Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-06-15
CONVENTION AFTERGLoW
How the Democracy OF the Mass
Showed out-The Coliseum
Lunch Counter as a Place
at Which to study
the American
By GEORGE NOX MCCAIN


BY GEORGE NOX MCCAIN
TT WAS a Republican convention, but
L democracy was paramount. l mean
the genuine democracy of the American
on masse.
Above all, it was human to the nth
degree.
The miscallcd lunchroom in the
Coliseum annex presented the extreme
limit Of the humanizing tendencies OF
the convention.
1t was 100 feet Of rough board table,
oilcloth covered, extending the entire
length of a narrow room twenty feet
wide on the street floor.
The gcntlemanly attendants were at
tired in soilcd jackets that were once
white and cheap white caps, each bear
ing, n Ia baseball shirt, the name of
popular drink in flaming letters.
They were the heralds of the soft
drink era.
They were minus collars. Their shirt
bands. in careless neglige, were tucked
in. Their hands. like their visible
habilimcnts, we're in need of bath.
The perspiration Of honest toll in a
supcrheatcd atmosphere bcdewcd their
manly brows and hairy wrists.
On wide board shelf behind them
were stacked huge piles of ham and
cheese sandwiches. At least that is
what they were called.
In n corner outside the bar and in
full view of the crowd two sweaty
Titans manipulated slicing machines
which Topped off attenuated slabs of
bread and thin portions of meat and
cheese. Two assistants slapped the
portions together while others piled
them on trays and, with raucous cries
Of Heads up there - bore them with
brutal haste through the struggling
mass to the scrvitors behind the bar.
OILED beneath the counter and along
the walls were hundreds of wooden
boxes They contained drinks" The
walls were plastcrcd with staring pos
tcrs describing their dclicacy and flavor
The bare board floor was Uttered with
half eaten sandwiches and bits Of meat
The counter was sloppy with the over
flow of bubbing bottles. There were no
glasses. Not even so.called sanitary
paper cups were in evidence. Chairs
were unthnkablC. 1t wasn't that kind
of a lunch
Its one Of them buffet lunches"
remarked fellow who might have been
from Florida or Nebraska. And he was
right both ways.
Each victim grabbed his bottle and
sandwich and. retiring to the edge of
the crowd. altcrnatcd between biting
camel tracks in the diaphanous dry
bread and meat and fitting the bottle
hcavenward to the music of gurglc.
Special attention was paid to lady
customers. They were not expected to
drink from bottle. That, even in Clfi-
cago. is regarded as contrary TO the
usagcs Of its best society.
They were provided with straws
which they stuck in the neck of the
bottle and through which they slowly
absorbed its contents.
OF COURSE, the collation., costing
" fifty cents per sandwich and a bot
tie of swectencd Lake Michigan water
with coal tar coloring, was the subject
of varied comment
Perfectly rhawming. don't you
think, deah?" murmured one of the
elect to another between pulls at her
straw. She had the occasion mixed up
with Summing party.
This is a hell of mess for four
bits yapppd rough and ready to n
quartet Of his kind three feet away.
The eager ones werc too busy boiling
their portions either to curse or criti-
cize. The convention was still going on.
American people 1t was on display
here down to the indivsiblc atom.
GOVERNORS, judges, United States
" senators and the ordinary state brand
of that article clbowcd. pushed. waited,
wiltcd and grabbed in turn. There was
neither time nor disposition to note the
color Of the dispensers hands nor qucs-
ton the price.
The supreme effort Of each was to see
that his sandwich didn't touch the
sloppy top of that awful oilcloth coun
ter.
A ND what canoes of life were carved
"a against tho gray walls dabbcd with
daring lads and its high facade
of wooden boxes filled with near beer"
] saw a distinguished western gov
ernor seated on an upturned beer box
chatting with great newspaper pro-
prietor, each with a sandwich in one
fist and bottle in the other. As they
talked they tilted, or half smothered
their sentences with bites.
\ famous senator entertained two
beautiful women after the same fashion.
lie had struggled through the FIVE deep
border of humanity to appear with bot
ties and food for his companions.
The fellow in shirt sleeves and sus
pcnders, with fedora hat pushed back
on his matted head and with coat over
arm and dollar bill stretched above
the crowd was the king bee. He had
the voice and the Vigor to command
attention.
The husky behind the bar recognized
in him u kindred spirit in the plain