lot
of fat on piggy,s ribs. Perhaps cows
would like it. There may be some law
or other to prevent its use, but at any
rate an awful lot of good pigs feed is be-
ing wickedly wasted in order that clean
bathing places may be mussed up.
One gathers up a good deal of infOrma-
ton about the banana trade by hanging
around the piers when the fruit is I'M
loaded. He learns that the planter gets
from 40 to 60 cents a bunch and that
the bunch sells here for somewhere about
S1.50. AS in other businesses, the trans
pOrtation end pays better than the pro-
ducing end. He learns that the red
banana is richer and less popular than the
yellow banana; that the 200 or so other
kinds of banana won't stand the voyage,
though they have Il better flavor; that
the plantain is not wanted at all, and
that the public has not been educated up
to the knowledge of how almighty good
some of those tropical fruits are.
But nobody can explain why it is that
banana lunches grow in such a silly fash
ion. They ought, if they had any re-
spect, to grow so that the bananas would
point downward from the stem. Instead
of that the fruit sticks up like the fin
gers of a hand held palm uppermost.