Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-01-11
OYSTERS UP TO DATE.
Tho Very Latest Fad Is for
 Bloackod Bivalvea.
White Ones Are Probably Doctored-oys- ternen Who Ought to Know Say They Are Mythical V Natures Own She'll
 fish Not to Be Improved Upon.


 "Bleached oysters is the latest and 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. It does not appear that the Albino-hued bivalve Is improved by the blanehing process.
 In fact, it is held by all fair-minded people who have tried them that the flavor which gives our oysters their superiority over all the bivalves of the world is destroyed entirely But they are said by self-eonstituted authori- tites to look better, and it is the fashion to have them served that way.
 The course Of treatment to which the luscious shellfish is subjected to bringg about the pale and gl1ostly hue is the secret of the restaurant men. The wholesale oyster dealers know nothing about 1t.
 4 reporter for the New York World went aboard q floating warehouse, on the North river, the other day, and made an inquiry as to the best method of blanehing oysters. It was apparent that oysternen do not relish tue news paper notoriety which has been thrust upon the innocent and inoffensive shellfsh.
 If could meet the man who start ed all this talk about typhoid fever and malaria in oysters, said one old salt, .''I'd chuck him in the bay and hit him on the head with . boathool1 when he came up the first time, and there wouldn't be no second time.
 ssAs if it ain't bad enough that this has been one of the worst oyster years we ever had, but on top of that some crazy fool up in Connecticut tries to fatten his oysters in Q creek into which a sewer empties. Whats the result? A lot of college students and professors get sick and four Of them die. Whas follows2 The newspapers publish it all over the country, typhoid fever in oysters, and the business is almost par alyzed 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 scara anybody? No, sir
 Now, on top of all this, some fool restaurant naen go to making their oysters white, which God never intend cd they should be, or He would have made 'eln so. l don't suppose that the oysters were hurt any by it, but some fellow gets sick. after knocking about the Tenderloin all night, and remesn- bers that he ate d dozen bleaehed oy- sters, and then he hollers that he, has been poisoned.
 ssSome ono writes to q newspaper that sulDhate of zinc will bleach an oyster. l don't know whether t will or not. but a chemist told me that it would not. Bnt the oyster trade gets it in the neck all the saIne. Thank goodness that these stories did not get out two months ago, or the oystcrnen would all be in tho hands of the asso- ciated charities Cur sestsoa is over foI cheap oysters, in which She money is made Nothing goes out of New ! orB now but shell ogsters New YoTh counts, and culls. The oyster bushes: after the middle of November goes tc Baltimore. There are no oyster can neries in New York.
 seThis fad for white oysters I never heard of before this year. There arS no pure white oysters. The oyster takes his color from his surrounding and an old oysterman eau tell ct : glance which one of the beds hefea bouts an oyster comes froa. The Blu Point is often silverg ia appearance There is no way that l know of to makt m oyster white.
 ''Wlaen the weather is not too col. oysters, after being taken mp, are sunl on floats for from twelve tg twenty four hours in brael1ish vgater, general. near the mouth of Q freshsWater creek This water they will drink freely an, fill up so that they look fat This ha the effect of washing cut the seq wate and mud that may have been taken if l know every oyster bed in New Tor bay, Long Island sound. or the river of New Jersey, and know of no ogste that is what you might call white Personally, I would let such alone offered me.
 Nature cannot be improved upon l the matter Of the oyster. except 10 giv 1t . chance to wash out and fatten Il on some half-salt water. When th people understand that the bleache oysters are unnatural and artificis they will become suspicious of thel and be satisfied with the plain, u bleached variety.'