The Richmond climax. (Richmond, Ky.) 1897-1914, 1905-10-18
SEAWEED HARVEST.
A PICTURESQUE INDUSTRY OF
MASSACHUSETTS COAST.
Tons Upon Tons Of Purple Dulse Are
Gathered by Women and
Children in the

Children in the
Season.
Race suicide is said TO be a danger
to which Massachusetts is exposed, but
there is one part of the population
that Is fully and peculiarly alive to
this danger. This comprises the sea-
weed gatherers OF the coast
Every well grown child in such a
family is regarded as a source of
wealth, and this most frequent excuse
OF the man whose harvest of seaweed
makes poor showing beside that of
his neighbor is:
"Oh, Tom has six children, and l
and my old woman work alone"
1t is either very small child or a
very dull child that cannot bear a hand
in curing the seaweed, and a stout
boy or an active girl can venture out
in the weed gatherer's boat or at
least tear the weed from half ex-
posed rocks at low tide.
Up at rocky Gloucester these har-
vesters of the sea gather tons of pur-
pie dulse. Their little shanties sit
snug in the crannies of the cliffs, their
tents seek shelter at the base of the
great rocky wall on bits of smooth
sand above the reach of the highest
tides.
Their narrow paths, deep sunk in
the dense grass and hidden by the
bays that clothe the edge of the cliffs.
wind in bewildering mazes along the
table lands that overlook the sea-
Tenuous stairways and hazardous lad
ders lead down the cliffs to the Little
houses of the dulse gatherers, and
slender bridges here and there are
slung from house to house across the
crevasses that deeply indent the rock.
Here at Seituate. in that deeply re-
tired little sinuosity of the harbor
where the women of the revolution
airy period are said to have frightened
of landing party from a British
man-O'-war by vigorously playing mar
tial music behind the sand dunes, the
sea harvest is especially Irish moss.
Scores of tiny shelters line the quiet
beach, and here all summer long the
moss gatherers live a free open air
life.
Some of them hire their sum ner
homes for few dollars a month, 9TH
ers own their little cottages. Each
family has its dory, with high sides
and stern. and the great long-handled
rakes with which the moss is gath
cred. There have been seasons in
which the moss gatherers of Scituate
have sold their harvest for as much as
$4,000.
The moss gatherers here are usually
in large part of Irish origin. Here. as
elsewhere on the Massachusetts coast,
however, there are some Portuguese,
swarthy, black-haired men and wom-
en- who never come to have the look
of the natives, no matter how many
generations they may have inhabited
the land.
Clad in flannels, oilskins or what
ever else comes handy. the moss gath
erers go out In their stout dories when
the sea is not too rough and rake up
the seaweed from the bottom. Their
little sheltered bay here, almost with
in sight of the well that inspired
Woodworth's "Old Oaken Bucket" is
so quiet that at all ordinary times the
boats can go out.
The washing, spreading, turning and
lighter handling of the moss is in large
part the work of women and children,
tho Iaftor hrouyn horo-IaoOad 1ittla
creatures, hardy, we'll fed and active.
A quiverful of such is a blessing to
the father of family thus occupied.
When the Irish moss is about ready
to be marketed buyers from Boston
and New York visit the little settle
ments of moss gatherers and examine
the crop. The expert buyer thrusts
his arm far into the great piles of
stored weed and pulls out handfuls for
examination.
The crop varies considerably with
the skill, care and good fortune of
those who cure it, and prices vary ac-
cordingly. Those who buy barreled
moss must look to it that too much
sea water has not been added as
makeweight, for in such case not only
do they lose in the amount of their
purchase, but the moss may be dam
aged by mould.
Massachusetts, sea moss is less used
for food than imported Irish moss,
though, like the latter, it makes
wholesome and pleasant dessert. 1t is
used incidentally, but the chief de-
mand for it is in the arts.
The true Irish moss, or carrageen,
is made into an alcoholic drink, and
the Irish moss of Massachusetts is
much used by ale brewers to give body
and clarity to their ale. 1t is used
also in calico printing.
Some persons object to the slightly
brackish taste of the crude moss when
made into food, though with a little
care in washing and cooking this taste
almost disappears. With the modern
American housewives instinct for la
Dor saving. however. the demand for
the crude moss as food has greatly les
sened, and consumers pay quadruple
the price for q refined product put up
in pretty packages and called by. hne
names