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Oi'STKKMM.
‘Loys.erOoe, Their Only Xdle Nffontli—
on a Fresh
Water Spree—Plant- .
jug the Beds. • *
\ f
month it • ttz>q”
August is the only , in ‘
CT-hea the Tenth North and Rj Eleventh ver stfficts ron , ^
-v
tween with the masts of smart 1 e y -
thick AH the rest 0 ® ea ' .f''
ter boats. from Prince ? s ay, -
are sprv sloops Shrewsbury and the inlets of
the stout seagoing schoou-
Connecticut, with
down the Jersey coast, from
Delaware Bay and even from .the shallow
waters of far Chineoteague. 4 Nine hum
dred and ninety-nine' New Yorkers out
of a thousand have never seen an oyster
sloop except, perhaps, from the Brook-
lyn Bridge or from the deck of a ferry-
boat. Several hundred of these little
vessels ply between New \ ork and the
neighboring bays. If all slodps look alike
to you, as they do to most persons, you
would hardly know an oyster boat from
a pleasure yacht; aud, indeed, the oyster
sloofi makes a very fair yacut for those
who do not insist upon the last second of
speed and the utmost limit of beauty.,
Walk through one of the big scows that
help to form a solid wooden wall along
tbe oyster .wharves. , Standing on the
I back porch of the scow, so to speak, you
! i 00 k down upon a dozen oyster, sloops,
bi <r and little. They run from ten to
twenty tons, and carry mainsail, jib, top¬
sail and jib-topsail, i They are trim mod¬
els, and on the stern you see in gilt let¬
ters a feminine name, followed by an ini¬
tial—a delicate tribute to some.wife or
sweetheart. Oysters are piled all about
the deck, aud the hold is full, The
cabin, however, is clean and cozy, with
small stove, bunks, a few plates, and
here and there a picture. Uusuallv there
' are three men to each vessel, but the
schooners from down the coast carry
more.
You may buy a good oyster sloop
$'2000. Dredges, tongs, skills and floats
cost another $1000, and having bought
or leased your laud under water,you must
have-something in bank while your crop
grows. In fact, $5000 is little enough
to begin on, if you wish to be a well-
equipped and independent oysterman.
Ten acres well sown with seed oysters
will yield a handsome income in three
years,, but you must keep on sowing if
you would continue to reap. Most of the
oystermen have partners among the
oyster dealers ot New "York, The
New Yorker furnishes the capital, the
oysterman the skill, muscle and
knowledge. It is a hard life for the
oystermen. They have their little homes
down along the shore, not far from the
oyster beds. Ihere Is planting on the
mud in ton to twenty-five feet of water ;
transplanting to hard bottom in shallow
water; dredging, tonging and fattening.
This last process is called giving the
oyster “a drink. It is done thus. The
salty oysters, from Prince’s Bay, Staten
Island.are brought from their briuy beds
to the fresher water of the north shore
and dumped out-on -a float. This looks
like un aquatic hencoop. It is made of
stout planks, nailed to cleats, with a
space of half an inch between each plank,
Around the platform thus made are
nailed heavy log§,Which serve the double
purpose of walls • and floaters.* The
oysters are dumped doWn on the slatted
float and the logs are buoyant enough to
prevent the whole from kinking. For
twelve or fifteen hours the -oysters are
permitted to “drink” the fresh water,
It is really a fresh-water spree, for the
oysters come from their drink bloated
far beyond their original size. Oyster-
men say that a thousand oysters thus
treated show when shucked a gaiu of
fully a gallon in bulk. They also cleanse
themselves of sand, lose their strong
saline taste and improve in odor. The
Shrewsbury River oysters need no such
treatment, for they grow iu water con-
siderably less salt than that of Prince’s
Chineoteague oysters come fron Chin
coteague Sound, a broad, shallow body
of water off the coast of Accomack
County, Virginia, between Chineoteague
Island and the mainland. The whole
sound is thick with saplings that mark
the boundaries of oyster beds. These
oysters are long, narrow and white. The
island is inhabited almost solely by fisher-
men of one sort or another, and the shore
tor miles is lined in midsummer with dis-
used oyster boats.
The coves and inlets of Delaware Bay
are rich in oysters, and some of them
reach this market.
