Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-04-05

rant stands on the corner or Waterloo rIad and Now Cut, in tho parish of Lam- beth. It is patronized solely by the very poor, for this is the southeast part of this mighty London and is lived in by scarce ly any one savo mechanics, laborers and | others whose lot it is to work tho life out | to keep tho life in.
 To tho right as you go into the restau- rant is great counter, behind which the | cooking Is done and the orders attended | to. Girls do the cooking, and two frowsy | looking boys act as walters. Tho tables l at which the people sit and eat have mar | ble tops, the reason of which, I suppose, is because they arc easy to clean. They arc set in rows through high wooden stalls.
 All For a Penny.
 Hero you can get things very cheap. For penny you can get thick slico of bread | and butter and a cup of coffee or tea or cocoa. For threepencc you can get a rasher | of bacon and an egg. For a penny you will get a grilled herring, for halfpenco | a grilled handbook. \ piece of currant cake is haifpenny. Yorkshire pudding Is penny. A plate of roast beef and potatoes is fourpence. And so it goes. Sixpenco will get you all you wish to eat. The quality Is not tho best in tho world, but to the people that come here quantity is the thing.
 Hanging above tho main door Is tho | sign, "Pearce and Plenty" It is bad | pun, to be sure, but to tho heart of the | English from high to low tho pun Is very | dear. The point Is on tho face of 1t, so to | speak, and necessarily doesn't take long | to find out
 | Little school lads come hero at noon and get a halfpenny cup of tea or coffee or cocoa, as tho caso may be, to drink along with their lunch. Now and then two of them will share a single cup together, each drinking from the saucer in turn. | They range from 5 to 10 years old, and some of their heads hardly reach to the | top of tho counter when they are giving their orders. Their lunch, which usually | consists of n couple of slices of bread and | butter, Is given them by their mothers in the morning before they leave for school. This is wrapped up in paper and slowed away in the biggest jacket pocket along | with marbles, string, n peg top and other troasuros They aro interesting little fel- lows, and it Is a pleasure tu study thom. You should havn seen tho eyes of one 0f them open with delight yesterday when I bought him big piece of currant cakr Ho told mo all about himself in three min utCs between bites.
 | Tho men and big boys that como here at noon nr' nearly all covered with the Erimc and blackness of tho noighhuring work shops Likc the school lads, somc of them bring along their own lunches All com ers have the privilege of doing this if they give an order at the counter. however amall.
 | i Deadly MOnotOny.
 They arc a strange, haggard looking people, thcso London tuil,7S. The wear and tear of life in this city of cities show in their faces. They havo that peculiar eager look which belongs to certain habit ual dwcllors in all great citics-that look l which prCsaGrs tho horror of revolution.
 m the restaurant they talk over tho Gf- fairs of tho workshop and Its relation to shemsclvrs-what they aro doing, how Ahcy arc doing it, how much week they get and so on. If you say n word to Snom of America. however, they listen eagerly. They look upon it as n desirable land for tho wOrklnEman, and they long 90 go to it. find that the fact of their bearing bad reports about it now and then 4oesn't bother them at all. l guess tho seal cause of tho wish to leave their own country is tho deadly mon"tony of their dyes and tho numadic instinct which is l morn or less in every man.
 They are not su big ar su strong looking as the average Amcrican wurkinCmAu. nor arc they as intelligent.
 There is n statue of Queen Victoria in this restaurant. It ;S life sizo and stands in a nicho in the wall oil over tu tho left. Near it is picture of n fisher maiden looking out wiStfully over the sea, pre- sumably for the return of her lover. On the walls aru temperance and gOdly in scriptions such as "USc not intoxicating drinks, " ''Wine is a mocker, Trust in the Lord' and so forth. High up over the | nd lu OnnOSita a n hn ssfT . in the Lord inscription is n business in scription which reads, "Wo give no trust. '
 No Chances Taken.
 It would be impossible for a desperately hungry man to eat a meal in this reStau rant without paying for it. You pay fol your food the instant you got it-right or the nail. No chances arc taken. It iSn I liko 1t Is in America, where you get ynul fill first and pay the cashier aftcrward. No indeed. The London business principle | at least this phase of 1t, appears to be that a man is n thief till you have found out , that he is not, and oven then that it Is n: | we'll to treat him as one, so as tu bc on the safe side. And hcro I may say in passing that suspicion and general distrust of Cv | ory one appear to hr tho keynote of thu | character of Iundun's lowest class. 4 | stranger Is looked upon as n wolf seeking | thOSo that he may dCvOur. If he goes t' look for lodgings, the laudlady surveys hin | from head tu foot in that timid, shuddcr ing way which belongs to thuso that have lived their lives in tho midst of meanneSs | sQuaior and grinding down of soul anG | spirit. \ woman stranger gets no earthl! l show at all. Half past in the morning , Is busy time for this restaurant. TheI - < Is thronged with workingmen, young and old, who havr to be at their work b
 6 o'clock, and who drop in on their wa
 to get hot cup of coffee and to take
 bitc of bread. The business done at thi
 time is the least paying of the whole day
 for then all tho men bring their own brea
 along, just as the school lads do at nOOr
 All that they need is n halfpcnny cup (
 coffee, for this is not their regular break
 fast. It Is only a sort of temperance cOCE
 tail-a physical bracer of the moral order
 Breakfast time for them Is from s to hal
 past o'clock, when they fill up tho plaC
 again, with moro paying results for th
 proprietor
 Quality of the Food.
 The order most in vogue at this time
 for a rasher of bacon, a fried egg, two slice
 of bread and butter and n large cup of co
 fec. This comes to flvcpence. I must sa
 that the rasher and egg are delicious, fC . I have tried them. They arc just as goo . as what you can get on the strand for hN
 times the price. But the coffee is villain . ous. Ye gudsl l defy the most expel chemist alive to give me the small chang of it. It soems to mo to be a sort of blcn I between tea that has been overlooked. in
 and a suspicion of stale coffee ground T The bread, however was good, but u 6 butter, which had been spread thinly ov' e 1t beforehand with a knife, was on u !. same plane of excellence with tho coffe !, The only good thing concerning it was u y fact that tho restaurant people had bee careful not to spread too much of it Ol l. At s o'clock in the evening it closes u