The Forrest City times., 1904-07-22
The manase, O. the ouiek-luneb nal.

The manager of the quick-lunch pal ace shuddered. although the day was hot, and bestowed gaze of mingled wonder and reproach upon the broad back of the man who had just picked up a number of dishes of food from the counter and was weaving his way through the crowd with them skillfully balanced in his two hands like a vaude- vile juggler picking his way across a stage filled with tossed-up parapherna- ia. relates the Washington Star.
 Say hoarsely inquired the man. Rger, die see what that man took with him to eat?'
 The man to whom the question was addressed had not noticed.
 A bowl of milk. dish of sliced cu- cumbers. two deviled crabs. and a piece of rhubarb pie" groaned the raanager, feeling tentatively of the fourth button of his waistcoat.
 Just try and figure that out" he went on. How would you like to try a combination like that - milk. cucum- bers. crabs and pie? When that man first came in here-it was during the first bad hot spell of the season-and selected that assortment of dainties ] passed him my Montmorency smile.
 'Bet?' said l.
 He looked me over without blink.
 " 'Hey?' said he.
 You bet the man. suppose said l, that you could beat him over the links by up and to play, and you didn't make good?'
 :Ie rested his crabs and eueumbers and his bowl of milk and his pie on the counter and looked me over.
 Say, what's the matter9' he finally asked me, with mystified lock.
 Then told him how weird that com bination of his looked
 Oh, that is it? said he. smiling Don't you let a little thing like that bother you Fought to've seen my grandfather. He used to smoke a clay pipe and eat buttered gingerbread and green apples at the same time. and whistle "Old Zip Coon without missing note, and he walked over to his seat and began his dainty luncheon.
 l Kept my eye or him. nevertheless. and lookekd up the telephone number of the nearest ambulance hospital But he went right ahead as he's doing now.
 While l was still studying him-I could not keep my eyes off him-he walked up to the counter and selected a piece of cold mince pie and a tall glass Of iced tea to top of with.
 He's been back every week day since. and that's about his regular monday ration. He's got to be one of my show pieces. He's Figure A in the exhibition.
 But there are others. See that little man over wonder with the white siders and pink cheeks-the one of there in the corner? What do you suppose his regular winter and summer high-noon reflection is, and has been for years past? plate of bread and butter, two large Gill pickles and cup of cocoa. Every week day of the year that old boy with the white things at the sides of his coun- tenance commits that kind of an as- sault and battery on his diaphragm, and say. just look at him-cheeks pink and healthy, eyes as clear as filtered well water and more hair on the top of his head than I've got, although he's 60. if he's day.
 He told ne the other day that he hadn't had sick minute in 16 years. That, by the way. is how it is with most of the cormorsnts. The tougher the kind of conglomerations they habitually get away with, the healthier they look. But they're probably born that way. And as matter of fact the majority of the men who come in here for lunch seen to just try to loop the loop with their Cige-tiye spparatuec~"