The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-30


1t is the aim OF the city OF Daltm ore TO admit
no partner in the trade of this valley and heIce
President Garrett refuses ell offers on the part
of New York to accept money for the control Of
the capes Of the Chesapeake. Highland and Fire
Island Lights have put Baltimore in communica'
tion with Europe, so that she is altogether an
Independent commercial city, loading up oil
and grain at the well and gransry, aud break
ing bulk but once between the Ohio and the
North Sea.
The population Of Baltimore is 800, 900. B..
yond her commercial value, she figure: as one
OF the largest dspensares OF fresh fruit, game
and fish IN the world. South of the banks OF
Newfoundland there is no 6shing ground like
the,Chesapeake. Her basin is the American Bur-
gundy as an orchard and as game preserve;
her waters are, like Puget Sound, the favorlte
haunt of the wild duck and the lesser breeds
of migratory bir1s.
Within the past thirty years these vast and
choice endowments of nourshment and luxury,
grateful to the sick, 80 coveted by the epcure,
have been rutblessly and wastefully despoiled
by human cormorants of all latitudes. Swivels,
loaded with duck-shot, have slain the game by
the ton. 1t is now difficult to approach duck
so advised has the species become OF its unhappy
value. In like manner the oysters have been
taken with dredges which destroy what they do
not capture aud the rarest of the Ujdndes of
nature was rapidly disappearing, when, luckily
commerce, arprcciatlng what economy had ne
| elected, fastened to save the oyster for pelf's
sake. The oyster trade of the city of Baltimore
l worth upwards of two millions Of dollars a
| year. 1t employs above hundred vessels and
several thousand sailors, openers, packers ETC..
| All the year round the whole of the great West
| turns toward Baltimore at lunch time and says:-
''lll take dozen raw" Half the continent
with Its mouth open, and Baltimore losing its
| oysters by the systematic thieving of all the
other Atlantic cities, was subject of sorrow
next to conscientiousness. The result is on the
stocks, nearly ready to be launched,
The Oyster Police Ste eamboat.
There is nowhere in the world steambos
built for such purpose. 1t demonstrates the
value of the Chesapeake oyster beds better than
statistics. 1t cost about thirty thousand dollars,
sde.wheeler, armed with carronades and board
| ing pixies; manned with a crew that knows
every hole aud inlet of Maryland waters; pro
vided with boats to slip wherever a smack can
shelter, over the shalowest bars, this vessel is
TO be a sort of municipal man-ot-war, like your
city ice boat, and she will overhaul, with or
without pitched battle, every foreigner seen in
Maryland waters, capture and coniscate vessels,
and carry prisoners to Baltimore. So, also she
will enforce the sanitary and produce laws,
which are necessary to the oysters full develop
ment ard to the preservation of health among
oyster-eaters. Carrying the State flag, she will
be a legitimate man of.war for State rights and
possibly will afford in season, for those tortu
nate enough to know her officers. q cruise oil
the Chesapeake, comparable for scenery, asso
citation, and provender with any inland voyage
known to navigation.
Fancy such an excursion! We set sail from
the broad natural dock of Baltimore, and
while the monuments recede behind US, and the
flag that inspired its own national song at For
McHenry goes by, we see ahead the deserted
castle of Fort Carroll, where our millions o
masonry lie sacrificed, incapable of rebutting
the arguments of modern armaments. Then the
great shoal light, off North Point blazes like
neuralgic and befevered sun. We head dowr
the Chesapeake. Yonder, up the Severn
burn the lights Of staid old Anna
polls, that never recovered heart afte
Wsshington's Farewell Address. They eat oys-
ters there when the wolf is at the door, ant
with stewed oysters think themselves poor Al
the shepherd of Salisbury Plain. Now w
explore the Patuxent, where tho British flee
aScended to burn Washington, and Admira
Cockburn, sitting on mule, ate Patuxen
''plants" on the half.shell, and, barbarian tina
he was, sighed for Bnglish "n atives." Will
such a taste, any man could burn the Capitol
Now we are off Point Lookout, where the Rebe
prisoners, like Don Quixote, sighed for the day
; of chivalry, and some scolloped or toast, will
"hxins." st. Nary's river, cradle of the State
now reduced to a chew Of tobacco and an oyste
I bed, basks in the contemplation of its own an
tquity, like skipper in a cheese. Turning vi
the Potomac, we pass many creek at who's
r cool bottom the oyster, open.mouthed, lazil
s sucks like marine pig, and seeing black bas
n coming by hungrily, shuts up its shell aud gul
a giles for mischief, Quite population of oyster
s there are, SO far down,
"All that tread the earth
= Are but a handful TO The tribes
That slumber Ia It's bosNm."
Here Booth crossed with Harold, so near tn
: birthplace of Washington, which great chief i
: the height Of his power, used to have darke
: fill bushel measure with "salts,n and he at
= them, as they were opened, with the point OF HI
- immortal sword. The story of the hatchet an
y cherry-tree is not half so effective as this. Th
:. one makes you cry; at the other your mout
n waters. Sad, indeed, we've the sacrifices
. Washington. At BrandYwine, when the day wa
l dreadfully hot-Sparks curiously omlts tn
u =, story-Lafayette observed the General look i
20 =. melancholy way TO the South.