The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1881-02-19
OYSTER Eaters.

= Possibly the origin of oyster-eating
v rs something like that of the eating
o.. roast pig, as described by Charles
Limb. A prehistoric man inserted his
fingers within the shells of a prehistoric
oyster, and having them pinched ap-
p led his digits to his mouth, tasted the
[i1uor of the oyster, and invented tho
b ,nign science of o~streaphagy. Any
way, around the names of all the great
o. the earth, in all ages, there is a
dcathless halo of oyster shells. The
nncient Greeks and Romans were great
devourers of oysters, which, VIC learn
from Pliny, were of three colors-yel-
low, black, and brown,-delighted to be
transferred to new waters, and m
times grew to the size of q foot, so that
it took three bites to dispose of one of
them. There were nine famous beds
from which the markets of Rome were
supplied, and it is recorded that the
first man who took to artificial breeding
did so to make money, not out of love
for the oyster. Oyster shells cured no
end of disorders, and, powdered. were
employed as a dentifrice. The Romans
believed that oysters ate best in the full
of the moon, Horace's preference was
for those of Circel; Vitellius put away
twelve hundred of the bivalves at one
luncheon. ''Oysters raw, as many as
you Ike" is usually the first entry on
the menus of classical entertainments
that have been preserved for our delec-
tation. Louis VIII. Of France, who
died in 1926, SO keenly appreciated his
cooks way of cooking the oyster, of
which he was SO fond, that he gave him
a patent Of nobility and aliberal annual
allowance. Louis XI. gave annual oys-
ter suppers to the College of the Sor-
bonne-the pupils of the College of
France had long before that been in the
labit of rehearsing their disputations
over oysters-until ct n merry meet
ing a learned doctor fell into the-Seine
and was drowned. Bently, the great
| classical scholar, never could pass an
| oyster-stall without stopping at it, to
tlk about oysters if he could eat no
more, and in 1740, two years before his
| death, and Just at the conclusion of the
t venty-seven years. lawsuit to eject him
from the m~astership of Trinity, to which
L eQuincy has.devoted such q fascinat-
ilg essay, he wrote to q friend: my
G eat relief and amusement here is my
i gular supply Of oysters. These things
must have been made in heaven; they
are d~electable, satisfying, delicious, and
mentally stimulating in a high degree"
Pope, a lover of HOLSTERS, was extreme
w partial to oysters stewed, and a letter
Of his to Lord Bolingbroke exists. offer
ing to accept an invitation to dinner,
but only on condition that there was a
dish of stewcd oysters. Thomson, who
ate peaches on the tree with his hands
in his pockets, greatly loved oysters,
and died of over-indulgence in them.
or of exposure in a boat on his way to
have a feed of them. johnson, l fancy,
loved oysters. 1 know he went to mar
ket to buy them for his cat when the
/ footman was TOO proud to do so. Cold
| smith did, and devoted an interesting
chapter in his animated Nature" to
them, telling how he knew a horse that
was fond of eating oysters, and how the
oysters of India are two feet big, and
one of the natives OF Coromandel
furnishes a meal for ten men. No
animal, "Nolf' tells us. will venture to
open the oysters shell, which, hke too
many statements in animated Nat
ure," is not strictly true, since, apart
from the starfish and other marine enc
mics, the oyster is the prey OF o bird.
the h~dmotopus, the ''bloody o OF
English popular ~ornithology and the
oyster-fisher of America.
The oyster-shops of Paris were great
political centers during the revolution.
k~obespierre, Danton, and Couthon v
ing one favored haunt neal the prison
of La Force, and Brissot, Condorcet.
and tho other Girondins affecting a RI
val establishment near the site Of La
Pastille. Peter the Great always had
oysters served in two or three ways at
lis meals; fraternized with the old oys.
tcr-women of Woolwich %ship-yard, and
dignificd the dealers OF Moscow and st.
Petersburg with the title of his life.
preservers." Juno ate three hundred
oysters every day before breakfast u
Ing the oyster season, and Cambaccres
was long regarded as tho champion
pyster-eater of Paris, until the academi-
clan Baour-Larmian sat down to break
fast with him one day, ate oyster for
oyster until the arch chancellor OF the
empire owned his defeat, then swal-
lowed a few dozen more by himself,
and desisted lest he should spoil his
breakfast. There are traditions OF h
ENGLISH oystcr-eaters who swallowed
oysters by the dozen. but the English
oyster is a trile beside the oyster OF
New York, which reminded Thackeray
of the ear Of Caiphas' servant, and
again of swallowing a baby, n The
oyster Of our more southern waters'
which Sala told his English readers was
in size and shape Just like the knife.
board of nm omnibus. 1t is worthy OF
remark that the oyster Is almost the
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