There are few merrier sights than a
little haven filled with Delaware Bay
oyster boats. There may be no town
within miles, but the oysermen form a
village in themselves. The boats lie close
together, so that social visits are easilv
exchanged. fiddles There are sure to be a few
in the fleet; “peach an’ honey”
is not wanting, and tobacco is abundant,
There is nothing cozier than one of these
warm, when lighted cabins on a blustery night,
the clouds are scudding overhead,
Aihite caps are breaking far as eye can
reach and the sound of fiddles-comes in
musical gusts from neighboring cabin*
mingled whistling with the creak and the°sound of
winds. ,A sound night’s sleep
on board is followed by early stirring, and
sm< *e of breakfast rising from a
-ozen cabins by the first streak of dawn.
men follows a spreading of canvas, a
ar P race for the oyster beds and a day
of toil, to be succeeded by another coz*'
night inshore.
There is little hint of aU this at the
oyster wharves in New York, but there
are plenty of picturesque sights at the
foot of West Tenth street. There are
grizzled beards, tarpaulined heads and
weatherbeaten features in abundance.
Stout leather tips, like finger stalls, pro¬
tect the nails and finger ends of those
who pile the oysters into baskets, whil°
those who carry the slimy cargo ashore
protect breast and right shoulder with a
broad flap of sole leather. The ovster
wharves are an unknown region to most
personS) but a few epicures, who like to
eat t - oyster i jj j t
ce a most; as soon as e s ou
of his bed, go down to the foot of Tenth
street agd gorge themselves with oysters
opened on deck while the eaters wait.—
JYtic'York Star.
' 'V'- The Somals.
The Somals are “kittle cattle” to deal
w itb. Armed to the teeth with spears,
daggers and clubs, they are equally skill-
f u j anc j re ckless in the use of them. The
men ]i ve to fight and to talk; what work
g ets done is done by the women. Tribal
Avars are incessant; sanguinary social
q Uarre i s ar e of everyday occurrence, and
jf death seldom ensues, it is because the
clansmen on either side are zealous tc
se p ara te the combatants before the fine
f or homicide, borne in common by the
relatives of a manslayer, is incurred.
Camel driving is almost the only form of
ma seuline industry, yet it does not ap-
pear that time hangs heavy on the Somal’s
hands. Hairdressing and dyeing (for he
aspires to a blonde chevelure) agreeably
occupy a good deal of it; and his por¬
tentous and inexhaustible loquacity is
often indulged at the expense of sleep, i
Ethnologically, the Somals may be de¬
scribed as Arabized Gallas. Although
not aboriginal, since traces of a prior
tumulus-building and fish-eating people
abound near the coast, they have prob¬
ably occupied their present territory foi
some millenniums. Through the ex¬
ample of Greek merchants trading tc
Mosylon for myrrh and ivory, the Somal-
substituted for a partial clothing of skins
(Which even now survives among some
of their outcasts) the dignified “sagnrc
Arsinoeticum;” and their present national
costume is perhaps the most purely
ciaggfca! to be met w jth outside the
sphere of antique statuary. It consists,
for men and women alike, of a “tobe,’
or gtraight piece of cotton cloth (printed,
or ^hite with a crimson border) two
breadths wide and some twelve feet long,
draped in graceful folds about the body
and fastened on the left shoulder. San-
dais are worn on the feet, strings of
g aud y beads about the neck, amulets in
the most suitable situations for warding
off malefic influences. The physiognomy debased
0 f this people is of a high type,
by the brutality of ages. The color ol
their skin runs through all the shades of
| )roW n. Their figures are tall and slender,
y e t strong and well poised. They are
0 ft e Q skilled in horsemanship and adepts
elepliaut hunting, yet, through dig-
a jty or laziness, employ low-caste tribes
ai . me d with poisoned arrows, to bring
down their game .—Edinburgh Reciew.
Eight of a Turtle and Saahe. 4
One of the most amusing fights that
ever occurred in Alabama w’as witnessed
by two hunters on the Warrior River, a
few days ago, between a black snake and
a mud turtle. What the causus helium
was is not known, but the snake had
wound itself around the turtle’s shell
and was trying to make some impression
on its back with its fangs. The turtle
took things good-naturedly, seemingly,
and every once in a while would poke
out his head to see if the snake was look-
i D g. if the snake’s head was too close,
the turtle would draw himself back into
the shell, and if the head was far enough
away the turtle would seize his antago-
n i s t, and when the snake, mad with pain,
tried to revenge himself, the turtle would
go back in his shell. This strange war-
fare was kept up for several hours, when
the turtle succeeded in getting his anta-
gonist by the throat and nearly severed
the head from the body. Then, with the
snake still wrapped around it, the turtle
reached the water, and the clead snake
floated off on the surface. The turtle
had been victorious.
