Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-12-13
DINERS WANT MUSIC
New York Cafes Crafty Their
Wishes.
ORCHESTRAL ODDITIES
DEPARTMENT STORES OFFER
BARGAINS IN LUNCHEoNs.
English Vogue in Riding Supplanted
by the Wild Western Style
in Gotham.
ORCHESTRAL ODDITIES
Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.

NEW YORK. December IL. 1902.
1t has come to pass that the sybaritic
New Workers will no longer patronize res
taurants where they are net RECALLED with
music while they dine. Amy sort of music
will do, but there must be some sort Of
concourse Of sounds, sweet or otherwise.
There have been more or less excellent or
chestras in the dining rooms of the larger
hotels for a number of years, of course
but a couple OF the all-night Longacre
Square dining establishments were the first
Of the restaurants to set the pace for instt-
tutions Of that character with complete and
rather meritorious palm-room orchestras.
Every restaurant In New York Of aDy pre-
tensions whatever. 1t should be known, Is
palm room, and even "Beefsteak' John
on the Bowery, who will serve you with q
fairish bit Of steak with fried potatoes and
coffee for cents, has huge sardonic sign
spread Iacross the entire front Of his plant
inviting you to partake of the hospitality
Of his palm room. Moreover, to relieve
himself of any possible stigma of taking
through the medium of that palm room sign
John employs unique, rum-soaked BANJO
list, q castaway who Is genuinely clever In
his manipulation of the instrument, to en-
terrain the Queerly assorted gang who
feed at his place.
Not only do all Of the restaurants of ap-
proved reputation provide orchestral music,
which Is often excellent, for their patrons,
but even the restaurants Of more moderate
pretensions, which after all In New York
only means more moderate charges, have
been compelled to fall into line and furnish
some manner Of music to their customers.
There Is scarcely a table dhote in New
York famous or obscure, from the sort that
charge s. for q dinner down to the kind
where you obtain palatable little dinner
with pint Of vim ordinaire for 30 cents,
that has not been obliged to yield to the
&o1,l IL hot nvkoro M
caprice for music while they are partaking
Of food and drink.
Novelties in Musicians.
The necessity for economy in respect to
the music has brought forth some odd
novelties in the musical line in some of
these hostelries. The average table d'hote
with only a limited clientele cannot afford
anything like complete orchestra, and
the demand for orchestral musicians in
restaurants In New York Is now such that
entertainers of this sort are making their
figures pretty steep. so that the table d'hote
proprietor has been compelled to look
around for musical specialists to divert
his guests. and he has found them.
In several of the quite well-known res
taurants Of the table d'hote variety per-
formers on the concert either find steady
employment. Most of these either per-
formers are Austrians. and they are art
lists. 1t would be difficult for you to re
quest" any Of them to render any sort Of
a composition, even of the severely CLASH
cal order, that they are not perfectly and
instantly equal to. You rarely see these
either players. They are seated, as a rule.
behind a mass Of palms or Of tall potted
plants, so that the rather tender and an
pealing music Of their instruments SEEM
ing to come from no particularly focused
direction takes on a sort of added charm
of mystery that seems to make a distinct
impression an the poetic table d'hoter--all
of them DOetic-pSueci3ll y after he has
disposed of his modest vim ordinaire and
has reached the branded coffee and the
cigarette. Many of the eating places of
the table d'hote variety employ harpists,
with no other accompanying instrumental
lists. They are not the harpists of the
streets and of the ferry boats. but men
and women who know how to make the air
resonant with sweet sounds.
Harpists Are Good Musicians.
The New York table d'hote harpist plays
well, and plays anything that is asked by
the guests. Many of the harpists in this
sort of employment are sedate and demure
girls. who seem to fit in strangely enough
with the bizarre. jesting and merriment
that often goes on around them.
In the regular dinner restaurants that
can afford them there are frequently to be
found sections of Hungarian orchestras.
Some Of these sections very small, often
consisting Of only two performers These
tWO dIc uSudliy d flOllUlSt-dnO none OF
the Hungarian violinists is bad-and a
'cellist. or a violinist and performer on
the Spanish dulcimer. The Hungarfans are
pretty strong in the matter of tremolo
effects. which always appear to be pleas
ing and soothing to the diners in these more
or less obscure little places after they have
attained the stage Of post-prandial "woozi-
ness"
In one Of the cluster Of small dinner
places-a French place-around Union
Square there Is a saXophone player VIII
the saxophone do "by ITSELF? one hears
the reader inquiring. 1t can be truthfully
said it will, as played upon by this man
at any rate. He used to be the saxophone
player for one Of the great symphony or
chestras The music that he extracts from
this musical instrument is far and vague.
''the horns Of elf1and family blowing" but
1t Is as delightful as the memory of music
heard In dreams. There Is no accompani-
ment-just the saxophone. But after hear
ing those seemingly distant echoes once
over ones dinner one finds himself looking
forward to another meal at the restaurant
of the saxophonist
Colored Quartet at German Restaurant.
At German restaurant there is a quar-
tet composed of young colored men. Two
Of them are from Washington. They don't
indulge In strident coon songs, but sing
music of a high order. They seldom sing
anything that has the African in it. except
upon request. They are placed out of the
sight OF the guests and they keep the
mute" on their tones, so that their music is
pleasantly lacking in the rasping harshness
characteristic of some of the stage quar-
tets, whose members seem to attempt to
outyie each other in producing a volume of
sound. These negroes have brought trade
to the German restaurant. and they are
wen paid. They alternate their vocal mu-
sic with performances on guitar and man
dolin.
Others Of the German restaurants have
companies of Tyrolean yodlers, and in a
Portuguese restaurant over on The East
Side. which Is coming to have a modish
patronage on account Of the singular ex-
cellence Of the cookery. there is young
Portuguese girl-she can scarcely be more
than sixteenth Portuguese peasant cos
tune who croons the folksongs of her coun-
try to the accompaniment of her queeriy
shaped guitar with delightful sweetness.
In the big after-theater and all-night res
taurants in the tenderloin the orchestra
leaders are beginning to make fine thing
Of it. It has become the custom for those
who want to listen to a favorite piece to
send by a waiter a note to the leader, nam
Ing the favorite composition. and accom-
panying the note with a bank note of
proper dimensions.
Proper Size Of Tip.
Nobody ever thinks Of sending anything
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