The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-06-19
ARnur FREE LUNCHES.


in the quality of liquor he placed before
customer, but to-day the quality and
variety of the free lunch which graces
his table is rs essential to success in bust
ness as the erode of his liquors. Indeed,
there are many who prefer a good lunch
with poor drinks to poor lunch with
good drinks especially among the beer
drinking classes.
There are few saloans where one can
not obtain passing glimpse of what is
intended to be tempting lOyout of cold
lunch to attract the passers by, who may
be hungry Get not dry) and cause him
to imagine himself thirsty, and, as a
natural result, step in and buy drink
for the privilege of sampling the lunch.
Each saloon has a certain hour for
setting out and replenishing its table,
and it is wonderful to what perfection
the boys get onto the scheme of being on
time for fresh bite; so the more fire.,
quently the table srepleDished the better
patronage the proprietor receives. The
lunch tiend has also great faculty of
keeping posted regarding where the best
lunches are set, and by this means secures
u
of the mOnOtOny of board bill, subsisting
intirely on several glasses of beer and
what lunch he can grab for each meal.
| He never takes two consecutive drinks at
the same place on the route. This class,
fortunately for the proprietor, is compare
lively small, as the majority of his
| customers merely take bite for their
stomach's sake. In many places, where
| certain crafts make their headquarters,
dainty sandwiches are prepared and
placed in tempting pyramid on the bar
just after working hours, thus OBTAINING
and attracting custom. Nor does the
saloon keeper become the least discOura-
ged as pyramid after pyramid disappears,
but hastens to keep up the supply,
knowing full well that the demand for
beer will keep pace with the disappear
ance of the lunch.
The quality of these spreads varies in
accordance with the classes who patrOnize
the establishment, the menu being more
toCthsome as the prices for liquors adj
vance. For instance, at a saloon where
ten cents is the standard price for glass
of beer and other drinks proportionately
high, the patrons are generally men of
means who eat square meal when hun
CRY, consequently the proprietor can set
out such dainties as cold turksy, salads
cold meats, different vegetables, bread,
crackers, etc, of the finest quality. But
at the commoner places the ravages of
one or two customers on such bill of
fare would ruin the proprietor in less
than week; consequently every thing is
procured with view of its cheapness
and staying" qualities-that is, such as
will require but little to satisfy or dis
gust man. The average lunch consists
of cheese Every lCud), headcheese. rye
bread, slaw, bologna sausage, cold liver,
and sometimes onions or radishcs. The
contrast between the refined lunch faster,
INDUCING in bit of cold turkey Jelly
and white bread in first class barroom,
and full fiedged lunch grabber raking
over basket of dry rye bread and pick
ing over bits of cheese next door a five
cent schooner dive, is striking and seems
to show that human nature is governed
by circumstances.
Tie cost of maintaining these lunch
tables is comparatively small. A saloon
disposing of five or six kegs of beer per
day, to say nothing of other drinks, will
set lunch costing from 81 to So, while
a So lunch insures the sale of eight to ten
kegs.
Many amusing incidents are connected
with these lunch counters, and the
various schemes resorted to by the
chronic lunch beat to evade buying beer,
and at the same time partake of the
lunch.
The cold timer can be readily dis
tinguished by the businesslike air with
which. he enters and makes directly for
the table, where he generally succeeds
in the short space of time required for
the barkeeper to draw his beer, after
drinking which he quietly helds himself
to another bite and proceeds on his way
only to disappear behind the mysterious
gree blinds of the next saloon on his
route.
Tickets are also INDUCED Ia at the ex-
pense of the "grabber" A small piece
of soap is thickly coated with sugar and
placed OH the table, which results in a
suffering and swearing shortly after
ward as the poor fellow endeavors to
clear his mouth of the taste. Why he
should make such fuss over n piece of
soap when he can stand and eat cheese
that graces the SAME table is q mystery.
Perhaps It's because of his aversion 10
soap on general principles One old felt
low made it practice to stand outside
and watch for the barkeeper of certain
place to cut up fresh lunch, when he
would enter and buy glass of beer, and
wait till it was finished and placed on
the table The barkeeper finally got on
to the secret of his prOmptness, and when
ever he dropped in" on time after thai
the fresh lunch WINS invariably showed
under the bar, and the schemer's nickel
wasted as far as the lunch was concerned.
A favorite mode of beating the lunch
table, as adopted by the class who are
always broke, is to await this gathering
of a crowd, that will keep the barkeepel
busy and detract his attention from the
table, then sneak in and help themselves
; Through frequently detected, and fired
out bodily, they return at the first oppor
tunity Again one will concOct long
yarn concerning a friend of the mar
presiding behind the bar, and continue
to spice it, at intervals indulging in q
, bite, until the barkeeper drops TO the
; racket and invites him out
Ofcourse nearly every one who takes {
drink also takes bite or two, but that il
e the extent of it, for the more intellIgen
a classes are aware of the indigestibl,
nature of the stuff, and wisely refrain
from overindulgence. Again, it is con
Venient for person to take bite nov
and then while drinking to alleviate tn,
bad effects which must otherwise result
from an overindulgence in beer,
To ONt, fora;u,, ladxy ubo x,;e;to Al