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THE AMERICAN OYSTER.
The Journey From His Native
Element to Your Table.
THE CHESAPEAKE BAY DREDGER
The Many Hardships He Endures In Pluck
ing the Popular Bivalve From His Bed.
Where the Favorite Oysters Come From.
An Immense Annual Output.
“Dozen on the half!”
“Two stews in a hurry!”
“Plate of raws!”
You know how appetizing such words
sound when you are htßigry. We all
know, for we are the greatest oyster
eating people cn earth. In every other
part of the world oysters are a luxury.
With us they are a necessity. The gov
ernment, statisticians tell us that of the
35,000,000 busnels of oysters consumed
in the world each year the United
States furnishes 30.000,000 bushels.
We not only furnish them, but we eat
most of them, which is the best part of
it Uncle Sam knows a good thing when
he sees it, and the oyster is one of the
good things which he never fails to rec
ognize.
Just now the oyster is at his best.
When the chill November winds make
you reflect that it is nearly time to get
out that big winter ulster, then you can
better appreciate the comforting quali
ties of a good, hot oyster stew.
But just when the oyster most ap
peals to you is the time when the men
who drag him from his submarine bed
is having the fiardest kind of a time to
get him to the table. Probably you
never thought of thht. It’s just as well,
for the man who stands at the other end
of the line between you and the bottom
of the oyster beds doesn’t ask for sym
pathy from any one.
A rough looking individual he is,
with a bronzed, weather beaten face,
broad shoulders, horny hands and a con
stitution that will stand any sort of
weather. Take a Chesapeake oyster
man, for instance. Now, the Chesapeake
bay lies well within the moderate lati
tudes, but don’t you imagine that it is
at all warm there about this time of
the year. Not a bit. The winds which
sweep in past the capes after lashing
the Atlantic inte whitecaps for many
miles out at sea are raw and chilly.
Daylight finds our Chesapeake dredger
ready for work. Along about 5 o’clock
in the morning the cook of the bug eye,
which is a local name for a Chesapeake
/> mH
>1
WINDING IN THE DREDGE.
oyster boat, bangs on a tin pan and calls
all hands to breakfast. The. hands don’t
have far to come, for a bug eye is not a
very commodious craft. They simply
tumble out of their berths and find the
breakfast before them, steaming hot.
they are eating, the bug eye is
plunging along toward the oystertanks,
burying her nose now and then in a big
wave, for a good southeast wind will
raise large sized rollers in the bay. In
side tlje little cabin it is warm and com
fortable, for the galley stove is hardly a
dozen feet from the table, but when the
man at the tiller is relieved and comes
down his fingers are so stiff and numb
from cold that he can hardly hold his
tin coffee cup.
After breakfast the men pull on their
big, heavy sea boots, put on their oil
skins and draw down the flaps of their
tarpaulins over their ears. They have
not half finished their pipes when the
hatchway is opened and the gruff voice
of the captain is heard:
“Come, tumble up, boys! Here we
are!’ ’
Then they “tumble up”—that is, they
climb out on deck—and stand ready to
begin the day’s work. Whew, what a
place in Which to work! The stiff breeze
that heels the trim little schooner over,
even under reefed sails, is .keen and
cutting and often brings aboard a dash
of salt spray that cuts and stings the
skin like a whiplash. But the oyster
men are used to it. Three or four of
Insomnia
is often the result of some
wearing pain, slight in itself,
yet sufficient to prevent
sleep. Instead of using an
opiate apply an
Allcock’s
Porous Plaster
to the aching spot; relief
will come, and with welief,
sweet, refreshing sleep.
nn* of XontrnniH. See rnat you get
“ AllluvK's." Du but accept any other.
A flcock’s Corn Shields,
Alicock’s Bunion Shields,
Have no equal as a re’ief and cure for corns 1
and bunions.
Brandreth’s Pills.
