The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1897-09-23
OUR FRIEND, THE OYSTER.

Cleveland Leader FAu Sou po'" "'i "
an oyster you would stand chance of
belng nearly anything In the oyster cat
cory from a "half-shelI" served with
.,rimmings," to some plutoerat, to a six
inch dish.rag sort of a biyalve who goes
.,,shing about the country in tin" I'M
AZ consumed by some oyster supper
community or swallowed whole ny some
far inland rustic who imagines Inc eat
ing OF raw oysters 20 be nut modlned
torm of sword swallowing II is all
matter Of when and at what age an oy--
SER is caught. II In youth, he Is served
IN state on the half shell. II later ne
goes In the soup. II few months Ia
ter he is fried or steamed But II he es-
canes the rake until matuted age MS
ale Is bulk" or Tin and his destiny
obscure. A,,,, ,,,,.,,,,, -,
There is. no phrase which belongs ex-
clusively to oysters which means az
much and as little as the Two WORDS
"Blue Point" It means nothing to oy-
s,ar deaIers-much TO consumers There
was a time when the halt-shell, oysters
,vere larger than now. The change from
the moderate sized oyster TO the small
EST 10 be had came with the name "blue
point " The original Blue Point oysters
an oyster grown off Blue Point, Long
Island was an innovation II was small
or more tender, and more easily eaten
ne far as handling goes, Thus II be-
came popular and the name something
10 coniure with For time and to-day
in fact, Blue Point suggests the best
oyster obtaInable. But to-day n genuine
Blue Point oyster is as rare as Justice
The name, however slh stays, and as
only perhaps one person In ten thou
sand can distinguish the genuine Dy
the favor. the oyster world Is quite sale
in retaining 1t, The people, whom our
own Barnum declared loved to be num-
plugged, 90 on paying a fancy price Tor
the name "Blue Point and eating oy-
sters 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 II you can distinguish Ply
mouth Rock hens egg when fried from
,hat of any other hen, you have q
chance OF recognizing Blue Point
Nothing, or very little at least, can
be learned from the shell, Oyster grow
ers control to large degree the shape
OF the oyster shell, 1t is all a matter OF
how they are planted; II TOO thlckly,
they are crowded and assume cramped
shapes, but If care is taken and they
are given room they grow round and
shapely, They are but few varieties
IN which the natural shape OF the shell
will expose the fraud II 1t Is claimed TO
be a Blue Point. oysters Furthermore
are distinguished by the top shell. the
necular marking telling the locality
from which they come. The under shell,
which is smaller, flatter, and smoother,
tells little. Thus, as oysters are served
on the lower shell again the consumer
is forced to take the oyster as he tinds
II and believe II Is Blue Point. AFTER
all there is but little. If any, difference
In oysters at the age when served on
the half shell. There Is one exception,
however; the "copdalu" half-shen oy-
ster can be distinguished instantly, but
as there are but few of them grown
the variety being very rare-and those
which are grown seldom If ever reach
anything but private club or family
trade, they do not figure In the oysters
used by the general public.
Oystermen-the old-time, regulation
oystermen-have few hereditary han
It's which remind one of the headlong
course OF the drumfsh. Way back In
the eany oyster days, long before the
oldest OF the present generation were
horn. for some mysterious reason oy-
stermen transplanted their oysters
That Is, they took them from the
ground ON which they were originally
planted and moved them to another To-
callty, This requires the same amount
Of labor as getting them 30 market.
Why 1t was done no one knows, and for
that reason Il is still done. One or two
nf the more thinking have, In spite OF
the scOWls and dire predictions Of their
brothers of the craft, discontinued the
iransplanting OF oysters. But In spite
OF the fact that the oysters thrive bet
ter, the old heads refuse 90 follow the
example In fact, they hardly speak
e. this new creature, who does not fol-
low all the old legends, aud think him
their enemy.
1t may sound odd to speak Of drink
ing" oysters. one would assume their
opportunity to quench their thirst was
fairly good, but oysters must be
"drlnked," drank" or "watered"-as
market. The drinking" process is
ftI3IlA u IGul4tJ VI lhAltulDEY VI " bN
more truthful, Initiating,
When oysters are raised" (taken
from the beds to the air) they are
dumped aboard OF the sloops and when
load is obtained the sloop sails for
some fresh water streams. 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 gradually freshens the wa
ter In the floats the oyster opens. He
appears 20 be drinking, but instead is
simply allowing the fresh water to wash
out the salt. When this is completed.
the oyster closes. The frosh water
causes It to swell. sometimes till the
shell gapes open Thus the oyster be-
comes plump and when opened looks
fat and At.
OF course there Is n reason for al
ways serving the oyster on the lower
shell. The top shell is concnve and the
lower one. besides being about third
smaller, Is fiat. Therefore, when the
oyster which fills the larger shell IL laid
upon the fiat lower shell he assumes al
dcrmanic proportions
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 fastcn to the
nearest oyster she'll There they stay
until by their growth, which at an early
aue Is rapid, they force each other loosea
Then Tor protection, they fasten TO each
other, and It Is In this form Of odd
shaped lunches OF fiat oysters no larger
than a nickel they are taken for seed
The growcr.who buys seed by the BUSH
81 separates the oysters from each 9th
er, aud dumps them overheard upon
certain ground which he has stakcd,
generally from ton 60 twenty feet I'M