Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-02-04

| mdry IL the richest single woman IN America
worth 1900 900 it is believed Robert Garrett is
! worth S12 100000 or more Miss Garrett is
still young woman. not more than 26 or 2S
| should think. or Whereabouts. She has never
| married, and did good deal of her fathers
correspondence and particular work. She is a
woman OF cultivation. and rumor in Baltimore
has said that she is going to marry physician
| there"
The First Oyster-Eaters.
From the London Telegraph.
When the primitive man found himself with
the first oyster in his hand, the probabilities are
that he was puzzled what to do with it; for the
thing was shut. Instinct told him that there
| was something good to eat inside the she'll Be-
sides he had already robbed the cookie and the
mussel OF their contents and thoroughly appre-
ciated them; so by some rude process of reason
ing from analysis he felt sure that II he could
only get the oyster open he would find some
| thing nice within. But the creature had closed
itself SO tight that he could not even get his
nails in between the edges. Its size prevented
him putting it into his mouth to crack it, For
miles and miles there was only mud and sand
on either side Of him, so that he had nothing
hard enough to smash 1t upon. In half
hearted sort of way he endeavOred to insinuate
splinter Of cockle-shell to prize the valves
open. Then he triffed with the thinner edge with
his teeth. At last he thought of his own skull.
and wrapped the oyster on 1t; but not very
hard. for it hurt him. He did 1t in contempla-
tive sort of way-just as q monkey bored to
death with Brazilian nut which it cannot
break, end yet is lOathe to throw away sits and
taps 1t on the palm of his paw, looking all about
him with an distracted expression of face SO
safe the aboriginal man; now and again he
would brighten up to a renewed assault upon
the obstinate mollusk. He put 1t down on the
sand and hurt his foot by stamping on it; then
he took 1t aud threw 1t I'm as high as he could
in the air to see if it would mash by the fall;
then he put it in front of him and apOstrOphized
1t, spoke seriously to 1t, lectured it. scOlded it,
abused it. cOaXed it, f1attered 1t, said nasty
things about it, appealed to it. threw himself on
Its generosity. tainted 1t, rdicued 1t, sneered
at it, invoked it, prayed to 1t, blessed It, cursed
it. But the oyster would not be moved either
by complaint or insult. it remained as obdu-
rate that ''pebble-hearted cur" Ldunce's
dog. Not a word could he get out of
1t; there was no more expression on its
face than on slice Of cold pudding. 1t re-
manned stOlidly shut. Then our ancestor gave
way to gloomy despair; he threw himself
down on the sand and glared with impotent de-
sire at the exasperating sheil-fsh. Bad wicked
thoughts came into his mind. He saw his aged
grandsire approaching, and reckoning him
with fraudulent smile, induced the Door old
man to sit down on the sand; and then suddenly,
without any warning, he smote him on the crown
OF the head with an oyster. Again and again
the molusk descended, till at length In frenzy
OF determination. he gathered up all his force
| In one decisive blow, which split his grandsire's
skull, bLt broke the shell. ThereupOn regard
less Of the corpse beside him. the assassin picked
out the plump oyster and swallowed it. He
closed his eyes while q smile of ineffabe enjoy-
ment stole over his features, but only Tor
moment. The oyster passed away like beauti-
full dream. He sighed and rose. 1t was fear
full price to pay for the delicious morsel. Yet
other thoughts perple4ed him. His relatives
were not numerous. and If he must be obliged
| to use up one each time when he ate an oyster,
he could not look forward to more than q
couple Of score at the most. Nevertheless.
he gathered 81 bushel or so and went
home. bordering over the situation.
He told his dreadful secret to friend, and that
very evening, as he was asleep his friend came
and cracked an oyster on his skull. The original
savage did not die but his intellect was perma-
nently affected. This was not the worst. how
ever, for somehow the knowledge of the fasci-
mating bivalve spread, and men went about with
surreptitious oysters concealed upon their per-
sons, on the chance Of meeting with some one
on whose Uranium they could crack them. 1t
was dreadful time. But it is on such founda-
tons that nature always builds, and her su-
perstructures are raised upon ruins.
BY and by came the Stone Age. when the soft
sediments Of river and sea had hardened into
rock, and men then smashed the oysters omen
with fragments Ofbowlders They chose a smooth
crag, and, putting the shel-fsh into sings slung
them from very short distance against the hard
rock. This was better than using each others
heads, and the beneficial results of the change
were soon apparent. Man, relieved from the
perpetual suspicion Of having oysters cracked on
his skull had the leisure to give his thoughts to
the useful art. Before long they discovered the
secret OF sharpening fliDts into oyster knives,
and all went merrily. Wise men tell US that
these keen-edged slices of flint and Obsidian are
"hatchet-heads" and "arrow-heads." But this
Is mere conjecture; picturesque. it is true, but
unreliable. 1t is more probable that they are
all oyster knives In various stages OF develop
ment. This much, at any rate, Is beyond all
dOubt-that primitive man ate these delicious
things In enormous quantities. The sites of
many primayal settlements are now only to be
traced by the heaps of empty oyster Shells which
they were, In the dirty, unsanitary way of a re-
mote antiquity, in the habit Of throwing out Of
| their doors into the street.
In the ancient "kitchen-middens" OF northern
Europe, and mixed with more ancient lava de-
posts, as In Kent's Hole Cavern, are heaps Of
the shells, the vestiges Of the repasts Of the
cavemen. In America these relics of primaval
oyster suppers form sometimes mounds of sew
eral acres In extent, while the isolated caverns-
where, no doubt. some snug little party having
| found out an Oyster-bed OF their own, used to
60 and consume the fish all by themseves-are
inDumerable- But one In the Savannah river
nearly 800 feet In length, gives evidences OF
something more than private oyster parties It
must have been the feeding place of q nation at
least
Feminine Bumblepuppy.
From the Boston Post
Did you ever see woman play whist7 No!
Well, she does 1t somewhat as follows: ooh.
dear, don't believe can ever get these cards
arranged-NOw, let me see, that one goes there.