The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-05-27
THE TAUNTON HERRING.
HOY IT LOOKS IN MARKET AND
 ACTS AT HOME.
Some Taings You Probably Don't

Know About Praiseworthy Fish.
 Wherever in this part of the country and at this time of year you find a gro- cery store or fish market you are al- most sure to see step-ladder arrange ment of herring displayed before the door. The smaller the store and the more remote it is from the store dis tricts, the more nearly inevitable be- comes the sight of those rungs Of twelve salted fish strung through the eyes and running from the ground two- thirds the distance up to the sign above the window.
 Tn one-half hour at East Taunton you may see many more thousands of live herrings that you could find pickled during two days drive about Provi- dence. If you make the excursion into Massachusetts for the sake of the real ly fascinating sight you will find that the car that leaves Taunton for the scene is crowded with passengers. If the time of your going be Sunday you will be fortunate to squeeze enough space on the trolley to stand in. East Taunton is about a half-hour run from the city of which it is suburb; the fare is only a nickel.
 Martin's-herrin', herrin',-" you turn with the crowd down the side street to the left. A walk of two hun dred yards brings you across bridge over a dam that serves large mill and up to narrow wooden waterway off no the extreme edge of the stream, where, from top to bottom, women and children, and on Sundays hundreds of vigorous men, are lined up eagerly gaz- 8 ing into the network of boards down which side current is rushing. The waters are forced to turn corners every E foot or two after a little, more than a yard of horizontal running. In this way their force and speed are checked, but even as the scheme is, they lash around through the connected boxes as if in bold rapids. Up through them, a distance of perhaps fifteen or twenty yards, the little herrings are moving many thousands at time.
 The struggle up to the top is exhaust ing. A herring coming back to the river where it was matched three years before, laden with eggs to lay higher up in clear and quiet pool, reaches the dam early in the spring. Here it soon realizes the great, stunt" ahead and prepares for it by joining many hundreds of it's fellows close up to the mill falls, where the water is still. In this quiet spot it rests a long time, scarcely making move from one min ute to another. So close is it and it's companions to the place where the spectators stand who have come long distances to see them perform in the fishway that with a stoop and a reach of the hand it, and many others could easily be stroked. But there is a war den in charge of the course, and the performers to see that there is no in- terference with his wards; and his work in this respect is light, for the people are so busy using their eyes that they have little thought of a closer { acquaintance with the interesting fish,
 When the herring feels that it is strong, enough to make it's great at tempt 1t leaves it's resting fellows and the still waters to swim for the bottom of the fishway. For while it shoots through the rushing waters and around the flashing corners as if it were sure to reach the top without stopping. Its strength and endurance are indeed wonderful but they cannot hold out long against the current that never once allows it quiet moment. Be- sides, there are so many others near it that it can hardly snap it's tail without striking one of them. This crowding helps wear the fish out, So that by the time it has gone a quarter way up the water ladder it is making no headway whatever. You can see it struggling in the boiling stream to hold it's distance; the rolling current goes by it, but it roes not yield. Again it strives to move ahead. Perhaps he does succeed in turning the next corner, but here some of it's old strength vanishes, and it is thrown back. It may be a dis tance of two boxes before its native grit comes back to it. Then it resumes the fight.
 There is something particularly mov- ing in the sight of a hundred herring in the next to the last box, their strength nearly spent but a dogged courage be- meath their scales that will not let them give up the hard work they have
 
 they give out they would be. washed back into the river in little more than a minute. Some of them do, in fact, < have to throw away many yards of fierce climbing, but, though they are often forced to the bottom, they are never discouraged. They make the second or the third attempt to get round the dam with as much courage as if it were their first experience in beating up round the corners. Of < course they at last succeed. An hour, men who know the ways of the herring say, is excellent time for the course.
 Farther up the stream at the upper Middleboro dam the fishway is so diffi- cult that only part of the striving her. ring can swim it. To help them out of their trouble the fishermen with privi- 1eges, contribute to hire men to dip up the fish into wash tubs and carry them to the easier waters above.
 The most interesting part of the her. ring run is undoubtedly their gamy fight along the ways, sight which many thousands of people watch every fair Sunday at this time of the year in the region about Taunton, but still the serious business of catching the fish is unusual enough for Rhode Islanders to