The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1877-01-26
ALAND OF PLENTY.


Eatc$ Hts Hotel Experience.
Ny first impression of America was
that it was a land of plenty. l believe
this was owing mainly to my intense en-
ioyment of a dish of oysters eaten after
that star yation in the midst of plenty
from which I, as a sea-sick passenger, had
suffered during the voyage. 1t was,
however, confirmed by my first and all
subsequent meals at the hotel
Breakfast from $50 to II; dinner
from > to /, and from to 6:3O; tea
from } to s; supper from to 12"-so
ran the terrific announcement which was
about the first thing I noticed on enter
ing my room. From $50 in the morn
ing, then, to y o'clock at night, there
was always meal lying in wait for the
unhappy traveler-with the slight ex-
ception OF the three hours between
breakfast and the first dinner hour and
the one hour between dinner and tea-a
poor four hours in all, reduced to twoand
hall by the tapping over of the periods
for the last dinner and the first tea "You
may eat all day" was told, and it was
true. Here, l thought, would be
the paradise of those thrifty gIut-
tons who feed for FIVE and pay for
one, and who are the despair of our moo
est boarding establishments at home.
No fear o. the frown Of the watchful
landlady; the very bill of fare in
vites you to the perpetual feast; your
only anxiety need be that. by reason
or that Objectionable tapping over al
ready alluded to, the close of a dinner
and the beginning of tea may be sim
ultanecus operation, likely to have ap.
poplexy for their result.
And what meals The time allowed
for them at first seems ample-yOu may
be four hours and half in breaStas.ing,
the same in dining and three hours in
taking tea-yet look at the bill of fare
and the whole twenty four will seem in
sufficient for the consumption of single
meal Ina copy of one Of these documents
which | possess-a copy selected at ran
dom-there are just seventy-eight arti,
cles, large and small, down for the break
fast alone! l am about to pre- ent it to
the trustees of the British museum
but this. by the way. Seventy-eight
things to eat; it is the very embarras de
richesses!
"Quite 3d." SAYS friend to whom l
made the observation; and he gives me
the following account of what l may
venture to call his adventures with his
first American menu.
Il surmised," he says, "that should
not be expected to eat all the things.
But how to decide on eating one when
their names seem equally inviting, be
cause, with few exceptions they were
equally unknown? If l sought to form
wish in favor of eggs dropped, why
not, said oxpectant inexperience, why
not rather try them shirred? II
|frizzIed beef seemed the thing, so also
did Indian pudding on the false prlncl-
pie to which | WAS necessarily reduced
of Judging of the flower by the name
Cracked wheat might be as good as
clams;' but, then, CLANS might be as
good as cracked wheat and it would be
impossible to find room for the two.
Much the same thing might be said of
the dipped toast and of the Graham
rolls All names, and nothing else, be
it remembered, to the exile from ham
and eggs. mullins and dry toast as the
three varieties of his morning dish. At
dinuer'it was worse, it was the morning )
embarrassment multiplied by one and
three-Quarters. Would were ina land
Of milk and honey murmured to my
SELF then there would be only two
things to chose from One of the col
Ored waiters-a class, may observe,
parenthetically, that gave me the clear
est idea of a noun OF multitude
had ever had in my life
seemed to divine my difficulty, and
whispered in my ear plying
inquiry rs to whether l WAS raised
in these parts. replied that was not.