Smyrna times., 1886-12-01
Freaks of Our Women.
ODDITIES OBSERVED AMONG THOSE
WHO EAT LUNCH IN PUBLIC.

I6dhS VI OuI w Om6uI
ODDITIES OBSERVED AMONG THOSE
WHO EAT LUNCH IN PUBLIC.
"Can you let me have little
money!" Mrs. Jones asks her hus-
band, as he is putting on his overcoat.
What do you want money for. l
gave you So yesterday morning"
Yes, l know, but l had to buy
some things"
What things?'
cob! some ribbon for my bonnet
and skein of silk"
For So"
Well, no bought some needles
and pins, and -"
There, that will do. It's the same
old story. Here, that's all | can spare. :"
and the irate husband filings two
dollar bill on the table He under
stands how easily fvedollar bill will
melt away in liquors and cigars, but a
woman has no such way of getting rid
Of money. That is Just where he is
mistaken. Women don't smoke and
dring as a rule, bnt they have as fasci-
mating way Of spending their green
backs and silver dollar as our most in
veterate smoker. How? They spend
their cash in lunches. Women take to
lunching us men take to drinking-by
degrees. A frequenter of ladies'
lunch room connected with large dry
goods store in this city, has seen this
lunching habit in all its phases. He
has noted the timid, retiring young
woman who ventures in the lunch room
for the first time. She looks slvlv
around, and in mild voice asks for a
glass of milk and piece of cake. AS
she sips the milk, she slowly drinks in
the Intoxicating spirit of the scene
the crowd of easy-going, well-dressed
women, the array of hats and bonnets
of every size and shape and every va
riety of color, the murmer of women's
voices with its clattering accountant
ment of spoons and cups and saucers-
she drinks it all in. The first step is
taken. She will lunch there again.
Then there Is the moderate luncher.
She is self-possessed woman. She
can lunch there as cheaply as any,
where else, and every day finds her
seated at one of the tables. She al
ways orders something solid and sub
stantial. Then in prominent place
generally right by the door-where
everybody can see her, sits the luncher
who is confirmed in the habit. She sits
all alone and hroWses in extreme salts
faction. She always orders as much as
her purse will allow, and delights her
soul in the multiplicity of the dishes
and the heterogenity of the debris sur
rounding her. When she Uses to leave
/ she scans the table and its piles of
/ plates and saucers with the same pride
that the old veteran will ogle the six
/ teen bottles he has got away with at
one sitting. The drinking habit in men
is mostly matter of appetite, but ap-
/ petite has very little to do with the
lunching of women. She becomes a
! regular frequenter of the ladies' lunch
room because she loves a crowd. She
delights in variety, and because of her
innate vanity. If every woman had a
separate room to lunch in there would
! be no lunchers. There is in conse-
quencc a spirit of rivalry in these lunch
rooms which makes them as fascinat-
4 ing as horse race. Every woman
means to be ahead of her neighbor
either in the quantity or quality of the
lunch she orders. There is no hanging
back and the women will start a race
with the same lunch aud they come il
neck and neck with the same steaming
fourth cup of tea.
Sometimes it is like watching a game
Of poker. Four women, strangers tc
each other, will sit at the same table
They are regular lunchers. Each is
reluctant to give her order first. be-
cause each Is desirous of bettering her
neighbor's repast. At length one of
them, with the air of man who hold.
two jacks and pair of aces, orders {
plate of turkey aud a cup of coffee.
Her neighbOr Immediately orders 9
plate of turkey, cup of coffee and {
plate of icecream! The next one see!
that plate of turkey, the cup of cof
fee and the ice cream, and goes ont
better and orders a chicken salad. The
fourth, seeing how matters stand. de
cides on her play. She has not as mucl
money as the others. She can't 90 tn,
turkey, the chicken, the ice cream anC
the cOiiee. So she quietly scans tn,
boards and makes a magnificent bluf
with an oyster pattie. "Ill take tha
first" she remarks to the waitress
Then she dallies with the bill of far,
and sits out the other three, winnin,
: the game with % cents. Underneath
this spirit of rivalry there is a sort o
confidential understanding. The,
know that everybody is Dragging ant
that everybody knows that everybody
else is Dragging. They know tha
when woman orders big lunch tina
it does not follow that she can really
} afford to pay for it, They expec
, somebody or something will have t,
suffer. Sometimes they deny. them
selves little articles of dress whic
they want to purchase or a pair G
shoes will be bought for $4 which the
intended should cost So. Or it NAV b
that the husband has commissioned hi
wife to purchase him some new sock
or a new tie, and these commission
are the luncher's opportunity. /
pretty woman was heard to say, q
she buttoned on her glove, to her com
panion:
" Well, that's what call an elegan
lunch. Have you got any change ?"
No; why? Do you want to borrov
any ?"
" Yes; find I have only 35 cent
left and Fred gave me 50 this mornin
and asked me to get him n tie."
III tell you what to do. Go t
Flynn's on Sixth avenue. You wi
get tie that will look just as good q
he would get at gents furnishin
store for $3.50 for 20 cents"
" Yes, but Fred"
He'll never know the difTerenc,
Come along. I'll go with you. Nv
tried it,"
Then the pretty woman and her con
panion hurried out to buy the ii
which the ignorant husband was t
understand cost $15O. Most of thes
lunchers live at boarding-houses, s
i, that the husband not only pays th
. landlady in cash for his wife's luncl
: but pays a second time for mes
IS about which he knows nothing, out {
y his ties, his socks and his collars an
l. cuffs.