The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1881-01-21
About Oysters.
FRENCBMAN CRITICIzEs BOTH OUR OYsTEl
OPENERS AND OYSTER-EATERS.

FRENCHMAN CRlIIClLES BOIh OUh olSlbh-
OPENERS AND OYsTER-EATERs.
"Among all the hundreds OF oyster
OPENERS VINO open oysters in this city there
is not one who opens them 'On The Euro
pean plan,'" said an eXasperated French
man to New York reporter.
81 have lived In your country twenty-siX
wears, and during all that time have seen
only one oyster-opener who knew his bust
ness. That man was at the famous Old Mai
son Doree, in Fourteenth street. Here The
Frenchman heaved sigb.] Martinez, poor
fellow. had 10 advertise for weeks before he
rot him, and I'm not sure but that at last
The Oysttr-opener had TO be imported.
There is correct way OF doing almost
everything, and generally the correct way
is The easiest, as in this matter OF opening
oysters. The way to open an oyster so as 10
save all the liquor, which 10 connoiSSeurS
is valuable part, is not to smash 1t ana
murder it, as most OF your oyster.openers
do. nor TO stab IL, as they do in Boston,
Baltimore. Washington, and other places.
And then your 0ysler-openers always lay
out the oyster on the fat or convex shell,
so that by the time your plate OF raw on
the haf.shell' comes TO you what little
Juice that was not spilled in the slaughter
ing has all run away. The live oyster
opens and closes its shell, ut will by means
OF tough little membrane, or 'hiDge,'
about quarter Of third OF an men IN
length. The hinge is at the small or mar
row end Of the oyster. IL follows tDat all
that is needed to be done to separate the
two shells, whether the oyster Is allve or
dead, is TO sever this little hinge. IL Is IN
visible when the shells are closed, Dut
those who understand the business (and
any one can learn it in five minutes) know
exactly where and how to find 1t.
81 have showed this little trick to scores
OF ovster.openers, but because 1t is little
difficult at first they 20 on with their maui.
ing and sabbing. Now, when MARTINEZ bad
finally secured this French oyster-optner
who knew his business he set him at work
at the side Of the man who opened alter the
b1rbarOus fashion still IN vogue in this coun-
try. What was the result! Why, he opened
two oysters while the other man was open
ing one, and every oyster that he opened
was laid out on The deep shell without q
drop Of the liquor beng lost. Ii Is one OF
the greatest pleasures in the world 10 eat
oysters opened in that way. But you
Americans always go in for appearances.
And when ask an Oyster-opener why he
UOCsu'L give me ny ON>itIs ph thN IVY "
shell, even il he must open them III The
wrong way, be always says that he pre-
sents them on the fiat or convex shell because
they look better 50.
"Tben there's another shameful outrage
upon Us towers OF the oyster. / mean the
eXorbitant price we have 10 pay for them.
Now, nothing less than dozen and hall
OF oysters on the ba!f shell will satisfy me.
s., YOU see, at twenty cents plate-halI
dozen to the plate-it costs me sixty cents
every time | eat oysters. The original
cost OF these eighteen oysters would be
about ten or twelve cents. 1t Is really
too bad that oysters cannot be OBJ
tanned cheaper in this country, so
that the poor, and especially the sick,
might get more OF them, for consider them
about the best article OF diet that we can
get. An oyster is the only thing that
know OF that can be received with impunlty
into a collapsed stomach too feeble to Sc
crete the digestive fluids. Physiologlsts
have discovered the singular fact that the
oyster contains these fluids in itself, so that
when eaten they digest themselves. have
eaten oysters with "A keen relish when the
mere sight or even the thought OF any
other kind OF food would make me sick"