Ball-Players Experiment.
At Washington the Boston League
P la y ers tried the experiment of catching
!l b^seh'dl tossed from the top of Wash-
Monument. Nichols, Donovan
iind Hodgman ascended to the top of the
Monument, carrying with them three
kalis. To get the direction of the wind
a hat was first dropped, and was twenty
seconds reaching the earth. Then came
the tirst baU - U was i ust seven seconds
before it struck terra firma, aud out of
the reach of any player. Although the
bal1 could be distinctly seen during its
eQtire fli g ht . 14 * as impossible to judge
its course with an >' accurac y whatever,
Tbe second ball was just six and one-
T» arter seconds in reaching the ground,
and a g a i Q no 0Qe was withia reach of it.
The third baU came down *“ the same
time as the second one ’ and Wlth the
same result .—New York Telegram.
*
The total population of Greenland at
the end of 188S was 10,291. There had
been 162 deaths during the previous
year, of which thirty-one had been by
drowning from the native canoes and ten
by o tber accidents.
* ---—-
The estimated population of Ne w York
State is o7&00,Ot>0.
TERROR IN BATTLE. •
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES OF A
VETERAN.
inecdoteB of Bull Run, Fredericksburg,
Malvern Hill, Antietam, etc.
During the war we used to read of
companies falling back, regiments
giving ground, and brigades becoming
demoralized, and the average reader
took it for cowardice and openly ex¬
pressed liis contempt. No man ever
went into battle twice alike. No com¬
pany, regiment or brigade were,, ever
situated twice alike. A man maybe
very brave in one battle and,-very
timid in the next. His physical and
mental conditions have much to do
with it. A private soldier knows the
position of his entire brigade irf a fight.
If the position is a strong one lie is
encouraged; if the flanks are exposed
or the defenses weak he is nervous and
apprehensive.
It is a grand stake the soldier plays
for in battle. If lie wins he. may live
on until the next tight. If he loses he
gets a headstone in a national cemetery.
I cannot make you understand the
situation better than to give you per¬
sonal experiences. The great majority
of soldiers had the same feeling and
passed through the same experiences.
'AJ first B.ttllTiiin my brigade gained
ground for several hours. This, with
a small loss of men, kept us encour¬
aged. . Indeed, it was hard for the
officers to restrain us. Every man
was hopeful and determined, and any
single company would have charged a
regiment. Tee panic had upset thous¬
ands before it touched us. Indeed, the
retreat had been going on for two
hours before we got word. We were
well in hand and ready to advance
when the news reached us. In five
minutes every man was shaky.
In ten minutes men whose faces were
powder-stained were sneaking out of
the raaiks to gain' the rear. In a
quarter of an hour half a company of
confederates could have driven the
whole brigade Iike.a fiock of sheep. I
saw men cry like children. I saw
others 'tremble and sit down from
weakness. Every fresh report added
to the feelirg of terror, and by and by
pride and discipline gave way to a
grand rush, and it was every man for
himself. No one would stop to rea¬
son. No one cared whether lfis com¬
rade was ahead or behind. This was
called cowardice, but it was not. It
was panic—the terror of battle—a
senseless -but powerful something
which "Seizes the bravest men and
makes children of them.
In tJjye streets of Fredericksburg I
puav Federal soldi.rs discharge their
muskets into the air, Avhen the enemy
Avas Avithin point-blank range. I saw
plenty of them drop on their faces and
tremble and groan and cry. This avus
a case Avhere every man saA\ T the hope-
lessness -of attack. lie felt that he Avas
pushed forward to be shot dosvn
There \Vas no Avav for retreat until the
lines should fall back. On the other
hand, tho confederate troops posted
behind the stone wall at the foot of
Mayre’s Hill joked and smoked, and
were iii the highest spirits, feeling
themselves secure from bullets and
knowing they could beat back any
force. One of them told me that after
taking a dead aim on thirteen different
men and dropping every one of them
he refrained from firing tho next quar-
terof an hour out of sheer pity for the
human targets being shoved up to meet
death.
