The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 6, 1901, Page 10

THE SUNDAY CALL." boat sails in get at 2 ou can Two o'clock in the what unearthly | e's rk. Get and opportunity, . ¥ the winning a pr con- g like ze to be honored with a herfolk 2 o'clock t a sleepy trio the curled up that all wher. goc at of fog ugh the water specd and, judg- ng off of bay accide the om these I ended gides, are the large with a smaller circular net containing the bait of fresh beef liver or sardines. These are Zowered sometimes six or eight to one boat. When r i the greenish creat seemingly all legs dum; Doat and the process of lowe: 18 repeated. The water is never quite calm out here and many & time & wave slips smootk over the decks of the brave little launches, but the fishermen heed them mot. Perhaps they exert the mental science power and say, “I will not. catci ©old; I only came to catch crabs.” If they 8o the scheme works beautifully, for ‘we pever hear of a fisherman with a cold. ‘We tried the same idea to ward off sea- sickness, and It proved most satisfactory, the boat was rocking in the ed manner—in fact, it was the fishermen despaired of but we knew that if we should not see all those z fish and things, possibly a that would come to surface althoug! the Farallones, nd sk w for res popular- ity with Gr Bolinas and the w ff F the head fisher- t the met. Now net with the up- s one of the most im- , for it it will man’s all the fish, These move times to the minute zhi. In the ™ h beat man Foldir of the net, which is v feet One side of th so that the two e are sim out the net, which is a thre h in order to let all the small fish stretches out like screen two then the men at T he rope until the t forty fawoms f water All this in motion and the n hour or It t men and one ‘“‘bos ach boat, mting the captain, fireman. ete s it neared the noon hour everybody found a comfortable seat and waited for “break ; did not wait very patiently either, for the salty air gives one a royal appetite. Great round loaves of bread were bre it out and sliced in no dainty inch of ad Upon an 1 slice proportions. pieces unds br Another inch d to this. Th wiches, with an onion to each, were pas: ed around. After this- pany”—an especial entree of fish prepai thick beefst of n the novel sanc s we were “‘com- s served. fisherman's > W Now whoever goes out in a fishboat, if they have the good fortune not to be sick, hould insist upon having a dish of “hespini.” to make it s is the way scrap of anslated, My authority is solled paper written in Italian. it say “Put into kettle half glass of sweet oil, a one clove of garlic, two la tomatoes, two chili peppers, one glass of whi wine; prepare fresh fish, cut in small squares, drop into the sauce and cook three minutes; serve hot.” It really tastes much better than it sounds. Luncheon over, we were all curiosity to see the net pulied in. For this process the boats slow up, the men take their places in the stern, and the ropes are taken up until the “brails,” or wooden portion of the net, is sighted, then a few turns around the gyps: of the winch are taken, both ropes are then put in charge of the tug furnished with block and tackle on the boom of the main mast. By this the ret is drawn up like a bag, then C o THOR ROM 7~ R McCUTCH the of whose dramatic istark,” is soon to he 8 has among the iverybody praises it without stint. Gilder, who will dram- L. for Mary Mannering, is it d Miss Mannering I play during the ap- proach n the Princess, says she likes it better tham she does Anthony Hope's oner of Zenda.” Mr. Me- Cutcheon is another Indiana man who has i fame and fortune in letters. He was born near Lafayette and was educated at Purdue University, He began his career &5 a newspaper man with the Lafayette Morning Journal, and afterward engaged himself with the Daily Courler of that city, He i a brother of John T. Mec- Cutcheon, the well-known fllustrator, and is himself a very clever artist. Arrange- ments are being made for the production ©f “Graustark” as a play in London, SORGE BARR MIQUTCHECN, OF THE DRAMATIC ANCE "GRAUSTARK." o catch is dey w=iton ubber be d pa lowered on the deck, wh slowly ted men hem in rious ort the v sarate o in the hold. A moderat calc ut fifty boxes, seventy poun§s . comprising all tomeod, Iy small up in tae kinds—flounddr cod nd ocea are take an octopus, and not infrequently tern into shreds by some monster entan dragnets, are becoming two or {hree dra re sufficient to fill th demand, but on Thursday the bo: main out 1o in order to iter m 4 to 5 o'clock Fr in the afternoon f Fisherman's wharf the launche and tugs can be seen coming i like a flock of brown birds as they near the harbor. Frem the deck of our boat, as we steamed into the still water, we could see ihe little army of helpers rusn- ing about, getting ready to unload—and here comes really the lively part of the for the wholesalers send down ns to be loaded: the enterpri Chinamen troop in with their imn balanced on a pole over the ler; Americans, fncluding art students and just loungers, stand abc watching of putting the fish into the baskets, which are lowered by a man on the wharf. These baskets when full let down still lower, swished around in the water to wash off the contents, then hauled up the proc: are and the fish are packed standing 1t were, heads all up, into boxes which are rapidly loaded into wagons. The same scene is being repeated from different parts of the long wharf, and at each new arrival the interests of the onlookers swerve, for every one is curious to see the hatches opened and get a glimpse of the catch. Groups of Chin men jabber, examine the fish as though they purchasing diamonds, then when ian r