McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1885-04-02
OYSTER Eaters.

in which the oyster. In this latitude,
is supposed to don its most appetizing
qualities and tempt the epicure to even
more than his ordinary indulgence.
Exactly how many of them it is posi-
BILE for him to swallow at sitting we
won't pretend to say. Capacities vary
in different individuals, and as the
epicure is, of course, an individual. no
definite number can be fixed upon as
his rule. Speaking of capacity in the
oyster line, the following story will
bear repeating.
Not great many years ago some
what celebrated European prima donna
visited this country and, with her
maid. took up her quarters at one of
the fashionable hotels of New York.
Hearing the American oysters praised
so highly, she determined, on her re-
turn to the hotel after one of her
operate performances, to give them a
trial. Ringing for the waiter, she
gave her order
''Bring oysters for one."
''How many will you have,
MadameP" asked the waiter.
''How many? Well, am very hum
cry and might possibly get through
with thousand, but hundred will
answer my present purposes, You
may bring me hundred to commence
with" And taking up a newspaper
she commenced scanning it's contents,
first giving passing glance at the
surprised expression that crossed the
mans face as he left the room. After
a delay which, to the hungry prima
donna, seemed needlessly long, a
knock came at the door. Come in"
and half dozen walters entered, in
single file, each bearing tray half
filed with plates containing saddle
rocks on the half-shell, quarters of
| lemons, crackers, etc. The secret of
the servants surprised look as he left
the room after receiving the order was
now plain to the lady. Her ignorance
| of the dimensions of the American
oyster had been the cause. of her per-
petrating a practical joke at her own
EXPENSE joke which she was now
rather anxious to keep to herself.
Quietly dismissing the servants with
"Yes, those will do; you may CO."
she commenced and ended her feast,
wondering how she was to dispose of
the dozens of great oysters that still
| lay on their shells untouched. A mo-
ment of doubt, and she raised the
window; then taking up the oysters
one by one with her fork, she scatter
ed them out through the window in
| all directions, continuing the operation
until the hundred shells lay empty
upon the plates. Then ringing the
| hon fS oh Of
the table and picked up her paper.
| The look of establishment upon the
faces of the servants when they enter
ed and saw the empty shells fully
compensated the lady for the mistake
she had made in her estimate of the
| American oyster.
stake away these shells and bring
me another hundred-stay, tomorrow
will do" and the astorished walters
filed out of the room with their load of
shells and high opinion Of the prima
donna's capacity for oysters. Princes,
poets, pontiffs, orators, statesmen, and
wits have gluttonized over the oyster
bed. Oysters were at one time, it is
true, in danger of being forgotten.
From the fourth century to the fifteenth
that date to the present time the de-
mand has never slackened. Going
back to the times which we now regard
as classic, we are told that we owe the
original idea of pisciculture to GER
tain Sergius Orata, who invented an
oyster-pond in which to breed oysters,
not for his own table but for profit
Vitellius ate oysters all day long,
and some people insinuate that he
could eat as many as thousand at
one sitting-a happiness too great for
belief. Callisthenes, the philosopher
of Olynthus, was also passionate oys-
ter-eater, and so was Caligula, the
Roman tyrant. The wise Seneca DIAL
lied over his few hundreds every week,
and the great Cicero fed his eloquence
with the dainty. The Latin poets sang
the praises of the oyster, and the fast
men of ancient Rome enjoyed the
poetry during their carouse, just as
modern fellows, not at all classic, en-
Joy a song over their oysters in the
parlor of a London or provincial tav-
ern.
In all countries there are records of
the excessive fondness of great men
for oysters. Cervantes was an oyster
lovers and he satirized the oyster-deal-
ers of Spain. Louis TX, careful lest
scholarship should become deficient in
France. Toasted the learned doctors
of the Sorbonne once year on oys-
tiers; and another Louis invested his
cook with an order of nobility as re-
ward for his oyster-cookery. Napo-
leon, also, was an oyster-lover; so was
Rousseau, and Marshal Turgot used to
eat a hundred or two Just to whet his
appetite for breakfast. Invitations to
dish of oysters were common in the
literary and artistic circles of Paris at
the latter end of the last century.
The encyclopedias were particularly
fond of oysters. Helvetius, Diderot.
and the Able Raynal, Voltaire, and
others were confirmed oyster-men.
Among British celebrities. Alexander
Pope was an oyster-eater of taste, and
SO was Dean Swift. Thompson, of
"The Seasons" who knew all good
things, knew how good a thing an oys-