Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1877-03-14
SOCIETY STRATA.
In Irregular Order-Number L.
HASH.SLINGERS.

We propose to give some sketches
Of the component parts of popula.
ton, and not caring to have any
class think we have placed them in
an undeserved position, we will say
1T the outset that the intention is
to be totally non-committal as to
which we deem to be at the top of
the social structure. So, to begin,
we have chosen Q stratum known to
be somewhere between the extremes,
but the exact place We would give
il shall remain an impenetrable
mystery - no Joint Commission
shall sit upon US. The class is one
with which persons in a community
composed in large part OF single
men must come in contact three
times day. Any other may be
avoided almost entirely, if one so
desires. but there is no such thing
as escaping the hash-slinger. Per
consequence we must keep on good
terms with them, and shall draw it
mild when writing Of class so in
dispensible, and one upon which
depends 80 much of our daily
happiness.
Hssh-slingers, for the purpose of
this sketch, may be divided into
two classes-male and female. OF
course there are in this, as in call
ings, degrees Of merit, but we shall
not treat of that, and shall confne
our remarks to the class. There
are degrees of beauty possessed by
the female hash -slingers, but Of
that We shall say nothing, leaving
each one to think she is as hand
some as clipper ship, as a
sailor would say. Then. too, there
are degrees of skill in the art. but
We shall not particularize, leaving
all to think they are par excellence.
Our sketch is intended only to
generalize.
A feeling of gallantry prompts US
to first devote our pen to the female
hash-slinger. She is employed for
two observation-disclosures and as an at
traction. The bachelor miner, and
the merchants clerk, as we'll, are
partial to singers OF the female
persuasion. and the house having
the prettiest will be most crowded
with boarders. The female is not
expected to be SO expert in carrying
pyramid of dishes or attending
instantly to the wants of twenty
hungry guests as the male hash
singer, but there is compromising
consideration that she keeps the
dining room more tidy. and that
boarders will be genrally more pa
tent under her ministrations. The
boarder who, in the multitude of
orders, fails TO get his steak, will
make meal OF what he can lind on
the table and go away happy;
whereas. If male was serving him,
his curses would not only be loud,
but deep. She is expected to be
quite diplomat-rather sweet on
good paying boarders and sour on
others in the exact degree of their
delinquency. And she must know
how to inoffensively parry all
kinds Of thrusts, and make pleasant
repartee to all the sharp ssllies
of the numerous patrons of the
house. If she fail in this, she is an
utter failure as hash-slinger.
The male hashslinger is considered,
for lively work, worth two of the
female. He IS expected to be able to
attend at once to the wants Of twenty
guests and take as many orders with
out single mistake. To enable HIM
to do this he must know the tastes
and peculiarities of q hundred board
ers, so he may order tea or coffee the
instant he sees q man coming into
the dining room, and the various
orders for meats he asks at the diff.
ferent meals, is mere form-he knows
what each one wants. He is almost
omnipotent in his sphere; and all
wise, guiding the gastronomic ship
as unerringly as the old mariner
track thu ocean