The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-05-16
The Lunch Basket Brigade.

There is going to be one rather amusing
feature of the Paris Exposition, which
the bourgeois Partisan does rot as yet
anticipate. He will realize it, however,
in about six weeks from this time 1t is
what the people in Chicago, during the
Worlds Fair. used 10 call the lunch
basket brigade"
There were hundreds Of people who saw
the great Chicago exposition at an almost
Incredibly lew figure. They had started
from home with a certain amount of
money. and they intended to get The worth
of every cent of it. And they did. They
utilized the "cut rates. on the railroads.
and the scalpers reaped a rich harvest
from them. They were Indifferent to con-
sideraiions of personal comfort where
money could be save,l. They dispensed
with sleeping cars, cable d'hote dinners,
and cabs. The hotels knew not OF them,
and the expensive restaurants were IN
Illuminated by their presence Even their
clothes were constructed that laundry
bills were reduced to minimum Most of
these people were young. and a large per-
centage OF them were from the country
and the villages. Some OF them came in
excursion parties. and some alone. When
they reached the city they went t. lodg-
houses and set up spirit lamps, over
which they made coffee and boiled eggs.
thus saving the cost of a breakfast at the
restaurant. They hunted out. with unfail-
ing instinct, the place where the most
dinner could be got for the least money
and patronized that place, if they had to
walk several squares out OF their way to
get to it. When they went into the fair
grounds they carried lunch baskets, on
the contents of which they subssted. md
when they started for home they had the
proud consciousness of having seen all
that any millionaire could have seen of the
fair. without spending much more money
than it would have cost them to stay at
home.
That sort OF thing is peculiarly Ameri-
can and it is one of the things Of which we
have reason to be proud. In indicates that
there are in this country thousands-even
millions-of people whose ideas and as
pirations are far above their material |
wealth. They are eager for knowledge |
for experience, for emotion. They are not
content to remain in which some people |
would like to call their place." If that |
means deprivation of any pleasure or in
struction which is pecuniariIy within their |
reach There Is really no reason why a |
girl. because she works in shop or |
kitchen, should not know what beauty in |
art, in architecture, or in literature
means. 1t will not take more O; her time |
to read the best books than to be absorbed |
In the works OF The Duchess" and Bertha |
NJ Clay. nor will 1t interfere with her USE
fulness TO see good opera any more |
than to attend the annual ball Of the
Association OF Coachmen
and Head Walters. Human nature re-
quires diversion Of some kind. and in this
country there is tendency TO take 1t in
as high form as is attainable. Some peo-
pie are anxious to rise in the world and do
not quite know how. This is their mis-
fortune, and also that of the public. for
the results of mistaken warnings for gen.
tility are often extremely painful to be-
hold. But. after all. It is a good thing in