The times., 1900-04-01

From a deerted suburb. Fishtown sprang
in a few days to be d crowded mart. full OF
business and fish. One Of the peculiarities
Of the city, which was made up every year
Of new booths alongside the ceutury-old
warehouses. was the repugnance every
where exhibited 10 cut "a board in twain or
even TO chop of a projecting timber The
timber Of which Fishtown was built was
nearly all hired. and the temporary houses
which sprang up in March with the wheat
disappeared in June before the harvest.
Throughout its length and breadth whole
planks were the fashion. This gave some
Of the residences an architecture rather
unsghtly. and many bulging planks that
we're stuck in where they did not ht gave
a varied style to the temporary residences.
Altogether il was a unique city. 1t
! gathered not only fish from he waters.
but made gathering from the land Known
perhaps nowhere else in America. In the
heighth of tint season OF lS45-'I6 Fish
town was medley and combination Of the
older New York Five Points London ST.
! Giles and the later Washington Blood
: field. with a large tinge Of the still later
/ Jackson City. The wagouers from the up-
! country came in with well-liued purses;
! the fishermen were also flush in pocket.
/ and even the lower grade of workers being
! paid good wages for their work. were much
/ more able TO spend. and quite as free in
| spending all the money they had. as a
/ similar class anywhere So gamcsters
| came as TO Jackson City, notorious wo-
men kept bagnios. and the morals Of
| Fishtogn were those that afterWard pre-
vailed in disreputable locations at Wash
! ington. The idle and the vicious visited
there and with. games and business by
day and with song and dance at night
/ alternated with the buying and cutting
| and sailing of fish. Saloons, warehouses.
. bagnius and fish offices places for little
game and watts for striking or curing fish
| made up the ediiices of the town. and
1 alongside great store houses built before
I the Revolutionary War there clustered
little booths of houses which were uecu-
. pied two hours after they We're erected
and which were carted away as soon as
/ the season closed.
There were people who affected 10 like
/ these merry horrors. Once a member OF
/ Congress. who passed some sundays there.
announced that "Fishtowu is nearer
! Heaven than the House of Representa-
tives."
Houses in 1t Fishing Precinct.
The houses which appeared in the early
spring with the grain as it peeped above
ground disappeared before the harvest.
and the uncut planbs and timbers all went
back to the lumber yards of the city.
about one-dfth Of the value of the ma
terial being paid in rent a further nov
city in the way of first hiring The site Of
the house and then obtaining the building
material on lease was the shape OF Fish
I town windows and doors As the plank
could not be cut necessity became the
mother OF invention and the architect iu
4 erecting the building always left out a
. plank in the Notwithstanding about four
feet above the ground The plank thus
left out was afterwards hinged on. and
in this way most OF the old FishtOwn
windows and doors were about one foot
high and ten or fifteen feet long. Some oi
these houses we're used for sailing houses
and some for the sale OF FISH. and some
for purposes far less reputable IN charac-
ter.
The greater number, however. Of these
p houses were eating booths. drinking
houses. or dance halls. OF The twenty OF
thirty houses which made up Fishtown
two-thirds Of those built In March disap
peared before July leaving only he old
= county warehouses shat intended orig
, naIly TO store tobacco, hat come down
with their heavy stone bases and immense
, timbers from Colonial days
The reFelfE Nhlth luf rlNiE OF seven y
, nights gave the town a reputation among
4 the toughs was sometimes accOmpdnie,
by scenes OF a most pathetic character
Z More than once a distracted mother, seek
o. ing her lost daughter. came into thos,
- terrible purlieus OF vice, only to find he
s child gone beyond redemption. Sometime
. / Il suicide and occasionally murder adde'
( to the horrors that grew up in a hetero
Z geueous community where
j Women and wine, game and deceit.
Z Made her wealth small aud hol wants great
. Most Of the fish cutters and in the bus
season there we're several hundred of them
, we're colored women Their costumes defe
! description. 4 mans coat over a woman
= petticoat was an ordinary rig and all tn
Z rags that could be accumulated wer
, roughly sewn together TO make aprons. Tn
whole outfit was. as a rule, covered will
a fish scales. and when the sun shone tn
women glittered with many iridesceut hue