New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-06-30
THE REAL LOBSTER PALACE

versation is supposed to consist of big
hluc-cvcd baby stare terminating with hlgh
kick that sends somebody's silk hat hting
toward the ceiling.
Although what George AIDE has tcrped
"WaldOrf finance" that is, the captallZa-
tion Of the god-mine ideas that come with
the fourth highbalD unqucStionably fgureS
IN some extent in the table conversation OF
the lobster palace | cannot but help be-
lieve from long experience, obSerVation'
hearing. and participation that the tax one
hears in the lobster palace IS much the
same as the talk one hears in the lobby OF a
hotel in. say, DAYTON, Ohio, on the veranda
Of a summer hotel at Asbury Park, or IN the
dining room Of any hotel in any city above
thirty thousand anywhere in the United
States. The only difference is that IN the
lobster palace" you hear more OF It,
A r one table in the "lobster palace on any
n night YOU may hear a man and his wife
talk coollv and calmly Of the price OF food
or the lovely house they are planning to buy
for ten dollars down and ten dollars month
at Eycrgrccn-on-the-T rollcy-Linc At an
other. YOU may hear a group Of men discuss
mo the pitching record Of NlathcwSon, the
fine shirts YOU can buy at SO-and-SoS this
week at half price, a good cure tor cola IN
the head. or the sorrowful fact that Ronald
Bozcnhauscr's little son has the measles.
And at still another table where a somewhat
less conventional cotcrc OF men and women
are ENJOYING good meal YOU may overhear a
staccato and mixed chattering having to DO
with what a beautiful girl Mary Cmhumhum
is. and how bad it is she's going to marry
that awful Young Freddy SlOuChSky, or what
a shame it is that Mrs So-and-So is becoming
so fat. and how bald her husband is getting
lately.
1t is not to be denied that a stranger, en-
tcring lobster palace" for the first time IN
his lie. is duly impressed. He IS, however
impressed not SO much with what he sees as
what he believes he sees. He hears the band
plaving a lively tune he observes a crowd Of
people eating and drinking, he is JoStled by 4
waiter in his flight. and he says 70 himself,
"Ah, here is life"
Let him % back TO his home, light all the
lights, ask his daughter to play E" That MeIo-
dious Rag" loudly on the piano in the next
room. and sit down to a midnight supper
with his wife and in reality he will be in IN
,rinsically the same atmosphere; that IS.
deep down a, the bottom What he sees in
the lobster palace" generally speaking, is
only the home scene multiplied by FIVE hun
dred. There is more Of ,hc music, more Of
the lights, more Of a crowd. more color, more
food. more drink. more noise; but way
down deep its all much the same. You
don't believe me, Then remember analo-
gously that a thrcc-rng circus is only one
ring circus multiplied by three, and that, in
trinsically, one is just like the other; that
lobster palace" is TO a restaurant in, say,
Louisville, Kentucky, what New York is to
Louisville It is the size that makes the dit
ference, the size and the crowd. \ ball is
simply YOU and your best girl dancing a
walt multiplied by one hundred.
The crowd fools YOU. 1t takes YOU Of your
guard. So the stranger becomes dazzled.