Morning journal and courier., 1883-07-11
SOft-SheI1 Crabs.
The March of Improvement Destroying their Lurking Places

An0 MhTch OI improvement DeS1TOYtnQ their Lurking Places. From the GastronomerJ
 If you come up by the Long Branch boats at this season of the year you will see theil forward parts stacked up with curious look ing crates. You might take them to contair early strawberries but look within and you
 will see tightly wedged mass of struggling 1 bubbling, hlssing things, of a green-blacH hue, soft fabby and forbidding Take one of these slimy creatures and wash it in salt water, roll it in batter and throw it into boil ing fat, and in five minutes you have one of the crispest, most delicious morsels that ever graced the table of gastronomer. It is the famous soft-shell crab And, alas!
 like everything that is to good too last, it is passing away. The Shrewsbury river and
 bay have long been the crawling ground of these voracious little monsters. The rushes on each side have protected them for count less years during the period of their weak ness, and that is for the twenty-four hours in each year they employ in casting off their old
 shell and making new one. But the march of Improvement is clearing the Shrewsbury of rushes' Handsome villas are going up in every direction. The sewage from Seabright,
 Red Bank Monmouth Beach and the High
 lands befouls the water of the swift running
 river and placid bay, and the soft-shell
 threatens sooner or later to become extin-
 guished. But not yet at any rate. At 5
 o'clock in the morning you might see num-
 berless punts moving cautiously along the
 shores of the river. They are looking for
 crabs One after another they are whipped
 up with scoop nets. By 8 the hunter has
 his bag; by 10 they are for sale in Washing
 ton and Fulton markets. The Shrewsbury
 supplies three quarters of the soft-shells con-
 sumed-say 5000 day. The fishermen get
 from $1.50 to $1.75 8 dozen for them, and
 when they run we'll it is good paying but
 short-lived business.
 Down at Pleasure Bay they have tried to cultivate crabs in large reservoirs, through which water flows freely, but they droop A crab IS like an Irishman-he wants to be free, and works away until he is or dies in the attempt. The fishermen along that coast say that they cannot tame the crab till he be- comes soft-shell, and the catch every year decreases, and they begin to look forward to the time when they must find some other oc- cupation
 I was speaking with one of them the other day. He has been fisherman these many years at the Highlands. Said he: "What do they expect is going to become of us-these city people? They come and take our land to build on; they drive the crabs away Then we go to fishing, and we find the moss bunkers scooped up by millions, and the bluefish gone somewhere else to find food These menhaden boats will soon destroy our occupation altogether '
 Ihere IS one big dealer In soft-shell crabs in Washington market ''Yes," he said, ''they are coming in pretty lively, but noth- ing to what they did years ago. They aint got the flavor, neither. The Shrewsbury river is cesspool these days. The crabs ain't got the living they used to. Their flesh ain't so white and firm, and they don't get so fat. We get few crabs from South Bay They're tbe best. kin sell all git of any kind. but it won't be long afore they're out of the reach of most people,
 Soft shell crabs form one of the delicacies that people seldom eat at home It is not one of the pleasant processes to go through in ones own house, This, perhaps, keeps the consumption down, for it is seldom they are seen outside of restaurant. There are various degrees of excellence in cooking them, and the best way in the world can probably be found at Pleasure Bay, where Long Branch fashionables and unfashionables go to eat them under spreading tents and close by the cool waters that run off toward the ocean.