Ain't puftty, the‘L; s
teai. facZ.tating nuaitfiy growth,.
them pick up the heavy dredge and bal
ance it on the rail, waiting for the word.
An oyster dredge is rather a hard
contrivance to explain to a person who
has never seen one. It looks more like
a big hay rake such as farmers use in
raking “scatterings” by hand. Along
the heavy bottom bar are 15 iron teeth.
Their number and distance apart are
regulated by law. Above these teeth is
a sort of bag made of rings of iron. The
teeth scrape the oysters from the bottom,
and the bag holds them until the dredge
is hauled to the top. Two iron chains
fastened to the ends of the rake meet in
a ring, into which is fastened another
chain and a rope. The single chain rune
around the drum of a windlass, which
is securely fastened to the deck amid
ships. On the rail of the bug eye is an
iron roller, over which the chain is
paid out.
“Stand by to heave!” shouts the cap
tain. “Let ’er go!”
And overboard, with a splash, goes
the dredge, while the chain rattles over
the roller, and the two arms of the
windlass fly round with the rapidity of
a buzzsaw. Woe to the luckless dredger
whose head gets in the way of those
swiftly revolving handles, for his skull
would be cracked open quicker than a
shucker could bisect an oyster. Occa
sionally an unfortunate wretch does
meet with such an accident, but hii
career as an oysterman usually ends
right there. One of the first things that
a dredger learns, however, is to keep out
of the way of the “winders” handles.
By this time the dredge is scraping
along the bottom of the bay, and the
iron teeth are rudely dislodging the oys
ters from the snug berths where they
have been reared and fostered. When
the captain thinks that the dredge is
about full, he throws the head of the
bug eye.up into the wind and calls out:
"Wind ’er up pow, boys!”
Then the men jump to the windlass
handles and wind. The chock piece rat
tles over the ratchet teeth, and the axle
creaks as the chain slowly comes in over
the roller and is coiled around the
drum. You don't have to take hold of
the handles to understand that it is
I tt I
k lift I
CULLING THE HAUL.
hard work. You can easily imagine how
your back would feel after you had done
that sort of work at intervals of half an
hour all day long.
When the dredge comes to the top of
the rail, it is dragged Jnboaid, and
everything w’hich it has accumulated i r s
dumped on the deck. All sorts of queer
sea products are brought up, but for the
most part the load consists of oysters
and oyster shells. Then the crew set to
work to throw the rubbish overboard
and sort the oysters. This work is called
“culling.” With a small hammer the
men knock the bunches of oysters apart,
remove the dead shells and the small
oysters and throw the good oysters into
bushel baskets.. When a basket is filled,
it is dumped into the hold, and count is
kept by throwing one oyster for each
basket into a little pile by itself. The
refuse is promptly thrown overboard,
for it is unlawful to dump shells any
where but on the oyster beds.
Meanwhile the dredge has been
thrown overboard again, and by the
time the proceeds of the first haul have
tJeen culled it is time for all hands to
jump to the winder again. This process
is continued all day long or until the
captain decides that he has secured a
load. Then he shakes the reefs out of
his sails and squares away for Balti
more, piling on every inch of canvas
that he has at his disposal, for he wants
to beat some other bug eye in the race
home.
This is the manner in which our oys
ters are bropght to us. The Chesapeake
oysterman z is taken as an example be
cause he is perhaps the most numerous,
for Maryland furnishes one-third of all
the oysters of the world, but the methods
employed on other oyster beds are sim
ilar. In the great South bay, on the
Long Island coast, whence come Jhe
famous Blue Points, the Rockaways
and other famous varieties, there are
great oyster farms controlled by rich
companies which use steam tugs instead
of sailing boats, but the dredges are
practically the same as those used on
the bug eyes. Then there are the tong
ers. A longer is an oysterman who goes
‘"wr r 1 J ■.
TONG ING FOR OYSTERS.
out alone in a small boat and fishes up
his oysters by means of a double handled
rake. The handles of these rakes are
from 20 to 25 feet long, and it takes a
strong man to work one of them.
