The Norfolk Virginian. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 186?-189?, 1896-09-01
Oysters Are On the Market Again To the
Delight Of EplGursan PaIaies.
A Kew REGULATION WILL Be IN EFFECT
In Tidewater Virginia Affecting the
2l.2 Inch LAW -Oysters Are Fat
This Season = Seven Pints wero
Opened surreptisiously Last Sum
day-GettinE Their Licenses.
The oyster season openes to-day.

or 1.-The countless millions that tread
the earth" there are very few inIeed to
whom the luscious and much priced lit
tie blvalve does not appeal with peculiar
force. or dimlnutive size, and lowly
origin, OF scarcely any pretensions what
ever to the claims OF animal life-in fact,
little more than marine vegetable,
ANONYMOUSLY tonged from briny depths,
unfeelingly and rudely opened; consent
less and denied even the poor privilege
of kicking; he will now be placed upon
the market, Will find his way to every
home. and will prove n potent factor
in The lives of the eating. thinking,
voting thousands. II good nature Is the
offspring of a good appetite satisfied,
what debt OF gratitude mankind owes
to the oyster?
If the opening OF the season means so
much to the consumer, how much more,
In different and restricted way does 1t
mean TO the fifty or sixty thousand men
of Tidewater Virginia. who exc out a
dangerous and disagreeable existence on
the waters during the cold winter months
for the benefit of the epicurean and in
cldentally the shekels that accrue to
them in part pay for the exposure and
labor to which they are subjected.
Probably the first oysters OF the sea-
son reached here Sunday when, 1t is
known, seven pints were opened, despite
| the watchful eye of the law, and sold to
eager customers before the shells were
L
| the business of longing oysters all say
that the crap" this season is fine one,
and that the bivalves are in an unusual
ly fat nd palatable condition.
They will be gathered in this State
| under somewhat different conditions
| than In former years. AS Is we'll known
to those who have kept themselves in
| formed on the subject, oystermen in Vir-
ginia have operated under the law re-
curing them to take no oysters in shell
under 21a inches long. In getting their
licenses. 1t was necessary for the men
to take formal oath to adhere to this
regulation. But it was found that II
was almost impossible to enforce it's OBJ
servance. Little or no culling was done
ANY old thing went.
strong fight was made by State
League OF Oystermen for the passage
OF certain laws which would benefit them
one, and, indeed, about the only con-
| cession obtained was the permission
granted to tong oysters above an imag-
Days Point, Isle of Wight county ia
Deep Creek. on the Warwick county side
without being hampered by the 2h inch
restriction, with the provision, however
! that all oysters tonged on the west OIL
upper side of this line must be cleaned
and culled upon the rock. Below tho
| line. the 2h inch law must be observed
There are thirty-one oyster districts
| in the State, Norfolk constitutes the
] twenty-second. of which Mr.. c. j. Can
| non. president of the State League of
IOystermen, Is chairman. That gentle
man stated yesterday that 1t would be
| the business OF the League to see that
| the oyster laws were enforced and II
4 any one was caught violating them he
would be prosecuted to the extent of
the law. The organization. of which
he Is the head, at its last meeting on
i Friday night, adopted resolutions 70 the
effect that the members OF the Protective
Association. sixty in all, forming the
League, must adhere to the 2la inch
rule. where 1t was in force.
| MI. Cannon has been n busy man
these last few days attending to the ap-
plications Of oystermen and visiting va
| rious sections in the interest OF the
League. He has just returned from a
| trip to Nansemond. Isle of Wight, and
Warwick counties, and last night ad-
dressed an association in Barretts Neck,
In the first named county.
The men take out two kinds of IL
censes. one percentage license, where
the oystermen pay forty cents on every
one hundred dollars worth OF oysters
they tong; the other costs 81 for the
season and Is the most popular, for II
saves the trouble of a weekly report.
There are from $4,000 to 10000 oyster
| men In Underwater Virginia, $4,000 of
whom are organized. These men during
the summer have very little to occupy
their bodies and minds and consequently
get low in purse and spirit AS a result
they hail the beginning of the season
Win PROBABLY more delight than those
who eat the products of their labor, and
in the term between September 1 and
April rs. there Is proba bly, no class OF
men in this section who earn their money
more literally by the sweat of their
brow.