Evening star., 1934-10-28

to have shed tears, figurative or other
wise, over the fate of the poor oyster.
One of our own poets, who was likewise
a famous physician, Oliver Wendell
Holmes, wrote the Ballad of the Oyster
man." which begins blithely with the
lines:
1t aOaS a tall young OyStermdn lived by
the riUer side;
His shop 1Oas just upon the bank, his
boat 1OdS on the tide;
The daughter of a fisherman, that 1DGS
so straight and slim,
Lined ODer on the other bank, riqht
opposite him.
But a great misfortune overlook this
lad and lass, as DR.. Holmes sadly related
at the end:
Alas, for those t10o loUing ones, she
naked not from her SUOund,;
And he loGS taken Nth crdmp and in
the 1odUeS t0GS drO10ned;
But fate has metdmorphoSed them, in
pity OF their noe,
And no1o they keep an oyster shop for
mermaids do10n belo1O.
CTHL, the sadness of the oysters fate
is more than made up for by the
pleasure he gives to others-to the many
creatures of the seas, such as the dog
welk and the starfish, who feed on him
in his natural habitat, and to man, who
drags him with tongs and dredges from
his happy home and life of ease to be
conveyed miles away, shucked and de-
voured-raw, steamed, roasted, Stewed,
Scalloped fried or in so many ways that
only a cookbook could enumerate them.
No one need have trouble to find
ample evidence of this glad fact. All
that is necessary is to glance over the
menu card of any Washington restau-
rant these cool days.
Nowadays oysters are extensively cul-
tivated Their spawn is called spat and
is planted" where the young oysters can
take hold of some hard substance, such
as a rock, a piece of old oyster shell, or
a big pebble, but where there is a soft
mud bottom and sand is not likely to
be washed by the waves and tide to cover
and smother them. There they grow
and prosper and are much better at
the adult age than the natural oysters in
many instances. Oysters of various spe-
cies are found in all tropical and tenn
perate countries, in salt and brackiSh
water, but persons who have travelled the
world over and eaten them everywhere,
agree with Capt. Barnacle that nowhere
is there member of the great family of
OStreidae so pleasant to the taste and
satisfying to the inner man as Ostrea
Virginica.
A book, and mighty interesting one,
too, could be written on Ostrea virginica
and his relatives, but only one more i'm
portant thing about him will be told
here. That is the value he has for
mankind entirely aside from his food
value, or even the value of the shells,
which are used to make lime, build roads
and for other purposes. 1t is to the oyster
that we owe one of the most beautiful
and priceless of all jewels-the pearl
which grows inside the shell. The Japa-
nese and others have even succeeded in
making the oyster produce pearls
whether he will or not, by introducing
a bit of foreign substance under his
shell.
In Northern city not long ago a
tramp, who had a great longing for raw
oysters, begged quarter on the street
and hurried into raw bar. Just as he
was finishing the last of his quarters
worth of oysters he spied fine pearl in
the opened shell. He quickly put it into
his pocket, but not too quickly for the
proprietor to see. The latter at once
laid claim to the pearl, and the tramp
resisted asserting that he had bought