The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-12-16
GATHERING Of SEA MOSS.
UNIQUE INDUSTRY OF THE CANNY
NEW ENGLANDERS DURING
THE SUMMER
TONS OF .sEAwEED YEARLY
Fluffy Stuff Is Washed and BIeached,
When Brewers Buy 1t to
Purify Their
Peers

Down Scituate way" in Massachu-
sets, is a colony that would have de-
lighted Dickens. Ham and Peggotty in
real life confront one on every hand. In
Florida, it is said, the natives live on
sunshine and magnolia blooms part OF
the year and On Northern visitors the
rest of the time.
But the canny New Englanders do bet
ter They gather sea moss and the sum-
mer boarders' shekels during the hot
weather and whisper it only do lit
tie Illicit importing of dutiabie goods
during the remainder of the year.
This sea moss, strange to say, is used
in making beer. Shades of the Pilgrim
Fathers, think of such an industry thriv-
ing in the shadow of Plymouth Rock!
Do not suppose any saturnalia Of vice
mars the natural charms Of Scituate.
No beer is obtainable thereabout except
birch beer Or root beer.
Scituate, Cohasset, ard Plymouth
along the eastern shore of the old Bay
state, confess to being in the center Of
the American pie belt. but nowhere in
the domain Of the sea moss gatherers
can one find a stein, much less the COM
mon beer key of commerce.
The sea moss is used to purify and
clarity beer, and most of 1t is shipped to
New York. Cincinnati, and other satrap-
les of King Gambrinus. Tons Of this
queer sort of seaweed are gathered, sort
ed, bleached, packed and sent away
from down Scituate way during June,
July, August and September every year.
AT Plymouth, Scituate and North
Scituate alone there are more than 200
men and boys who market about so 600
worth Of sea moss annually. When dried
and washed the moss is SO light that a
mound half as big as a hay stack will
not weigh 100 pounds. The usual output
each autumn foots up about LOCO tons. A
fair estimate of a seasons work, reck-
oned in dollars, would be in the neigh
borhood Of $3.50 or say So or Sc per day
for each 'mosser."
PARLEYING WITH THE BUYERS.
Some of the more Industrious have
averaged as high as SO a day in good
seasons. The moss can be secured only
at low tide. and a man must be skilful
hand at scaling the rocky bottom and
sure footed in scaling the craggy cliffs
down Scituate way to garner a couple
of barrels day Stormy days nothing
can be accomplished in the way of rak-
ing. but they do say the veteran moss
ers'' gather in their storage shanties on
inclement days and rewash old moss Of
the season before and palm it off as part
of the current crop.
/ Usually the buyers for the big brewer
les do not go down Scituate way" until
about this time o. year. Occasionally
however, some forehanded prospector
comes along earlier and tries to get
options on a lot of moss. Then is your
| 'mosser" seen at his best. No horse
trader or Arab merchant could be war.er.
He hates to part with his store mo.
how" crop Is poor 'nough. lands
Sakes;'' ''had plenty o chances to sell
before, but 'twant no use talkin', - and
co on an hO.Ir at Tina
bargain is struck and Silas goes into the
summer kitchen and ehuckles behind the
! eV MOu qEuueH OF s94rIaI gu So 1902
echiseled half a cent a pound out of that
| chap who thought he was so smart COM
ing round to corner the moss crop. a.
Mossers are q curious contradiction.
| Laconic as Grant when it; suits their
PURPOSE, they are as lcquacious as 'Bos<
we'll when a sympathetic audience IS
present. y descendant of the original
Cannot, who, according to the weather.
/ beaten sign board on a tree near tie
| North Scituate railway station. founded
this corner store in 1851 was en-
couhtered raking over moss on the tract
/ near the Minots Ledge Light a week or
! two ago. Here is the conversation duly
recorded at the time:
BELIEVE IN BREVITY.
us this the kind of sea moss they max
| blanc mango Off"
! yes"
''Is it ready to be cooked wigen you ge
/ through with it?"
/ Yes"
/ isn't it hard to get enough for the pee
pie of this country to eat?"
mo We'd. starve on what's sold flo
food"
t''What is it sold for, then?'
/ Beer"
''You don't mean it is used instead o
| hops?''
mo; only for purifying beer
Beer isn't brewed around here, is il?
mo; we amt got any use for sue
stuff
We'll, but you do your share towar
! furthering its production
! Calculate we do"-tl1is with a wrir
king of the bronzed face into grin
but haven't got no time to discuss tn
evils of drink, stranger. MoTnin''
| The question of smuggling, howevel
subtly put, could elicit still less informa
ton, but strange craft are OCCASIONAL
| seen off "Sctuate way by early riser
in the ION season" of moss gathering
| and at the little corner grocery confabs
| It's said, entertaining tales are spun
the Canadian and other goods importe
via the underground route. Custom
officials have looked askanee at thing
down Scituate way" but nothing fol
NAL has been done toward substantiatin
the whispers of the gossips. Stranger
| are readily shown how the main industr
Of the neighborhood is conducted, but til
avocations and personal hobbies of TIL
| one or that one, are tabooed topics.
BLEACHING THE MOSS.
"Chondrus crispus" is the scientific
name of the sea moss, but thos
are meaningless words to anybody ''dow1
Scituate way" 1t looks like ragged
seaweed. blackish green. when first rak
| ed off the rocks, viscid and filed witt
| by means of the iron-toothed rake:
on the ends of long poles the mosser.
! carefully dump it well upon the beach
to dry out. Then fresh water Is pour
ed over it and at night the dew damps
it further
After a while the moss becomes 6
whitish yellow. Then it is heaped VI
| and packed into barrels, which are piled
| up in the sheds resembling corncribs will
| tightly boarded sides. Occasionally The
moss is sorted out first into grades an6
| then packed.
| Most of the moss is found in hooks
and crannies of the cliffs between Minots
| and Plymouth. in water anywhere from
| ten to twenty feet deep at low tide
Some is gathered without going out in
| the dories by climbing about the rough
piles of rocks left in serrated ridges BY
| the beating waves and twisting off q
| handful here and a bunch there.
Under favorable conditions moss MAY
| be cured in ten days, and at other times