Probably no two epicures will agree
as to which variety of oyster has the
best flavor. “Your congressman will most
likely insist, tha.t nothing finer that*
THE BOMu TBIBUNE, SuNiiAY, NoVtMBEIt 8 1896
steamed V irginra Lynn Havens was ever
tasted by man, while the Philadelphian
will turn up his nose at Lynn Havens
and declare tbit Shrewsbury river oys
ters or Maurice river coves are the finest
in the sea. The New Yorker is likely t«
be divided in LU allegiance, and while
one may prefer Blue Points another will
swear by Saddle Rocks.- Boston epicures
think that no more delicious shellfish
can be found than the cultivated oysters
from down New Haven way, and so it
goes.
The average citizen of inland cities,
far away from the Atlantic seacoast, is
apt to waive all questions of locality
and hail the oyster as a delightful mor
sel any way you take it, save only that
it shall be fresh and on the deep half
shell. John F. Willoughby.
Condensed Tt alimony.
Chas. B. Hood, Broker and Manufac
turer’s Agent, Columbus, Ohio, certi
fies that Dr. King’s New Discovery has
no equal as a Cough remedy. J. D.
Brown, Proprietor St. James Hotel, Ft.
Wayne, Ind., testifies that he was cured
of a Cough of two years standing caused
by LaGrippe, by Dr. King’s New Dis
covery. B. F. Merrill, Baldwinsville,
Mass., says that he has used and re
commended it and never knew it to
fail and would rather have it than any
doctor, because it always cures. Mrs.
Hemming, 222 E. 25th St., Chicago,
always keeps it at hand and has no fear
of Croup, because it instantly relieves.
Free Trial Bottles at D. W. Curry’s
Drug store.
A PECULIAR BUSINESS.
Breeding and Catching Leeches For the
New York Market.
James Partit and his children earn
all the money they make raising leech
es, for the work of breeding the blood
suckers on the Partit farm on Toms
river, near Lacy, N.«J., is nothing com
pared with the labor of catching them.
The wary leech will take hold of nothing
jut human flesh, so the members of the
Partit family, big and little, plunge
their legs into the swamp and draw
them up presently with the prey at
tached.
Farmer Partit doesn’t seem to think
a little blood letting hurts-one.
“They are as good as a dose of spring
physic,” says he. “Why, me and the
boys get so fat and healthy doing nothing
all winter that we need something like
this to keep us in order. If we fished
too long at a time, they might do some
harm, but we know when to stop. Aft
er the season is over we feel fresher and
better than if we hadn’t been leeching.
They are just like mosquitoes—they
suck out all the bad blood and leave
the good, and that’s why, I suppose, we
feel so good after a month’s work in the
swamp. I think we’d all have malaria
down in this wet place if it wasn’t for
the leeches. No man could wade through
such a mudhole without getting malaria
unless something helped him. ”
His farm yields 500,000 leeches a
year, and the price is 20 or 30 cents for
100, giving an annual income of SI,OOO
to the family. The market is New York
or Philadelphia, where the leeches are
distributed to the trade.
Half a century ago this would have
•been a great business, but the belief in
leeches has fallen off .in this country.
Europe clings to the practice, and Paris
consumes 3,000,000 leeches yearly,
while London finds use for over 7,000,-
000 a year.
James Partit or his boys, when wad
ing, discovered the presence of the leech
es in his swamps. He looked up the sub
ject and decided that he would supply
the American market, which hitherto
had depended on Europe. He found that
buyers preferred the Hungarian fellow
of olive green without spots, or else the
German leech, with dark green body
spotted below with black. He got a few
specimens and put them in the pond.
They multiplied rapidly after their ene
mies, the. water snakes, were extermi
nated, and soon the first leech pond in
the country was established. The young
are ready for market in about a year,
but reproduction takes three years. The
average life of a leech is 15 or 20 years.
