The St. Johns herald., 1889-07-25
WHERE PRIESTS DINE.
A Waiter Says That They Do Not Talk, A But Know How to Eat.

4 Waiter Says That They Do Not Talk, k But Know How to Eat.
 I was at my dinner in a queer res taurant in an odd corner of upper New York the other day, and my attention was distracted from my food by the frequent passage through the room of walters laden with plates and viands- Each kicked the swinging door to let himself through, but when the door was ajar could see nothing beyond it except a screen. Over the door was the word ''private." Now and then a sound as of one person speaking to another escaped from the room. How is it possible, 1 asked myself, ''that two men can keep all those wait CTS flying to and fro. or that two men can eat all that is going in there?"
 Dinner party in there?' l ventured, to my waiter.
 ''Yes, big one; feefty persons said the waiter.
 "Fifty!" I exclaimed. Fifty what? Fifty deaf-mutes, or Is it 8 dinner of some queer club whose members have a rule not to speakP have heard of such oddities among the rules of the clubs of town"
 "No, sare; feefty priests are eating in there. The priest he never talk when he eats the big dinner"
 "No?"
 "No, sare; the priest he never talk while-a he eat. Oh, sare, but tho priest he is the one man in the world which know how to cat. First the oysters, and there sit the feefty or the seventy or the hundred priest, and he speak not word. Then the soup and his spoon go fast, but not-a the priests tongue. Then the fish and still not any talk. Then the roast and then the this and the that, and all the time the different kind of wine and the spoons and the knife and the fork they go like sixty, but from the priest not a word. l have wait on one hundred priests, and all the time not word, except perhaps ono says: Good, eh?' and his neighbor say: Fine? An, that is what 1 call knowing how to eat.
 "In your country" he went on, for Ihad started tho waiter upon topic dear to his Italian soul, ''in your country the people all talk-a entirely too much. Who can taste the soup in the middle of the fine jokeP Who can telI-a the difference between the veni- son and the partridge if he must scratch-a his head to make up the comical story? How can you drink the good wine as you should if you think what you shall say to your neighbor and make-a the grand laugh? An, not so the priest! There is feefty of him in that-a room, and you do not hear them crack-a the joke CT tell-a the comic sto"y, or fence with the smart word. No, they are eating and drinking and 'joying thei selves ikea men of common senso which know what a good dinner i5 and how il shall be eaten. But wait, my friond. It is now seven o'clock. Wait till it has been nine o'clock, Then you shall not ask is it two men h there" You shall think-a the whole town is there, such laughter and good fun will come from that room. That will be over the cordial and coffee with-a the good cigar Then the stomach is full and tho dinner is out the way and it is time to make-a the laugh. Wait till you hear if the priest he does not know how to eat-a the good dinner" "
 heard from this garrulous waiter that there arc priests restaurants in town, that is, cating-places that the priests favor. One of them is a fa- nous Spanish place far downtown. l judged that their custom iS not partic- ularly profitable, since they mainly cat at their parsonages or whatever their homes arc called, and only ap pear elsewhere on peculiar occasions when they descend in great bodies upon their favorite restaurants and demand that every thing shall be de- liciously cooked and of the best,-N. I. Cor. Providence Journal.