St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1884-12-13
HOW LONDON DIMES.
Costly State Dinners, or, if You Like, a
Meal for Penny.

Meal Tor Penny.
Being hidden to one of London's civic
dinners, | partook inter ALA of lark
pudding. / do think it is shame to
put the lark which sat Heavens gate
sings" into pudding, but being. in a
pudding the lark is exceedingly nice. l
am told that lark pudding is quite as
expensive and doubly as rare as birds
nest soup, and certainly the unanimity
with which the guests on the occasion I
refer to called for it, bears out the as
sertlon. Perhaps Delmonico himself
could not have suggested 3 rarer menu
than that which the shipWrights laid
before us. The Lord Mayors fine
and yeomanlike specimen of English
man as one would wish to see-occu-
pied the guests place of honor, and at
such times as dared furtiVely to raise
my eyes in the direction of that digni-
tary I thought saw that he enjoyed
the repast exceedingly. Certainly it
was gorgeous affair, from the soup to
the pudding, and afterward to the
cigars (great fat fellows of that deli
ciously loose and crumbly make about
the end that domestic Workmen can
not imitate). The wines, too; the fra
grant hooks and mellow clarets and dry
champagnes, the rare old ports, the
nutty sherries, the thimbleful of oily
brandy, and the accompanying gulp of
coffee. That is one way in which Lon
doners-the great corporations and city
guilds-dine.
Let us see. At the height of that ban
quet it must have been nine o'clock.
From the majestic Mansion House,
which sees literally hundreds of such din
ners during every Lord Mayors term,
to the New cut, is but short distance.
Here, as indeed in all parts of London,
there are served up at eight o. clock pre-
cisely in the ham and beef shops huge
dishes of boiled beef, baked pork and
pease pudding. 1t is not to say too
much that one hundred thousand fam
lilies in London take their evening (and
heartiest) meal from these shops, carry
ing home the steaming Yiands in hot
basins, at cost of from one penny to
say, ninepence each family. 1.-Two to
IL cents. The meat, of course, can
but huge platter of pease pudding
may, and there is no dish more whole
some and sustaining. To the very
poor-not to the very poor
est, poor creatures, for they
are unable to get even this cheap food
frequently-the hot joints and hot pud-
ding served from eight o'clock until
midnight, and the savory saVeloys that
are taken steaming from the boiler are
great boon. Many of the establish
ments in which they are served have
also midday hot lunch (none being al
lowed to consume their food on the
premises), but for the most part the
morning is occupied by their proprietors
in cutting and preparing the meat for
the great rush of the evening, in clear
ing up generally, and in cutting cold
meats for such as want them. [ have
often gazed with mute admiration upon
the deft manner in which these gentle
men ply their long knives. They seem
to be able to cut off pound of meat
without diminishing the joint. And to
do it again and again. [ am positive
that have seen them shave off a piece
of ham that was no thicker than the
paper on which these lines will be
printed.
Such as can not muster enough
money to indulge in steak-and-kidney
pudding, which costs anywhere from
four to ten pence, according to how
much steak and kidney there is in it,
and CT what variety they are, can at all
| events find a cheap and healthy repast
in the fried-fish shop. There is great
plenty in England, and at any seasons
of the year, of fish called plaice. 1t is
something like founder and some
thing like sole, but it is neither, and
has distinct flavor. The fried-fish
shop-keeper cuts this place in two,
peppers, salts, and fours him, and pops
him into a gigantic vat of boiling grease.
In ten minutes he is done. Scores of
thousands, especially in the winter time,
are nightly customers of the fried-fsh
shop I have tried plaice SO cooked
and like him very much. The great
consideration about him, however, is
his cheapness. A satisfying portion of
fried place for one can be obtained for
a single penny, while, if the purchaser
desires to spend more, he can get
at the same shop a three-cornered
paper full of Clipped potatoes for
another penny-four cents of our money
in all Is it not terrible to think that in
this vast town, this innumerable cara
van, there are thousands who can not
often approach even this poor luxury?
The poor, however, have certainly more
opportunities of obtaining cheap and
nourishing food in London than in any
other of the large cities certainly far
more than in New York or Brooklyn.
We will suppose, for example, that
man were landed in New York with but