Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1873-09-13
ST. ALBANS, VT.
A DisQuisit;On on American Eating
Houses.

J ST. ALBANs, VT, September S.-There
is a marvellous difference between the
temperature Of the latitude Of Memphis
and this Of st. Albans. Only three days
ago we were suffering from excessive
heat on Broadway, and here, on the con-
/ fines Of the Dominion, the ladies OF our
/ party are shawled, and gentlemen shiver
/ In the frosty morning atmosphere. The
/ sick are worr down with fatigue. LAST
night q switch-tcnder neglected his
dufv. and cur train, as commonly hap
/ pens in such cases. leaped from the
/ track and went headlong forty or fifty
/ wards, wrecking the locomotive and de
molishing two cars. The women We're
/ sorely frightened, and men, 100, Tor al
[ that, but nobody was seriously hSrned.
I 1t only results that We are forced 70
spend a day at the meanest tavern en-
cOuntered in all the wandeIings Of sum
mertime. The people are kind, even
{ excessively attentive, bit the food fur
nished is villainOus, and more villain
Ously cooked. Next after the wretched
/ table spread upon the railway 'erry boat
I between Alexandria and Washington, !
am persuaded that mine host OF st. Al
bans is least qualified 10 discharge tasks
+ in which the Lelands excel all Ameri-
Z thL6s AuEAA EuNoA ~ tAANA ' ais ANA AAAbAN
Z than twenty years, never left one of their
earavansaries without an internal con-
I seriousness that however enormous the bill
; rendered, QJiid pro quo had been given.
Their names are gilded over hotels in
several northern cities, at Saratoga and
other watering places, and everywhere
Leland Is pre-eminent. And yet there
/ is not a wretched eatinghoUse from the
gulf to the Potomac whose master does
! not conceive himself the peer Of Le-
] land. Each dish of unqualified slush
I that disgusts every sense when showed
beneath ones nOstrils, is deemed by
these desperate adventures in the eat
/ inghOuse business food fit for the gods,
/ Ii is all they know, the best they have
seen, and each wretched, overtasked
"shoveller-Out of slush" to starving
strangers conceives himself q proud
beuefactor Of his race. No traveller has
the heart to complain or condemn, and
the scales never fall from the eyes Of the
kindly wsyside tsYern-keeper. Moth
ing so dlstorts a cOuntry's vices in the
ewes of mankind as barbarism in hotels,
and whenever Grant becomes the State
his first efforts at reform should be di-
rectqd against gOOd-natUTed fools who
undertake 10 "keep tavern" along the
great American highways. am not
sure that towns and villages should not
have, each, an inspector Of hotels, that
strangers may not be swindled, as here
in st. Albans and on that Alex
audria and Washington ferryoost,
and at half the railway eating
houses north and south Of the
Potomac. Immigrants will never
enter a land, however richly endowed
by nature, cursed by railway managers
who have not the wisdom or taste, OF
culture required in selecting ntditres
dhOtes capable Of ministering 20 the
wants of migratory populations. In
land like this, abOunding IN everything
that QOtrHsaJds crave, Il is shameful
that civilization looks TO Europe for sd
mifable dinners. Nenison, fish, prairie
chickens, uuails, game, beef, mutton
and vegetables everywhere abound, aud
are as rarely found well prepared for the
table. But our tAveTn-keepens are
fiattered by fools or dead-heads, and per
sist in disgracing the civilization Of the
age and country. i heard learned and
aged New York millionaire say in q
s1eech a few evenings ago, when the
shareholders and managers Of the Equit-
able Life Assurance company were sit
ting around DelmonicO's luxurious
tables, that there should be professOrships
Of insurance endowed in each American
university. If this be proper thele
should be professOrships Of cookery.
Human life in both cases is the stake,
and most men would play for good steaks
while living rather than fOT gTeenbacks,
worthless when Welive no longer. When
the coming narFOw-gauge railway con-
vention sits in Memphis it would be
well to have this. among other ques-
tiOns deeply affecting the fortunes Of the
south, thoroughly considered. Even as
the yigOr, intelligence, good mOfais,
taste and prosperity sf city are viewed
abroad only through the newspapers Of
the place, 20 the world judges Of The de-
eeney and civilization OF country by It's
eatinghouses. L. J. D.