The Mathews journal. (Mathews C.H. [Court House]) 1903-1937, 1910-04-07
FOODS AL FRESCO
ON N. Y. STREETS.
tiles That Retain Pristine Simplicity
Of SuccHlent "HOt DOg.-

Sidewalk restaurants and street
vendors OF comestibles play no such
conspicuous part I'm the life of the
public ways as once they did, and that
not so long ago. Perhaps the city
has grown more dignified, fore regard
full of appearances. No matter what
the reason. no longer do folks walk
abroad in civic righteousness MUNICH
ing the bright red apple or making
themselves perfectly ridiculous with
an ear OF corn, each in fits season. Tie
critical historian will probably ASSOC
ciate the decadence of highway meals
with the enactment of the ordinance
curbing the citizens rights in the
disposition of banana peels.
Yet not altogether vanished are
these opeR-air meals. in tire financial
district the juvenile Cpelauors on the
curb make hearty luncheons from an
assortment of tins, hot dog" the sta
pie, drak-red frankfurters in a split
roll, food for an open countenance.
The initial block of Ann street in the
noon hour provides a variety of re-
freshment for a noisy horde of young
gentlemen who are in business while
not yet on tot their knickerbockers.
With the first gentle breath of coming
spring the newsboys on the Row will
eXpend their hard winnings at craps
IN the chill delights of hoky-poky.
These are but juvenile survivors from
a bygone period when the elders
thought no shame to patronize the
waffle baker on the corner.
Other cities yet retain a pristine
simplicity. Hunger is not to be crib
bed, cabined, and confined by struc-
tural walls. nor will it regulate itself
by the dropping of any time ball
There still are towns which the hun
CRY man may eat and be not ashamed
of eating on the crowded highways.
San Francisco still has its tamale.
Fire and the loud clatter of ruin may
have fallen with equal destruction up
on Barbary Coast and Mob Hill alike.
but the retailer of chicken tamales
still sells his wares upon the streets
by night and the wayfarer welcomes
the Wand. Scoffers may suggest that
seagull is the principal component of
the peppery combination Of meat and
cornmeal, and the unalterable price
OF three for two bits lends color to
the aspersion. The tamale is none
the less a satisfying meal, and a meal
OF the streets, not a thing for knife
and fork and dainty napery.
Cincinnati still hears of late even
ing the piaintive cry of "winnewish. "
Ii demands the resources of philology
to discover that it is but the negro
attempt to compass "wienerwurst. -
No matter how it may sound on alien
lips, this nocturnal food still finds
ready sale in Cincinnati among such
as are going home at unholy hours.
Richmond streets are still the mar
ket for fried chicken-yellow-le legged
chicken on slab of pone no less vel
low.The purchaser of this refreshment
may wonder how he may get so much
at a price SO small. He may estimate
that the two levies with which he
pays the ancient darkey can scarcely
cover the cost of manufacture: the
cost of material is unaccounted for.
Far better leave il unaccountabie. save
that the chicken was cheaply acquired
In the natural way for no gentleman
would cast a cloud on the title of the
chicken for which his mouth is water
ing.
Happy these and the other com
munities where a man who hungers
may find his sustenance awaiting him
at the curb and may go his way eat
Ing and rejoicing in the moral support
and approval Of the citizenry.-New
York Sun.