Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-10-06
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But the Genuine Blue Points Are Not
Always to Be Had.


"ouiu stand chance OF being nearly any,
't'ins IN IN" oyster category. from a half
shelr served with trimmings TO soma
piu'ocrat TO six-irch dish-rag sort OF n
niVaive who goes slashing about the coun
Try IN tin until consumed by some .,ovs
ter supper" community or swallowed whole
by some far inland rustic who imagine,
the eating OF raw oysters to be bur n ,noa,-
he'd form Of sword swallowing i, IS an
matter OF when and at what age an ovs-
ter is caught. If in his youth. he IS sorry
Ell IN state on the half she'll III later ha
goes In the soup. II a few months later
ne is fried or steamed. But IL ne escapes
. me rake until matured age his fate is
1 Tn or TN and his destiny obscure.
An"re is no phrase which belongs ex-
ciusiNeiy 10 oysters which means as much
anu as nttie as the two words .Rlue
roiht. IL means nothing to oyster deal
ers-much to consumers. There was n lime
When the half-shell oysters were Iar-ar
IMAM now The change from the moderate
s'.eu oyster to the smallest to be had came
Nun Nun tne name Blue Point" The original
Piue Ioint UPSTREAM oyster grown or
hlue Point. Long Island-was an innova
tIoii- III was smaller. more tender and
more easily eaten. as far as handling goes
mus ~ became popular and the name
somethihg TO coniure with. For n time
ana today. in fact. Blue Point sugces,s
the best oyster obtainable But today n
genuine Blue Point oyster Is as rarc as
Jusuce. Inc name. however. stin STAYS,
ana as only perhaps one person IN Ton
thousand can distinguish the genuin, hy
the mayor, the oyster world is quite safe IN
retaining IL. The people who our 49,
aai ~ NUN declared love TO be humbugVed.
So oh paying fancy price for the name
Blue Point" and eating oysters from 60,
necticut, New Jersey Great south RAY
staten Island sound and TO save the ours,
D. an oc 1i one or perhaps two from of
mouth Rock hens egg when fried from
tIia' OF any other hen you have a chance
OF reco gnizing a Blue Point
An Elusive Term.
Nothing, or very little at least. can nc
learned from the shell. Oyster growers
control to large degree the shane OF The
oyster she'll 1t is all matter of how they
are planted; If too thickly they are crowd
ed anc assume cramped shapes. but II care
Is taken and they are given room they
grow round and shapely. There are but a
Few varieties in which the natural shane
OF the shell will expose the fraud II in is
ttl,lned 10 be a blue point. oysters FUR
thermore are distinguished by the ton
smell, the peculiar marking telling the To-
CAVITY from which they come The under
SHELL which is smaller fiatter and smooth-
er' tens little, thus as oysters are served
on the lower shell again thu consumer Is
forced 10 take the oyster as he finds ~
and believe it is blue point After ALI
there Is no harm In the deception. as
mere is but little. If any, difference in oys-
terS al the age when served on the half
Shell There is one exception however. rha
condaiu half-shell oyster can ne Sis,in
suished instantly. but as there are hun few
OF then srown-the variety being very
rare-those which are grown seldom AZ
ever, reach anything but a priya-e oIl,h or
ianlily trade. they do not figure in the
oysters used by the general public.
Curious Ideas of Oystermen.
oystermen-the old-time. regulation oys-
ternen-have a few hereditary habits
which remind one of the headlong course
of the drumfish. Way back i'm the carly
oyster days, long before the Oldest of the
present generation were born. for some
mysterious reason oystermen transplanted
their oysters: that is. they took them from
the ground on which they were originally
pianteu, ana moved them TO another To-
cahty- mis- requires the same amount of
iabor as getting them to market Why il
was done no one knows. and for that rea-
son II Is still done. One or two Ok the more
thinking have, in spite of the scowls and.
dire predictions of their brothers of tho
craft, discontinued the transplanting of
oysters. But in spite of the fact thar the
oysters thrive better, the old heads refuse
10 follow the example In fact. they hard
ly speak to this new creature who does
not FOLLOW all the old legends. and think
him their enemy.
IL may sound odd to speak of drinking
oysters One would assume their oppor-
tunity to quench their thirst was fairly
good. but oysters must be "drinked."
drank or watered'-as oystermen say
before they are fit for market. The drink
ing process is simply a matter of fatten-
ing or TO be more truthful, initiating
When oysters are raised (taken from
the beds to the air) they are dumped
ABOARD or the sloops and when a load is
q cuf1- e..
water stream. At the mouth of these
streams are floats into which the oysters
are dumped at full tide. As the tide Gibbs
and the fresh water from the stream grad
uely ireshens the water in the floats the
oyster opens He appears to be drinking
but instead is simply allowing the fresh
water to wash out the salt. When this is
completed the oyster closes The fresh
water causes IL to swell, sometimes till the
Shell gapes open. Thus the oyster be-
comes plump and when opened looks fat
and fit.
On the She'll
OF course there is a reason for always
serving the oyster on the lower shell. The
top shell is concave and the lower one,
besides being about a third smaller. is
fiat. Therefore. when the oyster which
nils the larger shell, is laid upon the fiat
lower shell he assumes aldermanic proper
lions.
Oyster spawn resembles the scales of
small fish more than anything else. They
have life when no larger than a tack head
and at once fasten to the nearest oyster
SHE'LL There they stay until by their
growth. which at early age is rapid,
they force each other loose. Then for
profession they fasten to each other and
il is in this form Of odd shaped punches of
fiat oysters no larger than a nickel they are
taken for seed. The grower, who buys
seed by the bushel, separates the oysters
from each other, and dumps them over
board upon a certain ground which he
has staked, generally from ten TO twenty
feet under water. 1t is then the oyster
begins his individual struggle for exist
ence. He has enemies TO anticipate and
balk as well as to dig for his food. For the
first six months after he is taken from
the shoals and planted in deep water he
is extremely busy.
Deadly Enemies.
The drumfish mentioned above is one of
the oysters most deadly enemies. Drum
fish are large and heavy-jawed. They
travel in schools in a straight course ana
once they strike an oyster bed leave only
a mass Of crumbled shells i'm their wake
They pick up a mouthful, grind the shells.
eat the oysters, spit out the shells and