Usually a healthy man can fish in the
swautp four or five hours without losing
enough blood to exhaust him. The leech
has three jawS and from 20 to 90 teeth.
.When these get going, in a short time
the leech will swallow five times his
weight in blood.
All this is more pleasant than the
practice elsewhere about New York of
fattening leeches for the market on de
crepit old horses which have been con
demned to the boueyard.—New York
Press.
. If there is any one thing that needs
to be purified, it is politics, so the re
former says, and many agree thereto.
But blood tells, and as a blood puri
flbr and liver corrector Simmons Liver
Regulator is the best medicine. “I
use it in perference to any other.”—
So wrote Mr. S M. Hvsell, of Middle
port, Ohio. And Dr. D. S. Russell, of
Farmville, Va., writes, “It fulfills all
you promise for it.
SOMES PLENDID WORK.
Being Turned Out by the Tribune
ing Ccmpeny.
The Tribune Publishing Company
is doing some splendid work in its
newly equipped job department.
No better work can be done any
where and prices are in accord with
the times and the ruling rates for such
work.
Mr. Sam Hudgins, who is an artist
in that line of work, has been added
to the force in that department, and
patrons of The Tribune may be as
sured that their orders wiil be filled
promptly and in th*- most artistic
manner.
Notice.
T wont every man and womin in tl.e
United Sutes interested in th3 opium
and whisky habits to have one of my
books of those diseases. Address B. M.
Woolly, Atlmta, Ga., Box 303, and one
will'be sent you fie?.-
B'ankets at Tnod £ any’ej
FREE
Jr jou senu your name and address, mention
ing this paper, tc Dr. Hathaway & Co., 22*4 So.
•rroatl Ct, quanta, Ga.. you will receive their
vainaoi" 64-page Reference Book for taen and
W omen.
This book has just been issued and Is full of
valuable information to those afflicted with any
of those delicate diseases jteculiar to men and
women. It tells bow to cure diseases. Dr.
Hathaway ® < o. are considered to be. expert in
the treatment of such diseases, and are without
doubt the leading specialists in the line of dis
eases wnlch they make a specialty of.
SPECIALTIES-
Specific blood poi- f
Boning, nervous de- 7
bility, kidney and ISfljW
urinaiy difficulties, Esy
strictures. varico- |Z v snfey
cele, byurocele, ptm
pies, pi'et, rheuma
tism, skin and blood ,
disease, ot all forms, SwSsSV
catarrh and diseases 7SSA
of women.
orca'ion Dr. Hath
away & 0., 22% So. Broad st., Atlanta, Ga.
Mail treatment given by sending for symptom
blank No. 1 for men, No. 2 tor women, No. 8
for skin diseases, No. 4 for catarrh.
' M. A. THEDFORD’S
VEG-E TXT R, E
Fop' f &L'fi>STlV£N£Sf
dyspepsia I Sick oh
{neuc£st/on\ \ N hcadac S he.
B/UO i'SHESS \ J A UNDICE
SoURi.ESS aF
STCMACH Appetite
None Genuine Without The Likeness And
Signature ofM.A.Thedford on FrontOf
Each Wrapper. M.A.Theoford Med.(§
—ROME , G A .
Health is Wealth.
| BRALm" 1
jWfll EAT M E NUgjjg|
DR. E. C. WEST’S
NERVE AND BRAIN TREATMENT
THE ORIGINAL, ALL OTHERS IMITATIONS,
la sold under positive Written Guarantee,
by authorized agents only, to cure Weak Memory,
Dizziness, Wakefulness, Fits, Hystetia, Quick
ness, Night Dreams, Lack of Confi
dence. Nervousness, Lassitude, all Drains, Youth
ful Errors, or Excessive Use of Tobacco, Opium,
or Liquor, which leads to Misery, Consumption,
Insanity and Death. At store or by mail, $1 a
box; six for $5; with written guarantee to
cure or refund money. Sample pack
age. containing five days r treatment, with full
instructions, 25 cents. One sample only sold to
each person. At store or by mail. _
Label Special
Ex,ra Strength.
