Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1883-03-08
Something About Oysters. -.

something AD0ut oysters. -
1t must have been jolly living during
the Crustaceous and Jurassic periods,
when the length of oysters was meas
ured by the foot. In those days it must
have required small pitchfork to eat
oysters off the half-shell. 1t was then
the succulent bivalve reached the Gull
minating point in its existence. Had it
retained. its size, people now would sit
down to roast oyster as they sit down
to joint of beef or mutton. Signor
Salvini would have found it impossible
to stand up, as he did at the dinner
given him before he last sailed for Eu-
rope and swallow an entire bivalye. of
the largest size in the market, before
an enthusiastic audience. Here is an
interesting question for biologists: Did
the people of Crustaceous and Jurassic
periods eat oysters during the months
without an r, or was it reserved for the
people OF this civilized age to yield to a
hideous superstition which deprives us
four months of the year of the most sue
culent product of the sea? A question
of historical interest has also been
raised of recent years. The minute re-
searches of German historians have
proved conclusively that on the event
ful morning of the ides of March, when
Julius Caesar left his house. he was in
structed by Calphurnia to stop at an
oyster saloon on the Via Tonga and or
der fry in box" to be sent home to
her, thai he forgot to do so, and pro-
ceeded at once to the Capitol, where
he was murdered, and that had he stop
ped to give the order, messenger sent
to warn him would have overtaken him
But oysters, besides occupying the
attention of grave historians, have in
spred poets. Large bivalves were so
abundant in New York, early in its his
tory, that no one thought of buying
them. This state of the market was
enthusiastically yersifed as follows:
Grabs, Holsters, musses, oysters, too, there be,
80 large that one does overbalance three
vi those OF Europe; and in quantity
NO one can reckon.
And not long afterward colonist, in
a poem entitled New England Pros
poets" mentions the oyster, along with
the lobster and other salt water delica-
cies, i'll this manner:
The luscious lobster, with the crab-fish raw.
I. me e 6rinish oyster, mnssel, perriwigge,
Nmch 70 the HATS dance many winters
jigge."
Others at the same period wrote of
oysters of whose size and sweetness
they make special mention. In 1871,
Arnoldus Montanus speaks of oysters,
some foot long, containing pearls,
but few of brown color" while jesse
lyn mentions some so large that they
had to be cut into pieces before they
could be eaten.
Some" he says, "they roast and
some they dry as they do oysters, which
are delicate breakfast meat so ordered;
the oysters are long-shelled. l have
had OF them nine inches long from the
joynt to the toe, containing an oyster
like those the Latines called Tridacaun,
that were to be cut into three pieces
before they could put them into their
mouths, very fat and sweet"
They must have been very abundant,
too. There is abundance of brave
oysters at Amboy Point and several
other places" says one writer; and
another speaks of "oysters, L think.
would serve all England" Another, in
speaking of the advantages of living in
New York, claims zone thing more par
tieular to rs, which the others want
also, which is vast oyster banks, which
is the constant fresh vietuals, during
the winter, to English as well as In
dams; of these there are many along
our coasts, from the sea as high as
against New York, whence they come
to fetch them"
Oysters have also formed subject of
legal enactments. Statutes have been
passed>for the protection of oystermen
in their rights, and some States and
towns have guarded iealously their
oyster beds against citizens of neigh
boring States and towns. Among the
recorded enactments of this kind is one
enacted "att the general COURT held att
Plymouth the fourth of June, 1861"
whore is was determined "that five shil-
lings shall bee paved to the Countrey
upon every Darrell of Oysters that is
out of the Gouv'ment, and that
the Countrey be not defrauded, hee
shall enter them with the Towne Clarke
before hee carry them away, or else to
forfeit twenty shillings per Darrell car
ryed away not entered. HdTper's
Weekly.