The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-12-11
new WORKERS EAT OYSTERS
ONE HUNDRED MILLION CON.
SUMED EVERY WEEK.
Fifty Thousand Men Kept Busy in
the Oyster Business Of the
Metropolis.

Metropolis.
There are some new facts to: tell in
the annual oyster story this year. In
the first place the summer has been so
propitious that there will be more oys-
tiers fit for the market in the season
that begins next Friday than there
have been for great many years. The
fleet of schooners employed in bringing
them to the New York market has been
increased from 300 to 400. Since last
season the city has ousted the North
River oystermen from their old time
stamping ground at the foot of Perry
street and put them in commodious
dock adjoining the new Cunard line
pier, and in immediate conjunction with
West Washington Market.
large new dock, with LIS to keep
out the wash of passing steamers, has
been built for the oyster boats. 1t will
easily accommodate 100 schooners at
one time. AS the city collects toll from
each schooner, the more the merrier
There are twenty-five of these float
Ing oyster shops at the shora end of
the new basin, moored so as to face
the street and give easy access to
wagons. There are about half the num-
Der in the East River, near Fulton mar
ket but the bulk of New York's i'm
mense oyster trade is carried on in the
North River market. There you will
find the veterans in the business, the
most expeditions "shuckers'' and the
king pins of the oyster beds.
Queer looking houses are these oyster
shops, fit for nothing apparently but
Z n 30 til,
two stored frame affairs, some of them
gaudily painted as to exterior, but with
no other attempt at show. No larger
than the average boat house of coun-
try residence on Long Island Sound,
they nevertheless keep crews OF frcIn
seventy to a hundred men busy during
the season. Up stairs there are sleep.
ing rooms for some of the hands. There
are no front doors to the oyster floats
and they are never deserted the year
round.
100,0O0,O0O OYSTERS A WEEK.
1t takes one hundred million oysters
a week to satisfy the requirements of
the New York market This year the
supply promises to be prolific Orders
for shipment to Western towns are al
ready coming in faster than they can
Workers will not eat oysters until Sep
TENDER 1st it does not follow that the
oyster men are idle until tn al. People
in Western and Southern c,.Ies want
TO begin September 1st also, and It is
necessary to have New York oysters
there for them on time The can and
barrel shipment to the West during
the latter part of August is very large.
On bills of fare in the West you will
see under the list of oysters New York
Counts"
Know, then, that these are T. ot oyS-
ters on the shell, but are shipped from
here by refrigerator cars in cans spe-
cially made for the purpose and capable
of holding from one thousand to three
thousand oysters, or in barrels that will
hold a far larger quantity. This is
quite apart from the city ira ie, and is
usually in full swing long before New
Workers know that the oyster is in sea-
son again. Middlemen in the West put
these oysters into smaller cans and sell
them by the quart or pint. Properly
preserved they will keep fresh a long
time.
At the new North River oyster dock
this week 800 shuckers have been at
work stripping oysters for the Western
trade. They began work d week earlier
than usual this year. What these men
do in the months without the ''R' no
one seems to know. But they always
turn up a week before the oyster season
opens and make their contracts for the
winter. They are a class by themselves
as distinct and clannish as rhe long
shoremen for ocean liners.
They receive 81 a thousand, and it
is a poor shucker that cannot earn So
in a days work of eight hours. Many
of them earn IS and 50 At this early
season an average of 100,0G0 oysters
day is fair work for each boat but in
the rush times it is much more. 1t is
said that the float owned by Alexander
Fraser, in a North River, slip, holds the
record with 2S6,00 oysters in twelve
hours When the demand is very brisk
about holiday times night shifts are
put at work
MANY WAYS OF SHUCKING.
There are as many ways of opening
an oyster as there are of carving a
duck, and each shucker thinks that his
way is the best. 1t depends upon where
a man has been brought up to the
business. Men who have been brought
up in New York and hereabout use
nothing but the knife, but they use 1t
in different ways. Not one man in
hundred is a good side knife opener,
and if he is he soon quits the floats for
a hotel or oyster shop at a steady sal
ary 1t is only the expert side knife
opener that can properly open an oyster
on the deep shell.
Other men who use nothing but the
knife simply stab the oyster. Epicures
declare that this spoils it, but oyster
men say that for the general trade it
makes little difference. In England
the shucker knows no other way of get
ting an oyster out of its shell than to
stab it But then, whoever wants the
LIQUID of an English oyster? If
shucker has been brought up in the
South. Baltimore or Norfolk. for in
stance. he uses hammer as we'll as
knife in opening an oyster. Despite the
fact that he has to handle two tools,
dropping the hammer when he takes