These are great days in Gloucester. Cod is king again, and supreme as he has not been since before the days of the canning factories. All the old salts have turned out to spin yarns with their visitors from Nova Scotia, and no one who ever displayed special prowess with cod has been permitted to hide his light under a bushel. Not only the technique of sailing and the merits of different types of schooners but all the details of the fisherman's trade have been recited to willing and unwilling audiences, and boasts of great achievements have been brazenly made.

Ernest Mitchell, of Gloucester, however, has been among those few whose deeds have outstripped mere words. In the presence of His Honor of Mayor of Gloucester, right in the City Hall, he proved that he was master of the fish-skinning world. Undisturbed by the delighted howls of excited "rooters" and indifferent to the jeers of the jealous enemies, he removed the backbones and fins and skins from a quarter of a ton of codfish in just fifty-three minutes. He won by six fish, with his audience standing on the benches and shouting themselves hoarse over his achievement.

Gloucester may well be proud of its hero. Even the old timers as they left the hall chuckled to themselves and admitted that perhaps these young fellers weren't quite so dull as they seemed. To the ignorant metropolitan, unversed in the lore of the cod, the record is evidence that not even the introduction of machinery and fish factories has been able to deprive-fish skinning of its artistry. --The New York Tribune