The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1896-07-03
THE BICYCLE FEVER DID 1T
Employees at CIark's Thread Mills Wouldn't
Pstronize the Restaurant, So IL Is Closed

PotfOn1ze tine keetouront, 30 IL - $iOSeu
IT suppose If the bill of fare had in
cluded lemons, tarts, pies, charlotte
russo, pickles and slate pencils the res
taurant would have been success, but
as it comprised only soups, roasts, veg
etables and cocoa or coffee the girls
wouldn't patronize it, and SO it was
closed
That's the way one of Clark's spool
cotton foremen accounted for the pass
ing last week Of the modern scientific
cooking hygienic-ser cheap
restaurant which the proprietors Of the
big spinning mills in Jersey started sew
eral months ago for the benefit of their
1000 employees. Most of these employees
are girls adm young men.
The Clarks decided some time ago to
afford their employees opportunity to Sc
cure a good, plain and wholesome mid
day dinner six days out of every week
without leaving the factory at the low
est possible cost. So they equipped and
fitted up in big room in the o. N. T. mill
a restaurant furnished with all the
latest and most highly approved scien-
tific cooking apparatus. and brought on
from Boston a woman with a reputation
as scientific cooking expert to conduct
1t.
For a time the restaurant did thriv-
ing business. The meals cost only fif-
teen cents and were served without adj
ditional cost in any part of the big es-
adjustment. Here is sample fifteen
cent dinner served along in March some
time:
Tomato soup, roast chicken, potatoes
or peas, coffee or cocoa, oranges.
For a while it was necessary to enforce
rigid rule to keep the entire population
of East Newark from dining at the mills
Only employees were given the benefit
of the hygienic restaurant and it's lib
eral, If homely. menu. The effect was
noticeable in the physical appearance of
the employees.
But with the coming of pring the girls
who had been most conspicuously and
frequently asking for pickles and pie
and grumbling because they were not
served, took to going out around the cor
ner, where the tabooed dainties and
chewing gum. too, were to be had.
Then the men and boys got the bicycle
fever, and all the bicyclists, of course,
rode home for lunch. So it came about
that the model restaurant was all but
deserted, and the butcher and the baker
only made a small one-wagon delivery
each day. Mr. Walmsley, the supern-
tendent of the thread department, con-
ferred with the other officials, and 1t was
decided to close up the restaurant and
eradicate the excellent and hygienic fif-
teen cent meal from the Scneme Oh the
factorys policy.
The gig room remained, but there was
a long felt want that it could not fill.
Every boy and every girl in that factory
was burning up with an ambition to own
a bicycle. So the paternal firm arranged
TO sell bicycles to it's employees on the
installment plan. The installments are
only 81 a week. That put bicycle with
in the reach of even the humblest
worker.
What was needed then was bicycle
school for beginners. The big restaur-
ant room was the ideal place The au-
thorities considered and consented. That
was the transformation of the hygienic
model restaurant.-New York Journal.