Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-12

USED TO eat Iuncn at mixes Arcadia
Cafe, on 9Th street. Philadelphia, one
of those little restaurants where one
can lunch completely, if not wisely for
80 cents, or even quarter, by fore
going the luxury of dessert. 1t was noisy,
uninviting place, always permeated with the
stale odor of cooking; its only decoration
United States flag and a Greek flag crossed
on the wall. 1t did not even boast chairs; we
sat upon cunningly devised but uncomfort-
able system of stools which swung out from
beneath the bare wooden tables But 1t was
always crowded, on account of its cheapness.
its clientele drawn from the business houses OF
the neighborhood, a f1oatSam of underclerks,
janitors and bookkeepers tossed up to bolt their
lunches between IL and l, and then disappear.
They were harassed, shabby little men, and
they had in common, thought, an expression
of worry and encouragement, as though their
efforts to live on their salaries were almost too
much for them.
We who were Mikes regular patrons sat as
often as possible at the same table, and we
exercised strict proprietary rights over the seats
which it had become our daily habit 70 occupy.
BY this means ate day after day in the
same company but we did not talk much with
one another. The waitress would be greeted
with, Hello Maggie, wotcha got good today?"
or sometimes by those whom Maggie called
great kidders. with remarks like, Where was
yuh last night, Maggie? had date with
yuh." We would laugh, above the rattle of the
Fine girl, Maggie" The remainder of our
hurried meals usually passed in silence;
If we did talk, it had to be against the noise
of dishes slammed and our orders shouted and
repeated.
I don't know how long I sat at Maggies
table, the one nearest the door, before I
became acquainted with Mr.. Candy. I
first led to notice him because he took no part
in our major topic of conversation, the one
subject we had which could be depended on
to prove enthralling. no matter how frequent
its recurrence-our bad luck, the injustice Of
the fate which had condemned to
present jobs and to the Arcadia. We would
speak of men who had made great sums of
money quickly and easily, and by comparing
ourselves to them we could see that they were
our superiors only in luck. There's a guy
used to know" one would say. IT knew i'm
when he didn't have nickel, and now
All he did was buy central real estate, and
get lucky break :"
WE would nod. That's the thing to buy.
~ central real estate. If you could get your
hands little capital :"
We would look from to another, not
seeing the ordinary, familiar faces the food
the heavy white plates, minds busy
with visions of what we could accomplish with
little capital of stores and apartment houses
in the center of the city, of power and OF
wealth. We were forced to consider ourselves
as victims, cheated of our opportunities.
There's no use in our working for anything
where we are now" we would say, because our
employers, obliviouS of our efforts, were inf1u-
enced only by favoritiSm pull.
Through all this Mr. Candy would continue
eating unmoved as though he were no. listen
ing I fancied, however, that his silence was
one of disapproval, and, since I was usually
silent myself, there was gradually built up
between us a sort of wordless understanding,
as though we two were the only ones with
sufficient fortitude to accept existence without
repining 1t got SO that we exchanged sig
niicant smiles, and one day he whispered an
aside to me:
ut amt bad lucks the trouble with that
guy
MOP" said l.
mo. The trouble with him is he hasn't any,
as you might say, grit
had been impeed to study him from the
first occasion that his silence had impressed
me. He was, say, As. His clothes were shiny
and cheap his cheeks invariably had a stub
BILE of beard two of the characteristics which
fatally marked Mixes patrons; apparently he
was only another in the company Of shabby
little men who daily insulted their hunger with
the food Of Mixes restaurant. But his face,
even while he was eating his medium and
boiled, had curiously removed expression, as
though his thoughts were held steadfast on
another plane. Perhaps because Of this de-
tached air of his, perhaps because of his silence
I received as looked at him the impression
that he did not quite belong among us, that he
should have been richer and more successful.
The others appeared, somehow, to have been
designed especially for the Arcadia Cafe, and