The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-03-18

well one must observe how he eats
This aphorism was born The other day
from passing wonder at the possible
number of the dairy lunch" rooms there
are between Fifth and Fifteenth Streets
and north of the Avenue Every day. along
about the noon hour, one sees a string of
hungry people branching into their doors
sT later, issuing from them. Nothing
strikes the stranger within the gates Of
Washington as more characteristic OF the
city than these distinctive places. He may
escape some Of the sights along the regu-
lar roads of the city but nature forbids
his passing one of these.
When the visiting foreigner reaches New
York he is met at the very threshold Of the
New World by some vehicle of the Ameri-
can quick luncheon. 1t impresses hint
could hardly fail to do that-and from that
moment he sees everything in America
through the medium of pie and hot coffee,
served in hurry. He returns to his
home and reports. So, in the world the
American passes fer an eager. anxious,
nervous eontraption OF steel springs and
leather straps which does its work, the
pursuit of the elusive dollar quite well
while il lasts and then in an instant, the
breaking strain having been reached, it
collapses forever. Certainly the quick
lunch is a feature of American life, partic-
ularly of business life. Perhaps it is the
very essence as well as the creation Of the
get-there and get-there- quick character Cf
the nation But the foreigner is in error
when he imagines that having found this
feature of America he has comprehended it
in all of its branches In every city of size
IN the country the lunchroom or its equiva-
lent has its place, but in no two cities Of
the continent are they precisely the same.
As Washington is a city of clerks with
out a propOrtionate amount of business
there is less of the tear and rush in its
life than in that of New York or Chicago.
The eye Of the stranger detects this absence
AT the first glance down the Avenue.
When he enters the lunchroom he tinds
IL again. There is no tieing oneself down
TO a certain programme TO be rushed
through in given number of minutes. The
waiter says: Coffee. sir" and serves It.
The stranger after some time finds the
"dxings" and, having helped himself
somewhat bewildered looks about him TO
see what the others do. He finds that
they help themselves to whatever they re-
quire in the way of sandwiches or pie or
cake and then pick out the chair in the
room which best suits them. Often they
pick up a paper at the same time and pro-
coed leisurely TO devour the lunch heaDed
up before them On the arm of the chair.
There is no racing against time ard when
the meal, if il can be so called. is finished,
the paying and the exit are as leisurely.
Walking up and down in the district
mentioned one finds hundreds of these
places until he wonders whether each
has its own clientele, or whether the vic
tins of the lunch habit, like the Mos
lem kneeling unceremoniously at the ar
rival Of the hour Of prayer, turns at the
hour of noon TO the nearest refectory.
After few days the stranger finds that
in Washington, as elsewhere, the luncher
has his particular habitat. though il is
more than probable that he could not eX-
plain just why he has made that choice.
Luncheon ia New York Mart>.
They dc it differently in New York.
Dirty, grubbing New York, the on'y town
on the face of the globe possible to New
Yorker and the only town whe-e a New
Yorker is possible. The programme there
is something like this The citizen pulls
out his watch hurriedly. or in what he be-
lieves to be hurried manner, for he must
keep up his boast Of being a hustler. IL: 07
o'clock. Must lunch one minute to so,
one minute to return, three minutes 10
lunch PIE Good" And he tears
into himself. like a fireman on the extra
list throwing coal into the irebox Of a
hog engine on a Rock Mountain grade.
4 lunchrOom proprietor of wide expert
ence was talking about this phase CT the
lunch the other day. Said he: Yes, sir;
there is as much difference between The
lunchrooms Of this city and those of
any other as there is in the people vino eat
in EN- Now. you take il up across the
line up in Canada You go in to lunch
and little rOly-poly cockney comes
dancing up 10 you, not with the swift rush
of an American waiter but making good
time, nevertheless.
What will you ave. sir? Pork and
beans, sir? In one minute, sir. Won't
You ave the morning payper while you
wait sir? And that waiter does so many
little things for you that you never before
thought you wished done that if you are
in the business, as am. you get an insane
idea that you would like to buy him and
keep him around all the time and let him
run your place.
Il notice that up in New England.
where the morning paper is still an inno-
walton, and where the old-fashioned tay-
ern, with its heavy meals and no bar,
was the best traveller could do. Is brac
ing up a little in the lunch line They
have night-owls' there now-big covered
vans, with luDchroom inside, where they
serve short-order meals, piping not. It's
a. good thing Tor that country. but il
would hardly do down this way. Just the
old reason-it isn't the peoples style here,
that is all.
Did you ever hit Chicago on i'm
tied expense account? II you have you
won't forget it in a hurry. Those places
where they have a horseshoe-s shaped
counter, with a lot of little revolving
stools nailed around it. And the
waiter, When he comes up you don't
know whether he is going TO dish you up
a scrap or hand you a napkin. He looks
like a combination Of broken down pugil-
list. race-tracs tout, and Coney Island
spieler. And when he gives an order it
is something like this:
A gent from Bosting: draw one in the
dark slaughter IN the pam white wings
across the sea, sunny side up: and stack
Of blues with seaside tan.
II you can eat much in a place like
that you could get hungry on greasy soup
and leather steaks. When he comes back
with your chuck. he stands about ten feet
down the counter and chivyies' the plates
al you as If he was playing ninepins. That's
Chicago.
Out Among the Rockies.
And I've seen little of the lunch
room business out on the Great Divide. too
J spent winter out there once and got
most Of my meals at a little hole in the
wall where you sat on a high stocl at a
counter The place was run by half
breed Mexican. There was husband. be-
lieve but he did nothing except stand be-