The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-02-25

| of the land are naturally next to the 1 biggest fares of cod, haddock, haiibu, | and mackerel. Everybody knows that this ocean blight supplies many of our 1 choicest bites, but the everyday life l especially in winter. of the island fisher I folk Is almost as unknown, except by l vague hearsay, as the life of the inhab- ! itant of Farce or Saghalien.
 I Perhaps the most remarkable thing ! about this life is that, although still | very quaint and picturesque it Is being | modernized Block Island in winter I would be thought of as about the out ermost post of civilization. Yet it has l been included in the network of the l lines of the Bell telephone system. The I island has always been there, ever ! since at least, the glacial era left at the extreme end of Long Island a de- | posit of powders and gravel seven miles long by three and one-half miles wide. The inhabitants have practically l always been there-the same Dodges, Littlefields, Balls and Roses, who have ! lived on the island since 1881. They were pious Baptists at the outset: most 1 of them are Baptists and some are pious to this day. The little farmsteads scat tered over the surface of the treeless | islet and devoted to poultry and vege- | tables have been handed down from | father to son. and few, at least, of | the houses on them are venerable ! enough to satisfy the most ardent | searcher after antiquity. A pictur- esque windmill, very dilapidated. gives a Hollandish touch. The fishing fleet
 nov, as for generations back, goes 1 forth at every season of the year, talk | ing swordfish, mackerel, haddock and cod with which the markets of the | whole United States are regularly sup piled. The Block Island undecked | schooners of from ten to fifteen tons I burden, with pointed bows and sterns, are famous for outweathering the stout est gales which sweep the Atlantic | coast.
 Surprises await the occasional out l sider who goes to the Island in mid | winter. He starts off as for a desper- } ate adventure. He takes out additional l accident insurance. He expects, after
 leaving Newport. to find something even
 more desolate than the long streets | filled with the unoccupied cottages" of l the millionaires.
 The impressions of the voyage con l firm the first expectation. The sight of the little steamer which makes tri- weekly trips to the Island, weather l permitting. is not reasuring. Still less | assuring is the southeast gale that is pounding hard swash against the | cliffs of the southern end of Rhode | Island Some of Uncle Sam's musi- | clans are playing dolefully at Fort Ad- ans. Once outside of the harbor. the
 half-score of passengers, lost in a will | derness of assorted freight, being to be seasick Off Point Judith even the
 strongest stomach turns. The winter visitor begins about this time to wish l that either Block Island or he were at the bottom of the sea with the rest | of the eastern end of Long Island, a
 considerable portion of which has crum- | bled away.
 Out of the swash of the southeaster | the Danielson. which after reaching Sandy Point at the extreme northern | end of Block Island has been following along a stretch of high cliffs, darts sud
 denly behind a sheltering breakwater, one of the works of that literary and
 artistic engineer, F. Hopkinson Smith It's plunge from purgatory into a peaceful haven. A fleet of perhaps two score fishing schooners rests in min iature harbor. tied up over Sunday The
 steamer is berthed between two groups
 of vessels. Apparently half the inhab- itants of the Island have assembled to
 greet the boat. for the tri-weekly ar rivals are important events.
 The further experiences, though they
 may be delightful enough, are likely to
 be somewhat disappointing to the trav- eler who goes to Block Island expect ing to find a winter life differing radio ally from that of the rest of the world He is perhaps on the lookout for rus ticity. and he finds the telephone every where. Old and new are commingled
 on this ancient island of Manisses to which Adrian Block gave his name in 1914. As the stranger turns on the steam heat in his room at one of the all year boarding houses he smiles in- voluntarily at the remembrance of
 Whittier's description of the Island in
 winter:
 'Dreary the land when gust and sleet
 At it's doors and windows howl and beat,
 And Winter laughs at it's fires of peat"
 the traveller goes to the telephone which
 in the Bell system and asks for long
 distance. The desired connection in a
 city several hundred miles away is got
 promptly and the conversation carried
 on through the cable which, since about
 the time of the Spanish War, has con nected the island with NaTragansett Pier is as distinct as one between two residences in the same exchange dis trict. Each day of the sojourn the tel ephone is used and it's convenience won dered at.
 The islanders think so. too. The in struments can hardly he supplied fast enough to suit the demands of pros pectlve subscribers If poles are lack ing on the treeless island-and these must be brought across at considerable expense from the mainland-the na-