Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-02-19
DANGER IN OYSTER sTEws.
Hot Food and Hot Drinks killing OF
New Workers Very Fast.

From the GeW York SUa.
In cold weather it is good thing to
know what to eat. A doctor said recently
that most people think they know,
but don't, and that a great many more do
know, but don't put their knowledge into
practice. He said man would rush
down town in the morning, and after
(dancing around to keep warm, would pop
into restaurant and gulp down piping
hot oyster stew. That was the very
worst thing he could eat, the doctor said,
and 1t was wonder to him that half the
people of New York didn't die OF dyspep-
STA and the other half come mighty near
it.
''Never, under any circumstances"
said the doctor, "eat oysters that are
more than week old. That may not
seem to relate TO the subject of cold
weather, but it does much more than
you know. Oysters that are more than
week old have become Anticipated, as we
say in medicine, and have to be cooked as
hot as lightning just TO make people be-
heye they're fresh. That's where all the
mischief lies. Most people think it is
just the thing to get outside of anything
that's hot, when the thermometer IS way
down tickling zero, and they rush OFF and
tackle oysters that are old enough to
walk, for the simple reason that they re-
semble red-hot stove. It's bad enough
to eat anything that's hot, but to eat
stale oysters without knowing it is good
deal worse. Hot oysters viii give you
dyspepsia and rheumatism, catarrh and
a lot OF other things, but ancient oysters
will poison a mans blood in no time.
EVERY winter / have to treat people
who geT sick from eating hot food. OF
course, they never suspect what the trOu-
Bile Is, and laugh when they are told. It's
almost impossible to make them under
stand that they're actually committing
suicide by inches. Why do / complain
particularly about hot oysters? Because
people eat more Of them than anything
else, it seems to me. Every young
woman who goes to theatre and every
young man who goes out nights must
stop on. the way home and eat oysters.
People think hot food, and especially hot
oysters, makes person warm, BUTTS the
biggest mistake out.
"Hot drinks are just as bad as hot food,
with this exception. ALI people do not
drink, and women don't drink at all, as
rule, but everybody eats and wants to eat
hot food. But there's no use talking
about hot drinks. Yeu might as well
attempt to change the course of the
earJh as try TO make some men feel that
they could live without a steamIng hot
whisky every hour or 80 from November
TO April. They'll drink and freeze, and
drink over again, and keep on freezing
right through the liyelOng winter without
ever dreaming that they're colder than
anybody else, or that they're within an
ace OF pneumonia all the time. Why,
you'll meet men who know all about
politics and religion and horse racing and
everything else, and they don't know
how to take care of their health. It's
positively demOraizing to a man Of sani-
tary yearnings to go down to Wall street,
for instance, and see the way, the brokers
down there act. The minute il gets cold
they pour hot whiskies into their thr0ats
by the dozen. One steamIng bumper of
a cold day is worse or a man who's out
than four plain WHISTLES or six generous
doses of rye and rock"
A downtown bartender said he wished
it was below zero always. Men drink a
hot bumper, go out and come back in ten
minutes to get another to keep the first
one from freezing. He didu'J know
exactly how much better business was
in the winter than in summer, but he
had an idea it was about ten times.