The Washington times., 1901-09-22
DEM And FOR THE OYSTER
Washington, Philadelphia. and Bal
timOre the Great Markets.
Something About the sources and
shipping-Finvor Is Dost by Trans
porting Any Distancc-Lynn Hn-
vens Excel Deposedi BIue Points

promises somewhat better than those of
some years past. The heavy rains oil
Augustine heaviest in years-haYe
caused SO much water to flow seaward
that the salt water bays in which so
many millions of good oysters lay, have
been tempered with the fresh In an
other month. when the oyster really be-
gins To take on his excellence, the i'm
provement in quality will be apparent.
The territory of the oyster is the sub
ject of deepest interest to all who love
him in his varying moods. Like all
things good or bad, he has his sphere
of influence, but unlike most things
good, the extension of this sphere
may work disappointment in the terri
tory where the oyster has always been
appreciated at his best and where the
monarch of the rough shell is indeed
himself. AS the facilities for transport
ing oysters improve and multiply, the
market enlarges and some of the most
devout worsbipers of the oyster see his
final disappearance.
The natural sphere of the real oyster
understand, the genuine bivalve,
whose every morsel is a lump of de-
liciousness-lies in the waters that
bathe the eastern shores of the United
States from Providence, r. L, to the
lower end of Chesapeake Bay, as far as
eastern Virginia Within these bounds
lies the territory where the oyster that
has inspired eloquence in poetry and
prose is born and bred and eaten.
Other States and cities and other peo-
pie may eat of him and grow eloquent
over him, but only those who live in
Pennsylvania. Maryland, Rhode Island,
Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York.
New Jersey, and Virginia have had the
God given privilege of eating the oyster
as nature matured him in the sheltered
bays of these States. And it is these
people, who know the oyster alphabet
from alpha to omega, who beWail the
of transportation facilities
and look with anxious eyes uron the
growing appetite of nearly seventy mill
lion of people in tie United States alone.
and are jealous that even one dozen
good oyster should find their way
across the Atlantic, or be transplanted
in the beds of the Pacific, to teach the
people of the western coast what is en-
bodied in the delight of eating a real
oyster. And unlike most jealousies this
one is most reasonable. No matter how
perfect the oyster may be, no matter
how the future, near CT far. may deal
with the suitable transportation of an
oyster when he gets twenty hours
journey away from his birthplace he is
no longer the same. He may preserve
his shape and appearance, lie may be
frozen as hard as ice can freeze, and be
watched like lusty boy near an over
hanging precipice. but he will never
the same oyster. Hun
dreds Of voices may rise up against this
statement; thousands of oyster lovers.
who live without the natural pale of the
oysters sphere, may say that IAN oys-
ter Is an oyster wherever he is found"
but there is no lodging the truth, brutal
as it seems. Whatever fortunes and fu-
lures may be the portion Of the great
West, pre-encompassing of the joys
impaired by an oyster is not one Of
them. That indefinable sensation, that
indescribable part of ElySian's own
pleasure, is and always will be part
of life in the effete East. where the
oyster can journey to the farthermost
ends of his domain between sunrise
and sunset and preserve the exquisite
elixir of his own flavor. With all its
untold wealth. it's mountains Of gold
and silver and copper, its fields of wav-
ing wheat and golden corn, its vastness
and its might. the great West may
never know the bliss of an absolutely
perfect oyster. A much better chance
at what remains of the oyster perfected,
will England and the Continent have
at the American product, for the rea-
son that oysters sent across the ocean
are still in the atmosphere of the sea.
and the aroma of the salt air exerts
life giving influence upon them. And
England Is coming after our oysters
persistently. The British product of
bivalves, which courtesy has called an
oyster, is a sorry imitation of the Am
erican article. They are small and cop
pered- -colored and taste like an old cop
per kettle They are like the oysters of
the Pacific Coast and Puget Sound,
which are as big as thumb joint and
as a raw proposition" are impossible.
The latter oysters. though. have the ad-
vantage of frying deliciously. and they
are the inspiration of that impossible
affair-the oyster cocktail. But the
the British Lion has awakened to the
unbounded excellence of the American
oyster, and being less than a weeks
voyage from US has reached out a paw
for them, laden with tempting gold, and
the present season will witness more
than trebiing of the oyster trade with
England. A conservative estimate
made by one of the most extensive
shippers puts the trade with England
at over ten thousand barrels of oysters
month, and that means that some of
the Western shipments will be cut into,
for the East will have its oysters from
September until April. no matter who
goes without And If England buys
heavily. the West will be short in her
quota. But they will pay for a oyster
In the West. too, and there will be a
pretty rivalry between the new West
and old England
AS the demands for oysters grow in
far-off places. the ingenuity of trans
portation people works to meet require
ments The question settled once for
all, that the oyster is only his perfect
self within the limits set forth above
still leaves the desire for him upper
most in territory where he is welcome
as long as he will come. To meet this
demand the railroads of this country
and the ocean lines of this and others