Evening star., 1934-03-04
TONGERSRELEASE
OYSTERS FROM ICE
1haW Ends Five.We Elk
Freeze and Season
Is Resumed.

BY CHARLES d. DEGGES.
~ ARYLANDS water country
M was all askew.
I" Oyster men were making
l what catches they could in
wheelbarrows and sledges.
"Buy- boats" were replaced by auto
mobile trucks. Folks who went Avis
tting were walking across creeks they
ordinarily have to travel through
miles Of back country to skirt. Water
men had abandoned longing shafts
for mattock handles and were cut
ting into tick-harboring underbrush
instead of tearing at oyster bars. Men
were saving ice instead of wood. And
the women folk were cooking scant
iare-and that mostly beans-for
their families, who were saying it
would be right nice" to slap at mos
Quitos again.
These we're some Of the topsy-turvy
conditions which a photographer and
q reporter for The Star found during
the past week on tour Of the water
bound peninsula of Southern Mary
land between the Potomac River and
the Chesapeake Bay, while the worst
freeze in II years held everything in
wise of ice. The neWsmen's tour
began while the freeze was still fast
and while men who had not been
able to ply their trade afloat for five
dreary weeks were detected and fear
full lest the oyster season would pass
before the ice broke. It ended yes
terday when the thaw enveloped the
water country In warm embrace
that sent men out In back-breaking
efforts to crash channels through the
10 to II inch ice to open water where
lay the oyster bars.
Faced Abject Poverty.
Probably the worst conditions were
found in the upper reaches of the
oyster country of the Potomac-in
the Wicomico River, where 300
licensed tongers Of Charles County
were facing abject poverty because of
the icy grip on their means Of a liveli-
hood. The longing feet there was
frozen tight in Neale Sound behind
Rock Point. Twelve inches of solid
ice bearing several more inches Of
snow and frozen slush held the
oyster industry impotent. Conse-
quently not only were the families Of
the 300 tongers facing want, but the
people whose living was earned
ashore-in shucking houses and other
allied businesses dependent upon the
bivalve crop-were suffering with
them. Little money had been made
for several years and none had any
savings to speak Of. So, when five
long weeks of work were lifted from
an already limited season, only suffer-
ing could result.
The shore storekeepers have been
doing their best to extend credit to
the watermen, but even they are
hard pressed nowadays. Their own
credit IS being restricted, and they are
sharing with their customers the ills
Of q hard Winter. That their families
might eat, the oystermen of the
Wicomico River are "denting" rather
badly the game law which says that
ducks shall not be shot now The
seasons closed" the game wardens
insist. But the watermen say they
must eat and game laws be damned!
The Maryland watermen don't feel
any too kindly disposed toward certain
conservation laws" anyway, the news
men found. They are ranked by the
attitude taken by Bruce Wilmer, the
State conservation inspector who
staged q spectacular raid on Eastern
Shoremen who were using hand
scrapes to take oysters in the Potomac
earlier In the Winter. Wilmer, who
arrested II Of the "Shoremen" a few
days before Christmas, said he was
acting to protect Southern Maryland
oystermen from the encroachments Of
the Shoremens illegal tactics. He said
the Eastern Shore oystermen were
taking the bread out Of the Southern
Marylanders' mouths
They've Got to Eat"
"Those boys weren't doing that be-
cause they wanted to-" declared ttS
Wicomoco River men. whom Wilmer
said he was protecting" They've
got to eat and that's all they were
trying to do. They were scraping out
there in deeper water anyway. And
its our idea they got raw treatment"
These were the general views ex-
pressed or seconded by such tongers
as John Alvey, Raymond Stine, Henry
6tine, Thomas Simms and all the rest.
Washingtonians know practically all
Of them. They take Capital residents
fishing when it's warm.
The next stop on the tour was
Compton. flshermen's settlement
there on Coombe's Creek, the little
inlet OF Breton Bay just below Leon
ardtown. The story there was identi-
cal with that on the Wicomoco River.
Capt. Jack Mattingly said he had not
had his boat out for five weeks. He
pointed out that oystering isn't very
lucrative at best. The tongers are
taxed in the longing licenses they must
buy; they're taxed for the boats they
work, and they even pay a road tax on
the gasoline they burn in their boat
engines.
A bit Of irony crept into Cap'n
Jacks voice as he recited these taxes.
Tho man who runs q pleasure boat
gets refund from the State on the
road tax he pays when he buys his
gasoline. But the man who works a
boat because it's the way he makes his
living-well, he helps pay for the
roads he has no particular use Of.
A little further down Bretons Bay,
in little inlet. was the 36-foot motor
boat william J. Taylor, owned, cap
tanned and worked for living by
Capt. William j. Taylor himself. The
boat was frozen fast in the ice against
. wharf and Cap'n Taylor was nursing
. cold. He was Just In from a narrow
escape out In the Potomac. He had
taken advantage Of q respite In the
weather to try to break his way out
to oyster grounds in the Potomac last
week. A vicious storm broke with
bitter cold. It was the heavy snow
storm which crippled Washington's
transportation system. Cap'n Taylor
ran in behind Higgins Point, there at
the mouth Of Breton Bay and he lay
there for four days, unable to get
ashore, and daring not venture any
where else.
ChopDed Way Home.