?vJ F° r Impotency, Loss of wSw ■' <r w
Power, Lost Manhood, tL , fa.’,
yy&nk Sterility or Barrenness.-,. W
a t* ox ’ B * x I° r
gjaJp*JW®written guaranteegy>WVEK.
to cure in 30 days. At storm V
GEFOREor by mail. AFTER
For sale by D. W. Curry & Company, Wholesale
Druggist, Rome, Ga. «
CHANGE v
BUT \y
POZZONI’S y
vComplexionv
POWDER X
iji REMANS ALWAYS THE SAME.
XThe finest, purest and most beauti- \Z
tying toilet powder ever made. It is yh
soothing, healing, healthful and
A harmless: and when rightly used is /K
Invisible. If you have never tried rVI
A POZZONI’S A
you do not know what an IDEAL
hISPLEXION POWDER is.
A IT IS SOLD EVERYWHERE. A
A A
£»»<&>««&
Buy a
Smooth
White H y!
Skin
For Your Face!
It probably needs renewing, for it is rough, red,
freckled, blotched or pimpled, until It has become
repulsive instead of attractive. Healthy skin is
always beautiful. The sun and wind, impute
soaps and cosmetics injure the skin.
Viola Cream
cleanses, nourishes and restores the skin, making
it soft, white and beau Iful. It t.i not a cosmetic
•—does not cover up, but remu<‘* blemishes. It
is harmless and always does Ju. what we claim
for it. The only preparation .hat wiil positive'? -
remove Freckles, Blockheads, Tan, bunburn and
Pimples. Hundreds c f testimonials from promi
nent ludies. P*ice 50 cents a Jur **t druggists.
a. c. bittnf” ’o., Toledo, ohio.
For Delicacy,
for purity, and for improvement of the com- I
plexion nothing equals Pozzoni’s Powder. J
3K. b. C. PARSOtIt
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Office 7%H.Broad St. HouisU t<l
For pamphlets, question lists- oi
private Information address v itt
«tamo. ■IILS.C. I’lßliOM. t.i
Mammoth Slaughtering Sale!
a
2VT THE
CUT PRICE HOUSE OF
W. H. Coker & Co.
A WORD TO THE WISE.
»
The cold wave is coming and we are prepared to make
everybody comfsrtable. We are offering for the month of
November our entire stock of
CLOTHING, OVERCOATS
And Gents’ Furnishing Goods
at the very lowest prices at which they can be bought at
the factory. We have one of the most complete lines of
Cents’ Underwear ever shown in this town, which we pro
pose to sell at prices never before heard of in the history
of this town. Now if you are in need of anything in our
line of Gents’ Furnishings it will pay you big to call on
us and get our prices
Dress Goods! Dress Goods!
We have one of the nobbiest lines of Woolen Dress
Goods that hat been opened in this market this season, all
of which will go at the very lowest cash prices. All we
want is for you to call and examine,
LADIES’ HATS.
We have just received today by express several dozen
Ladies’ Hats. Sailors in all styles and colors, Trimmed
Hats just as nobby as can be, new and up-to-date styles.
Our line of Notions is complete in every respect, and
if you aie in need of anything in the small Notion line we
would be glad to show and price you our goods.
A WORD ABOUT OUR
Slioe Stools.!
Our stock can’t be surpassed. We sell more Shoes
than any two houses in Rome, and if you wi 1 call you can
find it so. Our working man’s Shoe for SI.OO beats the
world. x
Trunks, Trunk , Valises, Telescopes, Umbrel
las, Rubber Coats, Leggiip, Caps, Over
shoes and Boots —All go at the
Lowest Cash Prices.
W. H. COKER & CO.
THI MAMMOTH CUT PRICE REUSE,
1 9 and 21 Broad Street,
ROME, - - GEORGIA-