The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1890-02-20
QUEER RESTAURANTS.


How Paris Provides for Ex-Convicts and
7ss.A Absent Minded Guests.
'sFaik about cheap restaurants" said
New Yorker, who had just returned
from the French Exposition, I'VE don't
seem to have any thing here to touch
one or two ! saw in Paris when was
there. l~know we can do pretty well In
that line down in Mott street, perhaps,
but am sure that these speak of take
the cake. They are insthe poorest part
OF the city, Of COURSE and their rustofns
ers are Of the doubtful--well, no. not
doubtful at all, but, rather, decidedly
shady-class Of the population, who
gather in there after the theaters close
atnight, and every body from whom they
can beg with any chance of profit has
gone shnnle.
The arrangements and the service
are quite simple. They consist of one
immense iron pot, filed with conglom-
crate stew of all sorts of odds and ends
of food picked up at the refuse-baskets
of the big hotels and restaurants, and a
long-handled iron fork. The hungry
customer advances to the pot and
pays. one SOFT to the landlord, who hands
him the fork. Taking long sniff of the
ppetizing t2) steam which rises from
the caldron, he plunges the fork into
the mass and withdraws it once no
more. II he stabs any thing with. the
fork and brings it. to the surface the
rmorsel is his; il he gets nothing
sometimes happens-he has no redress,
but must pay another sou for another
plunge or go hungry. The experiment
is always watched breathlessly by the
other customers, and if the lucky fisher
man brings up substantial piece OF
meat he is congratulated; il he brings
up only potato or a piece OF carrot,
which more frequently happens, sthe
stinginess of the master of the cuisine
is freely commented on and doubts are
even expressed Of the existence OF any
mese= meat at all in the stew; but if a
luckless wight brings up nothing at all
he is greeted with a chorus of laughter
and derisive remarks and is advised TO
| fill himself up with a smell Of the paper.
Another restanarant which visited
there, continued the narrator, was es-
tablished by charitable people for the
express use Of the outcasts of society,
and much more substantial meal is
given there for a sou than at the place j
| have just describeds Therefore it is
more popular with those of the criminal
classes who are not in danger of inn
mediate arrest by the police and can
| afford to come out OF their hiding=pfaces
long enough to eat. If you did not knew
the place to be the resort of thieves you
would soon begin to suspect it. Moth
ing about the place is mepable.-The
tables and benches are screwed to the
floor, the iron basins from which tho
food is eaten are snnken into the tables
and screwed down at the edges. Tho
| spoons, knives, cups, and forks are
also secured by short chains to the
tables, and as the food is already
seasoned, no pepper or salt casters are
provided. .::----.-...
THE only one-sou dish, however, is a
thick broth or soup. A sStrapping big
woman carries it about the room to the
customers in sort of a rubber bag,
which She holds under her arm and uses
for all the world like Seotehmans bag.
pipes Tho bag is provided with long
neck which ends in nozzle The woman
lowers the nozzle into the basin before
the customer, and when she gives the
bag under her arm a squeeze with her
elbow out squirts the broth, and she
controls the quantity by gripping the
long neck, giving a ene-seu dish or d
twosou dish at will.
While we were looking on the at.
tendant got into dispute with one OF
her customers, a stranger to the place, a
truculent-looking ex-convict, about the
quantity Of broth she had placed before
him for two sous, He asserted that II
was not worth more than one sou, and
nobody should make him pay more for
1t. He threw down his one SOU with an
oath and lookup his spoon to eat.
Quickly and quietly the attendant low
cred the long neck into his soup basin,
withdrew the pressure of her elbow from
the bag under her arm, and, with an au-
diblesuck, half the broth was siphoned
back into bag in jiffy from under the
GROWERS very nose.
"The surprise Of that ex-convict was
only equaled by our OWN. Y. Trib-
une.