New-York tribune., 1921-08-21


fishing. fishermen and fishing villages.
Cape Cod in fiction is represented much
:. .bs cd nome farm is on the stage-an
;svIlc place with no particular resemblance to
-. rsal thing. There are fishermen to catch
..s cod-picturesque persons in oilskins and
~uhber boots with long boards and propen-
.;tv for telling tall tales, once their catch is
,.rdsd. There are paintable fishing smacks
.-;.h the sunlight slanting on their sails (for
. vou are going to think about fishing smacks
,,,, might as we'll have the sunshine right.
There are villages of gabled cottages draped
-s.h dsh nets There are inhbitions and
nautical terms
M one can be blamed COR holding this pic
$50 Of Cape Cod, the siokle-lke peninsula
,.h;ch ;uts out so sharply from the lower part
- Massachusetts, for the natives of the Cape
.ro among the most active in spreading it
.hroad. Step into the elaborate drug store of
ur.nn;s. the metropolis Of the Cape and see
tho souvenir postcards depicting four old salts
with their heads together. Step into one of
the Canes innumerable gift shops-always
snelled 'shoppe'-and glance the elaborately
illustrated books about Cape Cod with their
r;ct,,res Of old salts and gabled cottages draped
with fish nets. Disguise yourself a motor
tourist and ask anybody you can find on the
Cane who isn't another motor tourist. Yes,
for publicity purposes Cape Cod is always rep
resented as quaint place, full of old sea cap
tains and history and, of course, cod.
And one cannot blame the Cape Codders, for
generation ago the Cape really was that sort
Of Mace. as the stories of the oldtimers and
the reference hooks in the public library alike
hear witness Until tourists became more
profitable, the Cape lived by fishing and trad
ing Everything from cod to whales abounded
in the sparkling waters where now the summer
colorists gambol careless and unstockinged.
IN the days of the clipper ships there were
plenty Of sea captains on Cape Cod and they
went as far as San Francisco and Australia
and the furthest of the Far East.
The wharves that are occupied chiefly
by working artists and the masters of sight
seeing yachts. hustled with activity in those
days. Wellheet, Truro and Provincetown were
noted then as maritime centers and even
Woods Hole which is now completely over
whelmed by the visiting biologists and the sum-
| mer colonsts Of Penzance (nothing is said
about the pirates) was famed for whaling and
! the building of ships
Whether the seagong life of the Cape ended
before the tourists came is moot question
but one might hazard a guess that the tina
1 blow was dealt by the fiivver. At any rate
the tourists are now in full possession. There
still is fishing but the first families no Longer
| fish. Those who have not moved away take
summer boarders The fishing smacks al
| provincetown where the smell Of fish is the
| strongest OF any place on the Cape, are
manned by svarthy Portuguese, whose off
apring are meanwhile serving as models to the
visiting artists. To-day the income Of the Cape
is drawn from gift shops, tearooms, inns
garages, summer boarders and cranberries-
and ths cranberry funds are not in the ma
lority.
/ The Bookworm and have just finished Oh
second annual tramping expedition on Cap
God. We call it tramping BY courtesy, but
.saly consists in getting picked up in tn
iivvers and other roadcraft Of the native Can
Codders and inducing the drivers to talk.
Our first summer was shock. We pickle
cut Cape Cod partly because we had just see
a motion picture dealing with fshermen's lif
and imagined the Cape must be like that, an
l partly DecauSS CT the rOrldntlc UctlOu we I'D
read somewhere in our respective youths. Bu
| his year we knew what to expect, and, beln
used to its incongrultes, we found the Cap
thoroughly delightful. It is a distinct adva1
tage to tramp through a countryside whic
! blooms with tea rooms and postcards as VIC
] as with clam chowder, and where almost ever
ons takes lodgers. And when, in addition
this countryside looks quite picturesque q
enc had imagined, what more could the hare
ened city dweler desire?
Impeccable asphalt roads run the leagt
and breadth Of the peninsula, bearing tt
traveller to Provincetown, the glory hole;
| iyarnis, the metropolis Of the Cape, and
asshpee, the dark spot. There miles
nvigorating country, with raspberries ar
olueberres and ali sorts of eatables runnr
around wild. There are towns Of white co
| ages with sea green shutters and silver doc
knobs and inviting old-time gardens. The
are miles Of wharves and colonies of boat
iaere is--now and then--a smell of fish. AT