The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-06-25
AN ATLANTIC FISH CENTER.
Boston's T Wharf is Famous Over tn,
 Continent.

IBoston's T Wharf is Famous Over the Continent.
 The great fish center of the north Att Ilantic coast, says the Boston Herald, the point for which the shippers of lover two hundred and fifty schooners that pick up fish all the way from the Grand Banks to Cape Cod steer a Icourse after having taken on cargo, lthe one place where there are always buyers to meet the incoming fishermen, IT Wharf, has become famous over the for years. it has grown in importance, lit has monopolized the fishing industry, land yet there is hardly a business cen ter in Boston where there is less mono poly and where modern methods as ex- lemplif1ed by the trust and syndicate lare less in evidence.
 Business on T Wharf is conducted in much the same manner as 1t was thir- |ty years ago. The fleet comes and goes as it did then: the crews, the shippers land the owners divide profits in the |same way, the class of vessels is much |the same, and there has been compar- |atively little change in the men who bring in the fish and those who handle them after they arrive.
 Many of the firms whose signs are
 seen along the wharf have been there for generations. The buildings show
 their age, and that long, low ramshac- |kle stretch of red is devoted exclusive fly to fish. The firms which occupy it handle the two hundred million pounds of fish brought to Boston every year,
 and distribute it all over the continent
 from HHalifax to San Francisco.
 Even recognized fish centers have to call upon T Wharf, for it is the one point in America which can almost in- lvariably be depended upon to meet all demands. Fish may be caught off the
 Nova Scotia coast and some of 1t land ed at Halifax, but the amount taken there is small compared with tha which comes to T Wharf, and it often
 becomes necessary to send s'coals to
 Newcastle
 During recent years T Wharf has be- come more of center than ever. Ports like Gloucester, which will prob- ably always be identified with fish, and for years cut figure in the trade, have become in q measure absorbed by T Wharf. The vessels no longer go there in great numbers, the shippers prefer ring to bring their goods to the big market and sell them first hand where competition is keenest. Even the skip pers themselves have deserted Glouces- ter in large numbers and now, regard ing Boston and T Wharf as the home port, have homes in Everett and Som erville.
 On T Wharf there is nothing but fish and the smell of fish. Thousands of pounds of cod, haddock, hake, pollock, halibut and mackerel are landed there every day, and trading is always brisk. But there is not the disastrous conpe- tition that characterized the business in the earlier days, when dealers stayed on the wharf night and day, on the watch for incoming schooners, and, sighting one, raced in tugs or launches to meet vessel. often below Boston Light, and bid for the cargo.
 There has been a decided change in this respect, and there are unwritten laws on T Wharf that no man, buyer or skipper, would for moment think of breaking. Many years ago, when the competition was keenest among the buyers, lookouts were kept at all times, and every schooner that arrived was besieged with buyers as soon as she could be reached.
 Life on T Wharf became so strenuous that the dealers and shippers got to- gether and framed an agreement that there should be no buying or selling af- ter six o'clock in the evening until three o'clock next morning. This worked so well that the hours for trad ing were shortened, and for number of years buying and selling on T Wharf has been restricted to the hours be- tween three o'clock in the morning and five o'clock in the afternoon.
 But competition is still brisk along the wharf on the arrival of a schooner. The buyers know every fishing vessel, and can call her by name the moment she pokes her nose into the harbor. They know the skipper, and can usu- ally make good guess as to what he will have to offer.
 In these days, however, it is not until the schooner begins to haul into the dock that the buyers become really in terested. Then 8 dozen or more red faced men in heavy coats, with an oc- casional oilslxin among them, congre- gate on the end of the wharf and watch the fishermen haul in These are the buyers, and they may joke with the skipper and his crew, and all sorts of raillery may pass between them when they come within speaking dis tance, but not a word is heard in rela- ton to the cargo. For there is an un- written law of T Wharf which forbids any buyer to make an offer for the car- go of a fisherman until one of the crew of the latter has thrown a line to the wharf and made hitch.
 The buyers escorted by two special policemen In uniforms very much in keeping with the handling of fish, fol- low the progress of the schooner as she slowly makes her way along the dock to the place assigned to her. The po- licemenare there to protect the buyers and keep outsiders in the background.