The morning call., 1890-06-09
FROG FANCIERS.
A Familiar DISH. Formerly Quite
a Dainty.
Two Hundred Thousand Dozen Are Now Y ear
ly Consumed in This City-Frog Farms
Tried, But a Failure.

Is San FranciSec-sO essentially cosmo-
politan as she is climbing nearer and
nearer to the French ideal of refinement
than she wots of herself2 In some points,
certainly, and this has always been ad-
mitted.
For example, her girls, one and all, intu-
itively SAVIOR more of the bright chic and
tout ensemble of la belle France than in
any other city in the United States. But is
the general taste-ths time literally-trend-
ing in the direction of the French system of
toothsome epicureanism? How, for in
stance, about frogs, and their growing
adoption as general, not an eccentric,
diet?
Take it fifteen or twenty years ago, and
San Franciscans didn't banker after frogs,
except as holiday dainty. Then you could
always have them, it is true-5ut there
wasn't the prevailing desire for them.
FROGS IS FROGS"
Frogs" said a wholesale dealer, who
handles more in the course of week than
Others in the trade IN year, 'well, frogs
is frogs. l tell you the demand is in
creasing and bigly. l suppose at low
estimate the city easily gets outside of
200,0 to 100000 year. l am sure this is
an inside estimate, and | intend no pun.
Except in very dry season they are
never scarce-that is, they can always be
had if frog -catchers are half attentive.
But they're not that always, and if they
can make $40 TO Sl5 day the temptation
to lie off comes strong. just think OF
cold, wet month like last January and
imagine man, day and night, over his
gum-bo0ts, right up to his thighs, in ice
cold water. It's no joke.
"Then in summer he is wading up to his
shoulders, catching either with hand or
scoop-net. whichever suggests itself as best
at the time. At night they'll 90 in for lam
teamwork. You know Froggy-if he does
60 a-wooing is blind with light staring
possibly? l hadn't looked at it in that
light Then's when the catcher has the
straight bulge on him.
RESORTS OF THE CRoAKERS.
''The bulk of the city supply comes from
the creeks in San Mateo, Santa Cruz, a
few-and only few-frOm Lake Merced.
sometimes an odd box from Vallejo and
Santa Clara, and once in while in dry
seasons from Oregon. A good catcher?
Well, il he has luck and has good pond to
WORK in he will catch six to ten dozen per
day. And, at never less than 81 %, even
up to S3 OF 81 a dozen, you can figure up
that there is some dollars in it.
But, as say. when he comes to town,
he generally stays too long and doesn't
make as much as he would. Lie and we
ship them in light boxes, filled with cool,
wet grass, with auger holes in the lid for
ventliation n, the boxes holding, say, five to
twenty dozen iroggies. as occasion requires
and as the box Will hold. Then when the
restaurant people get hold of them, it's
matter of just dipping the frOg-bOX III water
for one or two uut Of the twenty-four hours
each day"
FRoG-FARMS DO NOT PAY.
Win fTOg-farms pay if the demand is
such growing onep No, sir, not much.
An Italian friend of mine is weeping and
wailing over a matter of $1,000 that he lost
in just that experiment The trouble is,
that he has found out to his sorrow, that
Mr. Frog burrows as bad as n rabbit in the
soft 0oZy mud at the bottom OF the pond,
and though he is there-SOmewh where-he
isn't where you want him-say, when the
market is doubling on you each hour.
"A frog must live as Providence intended
that he should-free and unfettered-with
full leave and liberty To crawl into the long
grass when his fr0gship's will cries aloud
for change. Then the trouble is the
water-snakes just gobble him till further
ORDERS and a snake only foot long can
get away with the biggest frog in creation.
Try 10 remedy this, and give your frog an
artificial bottom aud he pegs out right
away. Fencing your pond is not an atom
of use either. He sinks away under it,"
INCREASING POPULARITY.
'In early days L used to say frogs were
only made for Frenchmen. To-day, if you
please, your Partisan restaurant copnoisseur
is in big luck if the market can supply him
with enough frogs to cook for his English,
American and German patrons, getting
only sniff as he cooks, and that's about
all he can get.
mo special breed? No; but give me the
fat, short, dumpy fellow, the big red frog.
Sill, there's little to choose between the
green. those pulSlish red and the black At
pinch I'd take any, sooner than 60 frog
hungry"