The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1914-02-24

About as jolly as a lot of undertake
ers on professional business. 1t is as
solemn an occasion as laying a cor
ner stone. After you find your seat
the chair you have been assured is
hand-painted and gilded, it is too
big to slip in your pocket as a SOU
Venlr-you study this puzzle;
Canapes
Cape Gods
Green Turtle la Fine Champagne
Celery Almonds Radishes Olives
F1let de Limande Jean Bart
PommeS Dauphine
Ris de Veaux Champignon Frais
Petit pois Saute
Terrapin a lAstor
Partridge Roti
Croquette de Riz Savage
Salade Kuroki
Glace de Fantasia
Petit Fours Fruits Assortis
Coffee
Cigars Cigarettes
Here and there words leads you to
believe that this is the bill of fare,
the line of march, the stuff you are
supposed to eat.
The man in the next chair retains
manner of distant disdain, as if
he suspected you were a pickpocket.
1t isn't the thing at all to get friend
ly with strangers, you are at these
purely to "enjoy'' the banquet, and
enjoyment in New York is serious
business.
Pretty soon-that is about II
O'Clock, after you have messed up
the things you didn't want to eat
the POSTMASTER tells few stale ones
and begins his "We-have-us-with US
tOnights" who tell some more stale
ones, and the next day you have a
dull drab taste in your mouth. That
is a banquet a la New York hotel.
That is a sort of practice that the
new mayor of New York, John Pur-
roy Mitchell, has renowned. He
concluded it would be a case of ban
quets Or city business, and decided
in favor of the latter. This has led
his friend, Dudley Field Malone, the
collector of the port of New York, to
declare publicly that that the ban
quet evil is one Of the abuses of the
city which ought to be corrected.
Not a night passes but New York
hotels are serving dozens of them.
At the Waldorf in the open season
they average about three a day, and
the lowest price for a bite is $500
without wines. At the Aston they
average five banquets day. Includ-
ing the two hotels mentioned five
take in $8,OO0,000 a year in ban
quet money. Wine comes extra and
amounts to perhaps 100000 more.
One hotel gives about 900 formal
banquets a season, never less than
81 a plate. Figure it out for your
SELF.
That menu, printed herewith, was
served to $50 guests the other night
in a New York hotel at SO a plate.
1t is a simple menu. They can get
you up one which will challenge
your gastronomic courage more than
that if you want it.
And the pity of it all is that there
is so much waste about it. Behind
your large expanse of stiffiy starched
white bosom you fork over wonder
full connections that you don't dare
to eat; while on another street the
bread line is forming. You go out
into the early morning air about the
time the small army of scrub women
is going to work with poor tired
backs and arms that they may wiring
from daily toll a pittance to keep
roof over the heads of their families,
to drive the wolf from the door.
Vanity of vanities! A herd of well
fed men throwing $S,000,000 under
the table foolishly, carelessly, throw
ing it away, while at the same mo-
ment starving children go whimper-
ing to bed for lack of the crust that
their parents cannot give them. Was
Rome ever more pagan than this?
It is possibly prophetic of saner
regime that two of the younger men
in New York public affairs have dis
countenanced indiscriminate ban
oueting as a wasteful habit and one
that needs a reforming.