The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-11-02
THE FIDDLER CRAB.
Some Facts and a Good Story About
the Queer Creatures.

Their PriasApaI Uses Are as Fish Bait and
to Have Fun with-How a Barrelful Got
loose on Staten Island and Justice Gar
ret Was Fooled.
Fiddlers are 25 cents quart. This may
be a startling announcement for musI-
clans, but the fiddlers we are dealing with
| do not play in orchestras. In other words,
| soldier crabs are % cents quart. Soldier
crabs are best known to the boatInen and
the fishermen They are among the small
| est species of crab and are used as bait Tor
| sheepshead and blackfish. Ii they have
any other utility, nobody so far has found
it out They swarm in the swanpy places
on the coasts of Long Island and Staten
Island In the sand it is easy enough to
| catch them, Two boards placed in the
shape of a Y constitute the apparatus for
the CAPTURE of flddlers. When the boards
are set, the sportsman or marketman, as
the case may be, simply drives the fiddlers
before him, and all that run inside the
two boards are grabbed by handfuls and
tossed into pail or barrel. The unfortu-
nate creatures will live in captivity for a
week or two. In muddy places it is diff
| cult to catch fiddlers, for the simple reason
that ON the approach of danger they disap-
pear in the holes which they make in the
mud.
Fiddlers are queer looking little things,
and their habits are interesting. Each one
knows his own home and guards it Jeal-
ously. In the little holes in the mud the
married fiddlers-and they are nearly all
married-live happily with their wives
and families, and when an intruder at
tempts to climb down the chimney and
establish himself III the abode Of another
| fiddler the liveliest kind of fight is sure
to follow.
The invader does not go down farm
| fact. he appears to holler at the fiddler
down below and challenge him out to
fight, for as sure as he presents himself at
the top the fellow below comes up. A
rough and tumble fight is then inaugural
| ed. It is sure to end with the loss of a
limb When the fiddler loses his claw in
the battle he simply gives up the struggle
! and sneaks away, and his enemy, being
chivalrous, never attempts to injure
wounded foe. Unlike other soldiers, the
soldier crabs, or flddlers, never have to
wear artificial limbs, for when one Is taken
off in a fight all he has to do is to retire
to some secluded spot and wait for another
limb to grow.
There are two kinds Of fiddlers-the
chinabaoks and the niggers. Some anglers
prefer the former, and others insist that
the niger f1ddlers with the yellow claws
make the best bait.
| One fine October morning several years
ago two we'll remembered fishermen-Cap-
tains Van Pelt and Hodges-started out
| in catboat from Stapleton, N. Y, bound
for Coney Island to get half barrel of
fiddlers. In short time they captured
more, fddlers than they could possibly use
| during the remaining trips of the season
| to the Romer fishing grounds. They re-
| turned in good spirits, made their boat
| fast and snug and carried the barrel OF id-
oilers ashore Hodges intended to keep
them in his garden, SO that no thievlng
anglers might steal them from the boat.
| On the way home they stopped at lager
beer saloon, where they refreshed them
selves and met some friends. Late in the
evening Hodges concluded that it was
about time for him to go home. Van Pelt
offered to accompany him to help carry
the barrel of f1ddlers, but Hodges insisted
that he was able to manage the fiddlers
alone So off he started, promising to
| meet his friend Van Pelt at 7o'clock sharp
| on the following morning to go down to
the Romer and slaughter sheepshead and
blackfish.
| Next morning at the appointed hour
| Van Pelt was in the saloon equipped with
everything that is necessary to catch fish
except, of course the bait After waiting
| for nearly an hour Hodges staggered into
the saloon.
"Well, you're fine fellow" said Van
Pelt. "Where did you catch it all so early,
and where the devil are the fiddlersF
| "Fiddlers-they everywhere.
"What do you meanP"
"Fellers put 'em into other fellers' BEDS
and the girls is sweeping 'em out O. tn
halls. Fiddlers ev'rywhere!'
"What'n the world are you gettin ats''
"Well, I'll tell you, Jake. When 1 left
here last night. it was dead beat to
wind ard home but on one tack failed
to clear Mike Oats pump, and me and all
the fiddlers was capsized. I got up and
tried to catch some of 'em, but they was
too fresh, and away they went heller
SHELTER down the street, into stores and all
round everywhere. I wasn't lively enough
| for 'em, and the whole barrelful got away.
In the saloons and stores some of the boys
got 'em, and the fellers who don't want
to fish with 'em are havin fine fun with
! 'em."
Seated at table in the same saloon,
with his big stoyepipe hat, in which he
kept his bandanna handkerchief, in front
of him, was the well remembered and far
famed Justice Garrett His honor was fast
asleep. Before Jake finished his lamenta-
tions over the loss of the fddlers two
young men entered the saloon. Seeing
that the judge was asleep, one OF them
went over, lifted up the bandanna, and
pulling from his pocket a fistful of fiddlers
he put them into the judicial hat and COW
cred them carefully with the bandanna.
Then he woke up the judge and invited
him to take drink. His honor was will
ing. He carelessly put on his hat and ad-
vanced to the bar with dignity. After he
had had his drink he felt strange sensa-
ton on the top of his head. He removed