The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-04-04

thO bOatOM Oh INC Sou w OhutTthh
Swimming Abilities Displayed Mass
snu's Quiet Auction-A Physician's
Warming About Spongcs.
There's more romance about a sponge
than the ordinary prosaic lover of tub
bling imagines. Perhaps that is the rea-
son why many small boys darling
ambition is to own bath sponge as
big as his fathers. He may catch a
hint ofcrystal waters and blue sky and
dusky natives and palm groves and
strange lands In the dead and dried
sponge. Like it he certainly does.
A well-known New York publisher
says that one of the tragedies of his life
hinged upon this iboyish passion for
sponges. His father had a beautiful
big Mediterranean sponge, and it hung
upon a nail in the bathroom, where it
reused the son and heir, aged six, to
mad covetousness. All the ordinary
boyish ambitions paled before his long
ing for such a sponge. He didn't want
to grow up and be a pirate or own a
candy store or fight Indians. He
yearned for maturity only in order that
he might have a Mediterranean sponge
as big as his porridge bowl.
One day he found ten cents His
father didn't believe in pocket money
and cents were scarce with him, but a
whole dime! He retired to the wood
shed to. think. One could do almost
anything with dime, but the vital,
burning problem to be solved was what
would be the very best way of spend
ing the unexpected wealth. 1t didn't
take him long to decide. He would buy
sponge as big as his fathers, bigger
perhaps. In fact he would buy the big
gest one the drug store man had if it
took the last cent of his capital to do it.
So he walked proudly down the street
and entered the drug store with a
swagger There was a glass case full
of sponges, He picked out the largest,
and stnding on tip-toe so that the
cltrk could see him over the counter,
he said with dignity:
How much Is that sponge?'
"Three dollars and half" said the
clerk, politely.
The young Croesus blinked hastily
and swallowed violently. This world
had been toppled about his ears, but he
was game. BY heroic effort he re-
gained his breath and his voice.
"I-I--I'll take a chocolate soda, |
please" he said, quite firmly, and |
watched with dry eyes while his ten
cents disappeared In the cash drawer
Sponges aren't so cheap as they look, I
though one can buy an inferior quality
for very little money The best sponges
in the market come from the Mediterra-
mean, and a few, almost as good, come
from the north coast of Cuba. The
quantity Of the latter Is SO small that
they make little impression upon the
market. our-f1fths Of the sponges
brought to New York are from Key
est and the West Indies, the very
cheapest grade being imported in great
quantities from the Bahamas. Nassau,
the capital of the Bahamas, is the
greatest sponge market of the world,
and about nine hundred thousand
pounds of sponges are shipped from
here to the United States every year.
New York dealers, who absolutely
control this output, ship large share
If the sponges to European markets.
"Sponging used to be very interest
ng and picturesque performance, said
New York Wholesale dealer to d Sun
'eporter. about nine enths of the ma
i've population of the Bahamas is in
crested In one way or another in the in |
lustry, and in the old days the natives
wned their boats and were spongers on
heir own hook.
"They took small schooners provi-
fo,- Gxr4 eta 4 L.,
heir wives and children aboard, and |
ct sail for the sponging grounds l
sometimes they got load in a week or {
wo IF the weather was good, every '
hing went easily and the excursion t
vas one festive and protracted picnic c
looking was done over a fire built upon t
he sand in box dashed to the side of !
he boat. When the weather was bad, Y
o cooking was done; but, in good J
reather the fire famed up from every G
oat, all the evening, and as there were S
sually good many boats on the t
PONCE grounds at once, the sight was f
picturesque. The darkies all lounged v
round the fires and every one of them t
ould play some sort of musical instru- h
lent and sing. l tell you there was t.
lusic worth hearing out among those e
pongers in the tropical nights. The F
Fassau Sponge Exchange runs the n
hole business now and some Of the p
EST seems to have gone out Of the n
hing.
There are no sponges right around fl
assau, but the Exchange is there, and b
,ch of its members sends out his own a
Get, which is busy all the year around. a
he merchant has a number of schoon- Il
s, Of from ten to twenty tons. Some II
mes he owns two boats. Sometimes lie
} owns thirty He engages the negro CT
lptain for his boat, and the captain h
looses his own crew. The owner pro- a.
sions the boat, and the provision in p
uded in the contract is always the
me-so many pounds of flour, rice ly
i'd salt pork, and SO many quarts of
n, for each sponger. If man takes CO
lie or children along, he must provide 10
e extra food for them. in
cit isn't such bad fun to be a sponger w
the weather is good and if one OF
esnt mind sharks, The boats are
AIDE with heavy glass set in their bot df
ms, and the water down there is SO $ti'
ear that enc can look through this Ftl
uare of glass right down to the bot pc
m of the sea. Sometimes instead of tn
e glass in the boat the men carry ! ct
ass box. that is, wooden box with
glass bottom They hold this over IN