Cape Cod: Articles: Interesting, Provincetown -- post an article

A Big City Take on PTown

A reporter from the Chicago Tribune visited Provincetown in 1900 and wrote the following: “Fish is bartered at the grocery stores, shoe shops and bread stores for all the commodities of life…”

“...The main business street is paved with rock cod. The women use the hind fin of a great halibut for brooms. Awnings shading the store fronts are made from the skin of the sportive porpoise. The bellrope in the church is made of eels, cunningly knotted by some old sailor. Over the altar was the picture of a whale. The collection plate was the top shell of a turtle. After the choir had sung `Pull for the Shore,’ the crew passed down the port aisle. Provincetown ladies trim their hats with red gills of the mackerel. Dogfish often lie around the shore at low tide and bark and howl in a frightful manner.”

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