The times., 1898-12-27

New York Dee 2s.-Over the back bay
of Long Beach, sass the Times. its in
tets awash with the full tide, brisk
breeze is blowing and a trim oyster sloop
is cutting s,nartly along. The morning
is yet in its earliest hours, the pink hard
iy yet out of the sky. Three sturdy
oystermen-the Doxeys-are Captain.
crew, and bo' suns mate" of the craft,
and their passenger is bound with them
out to the oyster beds to track to his
lair the oy.st.r de Luxe, the Fashion
able oyster
Indeed the trip is worth the while. For
amazingly little, after all, is known
about that silent member OF society who
graces our dinner tables, our first course
being his last Not that there is ro-
nance in the oyster though Richard
Brinsley Sheridan did state distinctly
that one might be crossed in love But
there is picturesqueness from the very
moment the seed oyster is planted, all
through the details of this curious farm
ing under water, including the drink
ing"-an act that an oyster is quite as
capable of performing, and must do III
h,. be a salt water OYSTER before he is
M for the market-until, properly iced
he is dexterously turned out on the half
she'll
ON the readers attention it must first
OF all be impressed that there are oysters
and oysters There is even smart
set among them. That is to say, there
is the oyster of fashion, and the oysters
not indorsed This fashion changes
,I-,,. ,,,.r,1atas. nf fine society q ourselves
alter 1t. and the quest these pictures
show was in search of the beginnings
and the progress CT the Oyster de Luxe
of 1858, a special photograph teXact size}
being shown of him. with another of his
progenitor, the seed oyster.
The quest was somewhat novel. 1t Is
the fashionable oysters" biography
done for the first time. his start in life
and his finish.
Right sturdily did the little craft ca
rcen. in the midst of bay whose north
ern boundary was a green farming coun-
try, whose south was a thin strip oil
sandbar beyond which rocked the ocean
In the waters through which the sioop
SKINNED lurked q cool. delicious green,
TO catch which one leaned far over the
Cunwale There were of sudden the
sh1rp rumble of a sail coming down, a
CRY from the bow. an answer from the
stern. The sloop abruptly moved
around and swung. her progress checked.
upon the waters.
Here v are" said the eldest Of the
Doxeys.
But where? North. south. east, west
in every direction for n mile and more.
there were only the tossing waters OIL me
bay. One feature of the seascape. hardly
noticeable at first. finally began 10 strike
the eye-thln. flexible poles sticking out
OF the water here and there. As one
looked. ard looked intently, patches OF
waving brownish grass commenced 10
grow up above the surface. Beyond
wind and wave tossed clump of 1t APP
peared. now another where a few mo-
meats before there had been only little
billows
..We are on the edge Of our oyster beds
now" sung out another of the oystermen
over the side here it is only two feet
deep. The tide is running out rapidly
In half an hour the beds will be I'M
covered
DO y see that shanty on that point
of land there?" put in the third. That 5
where we keep man day and night tc
guard these oyster beds. He must keep o
watch out for oyster thieves; they may
come any time This man has "A gun, and
he would use it, too"
For under these tossing waters, uncov.
cred for hours AT time, there is mucf
Droperty a crop that takes long TO ma
ture some portions of ii a year, even two
years. and this crop has many natura
enemies. The sheltering waves themselves
carry away in their ebb and flow, many
hundred young oysters, and in addition
to these lurk sea stars, mussels, the
''borers" and periwinkles, the "borers
actually drilling tiny holes into the shells
the periwinkles sucking the oysters life
away. Even the greatest care will moi
keep the beds entirely free when these
destroying agencies happen in locality
They are always present more or less
sometimes there is plague of them
With such risks it is not to be wondered
at that the human oyster thief is the las
straw for these farmers of the waters.
The anchor thrown overheard, tbs
sloop rested idly in the little channel
every moment growing more clearly de
fined. The oystermen heaped into the
skiff that had been towing behind empty
bushel baskets tongs, and rakes. a few
moments more and, rubber-booted to tn,
thighs. they strobe off across what wa:
now only a few inches of water, drag
ging the skiff along wit hthem. The
backing away tide commenced to revea
the farm under the waters OF the bay
1t was a curious sensation TO follow
these oystsrmen and patter through tn
now miniature waves to the patch of DIR!
and each moment grew larger. On thi
very spot an hour before the sloop ha,
been tossing. As if an island had arisen
and yet not exactly thati For the grouni
walked on WAS only too plainly waite
ground" and IL was readily to be real
lied that here was indeed the bottom o
the bay. that oystermen and passenga
stood in its very center.
Somewhere the writer had heard nat
ural oyster beds airiiy spoken OF, an
has listened to tales of oystering In whicl
the biValyes were merely gathered in ~
are shoveifuls Of coin at Wall Stree
money Changers They who tell sucl
stories seem to have forgotten that nat
u-al oyster beds exist no longer. ans
they do not know that oyster culture ha
come TO be u science. Left alone, III
oyster does not grow properly. He mus
be cajnled. transplantcd Off and on. hi
beds raked and ''weeded"-and wedding
here means the watch out for and III
removal OF periwinkles, mussels. an
.'borers." No dry land farmer ever har
rowed n field more carefully than do thes
oystermen rake and clean theirs at loN
tide.
over all the glorious wind blows. tn
sunlight CLEANS on the waters of the ha
and on the scores Of pools scattered abou
the oyster beds. Civilization represen;e
by two small white houses on the distan
shore. seems very far away.
An oyster bed Itself, the nursery of tn
young oyster. is interesting at close range
Half of mud. half of sand. it is a colo
study of brown, green, and gray. TIL
gray shades of into white, some of tn
oyster shells half visible through thel
loan and with drops of water clinging t
them seeming almost dazzling. The gree
is the fresh vegetation of the bays bo.
tom the brown yet another species o