The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-12-03

had long taken an interest in his do- ings, company was formed bearing his adopted name. More depots, and more still, were opened, and new prem ises are still being taken, not only for cheap feeding-rooms, but the we'll known British Tea-Table dining sa- looms, till the present number of shops amounts in all to forty-seven, exclusive of cheap lodging-houses for the lower middle-class,
 MT Pearce has lost none of his old &C., tlvity for he leaves home at what most people would call ridiculously early hour every morning, He takes a keen personal interest in each of his em- ployes, of whom there are now upward of eight hundred, and actually engages every new hand himself In fact, with the assistance of his two sons, he takes as much interest in, and knows as much about, the working of each individual place as he did about his old Gutter Hotel" in the days when ha' pence were to him more valuable and harder earned than are golden sovereigns now adays.
 It does not strike the ordinary man in the street that he eats a large amount of mustard; but Pearce and Plenty have to procure no less than four and half tons of mustard in the course of q year. Other yearly items include 990 tons of potatoes, 9O2 tons of flour, 1,S7O- 900 eggs, 99,000 gallons of milk, 3S5, ,00O pounds of sugar, 5s, 300 pounds of tea, two and one-half tons of pepper, no tons of jam and 2640 gallons of vinegar. But the mustard is what breaks MT. Pearce's heart.
 I It's not what the people eat" he walls, fits what we have to throw away that costs the money. And that's what upsets me!''
 The careful housekeeper is distressed if the servant is unlucky enough to spoil the set'' by breaking any crock cry. MT. Pearce isn't. He looks on quite happily, and takes it as matter of course; for at the end of last year, when he "totted up' the smashes, he found that he had to pay for over 30, 900 new mugs and cups, 27,O0O plates and 12,000 saucers.
 The next and obvious question is:
 How many people do you have dur ing the day to eat all this food and break all this crockery?''
 The answer is startling.
 Well, on a moderate day we have 60,0o0 customers, and when times are good we often serve 70,OO0 meals per dienl.''
 HThe numbers must fiuctuate enor- mousy, MT. Pearce? Don't you often find yourselves in a fix through having made over or under provlsion?"
 Yes; the attention is uncertain. but the secret of our trade is to keep your weather eye open
 If we see the next day is likely to be hot we don't cook quite SO many steak buildings, but we increase our stock of light pastry; and vice versa.' Again, the amount spent by each customer al- ways decreases as the week wears on; and it is significant and rather touch- ing fact that on Monday there Is a large proportion of silver in the talk ings, which almost entirely disappears in the Pearce and Plenty shops toward Saturday payday, till on Friday the number of halfpence and farthings would make the hair on an aristoeratic bank clerk rise on end with disgust
 We may we'll finish with two very characteristic examples of MT. Pearce's generosity. One night many years ago, when he was lying awake, the thought struck him: ''I'ye been very lucky myself; can't do something for those who are less fortunate?" And re- mem'bering what a hard struggle his mother had had during the winter. he decided to set aside fifty pounds to en- 1iven the Christmas-t time of one hun dred poor widows. So every year he distributes money. coals and provisions to the amount of fifty pounds to the one hundred widows he selects on Christ mas eve. Again, if you should happen to be strolling through Harrington street on the first Monday in any month, and should hear a deafening clamor in the vicinity of Pearce & Plen- tvs shop, don't call the police or the fire engine. It's only two hundred poor little ragamuff1ns enjoying an unusual treat--a square meal-provided for them by John Pearce, who was once poor himself, and has known what it is to be hungry, too.-"Answers," (Lon- donl