Omaha daily bee., 1916-07-18
Death M
The Pot
By WOODS HUTCHINSON, M. D,


ghost scene There are more things
in heaven and earth, Horatio, than
are dreamt Of in your philosophy" he
scarcely had hotel kitchens and ham,
burger steak in mind. Nor, when
Sir Lucius Fauntleroy Brown of the
Pure Thought bureau OF the health
department, pricked forth on his joy
Gus quest of inspection among the
hotels and restaurants in New York,
could he have dreamed of the legion of
ghosts of the mighty-and too long
dead which would rise to confront
him from soup and goulashes and
stews?
Nothing could have been more in
nocent, more sweetly reasonable,
more praiseworthy, than his schemeI
Simply to visit with his inspectors all
the public eating places in two of the
main hotel and restaurant districts
of the city. bless the good and con-
denim the bad, grading them on a
scale of purity by an ingenious color
scheme, ranging from white for pur-
ity down to black for dirtiness; then
to present each proprietor with a
Sunday school card or blue ribon of
a color corresponding to his rank in
the abyss, which he could pin on him.
self or exhibit above his cash regis
ter.
The restaurants were simply
charmed to hear OF his coming visit.
Purity was their hobby, their pet
weakness, and their middle name was
Spotless. They welcomed the chance
of winning an official decoration,
which they could proudly display to
their patrons, as official proof that
their establishments were as i'm
macuiate and hygienic at the back
as their white enamel and spotless
table linen and walters duck jack
cts were in front.
But, in the language of the day,
"Oh, what difference in the morn
mgr The inspectors have come and
gone, hundreds of restaurants and
eating houses have been gladdened by
the light Of their presence, but that
is about all the gladness they got out
of it. Not sign of gay color, not a
scrap of bunting, not a bright pla-
card" of any sort lightens and il
Eliminates their scheme of interior
decoration.
Their modesty seemed to be some
thing positively abnormal, until the
records were published and an alarm
ed and astonished public discovered,
with many internal qualms and per-
turbations, that out of the first EOS
restaurants inspected, ESQ were pre-
scented with the Order Of the Wooden
Spoon, the BOBBY prize-in the lingo
Of piracy, tipped the Black Spot
eight were entitled to sport the red
ribbon of "fair," and one, only one,
was granted the white badge of
purity-"good." Really, in future,
the Inspectors ought to carry Ian
tern after the classic manner of
Diogenes, hunting for an honest man.
But there is really little to be sur
prised at in these findings, except
the naive and blissful confidence of
the restaurant men that their ways
of doing things would stand the acid
test Of actual expert sanitary inspec-
ton. In some cases it was merely
a case where ignorance was bliss, for
the managers or proprietors actually
did not know what was going on in
every hole and corner of the back
part OF their establishments.
But in most cases it was the re-
suit OF that DEVILS code, known as
customs OF the trade" dirty, care
less, insanitary little ways of doing
things, which save time, or trouble
or expense, and which can't be much
out Of the way because everybody
does them.
As anyone who has had official ex-
perience or been interested in food
economics knows, scarcely single
sanitary inspection has been made of
the actual conditions in Easements
and kitchens Of hotels, restaurants
and bake shops anywhere, without
finding conditions which could only
be described by the word "abomin-
able" And one or more of these
would frequently be found in sue
cessful, prominent, and supposedly
first class establishments. -
There is not the slightest need for
the city Of New York to resent these
findings as special aspersion upon
her fair fair fame personally, nor
for lesser cities or country towns to
point the finger of scorn at the
metropolis, for everything described
in the inspectors report could be
duplicated without the slightest diff
Guilty in every hamlet in the land big
enough to have half dozen public
eating places.
The New York caterers are at least
entitled to the consolation that, in
the classic language Of DR.. Johnson,
The invidiousness of their offense
CONSISTENT not in the singularity Of it."