Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-15
FAIR, FAT AND FORTY.
The Entertaining Ladies' OF that Description
at the Table d'Hote Dinners-Individu-
ality In Restaurants-The Janitor in

at the Table d'Hote Dinners-Individu.
ality In Restaurants-The Janitor in
May-OId Dan Rice of To-Day.
tFRoM STAFF CORRESPONDENT
IF you 60 about much you must have
noted the extraordinary number of robust,
middle-aged women who patronize the table
| d'hote dinners everywhere in New York.
Now and then the pretty girl may be seen:
| but she is in an insignificant minority.
| From the table d'hote point OF view, behind
two quart bottles, she isn'tin it. The woman
who comes under the head Of comfortable"
is right there. The comfortable woman is
otherwise known as "fat. fair and forty'-
at least she is fat and forty usually-some-
| times fair. To our Continental citizens q
fat lady is always fair. To all of us she is
usually agreeable, companionable, chum-
| my. She has not necessarily passed the
| giddy stage in this robust middle life; but
| she doesn't get silly on the outside OF pint
| of wine and enjoys the pretty things you
! say to her without thinking you are in love
| with her.
or broadened experience among men, she
| lays herself out to entertain you in return
| for good dinner away from homo. and she
does this with such tact and skill that you
| unconsoiously envy her husband that was,
| is, or is to be. How really quite charming
woman can be at 40 you can see at any table
d'hote dinner. In the first place, she enjoys
things. If she doesn't she is too smart to
betray her displeasure. The woman who
enjoys things and shows it is never a bore,
no matter what her other attributes may be.
She loves wha atever there is to eat and drink.
If anything goes wrong she ignores 1t or
smooths it over. The oysters suit her, the
soup Is just the kind she would have Or
dered, the f1sh-well, she never eats fish
| anyhow, so it doesn't matter-and so on
through the meal. The wine may not be the
best, but she sips it and smacks her full lips
over it, and drinks her share of it without
urging. And as it disappears she warns to
good fellowship to line unapproachable by
young and pretty women without coarse
ness and vulgarity.
She enjoys not only the dinner but the sur
roundings. If anything offends her eyes
she has no offensive comments for 1t. She
enjoys the crowd, the walters, the sound of
corks and dishes. the smell of soup and
cigars and conversation most of all. She
draws her escort out into saying things that
please him.
This is the comfortable" yoman. That
there are other-a score, perhaps, of other
women of the same type all around makes
tho table d'hote scene more pleasing still.
Sitting over in corner by yourself you look
it over again and through the curling smoke
OF your cigar and over the moist red lips OF
your claret glass dream of your last day in
Paris.
The Foreign Restaurants OF New York.
The best foreign restaurants of New
York; mean run by foreigners and pre-
serving the distinct characteristics of their
respective nationalities-are presided over
by practical cooks. Their proprietors are
neither ashamed of their calling, nor are
they afraid of work. They go steaming
about in shirt sleeves and white aprons and
paper caps, carrying dishes, directing
walters, making change, inspecting the
kitchen and the dining room and seeing that
everybody is properly served and is satis-
fed. They manage the cooking themselves.
They do their own buying. They look after
their own wine cellars. In other words,
they do just what an American wouldn't do
and couldn't do.
Big, stout, well-fed men they are as a rule,
with q nose for red wine and a quick eye for
have been long established, and their per.
sonality is stamped upon the place to the ut
termost particular. 1t is remarkable-to
layman-how much individuality can be
worked into dish of; kidneys. or q plate Of
spaghetti, or bird, or any other dish. And
1t is still more remarkable how these myriad
caterers to astronomical New York can
give so much, and that SO we'll prepared, for
so little. I have been eating meal here
and there among these places about town
for several years, as much a. as matter Of
never cease being surprised at the fertility
of culinary resources displayed. l find
nearly every plsce has some particular dish
which Its habitues will invariably call your
attention. A man may easily sample some
thing new and In different place in New
York every meal of the year.
Advertising Material Going to Waste.
Il wonder if anybody ever buys goods
by reason of seeing them advertised on the
backs of the forlorn creatures known as
"sandwlchesl' doubt it., There are sand
wich men parading crowded New York
thoroughfares with great placards on front
and back every day in the year. Poor, old,
broken down men. fathers and grandfathers
of somebody. who would rather thus adver-
tise their misfortunes than ask for charity.
They invariably attract ttention-not the |
goods and prices-and few ever look upon |
them without an involuntary sigh. But |
does this unconscious sympathy inspire |
anybody to rush OF to the establishments |
ance, and got the quick reply
"Never! don't believe a single human |
being ever buys anything because OF a sand
wich man. The merchant who uses poor,
old broken down people for such purpose
is lamentably ignorant of human nature"
believe it. If instead of taking five or
chilblains to advertise fine shoes, the dealer
would hire line of fancy young men in
bang-up fashionable attire and the very
latest shoes. put neat cards on them to the
effect that ave wear shoes bought at
Smiths" OF "A long line of these shoes now
being sold for So 81 at Jones' Mammoth Shoe
House," and so on, the effect would be great
That kind of advertising would be more ex-
but it would be remunerative. 1t
would be style of sandwich" with the
merit of common sense. New York is full OF
available young men who might be utilized
for this business. Many OF them are en-
gagged in it now, only the dealers don't pay
them to wear cards, leaving that to an i'm
aginative public.
The Harvest of the Janitor. iE
This is the season of the year when the
New York janitor buys himself and family
an entire new outfit and himself diamond
pin. The Jan1tor is great man all the year
round, but it Is the merry springtime that
his greatness is at its flood. He lines his
nest along with the birds. For the old ten
ants who couldn't raise a tip, let alon 9 the
rent, have moved out; and the new tenants,
flush of means and buoyant of hope, have
moved in. The latter are only too glad of
an excuse to propitiate the man who can
make their term com Portable or uncomtorta-
BILE, and these first offerings are therefore
liberal.
But the tips of the new comers while well
come, are but small part of the May emolu-
ments. There is the butcher-are five butch
ers-halfa a dozen grocers-as many icemen,
newsmen and other small neigh
boring tradespeople, who are on the lookout
for new customers. The janitor may fix
things. Nothing much can be done without
The cooperation Of the janitor. The tenant
proposes, the janitor disposes. The tenant
nay elect to have certain ilkman, but the