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Show THE MODERN OYSTER STEW. the Middle Aged Man Contrasts It WIHi the Stew of Before tho War. "When I was a boy, before the war," Eaid a middle aged man "tho price of an oyster stew in a good ordinary restaurant res-taurant was 12 cents. The price has gradually gone up until now, in a good restaurant, an ordinary stew costs 25 cents. In the old restaurant there was a cloth upon the table, but this cloth, unless you happened to find it when it had just been put on, was apt to be frescoed fres-coed with coffee stains. There were catchup and vinegar and so on, some of them perhaps in bottles in a caster. Perhaps the waiter gave you a pickle or two. The light was not very bright The waiter brought the stew in an oys ter plate, and as the hot broth washed about a little in the plate as he carried it and set it down you were afraid it might burn his thumb. Eut the oysters were good. Let me pause to remark that the oyster is something to be grateful for. "Today the table, without a cloth perhaps, ia cherry or mahogany, finely polished. For a cloth there is spread before you a napkin of ample dimensions dimen-sions and bright and fresh. The pickle is chopped up celery and very good You get two kinds of crackers, and plenty of them, and a generous portion of French bread. The butter comes in a sightly little cone. The table furniture furni-ture is all good dishes, glass, everything. every-thing. The spread before you is "agreeable "agree-able to the eye, and the whole scene is brilliantly lighted with the modern incandescent in-candescent lamps. The stew comes in an oval dish that rests upon a plate. I don't like to eat out of such a dish so well as I do out of a plate, but you know at least there is no danger burning burn-ing the waiter's thumb. The oysters are good; the whole arrangement is away beyond the stew of before the war. It costs more, but are we not better able to pay for it? For general get up and get and dash and style and comfort the old stew couldn't begin to compare with it. The modern oyster stew is one of many things that we do an everlasting sight better than we did. " New York Sun. |
