The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-03-14
SEVENTH STREET WHARF
Where the People Of Washington
Buy Their CLAIMS.
Excellent BivaIves Sold for One Dollar a
BusheR-Gay Parties Whose Members
Have a weakness for Steamed Mol
Iusks-Thrifty Colored Walters.
Especial Washington letter.

One of the most interesting spots In
Washington is seldom seen. It is the
Seventh street wharf, where bushels,
gallons and tons of oysters from the
lower Potomac and Chesapeake bay are
landed. It is not only an interesting
but gastTonomically enjoyable place.
No sooner does the passenger alighf
from the Seventh street cable cars, near
the foot of that busy thoroughfare, than
his olfactories are greeted with an odor
which plainly indicates the vicinity OF
an oyster mart. A very short walk from
the car track, around sharp bend,
brings the visitor to the river bank,
where a dozen or more oyster sloops
are moored to the wharves. The cap
tains of these vessels are always ready
to sell oysters of any kind and quality
and in any quantity, from a bushel to a
boat load. No sooner is a customer in
sight than these captains come out OF
their smoky cabins or emerge from the
groggeries in the vicinity, whip out
their immense oyster knives and COM
mence opening some of their choicest
bay fruit to exhibit to the prospective
customer and convince him that they
are pure salt water mollusks Of the fin
est kind.
A great many people go to these
wharves, especially on Saturday nights
and all day Sunday. from sunrise to
sunset, for the purpose of buying
oysters by the bushel and eating them
right there in the midst of the bivalvu-
lar atmosphere. Very fair oysters can
be purchased for fifty cents bushel,
but there is lower grade Of small
oysters which can be purchased at
thirty-five cents per bushel; but this
latter grade is generally purchased for
use in soups at cheap restaurants. The
best grades bring from sixty-five cents
to one dollar per bushel, but very sell
dom go higher than the latter figure,
although there are seasons of the
year when the river is so filed with ice
as to obstrucb navigation to certain
degree, and then the price sometimes
goes above dollar.
II you never ate bushel Of oysters
without ssoppirg, or never saw anyone
engaged in gc,ging himself in that
manner, you cannot appreciate the nov
city Of IL situation. Well-dressed gen.
tlemen wearing kid gloves and silk hats
and carrying gold-headed canes APP
proach the wharves, and give the negro
shucazer silver dollar for bushel OF
raw. The colored man produces a
splendid grade of oysters worth about
seventy-five cents bushel, which he
opens for his customer, who rapidly dis
.,.ssS ~ Aha rIIay,r,inour boor+ioe h,
swallowing them whole. The colored
man clears q quarter of dollar inside
OF fifteen minutes and the customer al
ways goes away happy. The oyster
opener lifts one-half of the shell from
the bivalve. loosens the oyster from the
other half and places it on a little bar
rel in front of him. The customer, hav-
ing removed the glove from his right
hand, picks up half-shell, conveys it
to his mouth, throws back his head and,
with another swoop (now you see it
and now you don't), the oyster is gone.
This operation is repeated until the
whole bushel has disappeared.
An oyster roast is very enjoyable
affair, between nine o'clock and mid
night, any night during the winter.
There is a little shauty opposite the
main oyster wharf, in one corner of
which is a stove about twelve feet long.
Congressional parties of dozen or more
each take the belt line cars near the
National theater and ride to this oyster
roasting shanty. AS soon as they enter
the door the colored servants empty
three or four bushels of oysters upon
the red-hot surface of this large stove,
and there they roast for from five to ten
minutes, when the opening commences.
In ninety nine cases out of hundred,
all oysters are spoiled in the cooking,
because they are generally served very
well done, when they are tough as
leather and as indigestible. The roast
ed oyster is thoroughly warmed
through, smoking hot and cooked in it's
own juice, and therefore so soft as to
be self-digestible, When taken from
the top Of the stove the shells are SO
hot that it is simply phenomenal that
the colored men can handle them at all.
The steam arises in clouds of vapor that
fill the room with their aroma, to the
gastronomic enjoyment of the lovers of
these epicurean businesses The roast
ed oysters are served in plates which
are almost too hot to handle. AS rapid
~ as possible the shells are thrown
aside and the oysters dropped into the
plate, until dozen or more, steaming
hot, are placed before the anxious1y
awaiting customers.
The late Senator Plumb, ex-Gov Cur
tin, Congressman Stahlnecker and Cum
mings, of New York, ex-Congressmxn
Billy Mason, of Chicago, and number
of other gentlemen of high standing in
both the house and senate, have had
weaknesses for roasted oysters. Scores
of times they have taken parties there
after the theater at night in order that
their friends might enjoy with them
this unique feast. One of the most en-
joyable features of these oyster roasts
is the absence of all kinds of alcoholic
liquors. Right here it might better be
said for the information of all who may
have the pleasure of enjoying this mol
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