Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1901-01-24

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LIB IN SOUTHERN RIVERS,
Mode Of Existence That Has Charr'
All Its Own. MS
Perhaps the dreamiest, LATEST, exist
ence in America is the life on the
southern rivers in summer. It is at
this season Of the year that thousands
Of people men, women and children
are to be seen catching turtles,
hunting pearls, collecting mussel
shells, fishing on the sand bars, cap
turing water snakes or dragging sub
merged walnut logs from the water.
Hundreds of shanty boats, taking
/ 6sh and bartering all sorts Of goods
with the natives, ply from one land
ing to another. The river people
are satisfied with no other mode Of
existence and rarely ever abandon it,
seductive charms.
Tie Tennessee river is the great
est fresh water turtle stream in the
world, says Good Literature, and the
Cumberland is famous for its pro-
life turtle fields. The Tennessee has
it's source in the mountains and cuts
it's way through rocky country, rem
dering it perfectly clear at normal
depth. The turtles Of the clear
streams, though smaller, are more
valuable in the markets than the huge
monsters taken from the muddy Mis-
sissippi. There are huge turtle pens
alongthe Tennessee river, where hum
dreds Of them are kept securely after
being captured Some turtles have
been taken from the Tennessee and
Mississippi rivers which the natives
swear would weigh from 400 to 600
pounds. Washington and New York
furnish the best markets, and many g
diamond-backed Chesapeake terra.
pin" Of the famous caterers really
came from Tennessee.
Turtle meat is as great favorits
dish with the southerner as 'possum.
The southern negro has a provert
that the turtle feeds on fish, chicken,
eggs, crosses and the choicest coun-
try delicacies, until his own flesh par
takes Of all their various favors. They
positively assert that they can dis
tinguish all their various favors. The
small turtles are captured for food
and the larger ones for their shells,
of which, many domestic articles are
made. The heaviest hauls are taken
in huge frame traps set in the swift
est channels of bayou. The negro
locates aturtle sitting in shallow wa
ter and wades in after him with a
forked stick. They tease the turtle
until he becomes mad and pokes out
his head to-, hiss, then the forked
stick goes over his head and the tur-
tie is hauled out of the water. The
large ones are killed outright and
boiled in giant pots until the shell
comes off. The shells are then scraped
and polished.
The pearl hunters throng the
river every summer. Thousands Of
them are wading and dredging for
the mussel or fresh-water clam. The
shells Of several varieties are gath
cred by the ton and shipped up the
Mississippi river to the pearl-button
factories. There are dozen varieties
Of the mussel, but only two-the
niggerhead and the sand shell are
valuable to the factories. Along the
river are shacks in scores, in which
the families engaged in the hunt find
shelter. Outside are long troughs
filed with water. Huge caldrons are
mounted on brick foundations, and
the shells are boiled in these. Punts,
RATS, fatboats and skiffs are used III
the catch. A trap made Of heavy
plumbers pipe is placed over each
boat. To the pipe are strung lines
set at six-inch intervals, which run
fore and aft. Four-pronged hooks
made Of old wire are fastened to the
lines. The boat is pushed out from
the bank for work.
The fresh-water clam points his
nose upstream and invariably keeps
his mouth open. He lies on the
river bottom waiting for something
to come along, when he will greed
lily seize it and never let 60. The
trap with the dozens Of hooks is tilted
over the side of the punt living; M