The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1902-09-13


In long low room, dark as a pocket, chill
as tomb, but ringing with the fncessant
click Of wooden hammers, and the click
! OF falling shells. Running the length of
the shed, two high desks, or forms, parti-
\ toned lengthwise, give working room for
/ four long rows of hands, "A rough
little wooden pulpit raises each shucker-
+ u ack and white women work side by side
/ IN the sheas- abeNeat hssscold and reeiking
more practical purpose. A rapid shucker
4 would soon bury himself waist high in
empty shells, were they not continually
shovelle ed out. The pulpit guards his feet
from the keen edge of the shovel.
Step near, and see what shocking is. It
! is very simple. Before each worker rises
"a wooden blockSwith az chiseI$ blade fixed
upright in It. M Resting the ripping edge
Of a shell on the blade. the Sshucker strikes
1t one qaiek blow with a$Wooden nallet,
| cutting it clean through. A broad bladed
Knife is thrust into the gap; one wrench
OF practised wrist parts the valves; one
scoop of the knife sewers the muscle, and
| long before the breath is out Of the body
the oyster finds himself, cold and naked,
| at1oat in Shiny sea of shucked shellfsh.
| The trick is so neatly and easily done as
If peanuts. not oysters, were in question
Piece work means quick work while the
| world stands. ~; X 8@..Ei. III y ,E.-
Follow filled bucket to the next step
| in the process. Passed through a slide
In the wall to another room. the oysters
! are Hoped into a slanting sink, where
| hose is turned on them. and then they
| are drawn off by the pailful to be meas
ured I'D. A man in rubber boots seizes a
bucketful and filings it with horrid slap
! against an Open-meshed screen. set at an
angle OF forty-f1Ve degrees. Down they
slide, great Shiny food of pinkish gray,
startling as the fish of pink flesh. An
other man in rubber boots sweeps the
mass about with brush; the waite,
| drains frankly through to the swimming
| moor. and the oysters. five gallons at a
time, are drawn off to be packed in slant
| sided yellow tubs scale Of ice ator
| prepares them for their journey West
Ihey are sometimes a week en- route
That is the only painful thing about the
| raw packing process. 1t may not be ape-
tls1ng-few edibles are. seer. en masse-but
| It is strictly Clearly. One would prefer tc
| think. however that oysters went Wes,
| IN their own private shells. IS
Fortune favoring, you happen on a
| steaming day at the packing house. It
| IS only at times when oysters are plenty
ana cheap that they go into cans. In bit
| ter cold weather, when the fishing stops
perforce, the raw demand is all that can
! be supplied. - ":' .assa. -=--.
| Steaming is a swift process: The shells
go direct from the ships hold into little
.ron can which runs on a private track
! into rectangular, metal-lined box which
just hts 1t. That is the steam chest For
some fifteen minutes the doors are closed
ana steam misses through the box When
| the door comes open every individual Oys-
ter is open, too, gaping vacuousiy Run
swiftly into the shucking shed, the car is
surrounded by crowd of shuckers, who
hGi COLL
SIDES. and, regardless Of hot Shells slim
the steam meats loose in twinkling. A
dash OF ice water prepares the oysters for
the nliers table, where they are rapidly
| tu ched away in bright cans and packed
methodically in a big iron crate. When
1t Will hold no more, the crate goes into
cooling tub till the cans are, ready fo1
handling. Capped. in the ordinary way,
the cans go Whirling up on and endless
belt to the labelling department. The last
OF your particular carful YOU will see in
| the warehouse, where the shining tins
gleam out from between the Stats of full
| crates. A glance at your watch assures
you that it is just one hour since they left
the ship. ~ 7% -.~ .-s
i%ie, is into a landscape Of snow and
orange that you pass from the fishy air of
the packing house. a. desert of powdered
shell. diversified by mounds of tin scraps,
one mass of rich red rust. The air is full
| OF faint jingling, like pebbles rolled un-
Ger surf. 1t comes from the shell yard
beside the factory. where dirty-wh!te
'e1npt1es.' piled mountain high. are dry
ing, A long line of darkes with laden
barroWs winds up from the shell-scows
at the wharf to the top of the mound
Where they let their loads slip, tinkling
rnusically. down the steep Sides Other
darkies, powdered white to their very eve
brcws. disappear with loads of dried Shell
into the thick limecload within the fac
tory whence issues a mighty sound OF
grinding.
You stop a foreman to ask whatever
they do with so many Shells. He is an
intelligent foreman. He tells you that up
TO a decade ago the question what to do
with the oyster shell was one Of the
problems of the trade. Something like
twelve million tons Of shell must have
been landed on the shores of MARYLAND
alone. since the oyster business began to
flourish. which was within the past CEN
fury Ten years ago they gave away their
shell. or even paid to have it taken away:
now it Is a lucrative by-product Of the
canneries. They don't make shell enough
themselves to supply the demand for shell
lime. SO they buy empties by scow load.
Ground I'D into chicken feed and fertil-
izer. or into lime for glass works and gas
works. and for road-beds. oyster shell ia
in constant demand. Were it not for the
fearful wear on the machinery. the lime
factory might be the most profitable part
of a .cannerv. "a
You look past the foreman into the fac
tory. dim with dense white dust. and in
auire how long man may be expected to
live in such an atmosphere. The foreman
assures you that. far from being unwhole-
some. the shell mill is a sanitartum for
ffov ~
more of the lime cure for tuberculosis?
Nature and man. cola orating against
the tnofensfye oyster. have at last reused
that mi1d-temDered mollusk to retaliation.
He retaliates by quietly dying off. The
natural oyster beds OF Europe are already
exhausted: those Of Connecticut. New
1 York. New JERSEY and Delaware are so
depleted as practically to be ished out.
Even that apparently inexfaustible store
in the Chesapeake begins to show marked
symptoms of decline. Everlasting is kill
Ing the goose that laid the golden egg.
There are two horns to this dilemma
You may. like Rhode Island and Connecti-
cut and New York. proceed to incubate a
new goose. substituting for natural beds
carefully soWD and tended oyster farms.
- candidate for congress in Kansas
charges an admission to his public NEE
sings- He probably has a long head.
There are many poorer circuses N IN a
Kansas stump speaking louisville Cou-
srieE-Journal
HIS Private Opinion.
All, ]" exclaimed the sentimental maid
as she sat on the moonlit balcony in bliss
fu1 proximity to the man after her own
heart "how love the beautiful starsy'
Yes, Of course. - rejofned the masculine
portion Of the company, whose thoughts
were wandering, and the chorus Girls
amt so worse. either. Z, Chicago News.