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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IIL BKOADWAY BY NIGHT. New York, Dec. 1, 1857. ' I Enty you your trip to America,' said mine urbane and friendly host of the Waterloo Hotel, at Liverpool, as, two months ago, he took leave of me at his door, and wished me a safe and speedy passage across the Atlantic. There seemed to be nothing very enviable in the matter, for the wind had been howling all the night, the mercury in the glass was falling, the rain was beating against the windows, and the prospects of the voyage, all things considered, seemed the reverse of agreeable. 'And whyf said I, with a faint and, doubtless, unsuccessful attempt to look comfortable and happy. ' Because,' replied he, his joyous features beaming out into a still greater refulgence of smiles than they had previously worn, ' you will get such delicious oysters! New York beats all creation for oysters.' Mine host spoke the truth. There is no place in the world where there are such fine oysters as in New York, and the sea board cities of America; fine in flavor, and of a size unparalleled in the oyster beds of Whitstablc, Ostend, or the once celebrated Rocher do Cancale. Nor has the gift of oysters been bestowed upon an ungrateful people. If one may judge from appearances, the delicacy is highly relished and esteemed by all classes, from the millionaire in the Fifth Avenue to the ' Boy' in the Bowery, and the German and Irish emigrants in their own peculiar quarters of the city, which (soil (lit en passant) seem to monopolize all the filth to be found in Manhattan. In walking up Broadway by day or by night but more especially by night the stranger can not but remark the great number of ' Oyster Saloons,' ' Oyster and Coffee Saloons,' and ' Oyster and Lager Beer Saloons,' which solicit him at every turn to stop and taste. T...
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