Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1895-02-28
OYSTERS UP TO DATE.
The Very Latest Fad Ii for
Bleached Bivalves.

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 blanching 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-constituted authori-
titles 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
bringu 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 as to the best method
of blanching oysters. 1t was apparent
that oyStcrmcn do not relish the news
paper notoriety which has been thrust
upon the innocent and inoffensive
shellfish.
IF l 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 the bay and hit him
on the head with a boathook when he
came up the first time. and there
wouldn't be no second time.
AS if it amt 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
tatten his oysters in IL creek into which
y sewer emptieS. What's the result? 4
lot of college students and professors
Get sick and four of them die. What
follows? The newspapers publish il
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 scare anybody?
No, sir.
Now, on top Of all this, some fool
restaurant men go to making their
oysters white, which God never intend
ed they should be, or He would have
made 'em so. 1 don't suppose that the
oysters were hurt any by it, but some
fellow gets sick, after knocking about
She Tenderloin all night. and rcmcln-
Ders that he ate dozen bleached oy-
STEERS. and then he hollers that he has
been poisoned.
"Some one writes to q newspaper
that sulphate of zinc will bleach IN
oyster. l don't know whether it will
OF not, but n chemist told me that Il
would not. But the OYSTER trade crcts
1t in the neck ali the sIinr. Iun!i
goodness that these stories did not gct
out two months ago, or the oystcrmcn
would all be in the hands of the aa:o-
ciatcd charities. Our season is over for
cheap oysters, in which the money i;
made. Nothing goes out of New York
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
nericS in New York.
This fad for white oysters I never
heard Of before this year. There are
no pure white oysters. The oyster
takes his color from his SURROUNDINGS
and an old oystcrman can tell at IL
glance which one of the beds hCrca-
bouts an oyster comes from. The Eluc
Point is often silvcry in appearance.
There is no way that know of to make
| an oyster white.
when the weather is not too cold
or"t -. after being taken up, are sunk
"oHta =" from twelve to twenty
= l"nr" in hraciish water, gcncr.lly
~ III" month of frCSll-watCr creek,
Ills water they will drink freely ana
fill up so that they look fat. Thi, la.
the effect Of washing out the sea wa to-.
and mud that may have been taken l..
| | know every oyster bed in New Yor
'aT, Long Island sound. or the rive
! i New Jersey. and know of no oyster
! mat is what you might call white.
! Personally, l would let such alone il
! offered me.
Mature cannot be improved upon in
! tho matter of the oyster, except to give
it chance to wash out and fatten ND
! on some half-salt water. When the
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