The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-05-21
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He IS IS, NJ NAREsi ~ 1T He
Fish THE SEA


The Story OF How the y arssaouth
BIon ter Came by His Crown-The
Miracle. B. Which. II, e4 r ca Herring
was Given to tn e world.
..os an the fish in the sea herring.
is king
The herring as breakfast dish or as
hors d 'osuvre or as Sayory is familiar
enough In that capacity every one
knows him. every one welcomes him.
But the herring is king! That is an
some accounting for. BY What right.
one feels inclined to ask, is ti.at insig-
niticant little fish King c: tie hshS
community? Who crowned !:!tcl and
why: Was it we northern nations, to
whom his advent brings suc:. good, or
is there further warra nty- any here
for his kingship?
Here for the curious are chapter and
verse for King Herring's claim 10
begin with, he is countenanced by no
less a person than Rare Ben Jonson,
who in act 1, scene ), of Every Man,
In His Humor' makes the facetlouS
Cob claim ancestry from HERRING,
the king of fish" And, to Suostantl
Ben Jonson's assertion, comes that
other sixteenth century writer, Thorn
as Nash of Lowestoft, who wakes elo-
sQucnt, not to say perfervid, Oh me SUD
siect of the behring's kingship in a live
" and paradoxical work called lent
en- Stuff: or. The Praise of Red Her
ring written, it is said, in gratitude
for money lent the uthor by the peo-
Die of Yarmouth and by way of pay
ulent of the same Here the behring's
claim 70 royal estate is duly set forth
sin44bombastic language suited to the
dignity of the theme and, truth to tell,
the satirical mood of the writer. Shorn
of Nash's rhetorical eNtraSagances,
this, briefly, is the story of how the
herring came by his crown:
1t appears that once upon time all
the fish of the sea had occasion to
choose a king to lead them to battle
To do so, says Nash. ''beShackled
nightly their fshy WITS for their
claim was hedged round with llInlta-
tions NO ravening fish. for instance,
must they choose, lest, having destroy
ed their foe, he should eat them also
for change of diet He must, more
over, be one well known to them all
y by reason of his wide sea wanderings,
"
they listed should he begin to tyran-
nize Now, none met these require:
ments save the herring; hence was he.
proclaimed king Of fishes by. the unan-
inlous vote Of all the ishy community
all, that is, but the plaice and butt,
who, being jealous, made wry mouths
at&Master Herring instead of shouting
TaGod save the king!'' with the rest and
who have had, as every one knows,
*wrys mouths for their knocking ever
since. In such fashion was the her
ring raised to the kingly throne, and
hence wears he to this day, says Nash,
a scoronet to mark his I1ingship; hence,
too, goes he forth always with an. ar
my and, moreover, in true kinGly fash
ion sends forth hernlds to announce
his royal progress through various wa
tiers. These herring heralds, by the
way, when the willy fisherman catches
& he swings sundry times round the
mainmast of his lugger, bidding them
bring the boat a last of behring's for
every swing Then, their ransom paid,
he filings them back into the water.
hostages to fortune
: Nash's eulogies of King Herring in
"Lenten Stuff know. no bounds. Not
content with proclaiminG him king in
his natural state, he lauds him cNtrav-
hgantly-cured-givin him such titles
as "I>uissant Red Herring, Red Her
ring of Herring Hall, Golden Hesperi-
des Red Herring and various other
panegyrics All of this is as absurd as
Nash meant it to be. Yet in spite OF
his nonsense there is much truth in his
assumption of King Herrlng's puts
sance Never truly was there so auto
cratic a monarch, for wherever he puts
in an appearance he dominates every
thing and everybody Fishing towns
at herring time bow before him. They
are at his beck and call morning, noon
and night, and dead he is a sreater au-s
tocrat than zever he was living, for,
absorbing and enthralling as 1t is to
catch him. it is even more so to cure
him and pickle him. Royal himself,
King Herring has always been ha-
bitue of courts, for the first red herring
that ever was cured made his bow to
a brother monarch He hailed; as ev-
cry one knows, from the future great
Yarmouth when that town was little
more than n mere unimportant sand
bank, forcing it's way ever higher and
higher above the waters of the North
sea and known to the fishermen who
came there every autumn to ply their
trade as Cerdic shore.
. 1t is a twice told tale how in those
ancient days certain Yarmouth fish
N,.ron having caught more Mornings