Omaha daily bee., 1899-11-12
HOW The HIGH SCHOOL, EATS
Substantial Lunchsons Inside the Building
Are Fabulously Cheap.
DAILY AVERAGE OF THREE HUNDRED MEALS
Pupils who Cannot GO Home During
Noon Hour Intcrmission Prefer
Something from Lunch Counter
10 n Cold Lunchbuskct.
"what are YOU going to eat today?n

What are you going to eat today?"
"Oh l don't know. / don't feel very hun
cry. guess cents will see me through
today, all right. What are you going to
get?"
1--WE got nickel that l want to get
rid Of Guess I'll get a bun and cup Of
chocolate. unless they have baked beans.
Gee, hope they do. What are you going
to get, BELIEF"
ME? Say girls, I'm as hungry as bear
I'll be switched If / don't spend 10 cents
on my luncheon today"
Ten cents! oh, my! You little pig.
| You'll be sick for a week, and ought to be-
A girl who'll eat 10 cents worth at one time
downstairs ought to be fired out of the High
school,"
And so the girls troop downstairs to lun-
cheon. The boys are not far behind, unless,
| as generally happens, they have taken ad-
vantage of their better speeding qualities
| and are a long ways ahead. It's good
| deal less bother to go the lunch room there
| in the building than It is to carry something
along and the things you get taste so much
better than they do If they have been done
up tight all morning in a tin or leather
lunch box.
The High school lunch room, under the
| management of the women of the Womens
| Christian Temperance union. has been In
successful operation for five years and is
as much permanent and recognized part OF
| the institution as any department of IN
structon. Its accommodations in the way
of room are not sufficient to allow it to
meet all demands upon it, but in this
respect it is, of course, only too well
identified with the remainder of the High
school. The advantage to the pupils of being
| able to get something warm" for luncheon
| instead of eating an unappetzing mixture
| fshed out of lunch basket, are obvious,
especially as winter weather is approaching.
A daily average of 300 pupils avail them
selves of the opportunity to get something
fresh and wholesome without going home or
down town for it.
Profitable Enterprise.
The low prices that prevail make it pos
sible to get very substantial bit of
luncheon for or cents. The average cost
of the meals served is about cents. 1t
NUT not be presumed from this however,
that the lunch room is a charitable institu-
ton carried on by the women OF the Tenn
perance Union out of pity for the hungry
students or to save them from being driven
to drink by cold lunches. Every year it has
paid substantial and increasing profit, and
this year. the best financially since the be-
ginning, lne pTOllJ has Deeu TuuuluS dDOuL
$50 per month. This profit is made pos
sible by the peculiar conditions, favorable
to the highest economy of management that
exist in the High school sandwich market.
The sales are many in number If small in
amount, and the demand is very regular. AT
the end of last week the only articles of
food left over in the lunch room were two
loaves of bread. One day last week the sup
ply of sandwiches came within one. and
that of doughnuts within half dozen of
being exhausted, and the regulation of sup
ply to prospective demand goes on day after
day and week after week with the same de-
gree of nicely.
The appetites of the pupils have to he
catered to with considerable care as they
soon tire of particular dish if served too
often in succession. For this reason soup
is furnished but twice week. 1t was
formerly served every day, but the demand
soon fell off to such an extent that soup
was a drug on the market. Baked beans
are popular article for their palatable and |
nourishing qualities, no less than for the
size of the hill of beans that one can get |
for cents. Ham sandwiches seem to be an
exception to the rule, for they may be put |
on the shelves day after day without risk |
of diminishing their hold upon the studying |
public. Cinnamon rolls are large and good |
for l cent. Coffee and chocolate warm and |
satisfy the stomach at cents per stomach |
and milk costs those addicted to it cents |
a glass. And this is not all of the array
that smiles upon the hungry horde in fact
the half has probably not been told.
The winter months do not, strange to say, |
increase the patronage of the lunch room
very much not nearly as much a stormy |
or wet day does. The patronage falls off |
perceptibly as the end of each month ap-
proaches and increases suddenly again after
the first of the month, which would seem
to indicate that many pupils have monthly |
allowance for their small expenditures that
cannot be overdrawn and have to make up
by trudging home or carrying a basket for !
what they scatter with a spendthrift hand. /
His Life Was saved.
Mr.. J. E. Lilly. a prominent citizen Of
Hannibal. Mo-. lately had a wonderful de-