St. Paul daily globe., 1895-11-17
HABIT OF EATING.
ST. PAUISS DAY RESTAURANTS
SUCH AS TO ENCOURAGE
1T
MORE THAN NIGHT ONES.
THE GENERAL VARIETY IS AS
GREAT AS THOSE FOUND
ELSEWHERE.
ACCORDING TO THE PURSE
Can II Hungry Man BE AccOmmO-
dated-Some of the Eating
Houses.

Mans natural impulse is to take
to drink. He is weaned with difficulty
to love for eating. Only moral
statistician can realize the millions
of treasure wasted, the valuable
time frittered away, not to use too
edible an expression, by this wide
spread habit of eating. The glorious
march of Mr.. Watterson's goddess
is daily adding to our miseries, and
we may yet be convinced of the
mistake of primitive man when he
invented the art of eating. Poor old
Mr.. Primitive! If only he could
nave organized himself, adopted
constitution and bylaws and moved,
seconded and adopted a series of res
olutions, how delightfully."- different
End infallible everybody might have
been; how otherwise everybody
might have acted! 1t has been left
to modern civilization to discover
that a society with bylaws is neces-
sarily sager than Moses, Solon or
St. Thomas AquinaS-that a pream-
BILE destroys the virus of human
tallibility. Philosophic youth, while
recovering from a severe kick in the
stomach, administered by another
philosopher, or during the interval of
deciding whether an ostrich boa
would harmonic with her new hat,
may yet have time to decide, be-
yond question or dispute, what would
lave been the result if infants had
been nationally encouraged to con-
tinue their drinking habits. Until,
however, these capable critics have
determined the vital problem, as they
have already laid down the
pertain consequences that would
nave ensued had Napoleon
won at Waterloo, or Columbus
landed in Nova Scotia-until then it
can simply be claimed that eating is
one of the artificial vices of which
man is still left in undisturbed and
unreformed possession.
Doubtless the latent impropriety of
Eating is what has caused the earnest
cultivation Of the art with such COM
plex accessories. Only a barbarous
Westerner could have described the
difference between the Deadwood
house and the Fifth Avenue hotel as
E'$S a day for niggers and napkins.
The financial chasm between roast
beef with potatoes at tour cents, II sup
piled by the st. Paul Floating Bethel,
and tenderIoin steak, with trufties,
furnished by Magee's restaurant, cam
not be filled with the widest fringed
doiIey or the most inflated negro wait
er. At the same time the beauties of
the beef steaks are developed chiefly
by the microscope of imagination. Who
ever reviews the restaurants of st. Paul
in their various classes will appreciate
that. considered from a calm, business
like standpoint, truff1es must be high
ly condensed food.
The Floating Bethel at the Jackson
street wharf probably typifies Virtue
tethered with a rope. Even its restau-
rant department inculcates temperance,
economy, honesty and self help. The
hungry customer pays before he eats,
pays but little, waits on himself and
ministers to no pampered appetite. But
he is allowed a chair at table in
comfortable room. At one end is the
strictly cash basis an entire meal for
10 cents, and almost any single dish for
three cents. Cold ham, apple dumping
and lemon pie, however, possess GER
tain princely or immoral qualities
which render their consumption a
thing to be discouraged. They are there
fore barred out by a tax of five cents
in each case. The poor but honest man
may get roast meat of any kind, bread
and butter, and potatoes, with coffee,
tea, or milk, for one dime. Most veg
etables cost single cent, while even
chicken soup is obtained at three cents.
The Bethel entertains every noon as
jolly a crowd as H. M. s. Pinafore.
Few laboring men are present and no
tramps. An average of 200 clerks from
the large business houses and railroad
offices gather daily to eat the regular
ten-cent meal" with variations. Many
of the clerks are girls, whose three
cent variation is usually pie, pickles or
ice cream. If anybody is in love, or
just out, and feeling reckless, he or she
can buy banana for a penny. Of
flee boys have even been known to buy
the ambrosial lemon pie and squander
an entire nickel. No patron, however,
has ever asked Tor napkin.
Wealthy strangers in the city, certain
local business men of more or less i'm
portance. sleighing parties from Min
neapolis, or bicycle clubs from the
Same suburb, are not content with the
possibilities of lemon pie and the Float
ing Bethel. They prefer to assemble in
the secluded little dining rooms at Ma
gees restaurant on Robert street and
dine substantially. Here are coxcombs
pn- toast, cheap at 81; broiled skeleton,
at 50 cents, and entirely boneless;
snails, who will crawl out of their
shells for a dollar bill; preserved Turk
ism roses, of which enough can be
bought for 70 cents to make one want
to scalp an Armenian. At Magee's you
almost always get napkin and-pay
for it.
Perhaps the most popular of the 10
cal restaurants, judged by the patron
age of the numerous class who take a
down town lunch, is the Temperance
Coffee House, kept by O'Brien & Sta
pIeton, on lower Fourth street Here
from 400 to 500 patrons are entertained
at midday. All the accessories of a
comfortable home table are obtaina-
BILE, with no charge for that bubble
reputation" The dime is recognized
as financial power. 1t controls al
most every important article
upon the bill of fare, while
a host of minor dishes aclnowl-
edge the allurements of a bright-faced
nickel The specially of the Temper
ance is it's American" roast turkey,
of which hundreds of pounds are pro-
Vided daily at a nominal price. An un-
usual feature of the establishment is
its rule that any of the female walters
will be discharged if seen talking to a
male customer
st. Paul has no all-night restaurants
to suit the growing class of night work
ers, which demands a varied bill of
fare and moderate prices. Sargent's
Seventh street lunch counter provides
for those who want a luncheon mere
Iy. According to pat the head
waiter, his place is patronized chiefly
by gamblers and newspaper men,"
Most of Pats customers demand a