Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1908-09-24
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All the labor of handling the fish has been sys-
tematized, as it had to be in a business where
the bulk is so great. There is no wasted effort
carrying the fish into town, nor rs the dirty
work permitted to mar the beauty of the city
proper. Everything is done right at the wharves,
where there is ever at hand a limitless supply of
water to do the vitality important final labor of
cleansing.
When a two-masted schooner, laden to the gun
wales with its cargo of fish, comes into the
wharves the fish are carried to great tubs. Over
these stand a company of experts, men who have
cleaned hundreds of thousands of fish, and who
can make the quick cuts, and do the %scraping
with incredible speed. Running to each tub is a
hose, and after the waste has been removed, an
instant under the high pressure of water from
the hose cleans out the fish completely and makes
it sweet and ready for the next step in the opera
ton. Goldfish is dried and sailed before being
sent to the market, and the work is also done on
the wharves. Here are ranged hundreds Of
tables, exposed to the bright sunlight. The
cleansed fish are piled up in such a manner that
the warm rays get a most admirable chance at
them. This summer has been so hot that the
fishermen have had great difficulty in drying out
the cod. Instead of taking the water out in the
gradual normal manner, the sun has been so
fierce that it baked the fish, and in this manner
many of them were cooked so hard on the out
side as to be virtually worthless for the market.
But this is a rare occurrence, for under ordi-
nary conditions the climate of New England is
ideal, and the sun does the work of drying in a
manner far more satisfactory than could any
agency Of mans production.
From the open-air drying tables the fish are
shifted to the boxing and packing establishments
which are also located along the water front, and
then they are made ready to be shipped to all
parts of the world.
same traditional pride that a native of Brussels
might regard the lace industry.
From generation to generation the families of
noted fishermen stick to the business, and moth
ing is a more familiar boast to some grizzled old
follower of the sea than to be able to say that
his son and grandson are both fishermen, and
that there is a strong probability that a great
grandson just beginning to master the fine points
of the business will be better than any of them.
The cod, of course, is the most admired of all
the fish that fall to the lot of these deepsea Izaak
Waltons, though the mackerel is also regarded
with great respect,
The deep-sea fishermen look down upon the
clam diggers, but the latter can afford to ignore
this contempt, for there is plenty of money to be
made in the sale of the bivalves. They are to
be found in plenty on the sandy shores of the
neighborhood, and at all hours of the day, but
especially at low tide, the clam hunters, turning
up the beach with their rakes, can be seen al
work. Clam shocking is an expert feature of the
work, and many of the old hands make phenome
nal records in dissociating the luscious clam from
it's protecting shell.