Weekly independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1887-1914, 1895-03-03
OYSTERS UP TO DATE.
Tho Very Latest Fad is for
Bleached Bivalvee.

"Dlenchcd oysters" Is the latest and
a rapidly growing fad. The fashionable
uptown restaurants are catering to It.
An oyster that does not peer forth
snowy white from the depth of its shell
is considered bad form. II does not
appear that the Albino-hued bivalvc
is improved by the blanching process.
In fact, it Is held by all fair-minded
people who have tried them that the
havor which gives COR oysters their
superiority over all the biyalyes OF the
world is destroyed entirely. But they
are said by self-constituted authori-
titcs to look better, and II is the
fashion to have them served that way.
The course of treatment to which
the luscious shcllGsh is subjected to
bring about the pale and ghostly hue
10 the secret of the restaurant men.
The wholesale oyster dealers know
nothing about it.
reporter for the New York World
went aboard floating warehouse, on
the North river, the other day, and
made an inquiry rs to the best method
OF blanching oysters. 1t was apparent
that oystcrmcn do not relish the news
paper notoricty which has been thrust
upon the innocent and inoffensive
shcllfish.
''If could meet the man who start
cd all this talk about typhoid fever and
malaria in OYSTERS" said one old salt,
I'D chuck him in ths bay and hit him
on the head with boathools when he
came up the first time. and there
wouldn't be no second time.
"As IL il amt bad enough That this
Inns hann ~
we ever had, but on top of that some
crazy fool up in Connecticut tries to
tattcn his oysters in n creek into which
u sewer cmptics. What's the result? A
lot of college students and professors
.'ct sick and four of them die. What
follows? The newspapers publish IL
nll over the country, typhoid fever in
oysters, and the business is almost par
alyzcd in some places. Forty million
people eating oysters and four of them
get sick and die! How many people
die every day from eating pork and
beef. yet does that scare ANYBODY?
No, sir.
Now, on top OF all this, some fool
restaurant men go to making their
oysters white. which Gol never intend
cd they should be, or lie would have
made 'cm so. don't suppose that the
oysters were hurt any by It, but some
fellow gets sick, after knocking about
She Tcndcrloin all night. and rcmcm-
bcrs that he ate II dozen blcachcd oy-
stcrs. and then he hollcrs that he has
bccn poisoned.
Some one writes TO n newspapcr
that sulphatc of zinc will bleach an
oyster. i don't know whether IL will
n mt h1tf oh a. "A.
would not. But the oyster trade gets
IL in the neck NIL the same. Tlnnl;
goodness that these stories did not get
out two months ago, or the oystcrmcn
would NIL be in the hands OF the ass0-
cintcd charities. Our scuson is over for
cheap oysters, in which the money Is
made. Nothing goes out Of New Yorl;
now but shell oysters, New York
counts, and culls. The oyster business
after the middle of November goes to
baltimore. There are no oyster can
ncrics in New York.
This fad for white oysters never
heard of before this year. There are
no pure white oysters. The oyster
takes his color from his surroundings,
and nm old oystcrman can tell Mt
glance which one of the beds hcrca-
DoutS nm oyster comes from. The liluc
Point is often silvcry in appearance.
There is no way that know of to make
an oyster white.
"Whcn the weather Is not too cold
oysters, after being taken up, nrc sunk
'ioats fo: from twelve 10 twenty
r hour1 in Iracitish water, generally
"a the mouth Of q frcsh-wntcr creek.
This water they will drink freely aud
I'LL up so that thcy look fat. This has
tho effect of washing out the sea water
ana mud TINT muy have been taken in.
know every oyster bed In Now York
bay, Long Island sound. or tho rivers
OF New Jersey, and know Of no oyster
that Is what you might call white.
Personally, would lot such alone II
offered me.
Mature cannot be improved upon In
the matter Of the oyster, except to give
II chance TO wash out and fatten up
on some hulf-sult water. When the
people understand that the blcnchcd
oysters are unnatural and artificial
they will become suspicious Of them
and DO satisfied with the plain, un.
blcachcd variety"