begins to say picturesque his native tongue, which the. heathen seem to comprehend, they fill up their baskets quickly, hand over the money and shuffle over to the crabbers to repeat the jabber- ing and haggling. An interesting portion of Fisherman's wharf, which, by the way, has been moved to the foot of Stockton street, is the net department. All the length of the companion whartf the nets are hung out to dry. The great bundle of white corks, the flcaters, lie bleaching in the sun and are admittedly a great temptation to the visiting artists with a hobby for gathering studio decorations, Back of the long building which is used as a market when an over supply of fish comes in, is a dyeing or tanning depart- ment. Here nets and sails are soaked in a strong solution of tan. This colors them a pretty shade of coffee brown and at the same time adds to their durability, for nets and sails so treated withstand the wear and tear, giving several years’ ser- vice over the untanned ones. Saturday is the fishermen’s Sunday, No bezts go out on that day, the fish for Monday being caught on our day of rest, but the men and boys congregate on the wharf just the same, and a wholesale mending of nets takes place. Sitting tailor fashion, the operator weaves the shuttle back and forth patching up a great hole in no time, and this, too, is the soctal gathering of the week, and here the real “fish” stories, tales of sea serpents and mermalds, adventures with whales, etc,, are exchanged, and to the outsider this Italian wit and imagination is a revela- tlon. What capital dime novel writers some of these dwellers of the wharf would make if given an opportunity. One of the most popular characters of were the It things somehow de: in this little world all by itself is the Col- lector’of wharfage rent, Luther G. Norris. For nine years he has held this posftton and the fishermen look upon him as & sort of godfather, angel and good friend, which he certainiy is. Mr. Norris ean Jabber In patols, talk conventional Ttatian or American and do some excellent pan- tomime in Chin It has been his duty to see that each one of the 150 boats land- ing at the wharf pays to the State tha proper rent, which ranges from 25 cents per week for the smallest skiffs to §1 a week for the lateen boats. It is that sometimes when cun= tinued rough weather prevents a catch with a profit in it, and some of the least lucky drop off on the luxury of macaron} and eat just hread with their wine, the wharf rent is pald promptly just tha me, and sometimes a few dollars reach the tofl-hardened palms when mosg needed. < “And do they always pay back?' % asked Mr. Norris, when I repeated what I had heard. He was not anxious to diss cuss the subject, but said that during al} his nine vears there he had “yet to find one of the fishermen that would go baclg on a friend. There is profit, too, for these men wha live on the products of the ocean, I am told that when the weather is faverably and the luck only fair the salary er profif derived from the sales ranges from $10 tq $2%5 a week. Of course, this varies witly the different times of the year, and some, like the rest of the world, are in continua} hard luck; but one watching the wind, tlde and moon and studying the habits of the particular kind of fish he wishes, tq catch will be rewarded, They say a good definition of luck is *“good judgment, early hours and hard work.” said Fires Caused by Nails PEAKING of insurance matters,” sald a listener, “I suppose ths plain, old-fashioned nail has caused more fires in the big establishments where machinery is used in many and complicated ways than any other littls thing in existence. The cigarette stub has played its part. Ditto the cigar stump. Occasionally sparks have fallen from the ditcher's pipe into a wad of material eas- ily ignited, and a fire has been the result. Sparks have oozed out from smokestacks and engines of various kinds with the same results. And there is the match, the deadly and dreaded match, the awful en- emy of the men who are engaged in the business of betting, if I may say it, agalnst fires. The match, of course, nas caused its fair quota of fires in the world’s history. Sometimes, when the sulphuric end is particularly dry, it is_the easiest thing in the world to statt a blaze at the end.of a match. The slightest rub may do it. But if the match is not in good condition, if it happens to be stubborn and unfit, the situation is different. But the nail Is always fit. The only thing needed is for it to come in contact with some other hard material with sufficient force to cause a spark and heat genera- D Y77 GASCLINE AND SALS! o tlon. Nalls have really produced a heavy Der cent of the cotton fires of the country During recent years, on account of stups taken by the owners and conductors u¢ the larger cotton and by-product plants at the instance of insurance men, the nail has not been such a prolific producer of fires. A way has been-found, for instance in cétton gins, cotton mills, 'and in plants where cotton seed are put through man- ufacturing processes, of extracting nalls and other weighty and flinty substances that may find lodgment in these inflame mable products. Gravity is the natural force used. Nails and rocks and materials of this kind are heavier than cotton and its by-products, and they have a tendency to force their way to the bottom of the heap. By allowing these products to pass over a rolling belt arrangement these heavier materials filter to the bottom and are finally extracted; so that when the cotton or cotton seed pass tirough the grind in the various manufacturing pro- cesses there Is but little danger from fire 80 far as these things are concerned,