Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-20

for drowned people. In this they fire.
quently cooperate with the morgue
Bodies are .f1shed out by the police and
refrigerated in the morgue. Dredging
the bottom for bodies is what might
be called, a strenuous business. In fact,
at its present stage of development, it
is fine technique.
One of the bluecoats who has EN-
gagged in dredging for some years said
that graphing for the drowned person
is a slow ordeal, save In instances
where the exact spot of drowning is
known. AT times it is necessary to
drag the bottom for week before the
search is given up. One man is as
signed to row the boat, while the other
takes care of the graphing irons. Day
In and out, they drag and row.
IF the drowned person wore clothes,
he usually is easy to find" said the
policeman. Even bathing suit is
enough for the hooks to grapple. But
If the victim has drowned wearing only
his bare skin, then there is nothing to
grip and we have hard time getting
the body
This Spring we expect to have our
usual crop of fioaterS. You see, all
Winter people disappear out of the city
and no one knows where they go. In
some cases these missing people commit
suicide or fall into the river by acct
dent, or some one throws them in
They stay down all Winter because the
water is cold and gases don't form that
cause them to float
But in Spring all the foaters come
to life. Strange? Yes, they blow up
and come to the surface. We find 'em
floating down the river as if nothing
had happened to 'em. With graphing
hooks, we pull the bodies on board and
hand them over to the morgue. Some
times they can be identified as people
who had been reported missing months
before.
II wouldn't be surprised If the float
ers this Spring numbered about three
every week. OF course, during the
, Summer heat, drowned body stays
below the surface only about three
; days, then it comes up and floats with
the current We pick them up all Sum-
mer.
Boys swimming around the wharves
frequently fall in the water and drown.
We get rush calls on these cases and
dash to the scene and begin dragging
Immediately with the hope of saving a
life before it is too far gone. oh. we
pull EN- out in all stages of drowning,
SOIilS uilc-IcIlttl uTOWIleQ. some IldlI
drowned and others all drowned"
1t is dull place the most of the
week, the fish wharf On cold morn
ings bonfire is started near the
loading platform Expressmen, deck
hands and longshoremen gather about
and rub the chill out of their hands
What do they talk about? The new
delivery truck Sam bought. and the
rising cost of oysters, predictions on
the coming shad season; why herring
don't swim up the Potomac and the
unusual auction price paid last week
for Spanish mackerel from Florida.
Thursday morning marketers and
deck hands come charged with the pros
pect of doing business and getting
excited. Beginning with daylight,
dealers begin buying and selling their
stock for the day. Daybreak, Friday
prospective buyers gather in the auction
room where cases. boxes and barrels OF
fish are weighed in monstrous fish
pan and offered to the highest bidder
by the auctioneer.
Sixty pounds of yellow perch. men!"
he shouts The best catch this
month. Sixty pounds of live. jumpin'
fat yellow perch. What am ! offered?