The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-06-17
PUT THEIR TRUST IN men.
Gotham Restaurateurs Who Have
Faith in the Honesty of
Their Patrons.
Shooting Food Down Their Threats
and the Price Over the
Counter.
CustomeFs Who Knock Down ON the Cost
An Ex-Governors Joke-The System
Of Trusting to Honesty.

ASSAA seAsSA
petitions Of trade, and start outdoors after
some refreshment to brace their systemsf for
. renewed tussle with the fierce torrent OF
the city's tremendous traffic, there gathers
in little dairy in the Potter building. and
likewise in q certain restaurant on Broad
way Just below Cortlandt street, crowd ct
hungry merchants and clerks, who bolt lot
Of miscellaneous food in feverish haste, and
afterWard bolt outdoors into the street be-
fore the last mouthfuls Of their several
rapid transit meals are fairly devoured. In
hundreds Of other eating houses down town
hundreds Of other business men and clerks
similarly shoot food down their Threats
with the same frantic rapidity, and rush out
with their meal half eaten, after the great
American dyspepsia breeding fashion. But
the thing that makes these two respective
assemblages Of hungry business men inter
the tssss an 70 and snfg gr
when they get through.
Long counters spread plentifully with all
sorts of seasOnable delicacieS meet their
gaze at noon when the hungry men first
plunge into the respective eating. places.
The hunsY men walk quiokdly1 along +h Inc
themselves to it without further ado. When
thew Get it down their throats as fast as
they can they wander to some other part OF
the eating house and pick out and devour
something else. There are clerks and cash
no heed to the hungry men. Each customer
is free to 10 where he likes and eat what he
chooses, and as much of any one thing as
he feels like consuming.
It ia an interesting spectacle to watch the
crowd make the assault on the delicacies.
A,,k 81 Snforoafinn ~ hnw RQCn
business man squares things with the house
when he thinks he has had enough.
In the little dairy in Nassau street the
customer walks straight up to the cashier
and rattles off what he has eaten.
;;"sandy vi h, Coffee strawberry shortoake'
"Thirty cents, please" says the cashier,
and the customer rattles the money out on
the counter. shoots out of the door, and
hurries down the street like man bent on
catching a train.
In the Broadway restaurant the method
of settling is for the customer to figure out
his own bill. On the walls hang placards
with price lists of the foods painted in dis
Xtinct letters and figures. Each customer
studies a moment when he has finished his
lunch. Then he steps up to big box on
side table and picks out check for the
amount. The checks are ranged in rows
in little wooden compartments so that they
san be got at instantly. The customer
throws this on the cashiers desk, pays the
amount of the check. helps himself to q
'oothpiok, and walks out. The cashier
never questions the correctness of the
It every time.
For many months the same thing has been
,oing on at both these eating houses. The
ystem is a novelty to many New Workers,
vho are accustomed to get from restaurant
walters check for what they have ordered.
The new system is called ''The trust-to-a
nam s-honor plan of quick lunch SERVICE"
nd it has proved SO profitable that other
estaurants in this and other cities ure be-
inning to copy it: The Broadway restau-
his city, and it was copied by the proprie-
or of the dairy, because he says that he be-
ieves in the principle of treating his fellow
ian as an inherently honest customer.
he two men who have put up their cash to
ack this system Of serving the hungry men
Gotham claim that it pays them we'll, and
hat the percentage Of customers who DELHI
rately take advantage of the system to
heat the house and get a lot to eat without
aging for it is 50. small that it is hardly
orth noticing.
own on the cost of their meals" said the
roprietor of the Nassau street dairy, sis
ss than 8 per cent. of the total receipts.
uch meanness doesn't happen more than
70 or three times q week. On the other
and, hardly day passes that some custo-
er doesn't come up to the cashier and say,
". l forgot that had plate Of beef.
ere is 10 cents that ought to have paid
,sterday.''
The manager Of the Broadway quick
ncheon establishment similarly oom-
ended the honesty of the New York eat
z public. In this particular restaurant,
1ile the average number Of customers for
aggregate loss is said to be less than
cent.
The miscalculation or absent-minded-
ss of customers" said Manager Fassett,
mot be set down as the cause Of this loss
ogether. It includes the food eaten by
help here. We have four different
partments to the restaurant, and it
forget to pick up q check in one
oartment when he has visited more than
9 department., as, for example, when he
mes into the liquor department to get
nix after he has been in the restaurant
,artment.. Our customers come back to
next day in almost every case and make
ia the difference. Sometimes they walk
with checks in their pockets when they
thinking of other business matters. But
" bring these checks back and settle ON
same day or the day afterward. re-
governor r Who had law case in court,
he'd out one day without settling. He
ae back next day and produced the check
paid i. He thought it was rather
d joke"
Lanager Fassett said to New York Sun
orter that as he understood it the trust
-to-a-man's -honesty system wasn't origi-
in America. II have beer told,'' he
''that the system is successfully car
on in Scotland, and in Norway and
sden. The buffet quick lunch, as un-
stand it, vas first instituted IN Scotland,
it is good thing. and America has
sn 1t mp and is making it pay
What Do You Know
ut the Superb Pullman Dining Cars
On have been recently placed in service
the Union Pacific. "The Overland
tef" Thew run ON the fast Vestibuis
rese between Council Bluffs and Denver
on The Limited Fast Mail'' between
neil Bluffs and Portland.
You want to get q sumptuous meal
e travelling. don fail to take the train
which these Diners run. Meals, which
rot be surpassed In any of the first class
Us IN tho country, are served in these
at 75c. each.
A Verdict Unanimous.
d. Suit. druggist, Bippus, Ind, testi.
II can recommend Electric Bitters as
sery best remedy. Every bottle sold
given relief in every case. One man
six bottles and was cured of rheuma-
-