San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-08-07
IN AN UPTOWN RESTAURANT EARLY
IN THE MORNING.

O'Clock a. m. Tea and Coffee-A
Town.
1t is 9 o'clock in the morning, and this is an
uptown Sixth avenue restaurant which never
closes, night or day, and where at 6 o'clock
in the morning you may see the all night
jewellers gathered at one table and at the next
the diligent, early rising man of business,
consuming his coffee and roll preparatory to
his trip down town; the workingwoman
with her morning tea and toast who labors
hard for 81 per day; the woman who doesn't,
and wears diamonds; the gambler and the
bookkeeper; the youth just starting out to
see life, and the man of premature old age
who has seen too much of it-all here to bow
at one common altar of sustenance. On
stand are two brilliantly polished vessels re-
puted to hold tea and coffee. In effect they do
hold what was once an infusion of tea and
coffee, from which the soul and essence fled
hours ago. 1t is now a tame, tasteless, stale
and soursh fluid 1t matters not. The pub
lie drink it and seem satisfied. An Ameri-
can restaurateur of the middle class is not
bound to furnish what his guests do not call
for. These brilliant urns, with their com
registering the height of the fluid within,
suggest monuments to the departed virtue of
the beverages they hold. Without all is
whited and brilliant; within ii is a tea and
coffee sepulcher
When you call for coffee there is some
thing hopelessly exasperating in the habit
uated assurance with which the waiter grabs
an inch thick trimmed cup, turns the stale
I'M int no alo "
polished faucet, and bangs it down on the
table before you. He considers it coffee or
tea. Protest to him that the fluid has lost
its strength, all virtue, all aroma, all SEM
blance of its original self, and he would set
you down as an Anarchist, Nihilist and a
moral pestilence from his restaurantish point
of view.
The tea and coffee are brought in very
thick, heavy cups. Occasionally these cups
are notched, as if some one had tried to bite
out piece. Other cups have several notcheS
and suggest the edge of a saw. Ordinarily
they do not have more than two notches.
The window is filed with pieces of pie
mince, pumpkin, apple and cranberry. By
each piece of pie is bit of cheese. The pie
is now ready for operation. Some of these
pieces Of pie have been waiting for days in
has shone ON the pie and the cheese. The
sun imparts flavor of its own to pie crust.
1t is sun baked flavor. The same sun
hardens the cheese
customer enters, seats himself, orders
coffee and cakes, and goes to sleep in his
chair. The waiter brings him his order. He
sleeps on. Presently he SHORES. 1t is a snore
as regular and peaceful as though he were in
bed Enter five young men. They are fash
ionahly dressed, carry canes, wear expensive
jewelry, are up to the requirements of the
season as regards neckties Their manner is
almost boisterous. Their self consciousness
never desert them. Their faces are clean
shaven. Their silk hats are glossy. Their
hands are of feminine delicacy. Their cuffs
were put on in the evening. Their boot heels
are not in the least worn, but fiat as the face
of greenback. They wear Sl2 pantaloons.
They are full Of the effervescence of youth
and something stronger. They may be col
lege students, who have been laboring at the
tasks of education until 2 in the morning and
are hungry.
The waiter stands patiently by, while, be-
tween loud talk and laughter, they study
with lively diligence the bill of fare. They
seem enjoying life. He seems only endur-
ing it.
The snore of the snorer asserts itself plainly
at intervals amid the hum of voices around
His coffee and cakes steam under his nose
He needs them not. His head tips back at
intervals He restores it quickly to its place
The unconscious effort is painful to witness
A young man enters. He is about to seat
him at the same table with the snorer. When
it evidences itself to him that there a snorer
sits, he moves away. A man is talking
somebody's hilosophy to an old gray head
The gray headed man is silent and meek
He says little in reply. The talker has in
his hand the book of the philosopher he adj
mires. The two have finished meal of
corned beef hash. Now with them is the
''fow of soul" The philosopher so enthusi-
astically talked about is of the positive
school. The talker is positivist. The old
man doesn't seem to be much of anything.
Hence, he is a good man for positivist to
talk to. Occasionally the tslker reads the
old man passage; or ne reads him whole