The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-10-19
SOLDIER CRAss' FIGHT.
They Always stop ms Soon as a Claw
Is Lost.
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
Fiddlers are twenty-five cents quart.
This may be startling announcement
for musicians, but the fiddlers we are
dealing with do not play in orchestras.
In other words, soldier crabs are TWEEN
ty-five cents a quart. Soldier crabs are
best known to the boatmen and the
fishermen. They are among the small
est species of crab. and are used as bait
for sheepshead and blackish. If they
have any other utility nobody so far has
found It out. They swarm in the
sWampy places on the coasts of Long
Island and Staten Island. In the sand ii
is easy enough to catch them. Two
boards placed in the shape of con-
stitute the apparatus for the capture OF
fiddlers. When the boards are set the
sportsman or marketman, as the case
may be, simply drives the tiddlers before
him, and all that run inside the boards
are grabbed by handouts and tossed into
a pail or barrel The unfortunate crea-
lures will live in captivity for a week or
two. In muddy places 1t Is dithcult to
catch fiddlers, for the simple reason that
on the approach of danger they disap-
pear in the holes which they make in the
Fiddlers are queer-looking little things,
and their habits are interesting. Each one
knows his own home ana guards II 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 attempts
to climb down the chimney and establlSh
himself in the abode of another fiddler the
liveliest kind of a fight is sure TO follow.
The invader does not go down tar; IN facl.
he appears to holler at the fiddler down
below and challenge him out to fight, and
as sure as he presents himself at the top
the fellow below comes up. A rough-and-
tumble fight is then inaugurated. 1t IS sure
10 end with the loss of a limb. When the
fiddler loses his claw in the battle he sim
ply gives up the struggle ana sneaKs
aWay and his enemy, being chivalrous,
never attempts to injure a wounded foe.
Unlike other soldiers, the soldier CRABS,
or fddlers, never have to wear artlnclal
limbs for when one is taken OF IN q nght
all he has to do Is to retire to some Sc
Guided spot and wait for another hmD 10
grow.
abacks and the niggers, Some anglers Pre-
fer the former, and others insist that the
niger fiddlers with the yellow claws make
the best bait.
ago two we'll remembered fishermen,
Capts Van Pelt and Hodges, started out
in a catboat from Stapleton ). l., bound
for Coney Island to get halI a parrel OF
fddlers In short time they captured
more fiddlers 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
fddlers ashore. Hodges intended to keep
them in his garden, so that no thieVing
anglers might steal them from the boat.
on the way home they stopped at a 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 fiddlers; but Hodges insist
ed that he was able to manage the fid-
dlers alone. So Off he started, promising
to meet his friend Van Pelt at o'clock
sharp on the following morning to go
down on the Romer and slaughter Sleeps
head and blackfish.
Next morning, at the appointed hour
| Van Pelt was in the saloon equipped with
/ fish, except of course, the bait. After
waiting for nearly an hour Hodges stag
gered into the saloon.
well, you're a fine fellow" said Van
| Pelt. Where did you catch it all so
early, and where the devil are the f1d-
dlers ?"
"Fiddlers-they' e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e. -
what do you mean?"
"Fellers put EN- into other fellers' beds
and the girls is sweeping EN- out o. tn
halls. Fiddlers everywhere"
"What'n the world are you gettin' at ~
"Wen, I'll tell you, Jake, When I left
here last night, 1t was a dead beat to
clear Mike oats pump and me and all
the fiddlers was capsized. l got up and
tried to catch some of EN-, but they was
too fresh, and away they went letter
SHELTER down the street, into stores and
all round everywhere. I wasn't lively
enough for EN-, and the whole barrel
fun got away. In the saloons and stores
some of the boys got EN-, and the fellers
! who don't want to fish with en- are
| havin' fine fun with EN-"
| Seated at a table in Inc same saloon
with his big stovepipe hat, in which he