Omaha daily bee., 1902-10-12

price. There are scores of places where
the meals cost as high as in the better res
taurants of New York, and hundreds where
you can get a very fair dinner for so cents,
or If you would have wine for 10 cents ad-
ditionai. | have had good dinners with
wines for so cents, and there is a restau-
rant where l lunch occasionally at this
price which gives me what would cost three
times as much in the United States.
There is one stock company which does
an enormous business in supplying cheap
and good food for Parisians. 1t was founded
by a butcher who has his butcher shops
still in different parts Of the city. This
company has, l venture, 100 or more restau>
rants where you can always be sure OF
good service and good food. You pay for
what you eat and pay for everything, but
the prices are low.
How would you like to lunch at a res
taurant where you can put a penny in the
slot and pull out anything you want? l have
found such a restaurant here in the heart
of Paris. 1t is on the Boulevard des Ital-
lens, just above the Credit Lyonnaise and
within a stones throw Of the opera house.
The room is walled with mirrors, hoored
with tiles and fitted up like a parlor.
Around the walls are slot machines made
( different colored marbles, decorated with
silver and porcelain figures and finished
somewhat like the finest of soda water
fountains.
Every slot will furnish you something to
tempt your palate, and the different things
you can buy is surprising. 1 had just had
dinner before I entered the place last night
and began my experiment with a cup of
black coffee. There was a sign, Cafe noir
for IN annflpnnd - nuoH q afIpaH NIokaI aInN
and an after-dinner coffee cup standing
under a silver spigot below. I put a 2-sou
piece in the slot and within FIVE seconds
a stream of rich. steaming black csnee
poured forth into the cup. 1t continued
to pour until it just filled the cup and then
stopped short. l added some sugar from
a pile Of white Jumps lying on a shelf be-
low, and as l drank l stood in front Of one
Of the mirrors beside a pretty French girl
who was finishing a cup of cacao she had
taken from the neighboring slot. The next
machine supplied hot chocolate at 4 cents a
cup, and further on were others which
gave out different kinds of liquors, char
treuse, benedictine and cognac, for 3 or 4
cents a pony. l noticed q slot over one
spigot which bore the words American
grog," and tested it. The result was a
red liquor with a sweetish taste that
would. l think, kill at forty rods.
While waiting watched customers COM
ing in for their various drinks. One young
man took a glass from the milk slot, two
Germans patronized the beer slot, each
getting a glass of beer twice as large as
that commonly sold in the United States,
and a young dandy and his sweetheart, for,
two 10 cent pieces dropped into the slo,
OF a bottle-like machine in the middle Of
the wall, drew out two glasses Of sparkling
champagne. There were also saltwater
slot machines and one which furnished
consomme or hot beef tea at 4 cents per
drink.
There was an ice-cream slot. the cream
being kept in little round dishes under
glass. Each dish was on a metal leaf
hinged to a wheel. AS the money drops
into the slot the wheel begins to turn, and
a moment later one of the leaves reaches
the place where it drops, and slides the
dish OF ice cream down to you. The ice
cream is in plain sight and you can see
what you are going to get before you put
your money in.
Then there are sandwich-slot machines
and cake-slot machines. l counted a dozen
OF these, which will furnish you sand
wiches OF c~aviare, ham, tongue, salmon or
sf pate de foie gras, as well as cakes OF
different kinds. These are like the ice
cream machines, the sandwiches being on
tin shelves, which drop after the money is
put in.