8 FISHERMEN OF THE UNITED STATES. 



intelligent. The Plymouth colonists, soon alter their arrival, set apart by law a portion of the 

 revenue arising from the .sale of fishing licenses for the support of public schools. 



The schools of New England fishing towns are attended by the boys until they are old enough 

 to go to sea, and by the girls until they are of a marriageable age. It is quite usual for boys to 

 engage in fishing in summer and go to school in the winter; some do this until they have arrived 

 at the age of manhood. The girls are generally better educated than the boys, and the intelli- 

 gence and refinement of the women of the fishing towns seem to a stranger quite noteworthy. 

 The excellent education of wives and mothers of the fishermen cannot be without important effects 

 upon the intelligence of the class. 



The people of most of the fishing villages, from the Bay of Fundy to New York, are generally 

 as intelligent and refined as in the average agricultural and manufacturing communities of the 

 adjoining interior. 



The fishermen of the Southern States arc not remarkable for their intelligence; in fact, the 

 thousands of oyster dredgers of the Chesapeake Bay are by reputation a degraded class. Their 

 very lawlessness is supposed to recommend them to the service. The oyster-tongers in the same 

 region are of a higher class, yet indolent and improvident. By law of the State of Maryland the 

 revenue from the sale of oyster-tonging licenses, amounting annually to about $20,000, is given to 

 the public school commissioners, who apply it to the support of schools, license-money from colored 

 oystermen being for the support of colored schools, aud from white oystermen for white schools. 



Teaits and customs of New England fisheemen. — The system of discipline upon a New 

 England fishing schooner is such that it requires extraordinary tact and judgment on the part of 

 the commanding officer. The captain or skipper is the sole officer, aud, except when he has some 

 order to give in relation to sailing the vessel or catching fish, he has no special authority over the 

 crew, and the respect with which he is treated by the men is only that which his personal char- 

 acter obtains for him. This system of officering the vessels is attended by many serious disad- 

 vantages, and it would be a great benefit to our fisheries if the crews could be organized more in 

 accordance with the usage of the merchant marine. 



The peculiar dialect of the fishermen affords opportunity for studies of great interest. Of 

 course their language is not free from a considerable amount of slang and technical phrases pecu- 

 liar to their profession. Many of their words were brought to this country by their ancestors two 

 hundred years ago, aud, although at that time common throughout England, have now become 

 obsolete or arc regarded as provincialisms. On many parts of the coast a very pure- idiomatic 

 English is spoken. The peculiar words which one constantly hears add force and interest to their 

 conversations. 



Although the sailor fishermen of New England are not as a class religious, in most of the smaller 

 fishing towns a high tone of morality prevails. Profane language is almost universally prevalent, 

 but in other respects moralists would in general find little to criticise. In very many places the 

 skipper of a vessel loses caste if it is known that he allows his crew to fish on Sunday, and for 

 two consecutive years the Menhaden Oil and Guano Association have passed resolutions forbidding 

 their employe's to fisb upon the Sabbath. In the early part of the present century a barrel of rum 

 was an indispensable article in the outfit of a fishing vessel; at present it is extremely rare for 

 ardent spirits of any kind to be found on board of the vessels, and popular sentiment is greatly 

 against its use. Most of the fishing ports along the coast have prohibitory laws, which are rigidly 

 enforced. 



Bearing in mind tin' difficulties met by fishermen in obtaining supplies of reading matter, the 

 quantity and quality of their literature is somewhat remarkable. Hundreds of copies of such 



