The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1885-01-19
AFTER THE FEAST.
WHAT BEcOMES.oF THE FRAGMENTS
WHICH ARE LEFT.
Remnants OF Fashionable Banquets Gath
cred Up and Sold as a Regular Busi-
ness Working the Restaurants
and Free Lunch Places.
New York SUM-

ceding evening" for the canopy still stretched
from the door to the curbstone The hour
was 2 q IN. A dilapidated wagon stood in
front Of the house, drawn by an aged
horse. A belated reporter chance to pass by
and noticed two men hurrying from the
cart with empty pans and pals, into the
basement Of the house, and returning speed
lily with the anne filed TO the brim. For a
moment it locked like a burglary, but the
presence OF a policeman on the nearest cor
her was assurance to the contrary. One Of
the men paused as if to rest Tor a moment,
and tie reporter accosted him;
whats the racket
"f.!o same old ttins Free lGnches, cheap
restaurants, All Eyela'ianS"
Il do Il quite eaten on. What are you do
ing i'll the place"
why, don't You see, they've hal parry
there t. nah ami big supper They'va
left three GsHeS as much Us they've eaten.
AM were buyins it up from the steward
Wen laGa It around 70 or regular custom
ers and sell it all before 9 o'clock TO-
morrow
Regular customers! Why, is tbs rcsu-
lar trade"
'Of course ii j. aud has been for over ten
years Of my own knowledge. You see, there
are a hundred parties and over given every
night here IN New York Nearly all Of them
are supplied by regular caterers. About
half arc notice IN the daily papers. Now,
at these rackets they always put up a lDt
more than they want They cant help
themselves, because it would never DO TO
! have just as much as their guests
| needed and no more, 1t would look
Just as if they were dead broke. GA fam
lies order generally twice as much as
they're going to uee, new families about
three or four times as much, am shOddieS
five and ten times as much. Why, last
week we took in s,vaD place where they
had fifty people, and they had enough grub
for 500. Now, what happenst The party
or wedding is all over. and there's all that
stuff left unt;lsted. All they can do is to
throw it into the swirl barrel That's where
| VIC come in. We come along and buy itUp
| Sometimes We buy it from the caterer. 1t
! saves him trouble and time, as We clean of
| all the dishes and leave them really for his
| washers. Sometimes We make the deal VITA
| the cool; CT the butler, and sometimes. hut
not very often, viii the old man # the
| Eou.". Anyway We manage 10 connect al !
get the stuff"
| "Nhat TO you pay:'
"Weii, that depends With 4 reliable
| caterer we can hUt ont what viii he left
| over, and can make Il lair bid. With coos
| aud servants we generally stake him vita 81
| ! , OF - note Almost always we come cut
! ahead but HOW ami then we get left. COOKS
are sc; cinS two smart uai want TOO much.
| With tie head Of lie house, though, It's
| easy WORK, ana Il : vii satisfy LiiH every
| time
| what 90 Won DO with the STUFF
| Sell it to our customers There's, frs
| the cheap restaurants They're always
ready to take amy thing chean If they can
| get Il chicken salad far - that would ctst
| them s. to MAKE they'll take it every time,
| Nod &c, they cll afford then TO sell Ii at
| ~ cents a plate Gua maize money Why,
one time l sold lobster salad, thirty rounds
Tor -. =. itc,st the restaurant keeper cents
a plate, and he could sell it for 10 and make
! money. As a matter Of fact, he sold it all
| before I O'clock for 10 cents a plate. Then
| there's the free lUnca saloons. They want
sandwiches, pickles, tread, cheese, olives,
| and ham. They don't pay much, but they'll
! take all you bring. There's one place town
where they give fried oyster & sandwich,
| or something with every drink. That man
| is one of my best customers
after you've worked the restaurants and
| free lunches, you can always sell out what's
| left to the Eyetalians. They'll buy anything
il its cheap enough. I've sold them meite
ice cream Of different colors, half eaten
Charlotte Ru5scs, chicken bones, and broken
cakes. At a street cleaners restaurant III
| Loot Z
from the plates OF big wedding reception
for 81. They made about three paiisfu!s,
| and had over fifty different things in them
"What do You get mostly from parties!7
First, leavings from plates; then melted
ice cream; next sandwiches, and then cake
Occasionally We get Charlotte Russs and
candies, IN the old days we almost never
got salads; but since they've used veal anG
boiled beef in making chicken salad, we get {
God deal On warm nights we collar :
ood many fried and picked oysters; OF
cold nights almost none at all When they
put up cold ham, corn beet, turkey, anG
venison, people don't eat a quarter Of it, an
! then We come IN solid
Bat you see it all depends On the Kind %
party it is. Literarie, are the worst Of all
they only have bouiion, coffee. sand witches,
aud salad, and there's nothing LETT over.
Musicals are almost as bad i>cttledrum,
sud afternoon racket are not much good
either The best is a wedding, They seal
out 0AJ invites and SET up Tor 701 AMI thet
about 80 come. Receptions to public mel
are tie next best Then come birthday
christening, and tin wedding parties Wakes
too, are sometimes boss. The only way 8,
SIZE them up is to know the caterer aud gs
all the points from him.
DO you ever get any wine"
"Ha-o! The old man OF the house aiFsy
comes down and collars what's left ii q,
don't, the walters drink it, and tney'r,
always helped out by the servants. IL.
Teen in the business ten years and ne>c
-at even half bottle That is, didn'r -s
t1a empty bottles. They don't pay, Though
uuie-s you get more than fifty, AMI thaI
they bring you in about sl0O. But I've 60
10 stop, as I'm eff now to Washington marae
for our first customer
COTaiine.
lCticaso Times
Coraliue, a substance now extensively Use
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