The morning call., 1894-12-05
TO EAT TO ORDER.
Free Lunch Counters Get
a Setback.
Employees in the New Southern
Pacific Offices Must Patronize
Regular Eating. Houses.

when the Southern Pacific general
offices are moved uptown an order will be
issued to the effect that clerks and other
employees are prohibited from visiting
saloons for the purpose of obtaining lunch
during working hours" said an employe
of the corporation mentioned, yesterday.
1.-THE cause of this order dates back
some months. About year ago a similar
order was issued applying only to the
freight department., which was found
necessary because Of the loss Of tine and
cultivation of intemperate habits among
the employees. There are 600 or 700 men
employed at and near Fourth ard Town
send streets by the railroad company, and
the matter OF a dime or Is cents from each
one of these men every day makes in the
aggregate quite respectable sum every
week.
prior to this order going into effect the
officials noticed that saloons with a free
lunch adjunct were springing up thicker
than Turks in fair time all over the neigh
borhGod surrounding the railroad CON-
pany's properly. And what eTratic apps
tites some of those clerks did have! The
desire for lunch was liable to make itself
manifest at almost any hour between 10
o'clock in the morning and 4 O'Clock 10
the afternoon. This was not generally the
case. of course, but applied to some indi-
viduaiS. The man who was excused in
times outside of the noon hour always had,
it was noticed, frequent conferences with
certain Of his fellow-employes upon his
return, and the marked privacy and air OF
eXclusiveness which characterized these
meetings caused an investigation to be
instituted which resulted In the startling
discovery that the boys were smuggling in
plebeian tanglefoot whisky and bottled
beer with which to appease their thirst.
n he &c n
mighty oath when he heard of these
ungodly practices, and immediately
sat himself down and dictated an order
that no man could call ambiguous in It's
phraseology. He didn't object to the clerks
partaking of needfnl nourishment be said,
but if they proposed to fill themselves up
with gin ana garlic in the company's time
1t was time 10 draw the line. No more
stand up lunches in the freight depart
ment were to be tolerated.
"Now, the new location abounds in
saloons which pride themselves upon the
attractivepess of the bill of fare which
they offer their customers at lunch time,
and for which no charge is made, the only
eXactioD being that the customers shall
purchase drink at the bar.
Pretty nearly all Of the officials are
we'll posted on the evil effects OF in temper
ance through the instructive information
they have gathered on this su bject from
the various temperance periodicals for
which they all subscribe, and they are de-
lermined that if Satan gets a foothold In
the new building he won't gain an en-
trance by way of the free-lunch route"
Monday the first car was run over the
new Turk-street line, aud that route is
now open to the public.
MIR. huntington stated Yesterday that
he had given orders for the commence
ment of the work on kearny street at
once. The poles and the wires are all that
are required to place The line in condi-
ton for use, and it is expected that all the
necessary Work can be completed by the
first of next month.
Accordingly a large force of men were
put to work last night digging holes and
planting poles along the street At an
early hour this morning several poles had
been planted.