, 1884-05-15
SOLIDS AND FLUIDS,
And How They Are Served in Leip
sic Restaurants.
The German OF Drinking
EatIng-Houses of High and
Low Degree--The Bill
of Fare.


Va h4hcllCat bAIupiF un sdLlug-uOuze. 1t 10
ponds for its support as much, or even more
in many cases, upon the beer its patrons
drink. For beer is considered as much an
accessory to the table as coffee or tea in
America Indeed, tea is a luxury which Is
very seldom seen in a German restaurant,
while coffee is taken in ones room in the
early morning and along in thoa afternoon.
an hour or so after dinner, and does moi
form one Of the indispensable or even com.
mon parts OF the restaurant dinner or sup.
per. But with beer 1t Is an entirely differ
ent thing. That il taken at all times and
the guest who drops into a restaurant to take
n glass of beer without eating anything Is
treated much more respectfully than he who
eats and doss not drink. The latter unfortu.
mates are generally Americans, by the way,
try and have not been here long enough to
get a taste for the German national beverage.
HALF A GLASS OF BEER.
Many restaurants, If fact, do not allow
their guests to eat without paying for some,
thing to drink, whether they drink it or not,
it being expressly stipulated on the bills OF
fare that each guest must pay for a half glass
OF beer II he does not order any wine, beer or
so !a-water. SO it comes about that the res.
taurants combine within themselves the dual
attributes of the American eating-house and
drinking saloon, having, in fact, a complete
monopoly OF the latter business; so that a
saloon on the American plan, with its rows
OF bottles, mirrors, bar, free lunch. mud
@~stand-up" drinking is n thing t1t.ilc an.
known in Germany, and it does not "Fn ut
all probable that such things ever will be
known here. They wouldn't be popular; be-
cause, in the first place, there is not the alb
surd American custom of "treating" here;
az. FIAT 10 sos, aalr . F-s.,H 10 N.1~a . -I... -
beer with you, it is understood that it is a
"Georgia treat" each paying for his own
beer.
MANNED OF DRINKING.
And then, again, the German does not
drink whisky, which has, so l am told, to be
gulped down in n hurry IL the drlnker wants
TO bo able TO swallow it at all, but confines
his attention exclusively to beer as a regular
drink. And beer-that is, German beer-is
one of those terrestrial nectars which re-
quires time for its proper appreciation and
the extraction of all the pleasure there is in
its drinking. Hence n "stand-upr American
saloon wouldn't do at all in the land of beer,
though it does very well in tho country of
the corn juice. Hence every German saloon
has n restaurant attachment, or, If you will.
every German restaurant has a saloon at
tachment. This means chairs and tables and
a comfortable, easy manner Of taking your
.eer or you dinner and your beer. OF
coursa there are all kinds of restaurants here
In Lsipsic, from the elegant, high-priced ones,
with frcscoed ceilings, attached to the erst-
class hotels, down to tho little, grimy cubby-
holes, whose ceilings are low and frescoed
only by the tobacco smoke from rank cigars,
Nnd the air of which always has u close,
stale beer, musty smell about It.
urou Ann ow nraprr
But these two extremes, tho highest and
the lowest in price, arc not the kind most Wis
tied by the ordinary German blessed with
aesthetic tastes and not having the where
withal to crafty them. Such people like n
modest meal and a good glnss of beer at a
modest price, such as can be found at any of
the %second-class restaurants, where one can
tnke his ease in the regular German style, is
not bothered with any ceremony and does not
have to pay much for the mmo ton.
Such n restaurant as this is the one ! haunt
for my dinner and supper-nobody in Ger
many goes to n restaurant for breakfast, you
know. 1t isn't a very inviting place, that's
n fact, for to get TO 1t one has to pass the
nlwnys-open door of n cheese and butter
store, with its attending odors, pass along a
narrow, dirty passaCe-wny, the abode and
lurking place of n finc assortment of rather
aggressive smells, and traverse a little well OF
n courtyard SURROUNDED by the grim y walls
Of four-storied buildings.
on CLOSER ACQUAINTANCE.
And after one In thus safely passed the
Scylln aud Charybdis guarding the entrance,
tho outlook is not II very enticing one to n
person not accustomed to such things; for the
room itself, surrounding two sides Of the
little courtyard in the form of a capital L, is
stuiry, low ceiled and dark-so dark that the
gas must b. kept burning all the time to give
tue light necessary to intelligent eating. Its
floors are landed instead of being carpeted or
covered with oil-cloth, so that ones shoe
grind and crunch like walking on n gravel
bed every time one moves. Neither are there
nny silver knives and forks on the tables,
ordinary iron knives and three pronged iron
forks, with black wooden handles, being the
Instruments used. Still, the cooking averages
good, the meals are t%olerahiy well served, the
variety OF edibles fair to middling, aud the
price low. Henc, I patrcniEe 1t. At dinnert the
place is always full, SO that the guests nave
uncousciously divided themselves INTO squads,
coming at 81 certnin time, so as to get their
seats Mt certain tables, so that one always
eats with the same people, occupies a certain
seat every day, aud, therefore, feels more at
home than he would il changed about
every day 10 n new table and Il new seat and
compelled TO eat every day with a crowd OF
strangers.
EATING BECAUSE THEY MUST.
The German restaurant dinner, however,
is merely n matter OF necessity. They eat
because they must and do not pretend TO &c
to the restaurant for any other purpose. Sc
they eat, drink their beer and go away again,
not waiting for any social talk or any amuse.
meut. But for supper the thing is different.
Then the little tables again dissolve partner
ship aud occupy sal aIoIe places, with -four
chairs about eac', "5e. the cloths are re-
moved ard QUE cas- what he orders on a
table destitute OF any covering. The bill of
fare now takes "a larger proportions and
runs through all manner of t~hiugs-soups,
steaks, roaSts and the like. There is also a
long list of cold meats to be chosen from, and
sausages of all kinds, cooked, raw, boiled,
baked and Bologna are to bo had for the ask,
ing. At the head Of this lengthy menu, GOV.
ering two large pages, there are always three
stanm dishes, which arc much cheaper than
the rest. Stumm means "tribe, family
lineage and | suppose that stamm dishes are
OF yesterdays tribe, family or lineage-thai
Is, are sort Of remnants. But they are al
ways well cooked, clean, tolerably generous
as to quantity and are cheap, so that they
are really eaten more than the regular dishes
upon the bill OF fare. Seated around these
little, bare-topped tables the Germans eat
their suppers and drink their beer quietly
and sedately, not hurrying the waiter n bit
The best smoking tobacco Is "Littl,
Joker
You will find the best assortment o
1-1s..f L.. ..a-..l al ILL -. u,