The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-12-26
RAILWAY RESTAURANTS.
Fast Trains and Dining Cars Have Knocked
Them Out Completely.

Fast Trains and Dining Cars Have Knocked
Them Out Completely.
Dinner for four? Yes, sir. But you
you will have to wait q few minutes"
"All right" said we; but be as expe-
ditious as you can, for we are hungry"
1t was at Blanktowr junction, and in
the railroad station that this converse
ton took place. The first speaker wore
an anxious look, as if he was afraid
that his four unexpected customers
would get away. The four had come up
on a freight train, and were waiting for
an express. They were hungry enough
to tackle the toughest railway sandwich
that ever escaped from tannery. Ono
OF tho four was railroad travelling man,
who had a nondescript friond who might
be almost anything, so far as appear
ances showed, and the othor two were
newspaper men.
Tho few minutes expanded to half an
hour We saw one of the children Of
the proprietor slip out of side door
and make for the butchers shop, and
oar hearts sunk within us. But when
prietor's wife had prepared with her
own hards-dcar me; time was whom
she had dozen servants to call up-we
looked and beheld u juicy porterhouce
steak, with nicely fried potatoes, tasty
tomato salad, and u cup of good coffee.
4 dinner for king, and so we all pro-
nounced it. The proprietor was still
"a nd oh
fifty cents apiece as if he felt that he
was doing us mortal injury.
YES" said the railroad man, this
was once busy and prosperous railroad
eating house; but the fast time has
knocked it out and the man who once
stood guard at the door, and fairly
coined money, as they say, is now hav-
ing hard time to exc out u livelihood.
He was improvident when he was in
luck; he thought his good fortune was
going to last forever, and like many
another man, he awoke too late and
found himself in the soup Where once
no would have taken your six shillings
with superci' ious look, no is now glad
to get half dollar, and to work for it,
too"
"He is not the only man who has seen
his business go to decay, | guess" said
the nondescript.
l should say not said the railroad
man." find the same thing all over
country. What, with the fast time and
long runs of trains, and the dining-cars,
which so many roads are operating,
many of the wayside restaurants have
gore to pieces. Only few famous ones,
like lIornellsville on the Erie, and
Bath on the Lackawanna, keep up their
old-time prestige and custom. The New
York Central has ruined its restaurants
with the deadly dining-car, and SYRIA
cuse. whore you could once get an ex-
cellent meal, has gone down to the
level of Poughkeepsie, which never was
any thing but ten-minute lunch stop.
Il want to say one thing" continued
the railroad man, in tie tone of one
who is speaking we'll of the deed. "A
great many bad jokes have been cracked
at tho railway restaurant and the rail-
road sandwich. have no good word to
speak of the latter, but some OF the best
meals of my life have been eater at the
former And have found that il man
will only take his ease and not hurry he
| can enjoy very good meal in the
twenty minutes allotted, and still have
time for stroll on the platform. N.
| " HoroId