The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-10-16
INGRATITUDE IN BOHEMIA.
Accusation Against the Table d'HOte
Proprietor who Gets Prosperous.

| They say the restaurant keeper is apt to
/ be ungrateful in the day of his prosperity
! Four men sat the other night at table
! in u French restaurant. The attention
paid to them was slight, for the room was
crowded.
Z One of the four finally turned in despair
and beckoned to IA stout man who was
helping the walters to serve the diners,
Joseph" he said. impatiently. we are
getting nothing to eat here. See what
has happened to our pi9ot which we ordered
long time ago What has become of
it,"
The fat proprietor answered the com
plant with polteness, but absolute un-
concern He moved away TO help another
party which was sitting down at claret
spattered table.
The four kept on nibbling pain de mtndge
and wondering what could have happened
to that mutton
When it did arrive they looked at it in
despair 1t was a. hard and unappetizing
as II piece of walnut
"Oh, Joseph. called one of them, turning
to the fat proprietor, who was busting
oficiously about the room. This will
never do. This Qigot has been forgotten
in the stove altogether, and it's "a dry as
a stone"
Again Joseph was formally polite, but
it could be plainly seen that his interest in
the matter was slight,
i am sorry." he said Perhaps you or
dcred it well done
But We can't ca e was the answer
You must take it la,k"
Nothing was further from the proprietor's
thoughts.
I'm sorry, he said again. III speak
20 the waiter
The waiter declared under the hypnotic
glare of his employer that the gentleman
had ordered the gigot very well done. Joseph
shrugged his shoulders then and moved
away.
"tngratefu mani" said one of the four,
as they arose to leave the table in search of
another restaurant. Il have helped that
man more than anybody else in the world
When they had reached another restau-
rant and dinner was under way the member
of the party who had taken them to Joseph's
place told the story of his acquaintance
with the proprietor of what was then
prosperous French restaurant OF the less
pretentious kind.
Five years ago. he, said, that man had
a basement room with sand on the floor,
two long tables, and the innate faculty
Of good cooking. He had every day an
excellent bourgeois dinner and luncheon,
for which he asked very small sum.
:! went there frequently myself, and
told many friends about 1t. Gradually
his customers increased in number, until
he was able to take the place he has at
present, and he increased his original
quarters until they are what you have
just seen.
$50 soon as the business got to be what
il is now, | observed GOODNESS on the part
Of Joseph toward those who had been most
active in bringing him business. He was
very much more attentive to any new
customer, and after a while ceased to show
any more interest in me and the other
men who had given him his first start than
he did tonight. SO think the time has
come for me to heep away altogether from
Joseph's restaurant"
This speaker is not the only one who
had cause to complain OF the ingratitude
of restaurant keepers. There is, Of course,
another side to this story. Sometimes the
restaurant keepers believethat their former
friends demand too much.
Il have had complaints OF the same kind
made against me, said one OF the restaurant
proprietors who had moved from Macdou-
gal street up to the new Tenderloin, where
he controls hourishing table d'h6te Il
used to have regular customers at my old
place and suppose they sent other patrons,
just as they all do.
Il was grateful for that, and for whatever
else they did in attracting attention to my
place. But l could not on that account
neglect everybody else because they
stroled in and seen ed to run the place.
Il gave them the same service that every
body else got They Expected, however,
very much more, and that was not always
possible.
4Such things occur in the case of almost
every restaurant keeper The old GUS
toner ia always appreciated and welcome.
but We cannot neglect everybody else for
him