Evening star., 1924-10-18

Next TO the FOOD one eats In q res
taurant or lunchroom. there is moth
Ing to be found in them az interest.
ing as the people one meets there
Thus many man becomes all uncon-
| sciously a student of human nature
while he is meeting the demands OF
his Unsuitable innards
If it were not for this keen interest
in others it Is questionable II GER
tain curious tribe of beings ever
would have come into being 1 refer
to those whose greatest interest in
life is seeking out new places to eat
Washington is not one jot behind
New York in this matter. The Ma
tional Capital has it's full share of
| cultured men who daily make the
necessity of stoking the human fur
mace time for mental observation of
others engaged in the same indoor
sport.
This is no petty. sneaking. med
ding in others affairs. in any sense,
merely a wholesome interest in life as
exhibited in the biped technically
known as Homo Sapiens. commonly
as that guy over there"
Some delight in Chinese restaurants,
others like small places with unusual
names but quite usual dishes, while
stiu others go in for expensive hotel
dining rooms, with their bright lights
and music.
Not a one of these seekers after
new culinary thrills. however. but
has run the gamut of all sorts of
eating places. He has sat in many a
place known Familiarity to its habi-
tues as THE Dirty Spoon" and eaten
from quick lunch counters at railroad
stations. Just why the innocent
spoon is singled out to bear the in
dignity of the name is not known, for
this particular article is no more be-
smirched than the forks and knives.
Who can forget the DEPOT res
taurant where one ordered two roast
beef sandwiches, being somewhat
hungry, and got enough food as the
army? The sandwich was really
four sandwiches, so that instead of
two normal sized combinations of
bread and meat one faced eight of
them, all clamoring to be devoured
instanter.
Who can forget that day in the
armchair lunch, when he was
wrestling with a hot pot Of baked
beans and a kindly stranger, without
a word, grabbed the pot, turned it
upside down, spread out the smoking
leSumeS upon the cool Plate, ana
bade one begin?
There, that is the way to eat
beans" declared the old hand, calm
ly, while you speechlessly gave him
thanks from a full heart, your mouth
being full Of very hot beans, your
only hope of salvation lying in being
able to swallow them before they
burned your month through.
What a tough bird ones trusty
esophagus is, to be sure! Once within
its precincts, the hottest coffee or
soup gives no indication of its pres
ence, but goes on its way rejoicing.
What is funnier than a man eating
corn on the cob?
Nothing. except a lady trying to
hold tumbler daintily!
In a lunchroom the student of hu-
man nature meets all kinds and con-
ditions of men. Let us look at a few,
and see what we have in the way of
humanity This is a cross section of
life, remember What this is, all the
rest shall be, more or less.
Here, in this white tiled place, men
are off guard, for the moment. to-
tally lacking any of the pose they
may think it necessary to put on be-
fore their stenographer or their boss.
as the case may De. POSING is one of
the primal attributes of man. When
he grabbed his club, struck an atti-
tude, and told the dinosaur to come
on. h4 had fair lady hiding in mind
He was hoping she was peeping at
him from behind the rock. At his
meals, however, probably on the same
dinosaur, he fell to with a will, leav-
ing the lady to do likewise
Rattle, clatter go the dishes
throughout the restaurant, mingIing
with the hum of takers and the
shouts of the counterman, Hold it,
Hold it, You might think he was
playing foot ball, but he is merely
telling the chef to retain that order
of poached eggs until the customer
comes up.
Over at that table sits a typical
Government scientist How do 1 know
he is scientist? know 1t, that is
all. That scraggly white beard, that