The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1890-03-08
PARIS RESTAURANTS.


"Talk about cheap restaurants"
said New Yorker who had just re-
turned from the French Exposition,
"we don't seem to have anything
here to touch one or two | saw IN
Paris when was there. / know we
can do pretty well in that line down
in Mott street, perhaps, but l am
sure that these l speak of take the
cake. They are in the poorest part
of the city, of course, and their Gus
toners are of the doubtful-well,
no, not doubtful at all, but rather
decidedly shady-class OF the pop
ulation, who gather in there after
the theaters close at night and every
body from whom they can beg with
any chance of profit has gone home.
''The arrangements and the ser
vice are quite simple. They consist
of one immense iron pot, filled with
conglomerate 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
sou to the landlord, who hands him
the fork. Taking long sniff OF
the appetizing (?) steam which rises
from the cauldron, he plunges the
fork into the mass and withdraws
it once-no more. If he stabs any
thing with the fork and brings it to
the surface, the morsel is his; il
he gets nothing-which sometimes
happens-he has no redress, but
must pay another sou for another
plunge or go hungry. The expert
ment is always watched GREATNESS.
ly by the other customers, and II
the lucky fisherman brings up a
substantial piece of meat he is con
graduated; if he brings up only q
potato or big carrot, which more
frequently happens, the stlnglness
of the master of the cuisine is freely
commented on, and doubts are even
expressed of the existence of any
more meat at all in the stew, but i
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 uI
with a smell of the vapor.
Another restaurant which | Wis
tied there" continued the narrator
"was established by charitable peo
pie for the express use of the out
casts of society, and a much NOR
substantial meal is given there to-
sou than at the place | have JUS
described. Therefore it is more pop
ular with those of the crimina
classes who are not in danger 0
immediate arrest by the police ane
can afford to come out of thel
hiding-places long enough to eat
| If YOU did not know the place tt
be the resort Of thieves you woul(
soon begin to suspect it. NOTHING
about the place is movable. Ih'
tables and benches are screwed t.
the floor, the iron basins from which
the food is eaten are sunken init
the tables and screwed down at tn
edges. The spoons, knives, cup
and forks are also secured by.shor
chains to the tables, and as the foot
is already seasoned no pepper o
salt castors are provided.
The only one-sou dish, however
is a thick broth or soup. A strap
ping big woman carries it about tn
room to the customers in a sort o
rubber bag, which she holds unde
her arms, and uses for all the worl'
like Scotchman's bagpipes. Th
bag is provided with long neck
which ends in nozzle. The womal
lowers the nozzle into the basin be
fore the customer, and when sh
gives the bag under her arm
squeeze with her elbow out squirt
the broth, and she controls tn
quantity by gripping the long neck
giving a one-sou dish or two-so'
dish at will.
"While we were looking on tn
attendant got into a dispute wit
one of her customers, stranger t
the place, truculent-looking ez
convict, about the quantity of brot
she had placed before him for tw
sous. He asserted that it was nc
worth more than one sou, and nc
body should make him pay NOR
for it. He threw down his one 80
with an oath, and took up his spoo
to eat. Quickly and quietly the a
tendant lowered the long neck int
his soup basin, withdrew the press
ure of her elbow from the bag unde
her arm, and with an audible sue
half the broth was siphoned bac
into the bag in jiffy from und'
the GROWERS very nose. The su
prise of that ex-convict was onl
equaled by our own.-N.Y. .Tribun
CoBBLE-I think shoemakers al
the most patient and uncomplai1
ing mortals on earth. In fact re-
Mark Tapleys.
Friend-Why sol
i Cobble-Their work is constant