HE ORDERED OYSTER STEWS.

Western Star, Issue 903, 6 December 1884, Page 1 (Supplement)

HE ORDERED OYSTER STEWS.

One of those true-hearted chaps often read of in romance made his appearance in Liverpool not long since, and his sympathies were at once aroused by the sight of three or four men standing waiting for work. “ I’ll be hanged if it isn’t tough,’’ he replied, when they told him they hadn’t had any work for a mopth; “how would you like some oysters ?” They smacked their lips by wey of reply, and he gathered up a crowd of eight, marched them to a fish shop, and ordered oyster stew for each one. “ It just does my soul good to see them eat,” he said to the owner of the place, as the eight got to work. “ Tea ; it’s a beautiful sight,” was the reply. “ It makes me good in here,” continued the stranger from Manchester, laying his hand on his heart. “A good deed brings its own reward,” was the soft answer of the shopkeeper, as he calculated his profits. “ I can’t rest here—l must do further good,” said the big-hearted stranger, and he rushed out and brought in three negroes, a chimneysweeper, two boys, and an old woman, and ordered more oysters. The fifteen people went for oysters in a manner to amaze, and their guardian nudged the shopkeeper in the ribs and said, “ See the gentle lambs ! Oh, that I could feed the poor of all Lancashire !”

“ You are a good man, and Heaven will reward you,” replied the proprietor, as he filled the dishes up again. The stranger said he wanted to bring in j ust five more, so as to say that he had fed an even score, and he rushed out after them while the shop-keeper sent after more oysters, &c. The stranger didn’t return. The fifteen in the shop licked their plates clean and departed in joyful procession, and the last one had passed out before the man who furnished the soup had got tired waiting for the return of the bighearted stranger. There were oaths and slang phrases, and watchwords, and expressions, delivered in the purest English, but what mattered it to the fifteen soup devoured, who dr,ew up in a line opposite, and resolved, “ that them oysters just touched sh€ spot," |