MASSACHUSETTS: BOSTON DISTRICT. 203 



advertised also tbc Blue-point, Saddle-rock, Stamford, and Xorwalk oysters, more familiar to New 

 Yorkers; but they are kept fora special, small custom, as 'fancy.' 



"3. EXTENT OF THE OYSTER TRADE. It is not easy to get at the exact number of persons iu 

 Boston who derive their daily support from the oyster business. The hired help of the wholesale 

 dealers amounts to about 125 persons the year round, with the addition of about 250 more who are 

 engaged with greater or less steadiness to 'shuck' during the colder half of the year. The majority 

 of these persons are married ; and I believe that, including the dealers themselves, to multiply by 

 four in each case would fairly estimate the number of souls represented that is, the mouths fed. 

 There are, then, in this wholesale trade, deriving their whole support, about 500 persons; deriving 

 one-half their support, about 1,000 persons. 



"It is asserted that there are about 1,000 retail shops, fish markets, hotels, and restaurants in 

 the city where oysters form a regular part of the sales. I was unable to verify this, but am in- 

 clined to believe it rather under than over the actual number. It would be a low estimate to say, 

 that an average of one family of 5 persons in each case is supported by the inolluscan share of the 

 business, which would add 5,000 persons to the 750 in the wholesale department, and give a total 

 of 5,750 persons in Boston estimated to derive their living chiefly out of the oyster aud clam. Most 

 of the wholesalers run restaurants and lunch-counters. The wages paid vary with the kind of em- 

 ployment and the employer, all the way from $4 to $25 per week. The lowest rates are paid to 

 the girls in the restaurant-kitchens, who get from $3 to $5 per week and their board, and to the 

 waiters in the restaurants, who receive about $8 a week and board. The men who pack, attend to 

 shipments and delivery of orders, who aid in bedding, aud do the heavy work of the establishment, 

 will average from $12 to $15 a week. The large addition employed between September and May 

 are ' openers' or ' shuckers,' who are paid by the solid gallon, and work only when there are oysters 

 to be opened. They are, as a rule, a rough, ignorant class of men. In summer they do ordinary 

 laboring jobs, like working on the streets and carrying hods. Their pay has been a shilling (17 

 cents) a gallon for some years, but last season (1878-'79) 18 and occasionally 20 cents was paid; and 

 in consequence of a strike on their part it is expected that 20 cents will be the ruling price in 

 1879-'80. It is rare that they earn more than $10 a week, and often not half that. The largest 

 day's work at opening oysters that I could learn of was performed several years ago by a man in 

 Atwood & Bacon's employ, who opened 45 gallons between 7.30 a. m. and 10.30 p. m.; but this was 

 ' liquor' measurement, and he got only 10 cents a gallon for it. Most of the openers are married 

 and have large families. 



" Subsidiary to the oyster business in Boston is the disposal of the empty shells. These are 

 used somewhat for filling in, particularly along the Atlantic avenue wharves, and are largely con- 

 sumed by the gaslight companies to be burned into lime for purifying their gas. In addition to 

 this there are two pulverizing establishments in East Boston that take large quantities. The shells 

 are gathered for them by carters and boys of every grade, at odd times, from the saloons, the pro- 

 prietors of which are glad to get rid of them, and taken to the factories, a few barrels at a time. 

 The factories pay 8 cents a barrel, and often men are thus able to profitably employ their leisure. 

 The shells are put into a crusher and then through bolts, and are thus ground into small fragments, 

 from which the dust is sifted. The machinery employed is precisely that used for crushing bones, 

 &c. There is a strong prejudice against the presence of any oyster-shell in the manufactured fer- 

 tilizer, strange to say, and the broken shell finds a market only as food for poultry iu place of fine 

 gravel. The price is one-quarter of a cent a pound, and a barrel will weigh about 275 pounds. 

 About 500 barrels, valued at $375, are sold annually by these factories to the henneries near Boston, 



