Morning journal and courier., 1880-03-08

l better to take the business wholly out of tn,
 hands of the people than to permit them t, | go through the forms of free choice only t.
 be cheated by superior dexterity and packed l delegations.
 Either Congressman should assume th, whole business and take the whole responsi bility, or they should stand back and permi the people to select the men they desire to vote for.
 What | Know About Terrapin.
 How to Te II the Real From the Sham and Why the Breed is Dying Out. IG. H. B. in Washington RepubEcl LITTLE GUNPowEER, Md, February 26 Alexander the Great, it is said, always
 slept with Homer" under his pillow. Your
 correspondent has lounged by day and slept
 by night with translation of ''Brillat-Sava-
 rin," Charles Lambs Essay on Roast Pig
 and other polite literature of the kitchen with
 in easy reach from the divan. It is only in
 this spirit one can enter fully into ths soul of
 the diamond back terrapin, Maryiand's bright
 est jewel; this, of course, with reservation
 in favor of the Carroll family. It is sad to
 reflect that Captain John Smith in 1908 sailed
 up the Gunpowder to within a few miles
 from the window at which write and sailed
 away back to Virginia, after pipe and par
 ley with the wild Susquehanuocks, clad in the
 skins of deer and wolves, rudely unconscious
 of the toothsome diamond-backs which at that
 period swam and crawled in thousands in the
 stream and on the marsh. But when we are
 told by old residents on Eastern Sho' that
 fifty years ago on warm day the terrapins
 basking in shoals on the surface of the water,
 were caught in seines and fed to the pigs, it
 makes one fairly gnash his teeth with rage.
 Lucky pigs! The negroes are credited with
 having been the first to bring the virtues of
 the terrapin to notice. The Maryland Afri-
 can, now doubly a man and 8 brother, cooks
 it now, as then, by placing it alive among the
 hot coaIs or in an oven. When it is sufficient
 ly cooked the under shell is easily detached
 with knife, and the contents are then eaten
 from the inverted upper shell, nothing being
 removed but the gall sac. Many eqicures of
 long experience, notably those portly, rubi-
 cund, middle-aged planters who frequented
 Barnum's before it fell into it's present condi-
 ton of dismal decay and ruin, maintain that
 this is the highest form of the terrapin. In
 many old houses it is invariably cooked as
 follows A 'count' terrapin (seven inches in
 length on the under shell, anything smaller is
 not counted) is placed alive on it's back in au
 old-fashioned stove, roasted until the under
 shell is detached the gall is then removed
 and little butter, salt and good glass of
 madeira or sherry added. You have then &
 dish to set before king. MT. Humanitarian
 Bergh's affection for dumb brutes and rep
 tiles, which goes out even towards the meek
 and lowly turtle, might deplore this method
 of cookery as the shel-fish cruelty of bon
 vivant, but the men of Maryland keep up their fox hunting, ,pigeon-shooting and cock-fghting in pretty much the same good old way with out thinking at all of MT. Bergh, except to wonder whether it was wine or something else that made him crazy. The busy body, though, who attempted to interfere with their kitchens would be set on by the hounds and run out of the country like an old red fox. So much of terrapin in the abstract. Let us con slider him as business fact. Would it sur- prise those of your readers who have eaten him, deliciously served at Weloker's famous restaurant or at Delmonico's, to know that Professor Agassiz or Darwin and the scien- lists generalze that most savory of the tor toise tribe as the Malococlemys Palustris Exactly why don't know, and as Latin can no more improve good flavor than 1t can mitigate the nauseous taste of 8 dose of medi- cine, don't care. It is in Lent that terrapin commands it's highest prices. They are worth from 1925 to $36 adozen during the season. If anything can reconcile devout aud we'll -to-do Catholic to forty days absti- hence from tenderloin steak, or snipe on toast, it is rich and highly seasoned dish which may not be positive meat, but certainly looks and tastes very much like it.
 A dozen terrapins consist of twelve dia- mond backs no one of which must be less than .'oount terrapin," that is, measure seven inches in length on the under shell. The largest known do not exceed ten inches in length and eight pounds in weight and such prizes are extremely rare. The seven- inch terrapin averages four pounds in weight. ttSliders /" the common river turtles of almost all the rivers of the South, grow to much larger size. They bring from SC to $9 dozen, and are greatly in vogue to begu1ie verdant statesmen at the hotels into the luxu- rious fancy that they are eating terrapin. The aremore famous for their bills of fare than for their cuisine, always have terrapin and canvas-back during the season, but the skeptical man of the world says ''slider" with a muttered mallard- diction and brusquely orders roast beef, boiled potatoes and apple pie. It is equally hazardous at the res- taurants to order terrspin at $1 or $1. 9 dish, unless you are manipulating an assistant or o mail contractor. They will never know the difference and any thing is good enough for them, so, consid- cred as mere business proposition, you can afford to let the landlord think he has duped you as we'll Chamberlin's Club House res- taurant, Losekams ana Welcker's are the only places in Washington in which I would wager the price of this article that you will get dia- terrapin when you call for it. The two or three men who control the trade in Baltimore say that they sell almost exclu- sively for private tables. Terrapin are caught all the way from Savannah and Charleston to the Patapsco and Gunpowder rivers-scarce here-but the genuine diamond belongs almost exclusively to the upper Chesapeake and it's tributaries. The majority of the sliders come to Baltimore from the James river and streams adjoining An active terra pin catcher sometimes makes fifty dollars week, but the find varies and often runs down as low as five dollars. The reptile is discov- cred by probing the mud in the sEallows with a stick. He is dormant and easily captured. have known four -pounder, taken about the middle of September, to exist prosperously in dark, cool place, without food or drink, un- il April, and his trainer, at Hancock's, told ne that he gained few ounces in weight then got lively and active and wouldlay hold ,f colored man going for ham bone. The females are more highly prized and are known IS ''cow" terrapin. They generally contain sbout thirty eggs, some of which you have fight to expect to garnish the dish at $1.25 plate. I am not betraying confidence in stat ng that many restaurateurs, reckless of their air fame, have resort to the eggs of the pig ,on made into paste and rolled into substi- ute for the genuine article. Thirty years .go the largest dealer in Baltimore found 1t iifficult to dispose of the terrapin he received tt $6 dozen. The product, he says, IS about he same year in and year out He sells , as negroes who bring them to mar let say that they are growing ,early scarcer, and nothing but the high ,rice stimulates thera to keep up the supply y more extended and persistent search. The Commissioners of Fisheries of this State, n their report of 1876, s'deplore the much diminished and rapidly diminishing supply of his most excellent luxury of Chesapeake Bay" and suggest it's increase by cultivation. They add: sThere are hundred of localities dmirably situated in our terrapin- producing egions which could be made more produc- i've, acre for acre, than the best surround ng land, by the establishment of terrapin ,onds Much more that know about terra ,in must remain unsung for want of space, ,ut if should be the humble instrument of making two terrapin to grow where one grew
 shall feel that have not lived entirely in ain. The House Committee on Agriculture night proitably turn it's attention to this sub ect.