At Malvern Hill my regiment lay in
the dry bed of a creek at the foot of
the elevation. It was a natural rifle-
pit, and sheltered us so well that we
had only a slight loss in killed and
wounded. As the confederates charg¬
ed across the fields Ave felt to pity them.
Wo poured in our volleys without fear
of danger in return, ani out of fi\ r e
confederates Avho rushed into our lines
in their bewilderment three were cry¬
ing and sobbing. It wasn’t coAvardice
but terror. No coward could have
been induced to march across those
meadows in the face of that terrific lire
from cannon and musketry.
At Cold Harbor, after beating off
eA T erything in our front, and while
most of the men were cheering, son e
one started the report that the confe d ’
erates had gained our rear. Two
thousand men broke back like a lot of
boys, some eA*en throwing their guns
'away, and the jeers of the other troops
had no effect until the frenzy had had
time to evaporate. At Gettysburg my
regiment bad the cover of a stonewall,
and we knew that we were well sup¬
ported. We hoped for a charge, and
when it came every man was cool and
calm , and confident. One band of
prisoners numbering about thirty was
led past us on their way to the i*ear,
and I noticed that many were crying
and all were whitefaced. I have seen
the best soldiers and the oldest fighters
win their medals in one battle and
show the white feather in the next.
I saw a second lieutenant almost cry
for the privilege of leading a charge
at Antietam, and yet at Chantilly he
fell into a ditch and pretended to be so
liit as to drop behind in the charge.
Cowards never go to war. If
they get into the ranks through the
draft they desert or commit suicide.
It is only brave meii who face the grim
monster on a field of battle, and next
to the foe his worst enemy is a terror
which siczes him as a chill or fever
might come on, and there is no remedy
for it except to get away from the
screaming missiles of death until one’s
nerve and sand return.
A Colossal Engineering Project.
The drainage of the great valley of
Mexico, which has at last been defi¬
nitely undertaken, will be one of the
most interesting works in the history
of engineering, whether we look at the
stupendous proportions of the project,
or at ihe magnitude, of the sanitary
advantages which will accrue from its
completion. A sanitary engineer
would say that the capacious valley, in
the middle of which lies tin City of
Mexico, was, notwithstanding its fer¬
tile soil and admirable climate, not in¬
tended by nature for the habitation of
a teeming population. It is a deep, cup-
like depression, surrounded by a moun¬
tain rampart and possessing no natural
outlet for water or sewerage. Never¬
theless, for many centuries, not only
since the Spanish conquest, but in
AztelTahd the still remoter Toltec times
the valley has been densely populated.
The result is that the ground on
which the large cities stand reeks with
corruption, and the adjacent stagnant
lakes are clogged w ith age-long ac¬
cumulations of filth, engendering the
most dangerous miasmatic and tv-
phoidal conditions. If the masses of
Mexican people were not in the habit
of drinking pulche instead of water,
they Avould by continually, decimated,
for it is impossible'in the City of
Mexico to procure pure drinking water
except, by distillation. Under the
Spanish viceroys, an attempt was made
to drain the valley, and a tunnel for
that purpose was driven through one of
the rocky Avails- that hem it in. But
through some miscalculation of the
constructors, the opening A\as begun
at too high a point and is noAV useless-
The neAV boring Avill be made at a
level Ioav enough to effectually drain
4be lakes. [The Ledger.
Wedding Rings.
The latest thing in Avedding rings
comes from England, and is a narrow
but thick circlet of 22-carat fine gold.
This lias come in falfion in Amer-
ica in the course of the last year,
replacing the old style ring, which is
both heavy and wide, being sometimes
half an inch broad. These latter have
been in use as far back as I can re¬
member. The Get mans always buy
two plain ;roid rlngS) the lady giving
one to her betrothed and he one to
her. The “alliance” ring is some-
timcs ca!lcd for> aml often manufac-
tm .. d to onler . p i s made of tAvo
circlets fitting into each other and
coming apart something like a pnfczle,
and is a revival of a very old stvle.
The ordinary Avedding ring costs from
$7.50 to $15, although the English
ring is somewhat more expensive.
In engagement rings individual taste ia
the only laAV, but set stoues are great
faA'ox-ites. A novelty Is a ring of three
circlets, almost as narrow as wire,
each set with a band of different stones,
6nch as pearls, turquoises and conch-
shells.—St. Louis Globe-Democrat.
x Bounty For Sparrows.
