Evening star., 1909-09-12

then put em ashore as soon as we can.
But usually if we let 'em alone to think
it over. they had rather work than to
loaf. for it, gets awful lonesome with
nothin' to do OF course. those men have
signed with us, and the marine laws al
lows us to put EN- in irons il they are
but we seldom resort to
that unless they become violent and
dangerous. When we reach port. they
always skip and then we get new lot.
We all eat in the regular cabin, and
me and my mate, and the cook sleep
there in those hunks. The men sleep
in that hold down there. 1t amt been
fixed up yet. but it's an all right place
Gt was horribly dark hole which 10
amount of fixing would make habit
able for human beings.) I'VE have a
first-class cook, hired man. you know,
not a shipped man. He Is a colored
country This probably expresses the
contempt felt for the shipped men better
than ANYTHING else. The colored cook.
who is hired. sleeps in the fore cabin
with the captain and mate, while the
white crew sleep in the hold.
I'VE are obliged to carry staples of
all kinds. when we start out on trip.
and provide my men with everything the
market affords in season. We have dessert
pies and puddings. and all that three
or four times week at least"
"Ho. ho," cried the man who has had
seventeen years experience as ".redg-
err when did you ever have pie for the
men Say. you know YOU don't have
dessert no time. You give EN- beans ad
fat-back and molasses. that's what you
give 'em, now, don't you?''
Il give my men just what / eat my
SELF said the captain.
"M'ybe,'' retorted the other. but IL
there's any pie fioatin' around, the shipped
men don't git 1t. Ny be you eat what
they have, but I'll bet they don't get all
YOU have. Ha, ha / followed II seven
teen years. cap, an y'u can't put it over
me like that. Fat-back. bread and mo-
lasses for breakfast, before day. bean
soup or potato soup, bread an coffee, fer
dinner, at eleven er twelve, an fat-back,
bread and molasses fer supper, after dark
in the evenin'-thats the ticket, amt it,
cap?'
II give my men good feed. the same as
as | have myself reiterated the bother
ed captain Il have fresh and canned
vegetables always on hand. and my men
can eat all the oysters they will shuck.
They're mostly too lazy to shuck 'em,
though"
He of seventeen years experience gave
big laugh. and explained that it was
rare instance when shipped man had
any oysters to eat. as the good large
ones, called .'culs were for sale pur-
poses and the small ones were dumped
back into the bed to grow some more"
They don't snip men to feed 'em on
OYSTERS" he said: they ship 'em TO git
'em for sale, that's ALL.
The oyster is very fruitful. 1t will
spawn on any old thing in the bottom of
the water. There is a sort of mucous
which is constantly exuding from the
closed shell of an oyster. and this being
caught by any object Immediately begins
to grow. They grow SO thickly at first
that they die out until the healthy num-
ber is accomplished when they begin a
steady growth, until at the end of three
years they are large eatable oysters.
ready for the ''tonger' the "dredger,
and the palate of the epicure. Oysters
have been found to have spawned on an
old iron shovel. or an old gum boot or
any thing which presents a body su...-
cient to catch the spawn and form the
bed for the oyster growth. Shells of
oysters are used in great abundance,
many of the oyster boats taking loads of
shells on their outward trips to dump into
the bottom for the next years spawning.