Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1899-09-21
4 TRUE FISH STORY
A Picturesque Little Town and
Its Remarkable Industry.
A QUAINT old CHURCH.
A Spectator" Man Spends His
Vacation in the Northern Neck
and Draws a Pen Picture of Life
in That Section of Old Virginia.

Nhu ~ oWo q Oh tVtui Q VI LII
in That Section of Old Virginia.
| (Staff Correspondence of The Spectator.)
Irvington, Va, Sept. l6.-My brother
VIM. G. Morton, and myself arrived al
this delightful little town some ter
days since for our summer outing
The place is most picturesquely stu.
ated in Lancaster county, on the Rap.
pahannock river near the Chesapeake
bay. and at point where the river is
from to miles wide. A beautiful
inlet or harbor runs in from the broad
river and upon its high banks and
promontories that project into the
stream, the town is built. It will add
interest to my letter to know that this
is the home of our former townsmap,
w. Med. Lee, son of the late A. Y.
Lee, who with his family. formerly
lived many years in Staunton. He
has acquired great deal of political
influence in the few years he has been
here, and is, perhaps, the most popular
man in the Northern Neck. To his
energy and public spirit is due much of
the improvement and building up of
the town. And speaking of the town,
reminds me, that 1t is different from
any have ever seen, for although it
claims q population of 1000, there is
not street in the village. Every house
or group of residences has its own am-
pie grounds that slope to the waters
edge. There are numerous promonto-
ries or little peninsulars OF high land
that run out into the water and these
are covered with shade trees and grass
that spread to the waters edge. On
these scores of houses are built, high
above the tide and present as plctur-
esques an appearance as can well be
imagined.
Whether the stranger enters the bar
Dor here during the night Oh day, he is
sure to express the keenest admiration
for the place. Of course they have
churches, newspaper, summer no.
tel, and few stores. There is also a
large, well conducted academy and
fertilizer factory that employees $50
workmen. Of this factory 1 have to
speak, for to a mountain man it is en-
gagged In a most extraordinary bust
ness. Think of factory that grinds
800 barrels of fresh fish daily into fer
tilizer! Yet that is just what it does
every day, the quantity named being
rather under the daily out put than
otherwise. During the few days we
have been here l have seen hundreds of
tons of fertilizer made from nacerat-
ed fish-60 tons day is about the out
put, together with scores of barrels Of
fish oil. The modus operandi of such
a wholesale destruction of fish is very
interesting and we watched it with
deep interest. The fish are dumped by
machinery from fishing steamers into
large bin such as wheat is carried
into an elevator. From this tank the
fish are fed into macerator that both
pulverizes and cooks them. They then
pass through compressors, that ex
tract the oil, the pulp passing on
through drying ovens and is finally
dumped in pile ready for bagging.
The time consumed from the time the
fish enter the macerator to the time he
is dumped into dry pulverized heap
Of fertilizer is about hours-an in
credibly short while. The oil is
drained into tanks from which it is
poured into barrels and is there ready
for market where 1T brings a good
price. The fish fertilizer has a ready
sale among the farmers of Eastern
Virginia and North Carolina, where
they find it an excellent mixer with
other fertilizers. or course the means
Of supplying such a factory with fish
must indeed seem the fishiest part of
this fish story. / shall therefore give you
actual minimum figures as l saw them.
This factory-the Carriers Creek Fer
tilizer Co., and operated by Capt. VIM.
L. Messick-owns three large fishing
steamers, and these are employed each
day seining in the bay and river. By
his courtesy my brother and self spent
a day IN the Chesapeake bay on board
one of his steamers, the Dorothy F.
Wacker, the largest steamer engaged
10 the fishing business. We steamed
out of the harbor at day break and by
sun rise, the man aloft had sighted
fish and the vessel was stopped. These
fishermen never fish until they see
their fish, and see them by the thou
sand, too.- The particular fish they are
after are called Ailwives, about the
size of herring and have too many
bones to be marketable. They swim
lgenerally at the surface of the water
and go in great schools or punches, Of
ten numbering more than 1000 So
the practiced eye of our captain aloft
thad no difficulty in sighting them
many hundred yards away. They
makes dark, shadowy appearance on
the water, sometimes lashing the water
Into light foam with their tales, and
travelling in given direction, so it is
easy to head them off and with a net
to scoon the whole bunch. You can
therefore imagine our interest when
the school was sighted. Instantly all
on broad was tion. The crew of 26
men divided at once and scrambled
into the two large life boats towed at
Ithe stern of the steamer. We went out
with them and as soon as our boats
were in front of the moving column Of
fish the boats separated, throwing oui
a net as they widened and forming q
circle, closed in behind before the fish