.
In Dorchester, England, a bounty of
8 cents per dozen is offered for old
sparrows, 4 cents per dozen for young
ones and 1 1-2 cents per dozen for
eggs. The sparrows have grown so
i 'numerous all through Dorsetshire
j that in some places they are said to de¬
stroy half the crops, while iu Aillages
they ruin the gardens and cv.n strjp
the thatch from buildings.
TOWING CITY OF PARIS.
THE CAPTAIN OF THE ADRIATIC?
GIVES HIS VERSION.
Laid by the Steamer for About Seven
Hours and Left Her.
The White Star steamship Adriatic
brought in to-day the true version of
what occurred when she steamed many
miles out of her course to assist the •
disabled Inman liner, the City of Paris,
early on the morning of March 28.
This version will be observed to differ
a good deal from the version which
made the Adriatic flit by, “hardly
checking her engine, saying that she
would take passengers to New York,
hut would not tow us to Fastnet,” and
followed her with the execrations of
the City of Paris’ passengers. Capt.
William Roberts of the Adriatic says
he observed a boat from the
City of Paris in charge of
the chief officer at 1:30 A. M.
He immediately stopped and took
the chief officer aboard. “He reported
tiie condition of his ship,” Capt. Rob¬
erts said, “and said that Capt. Wat¬
kins wished to be towed to' Queens-
town. 1 told him that I had the Eng¬
lish mail aboard, and that I would not
feel justified in towing the City ol
Paris, but that I would do all in inv
power to .save life. Another steam¬
ship, which I supposed to be the City
of Chester, of the Inman line, hove in
sight- just then, and I sent up' rockets
at fnjquent intervals to intercept her.
She was bound west, and was within
four miles of the Adriat f c. The boat
of the City of Paris, with the chief
officer aboard, meanwhile had been
put between the west bound steamer
and our ship.
The steamer kept on without paying
any attention to our signals, which she
must have observed. The chief officer
hoarded us again. I tohl him I was
going to the City of Paris, to save life
if necessary, but not to tow her, and
asked him to go back with me. He
declined, saying he would make for
the land. It was now 4 o’clock. On
our way to the City of Paris we sight¬
ed the Aldersgate, bound for Liver¬
pool. We signalled her, and I sent
my chief officer aboard. Her captain
said he would go to the City of Paris
and help to take some of the passen¬
gers from her if necessary.
We then proceeded in company
with the disabled ship. We were pre¬
pared to take the passengers’to Queens¬
town or New York if necessary.
When we arrived along-side - of the
City of Paris an officer from her came
aboard and said that Capt. Watkins
wifiied us to tow his ship to Queens¬
town. I answered that 1 had come to
save life. After tho officer had con¬
veyed tny refusal to tow tho City of
Paris, Capt. Watkins hoisted the sig¬
nals, ‘Thanks; go ahead.’ We then,
at G:54 o’clock, piocceded, leaving tire
Aldersgate and the City of Paris in
communication. We received no in¬
timation from either Capt. Watkins
or the officer who came aboard that
the City of Paris was in danger of
foundering. We stopped within a
ship’s length of the Inman boatj and
waved for the captain’s representative
to come off’ in a boat. She did not
seem to be in any danger.
There was a long westerly swell, but
the sea was not rough, and there were
no indications of a sterm. When Capt.
Watkins signalled that we could pro¬
ceed, we saw no reason for remaining.
That Capt. Watkins appreciated our
services in bringing the Aldersgate to
him and in offering to save life if nec¬
essary,was apparent by his signal thank¬
ing us.’' . t
The Adriatic had 893 passengers
aboard herself, beside her large crew.
There were over 1000 souls on the City
of Paris. The Adriatic passed 21 ice¬
bergs off’ the banks within a space of
100 miles.
The first officer of the City of Chest¬
er, which arrived yesterday, said they
did not sight the Adriatic on the trip,
and that if they had ‘ seen her signals
they would have responded. The City
of Chester’s course was further south
than the Adriatic's, he said.
Not Giving Away News.—ne (cau¬
tiously)—“What would you say, dar¬
ling, if I should ask you plumply to
be tny wife?” Darling (even more
cautiously) “Ask me and find out.”—
Whashington Star.