The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-09-19

'taalf- shell'' served with trimmings
to some plutocrat, to a six-inch dish
rag sort of a bivalve who goes slash
ing about the country in tin until
CONSUMED by some oyster supper
community or swallowed whole By
some far inland rustic who imagines
the eating of raw oysters to be but a
modified form of sword swallowing; Il
is all g matter OF when and at what
age an oyster is caught. If in his
youth, ne is served in state on the half
shell. II later, he goes in the soup. Ii
few months later, he is fried or
steamed. But if he escapes the rake
until matured age his fate is bulk
or tin and his destiny obscure
There is no phrase which Belongs ex-
clusively to oysters which means as
much and as little as the two words
Blue Point" 1t means nothing to oys-
ter dealars-much to consumers There
was q time when the half-shell oys-
tiers were larger than now. The change
from the n1oderate-sized oyster TO the
smallest to be had came with the name
.Blue Point" The original Blue Point
oysters-an oyster grown Oil Blue
Point, Long Island-was an innovation.
1t was smaller, more tender and more
easily eaten, as far as handling goes.
Thus it became popular and the name
something to conjuTe with For a time
and today in fact. Blue Point suggests
the best oyster obtainable- But today
a genuine Blue Point oyster is as rare
as justice. The name, however. st1ll
stays, and as only perhaps one person
in 10000 can distinguish the genuine by
the flavor, the oyster world is quite
safe in retaining it. The people, whom
our own Barriiim declared loved to be
humbugged, go ON paying fancy price
for the name Blue Point" and eating
oysters from Connecticut, New Jersey.
Great South Bay, Staten Island sound,
and. to save the curse, an occasional
one or perhaps two from off Blue
Point. If you cam distinguish Ply
mouth rock hens egg when fried from
that Of any either hen YOU have a
chance Of recognizing a Blue Point.
BLUE POINT AN ELUSIVE TERM.
Nothing, or very little at least, can
be learned from the shell. Oyster grow
ers control to a large degree the shape
Of the oyster shell 1t is all a matter
of how they are planted; if too thfckly
they are crowded and assume cramped
shapes, but if care is taken and they
are given room they grow round and
shapely. There are but a few varieties
in which the, natural shape of the shell
will expose the fraud if it is claimed to
be a. Blue Point. Oysters furthermore
are distinguished by the top shell, the
peculiar markings telling the locality
from which they come. The under
shell. which is smaller, fatter and
smoother, tells little, thus as oysters
are served ON the lower shell again the
customer is forced to take the oyster
as he finds it and believe it is a Blue
Point After all there is no harm in
the deception, as there is but little,
if any, difference in oysters at the age
when served on the half shell. There
is one exception. however; the con
dalu' half-sheM oyster can be distin-
guished instantly. but as there are but
few of them grown-the variety being
very rare-and those which are grown
seldom il ever reach anything but q
private club or family trade, they do
not figure in the oysters used by the
general public.
CURIOUS IDEAS OF OYSTER MEN.
Oyster men-the old time, regulation
oyster men-have a few hereditary
habits which remind one of the head
long course of the drumfish. Way back
in the early oyster days, long before the
oldest of the present generation were
born, for some mysterious reason oys-
ter men transplanted their oysters.
That is, they took them from the
ground on which they were originally
planted and moved them to another
locality. This requires the same amount
of labor as getting them to market.
Why it was done no one knows, and