The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-10-09

tubs are lined along the beach at high
water mark and filled with moss from
! one side and water from the other, the
water being soooped UP at high tide by
means of small barrels with handles to
them. just like clothes the moss Is
souzled and scrubbed and rinsed until
1t glistens In the sun light, amber col
ored, and Is again spread upon the
clean sand. Ordinary wooden hay
rakes are used to turn the curing moss,
and the work Is done by men, women
and even children, whose bare feet are
tanned and wholesonle-l looking. Dur
Ing the many rakings stones, shells
bite of ordinary seaweed or infected
moss are picked out. Then, when it is
cured, the moss is stored in large sheds
like hay barns.
A few years ago moss brought seven
cents pound and proved bonanza,
but to-day it's gathering Is only fairly
profitable at half that price. II man
pulls two barrels or two hundred
pounds in half day that sounds like
good business at seven dollars, but the
moss must yet be cured and the stormy
days accounted for. STILL there LIS one
lAldli at IL SuTlIlhll All liz VIII
ter, who has the reputation of making
sixty dollars a week messing In the
summer season, which lasts generally
during the three summer months. At
the end Of the season the buyers for the
breWerieS come round and make their
bargains with the nossers, who must
then barrel their product and ship 1t to
Boston
The slowing of one hundred pounds
OF dry, springy carrageen in an ordina-
ry flower barrel is about the hardest
work that the ncsser has to do. In
some cases the moss is shipped in bales.
but the buyers prefer to have 1t bar
relied and allow twenty-five cents a
hundred pounds for that purpoee.
Naturally, the man who is a mosser
In the summer Is a fisherman In the
winter, and the rule holds good in
great many cases Yet at Scituate par
hcularly there ie a younger generation
growing up who are willing to pull
moss all summer, but who want some
thing more exciting than fishing for a
winter occupation. Some Of them ship
on yachts or other vessels bound for
southern cruises. Some take foreign
voyages, and others become brakemeu
or motormen for the season. According
to their own stories they are easily
Wearied of staying In one place and tell
with great GOODNESS Of beating the rail-
roads and steamboats, when they wish
to travel. They consider 1t a waste Of
money to pay fares and say they have
seen as many as two dozen stowaways
on north bound steamer. Some have
gone into the navy, but they have gem
orally gotten back to messing again by
voluntary retirement from the service
at some foreign port
1t is estimated that there are over
two hundred men gathering moss in
Scituate and Plymouth whose seasons
product will amount to something like
a thousand tons or seventy thousand
dollars woth of marketable moss.
This estimate gives to each man ten
thousand pounds of moss for his sea-
sons work. or three hundred and ffty
dollars which Is really low, as many
mossers calculate on making five or SIX
dollars day for the whole three
months
But with their tubs, their big-wheeled
carts their swinging dories and wealth
er-heaten houses, the mossers are
pleasant to see upon the coast of Mas
sachusetts, and there is nobody to be-
grudge them the money unless it be the
transportation lines that the young
fellows have patronized in their winter
nderings.-Boston Herald,