The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-05-19
THE FROG IN BUSINESS.
Economic Value Of The CTOakeT Of the
Marshes as q Food.

Sketch of the Little Town of San
6usky, Where the Frog is Monarch
ofAlIH e Surveys, and is a Source of
Income for Scores of Families.
From the Philadelphia Times
The estate owned by the green-bacl1ed
and yellow breasted bird of the water
Iios along the banks of Lake Erie If his
song is not euphonious it is a deep
mouthed signal of good food at hand
like the bobolink, this ugly creature has
hut one note, and it is not musical Yet it
&c valuable to those who hunt these tooth
some messengers of the deep, for it tells
where they are and brings them to the
Mate It is only of late years that this
singular product of the water has become
q feature of the table. Now he seems to
he a necessity in every well-kept restau-
rant and tons of frogs legs are shipped
from the point about which 1 am going to
write every year to all parts. The frog
industry has become an eminent feature
in olr table economy, and when l say that
more than 81 900, 600 a year are spent on
+be legs of these freaks of the marsh do
not reach the limit.
Asa rule the world knows little of what
is goino on. While | look into the frog
business. other evidences of a strange
Durnose are abundant, which | will deal
with later on. Inc frog farm about
which | am going to tell not only runs
from Huron to Toledo, on the American
side but it covers the shores of another
nationality, not many miles away from
tbe MONT from which l write In this
al industry Canada and the United States
ion hands, except that the American
product is the better of the two. Like
n Ioo A
frog in the United States is the superior
on the plate. The Canadians have the
larger yield, because they kill smaller
game, but the Americans have the larger
and the finer ones.
Sandusky, the little city along the lake
q front, is the center of not only the frog
c2price. but the largest fresh fish market
81 in the world. No place of its size on the
earth has so many amusements for its
citizens and for its visitors as this little
4 ID German-American province, the capital
of the frog farm and the very center of
the fresh fish industry. The frozen yield
YOU get in the winter time comes from
here The Russian caviare, which you
4 eat at swell dinners, is made in this place
q There are a hundred other things of in
4 terest about here. 1t is the most
q liberal borough in the world There are
more picnicS and excursions from this
POINT than from any point of equal size
known The music of brass bands and
the march of professions going to differ
emit islands about the frog farm rarely
ever ceases. Sunday is day of recrea-
ton instead of recluse. Everything is in
full blast. The steamers are busy, carry
ing hundreds over the water, and at
Cedar Point there is finer pavilion than
there is about Philadelphia. 1t is sur
rounded with rare grounds and holds
thousands every first day of the week,
,yJ 4 fha
Of the laboring days.
! am not going to describe these feat
Ures Just now, nor tell about Jay Cookies
rabbit island 1t would be a neglect of
my subject, which, after all, is the pri-
II mary object of this reverie, upon the
products of the fresh water which are
just at this season intruding themselves
with such pertness into our markets
With all its brass bands, magnificent wine
products. splendid situation and lovely
home life, .Sandus,1y is, after ALL only a
81 market for iollity and the frog. Yet
most are well off here, and poverty is
almost unknown. This is a great show
ing for town Of its size, where industry
reigns supreme and good sport does not
81 lack limit
The bullfrog is like an army, and those
who capture it put out pickets to attract
the enemy Almost the first thing you
sec uron walking along the chief street
Of the little city about which lam writing
are restaurants 1t is full of them. In
the windows Of many you find the festive
hUllfrCg either swimming in water or
M perChing on the sides of the aquariumS in
# which they are kept He seems almost
reckoning you to come in. If you are
tempted the old German landlady responds
TO your call and says (which will you
II hdvel'
While the language is somewhat broken
Nh & the
victim IS pointed to and fifteen minutes
later 1t IS on your plate cooked to turn.
s DemOulcO or any other hOStelry in the
east is not in it with the old German lady
VINO makes frogs legs a speciality in her
establishment. OF course, she is rich, be
cause she gives a sort of touch to her
Wola which you cannot find anywhere
else and which attracts customers. This
very statement designates Sandusky as
lne trog market of the world, which, COM
'A# blned with its wine shipments and its
nSa activity, make it a marked spot on
IhC FaStrOnoTnic map of the United States.
DID you ask me where frogs and the
81 other range of toothsome stuff for the
table come from? Along the marshes
which skirt and fill those iuts ofAland
# winch run out into the waters and are
Just low enough below it's surface to give
# foundation for growing plants in spring,
summer and the early fall. The bull
I'D --'NS 10 utG6l9 Q6lgnDOf ana Ifl6nu OIL Ju6
ouck and the other feathered luXuries
winch belong to it. 1t is only few miles
. rom here where the big financier, Jay
Cooke, has a stone castle built on an island
appropriately called Gibraltar, and is only
LItean minutes row from Put-in-Bay.
The man of money revels in the enjoy
ment of this old place. At this season of
I9e year, or whenever the fish begin to
oIJe, he Is constantly out in his yacht en-
loyng the sport. When fishing is bad he
receives visitors and tries to make it as
interesting for them as he can. l think
shey call it Grant island, not far away
rom Gibraltar, that is Mr. Cookies favor
Tue spot for hunting. He loves to take a
shotgun and go over there for a days
sport. Only few years ago this dot in
lie AXE was unknown. He started rab-
piI family on one end of it, and the result
Is mat now he rarely ever goes over there
snootlng, and he goes frequently, that he
goes not bring home from one to four
u9len cottOn-tailed beauties. Although
ABOUT IS years of age, Mr.. Cooke is one of
me most famous shots and fishermen who
i've along the waters of Lake Erie, which
wash the great frog farms. When he
leayes his home in Philadelphia these
scenes OF his boyhood are what he seeks
The boats are in. The catch has been
# large, and the bip Steamers unload thou