The Indianapolis journal., 1902-10-19
OYSTER AS A DELICACY
LOCAL RESTAURANTS ADVERTISE A
sBIG STEW FOR 70 CENTS,
william e. Loves, . Former Resi-
dent, Talks Of the Oyster Indus
try In Maryland Waters.

When such gratifying placards as those
which read big Stew for 20 Cents make
their temperance in the windows of the
restaurants, and when the familiar signs
vouchsaffng the joyous information that
you can have an ''oyster with every drink
are to be seen once more along the 'levee,"
one may feel quite certain that the oyster
season is ''on'' in earnest in Indianapolis.
Despite the fact that Indianapolis is so
far inland the best of the luscious Balti-
more shell-fish are easily obtainable here.
and the dealers say that this city is stead
lily growing in Importance as an oyster mar
ket. With the first crisp autumn weather
there was surprising demand for oysters
here, and the dealers were scarcely pre-
pared to meet it. According to the market
men this is to be an unusually big season
for oysters" and as the people of this city
| are destined to see more of the favorite
shell-fish this winter than before,
some information upon the subject of the
oyster industry may prove interesting.
GREAT MARYLAND INDUSTRY.
William Z. Loves, a former resident of
Indianapolis who now lives in Baltimore,
| and who was in the city for two days dur
| ing the last week, talked entertainingly
! one afternoon concerning the great Mary
land industry, a subject upon which he Is
| an authority. Hundreds Of canoes and
bateaus are now plying the waters of Ches-
| apeake bay where the st. Michael and
Choptank rivers flow into it, he said,
| land hundreds of other crafts are to be
| seen In Tangier and Pocomoke sounds,
| along the eastern shore of Maryland. The
method of taking the oyster from its home
in the depths is fascinating. Although the
places 1 just mentioned are the ia
vorite grounds for oystering, numer-
| Gus other sloops and small boats
are now engaged In the same work
| throughout the lower Chesapeake bay and
the rivers that are tributary. The small
crafts. such canoes and bateaus. are
manned by two or more fishermen who
make a business of oystering eight months
| in the year. These men are known as
| 'tongers;' their implements consists of a
| pair of tongs similar in appearance to two
hay rakes with the prongs facing each
| other, fastened to poles ranging from fif
teen to twenty-four feet in length. Each
| pair of tongs requires two persons to
manipulate it, and the size Of the catch de-
pends upon the strength of the tongers
When the oysterman locates his fishing
| ground he anchors his canoe and the great
| tongues immersed to the bed Of the
| river. The handles are forced apart and
the two men managing them push forward
toward each other, closing the prongs to-
gether thus scraping up the oysters on the
bed. Then the tongs are lifted and their
contents dumped into what is called the
'culling board The culling board is very
similar to a sieve, the apertures of it being
about two and half inches in diameter,
the regulation requirement by law. All of
the oysters which do not fall through the
apertures are placed in the boat, while
those that pass through the meshes are
thrown back into the water.
DISPOSE OF CARGOES.
when the canoes and bateaus are filled
to their capacity the fishermen take their
cargoes and dispose of them at the nearest
'pungy. A pungy is large sloop which
anchors in the midst of an oyster fleet and
receives the cargo of the smaller craft.
While there are many firms that hire reg
ularly a number of fishermen in small craft
to work for them alone, there are numbers
Of freebooters who gather their wares
and sell for the best price to be had. When
pungy has its full load 1t proceeds at
once to Baltimore, from which point the
oysters are shipped throughout the United
States. While longing is the initiative
method of oystering ii does not continue
extensively when the extreme cold weather
sets in, for then it is that dredging is the
process most generally pursued. An oyster
dredger commonly consists of a sloop which
is provided with two dredging machines in
the center of the boat, one on each side.
Each machine requires four to five men to
operate 1t, and consists of pair of heavy
steel tongs three feet in width, supple
mented at the back with a large wire bas-
ket SO that the oysters that are grappled
rapidly by the tongs are forced back to
the wire basket by the motion of the boat,
which is under SAIL When the basket is
filed 1t is brought to the surface by means
of windlass, and the contents disposed of
on the culling board. The culling process
is then gone through with just as in the
smaller boats. The laws governing longing
and dredging are very strict, and as the
fishing grounds for each method are sepa-
rated a heavy fine is imposed for the tres
passing of one upon the other
NOT AN EASY LIFE.
1.-THE life of the oysterman is anything
but an easy one. Many Of the men that
ply their business of oystering in winter
work at truck gardening in the summer
time. If man is going into business as
tonger he is obliged to pay a license of
1913 for the season. This license he is re-
quired to have with him at all times and
to show to any government Official who
may demand to see it before he can enter
the oyster fields, as the territory for oyster
ing in Maryland is confined to certain
limits. The man who hires himself out as
a dredger receives anywhere from $40 to
$50 month for his services. He is usually
hired by the captain of a sloop who pays a
dredgers license of $2.ss gross a ton. As
the law governing the size of the oysters
which are marketable is a very strict one. a
State inspector examines every load, and
fishermen are allowed per cent of their