Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-07-20
A FREE LUNCH SCARE.
FAsTlDious NlBBLERS HAD BETTER
 WATCH WHAT THEY EAT.

About Cheap and ''Free" Lunches-Hid-
 eous Mysteries Made Known.
 "Yes," moodiiy asscnted the barkeeper, ''the weather is pretty warm, but it is a cold day for me, all the same, for have emphat- ically got left The boss is away to fu- neral, Dan was taken sick suddenly and had to go home and here I've been all alone on the keen jump for six straight hours. I'm tired out, and so blamed hungry that could eat anything except free lunch"
 "Whats the matter with the free lunchF' queried the reporter.
 "Oh, nothing. Only know too much about it, and as for eating it-excuse me"
 Ten feet from that starving barkeeper was | a long, narrow table covered with bowls, l dishes and plates in which were displayed l quite an assortment of seeming articles of | food, some of them rather tempting in ap- l pearance for 6 hungry mcu. There were | several kinds of sausages, Sts of fried liver, | pork and beans, cheese, pickled onions and l beets, thin slices of sort of a marbleized | compound of gristle and grease that was called "headcheese" small fishballs, fried l cells, pigs feet cut in chunks, & strange ma terial said to be pickled 'ox mouths" which were salty sour with 6 curious roughneSs, toughness and graininess in them, and other things needless to recapitulate Men had
 
 Some men fancy that their drink tastes better when they take a preliminary bite of something; others have an erroneous idea that a bite or two after drinking makes the odor of the liquor less conspicuous in their breath; many believe that alcoholic liquor does less harm to the coats of their stomachs when they take a little food with it; thou sands take a bite because sight of the food awakens a fictitious appetite in them, and tens of thousands snatch up mouthfuls of whatever comes handy, just from the habit.
 TASTES OF THE PUBLIC.
 Although the hour was not much past the middle of the afternoon. some of the plates were pretty we'll cleared. The taste of the public that day seemed to have run to the pickled mussels, water crosses and radishes, for these supplies were almost exhausted Next to these the fried liver and beans had found favor The sausage did not seem to have tempted many, but there had been some nibblng on the kind made of liver and on the imitation bologna, that was hard. black, and oily of look and goaty in smell Plenty of forks stood handy, thrust in deep in greasy and grimy water, that is supposed to give them sufficient cleansing as they pass from mouth to mouth.
 In Hull of business the barkeeper went on in a confidential tone
 
 stewards to buy properly for first class lunch and fewer still have either the knowl- \ edge or the conveniences for getting up the ! lunches themselves The result has been the building up of a very considerable business, \ which is generally in the hands of broken \ down caterers and dissipated ex-cooks, in the ! supplying of free lunches to saloons at stipu- lated prices according to quantity and variety required. They charge all sorts of ! prices, from seventy-five cents up to $5 or even $7 per day. Of course, there Is Q good deal of keen competition among them. as there is in everything connected with the saloon business, and they are all the time ! trying to cut under each other in price ! What is the consequencei That they use ! always the cheapest and often the nastiest materials, and spend as little as possible of either time or money on preparation 1 Let us look that stuff over now to illustrate what say-but mind you don't give it away ! that told you, for the boss would give me the grand bounce if he knew it Smell that liver sausage Don't you notice little faint sour tainti That liver had commenced to spoil before it was made up. Sniff one of those slabs of fresh beef sausage That moldy smell tells sufficiently the story of the meat 1t was made from This 'oxen maui seems all right, but we had lot & few days ago that was a terror. There's no use putting that smoked bologna to your nose. can tell you about it. It is made of refuse scraps, too far gone for use any other way, that arc salted and seasoned up, and smoked so that their quality is effectually concealed.
 THE HIDEoUs MYSTERIES.
 'I gave & chunk of that headcheess the other day to dog that looked hungry. The intelligent brute took it, but laid it down in-
 tantly, gave me a look of bitter reproach, I e .I llyoJ fh~k oSv v,sors feet and you will observe that the grime and filth of the pig pen is still on them They have actually never been washed, any moro than that in the processes of boiling and pickling some of the dirt has dropped oil. So ! could go on directing your attention to tho true inwardness of more of the banquet until I made you sick, only that 1t sickens me to think about it. will mercifully draw e veil over the hideous mysteries of the OK tail soups, stews and other hot made dishes sup piled in quantity by these free lunch cater CTS. dropped in, on some business for the boss, at one of those caterers places over on the west side few weeks ago and saw them making kettle of OK tail soup. The memory of it, if 1t could not be banished from the mind, would be enough to drive s man to hard drink
 "They are very skillful in arresting de composition and hiding its evidences by means or CnenlC21S ana seasoning, SO kn&t you can't really tell how far gone the meat may have been that you are eating, and though some people like tainted meat and say that it is wholesome, the very idea of it } disgusts me. What do they user don't , know what all, but do know that some oi them employ permangsnate of potash to kill the smell of bad meat, and salicylc acid to keep the soup from souring in hot weather :. The more free lunch article is seasoned the more legitimately open to suspicion it is. By the way, have you ever noticed 'hrandied . cheese on the free lunch tablet Ohl you have
 and you think 1t isn't bad. We'll, barroon
 cheese is, as rule, the cheapest that can be got
 When it is unstable for any other purposs
 itis offered to the saloon; but when it zoe beyond that point, and even rats fight shy o1 A it, it is still all right for Saturation witi . bogus brandy-made of favored rectiAef z spirits-and comes up smiling 'brandist | cheese'
 | "Of course, the lunch caterers will how
 denials of all this, but it is true just the same ' and anybody is welcome to my share Nsye 2 7 trust anything in free lunch that Is no | -N-~. A- ASS~s