Evening star., 1934-01-14

salad. accompanied by two slices of bread be-
tween which was inserted q silver of ham.
These, however, were not the saloons to which
I resorted when I was an extremely young
man with hearty appetite. preferred the
old fashioned saloon where the free lunch was
protected only by the bartender and as I was
going to New York University at the time
and more or less depended on free lunch for
any lunch at all, worked out a sort Of route
or routine, covering an area of several blocks
and comprising at least 20 to IS saloons with
free lunch counters.
These visited In rotation and at each of
these places, for scent glass Of beer, I could
at visit sustain life or even two lives In
one being and IL years thereafter, as the
statute of uses and trusts puts it, That is to
say, ate a-plenty, and I then did not visit
this same establishment until had made the
rounds of all the others.
True, got q dirty look from the bartender
at all these places, but by the time had
completed my circuit at the rate of one saloon
q day, five days q week. the bartender at my
No. l saloon had completely forgotten when I
had returned to his lunch counter. Earnest
"wets' at the time prohibition was voted in
called the liquor saloon "the Poor Mans Club"
and wrote letters to the papers in which they
pictured the intelligent poor man resorting to
the saloon IS q place to discuss current topics
with other intelligent poor men who had been
driven from their homes by their crying ba-
bieS and nagging wives, but not any Of these
earnest "wets" dwelt on the physical nourish-
ment provided by saloons.
For instance, the late Bishop Potter out of
the goodness of his heart assisted at the OPEN
ing of q saloon on Bleecker street, corner Of
Center street, New York. which was there
after called Bishop Potter,s Saloon. This
place was provided with complete soda foun-
tain as well rs bar, and the intention Of this
duplicate arrangement was that II left to him.
self the working man would prefer . frosted
chocolate soda or banana split to q glass of
suds. The proprietor Of the saloon however
specialized In Q free lunch which included hot
roast beef hash Of surprising quality, and no.
body needs to be . BrilIat Savarin to know
that hot roast beef hash doesn't 60 half as
well with frosted chocolate soda as it does
noble experiment in my routine and can
assure you that better roast beef hash I have
never since tasted anywhere.
There was one serious drawback to the fas-
tidious eater Of free lunch, and that was the
community fork forks, of w1tsah three or
four were placed In the old-fashioned celery
glass half filled With water. These forks were
used for the potato salad and sometimes Tor
cold fish salad and what Is more. they were
more often used by badly dressed patrons Hith
long dropping mustaches. At these places
usually confined myself to sausage which was
especially made for saloon free lunches and
contained . Large quantity Of cereal and COL
oring matter and . small quantity OF meat,
but what meat It contained was extremely
nourishing. A liberal helping Of this sausage
would continue 10 nourfsh me for several hours,
especially when accompanied BY free lunch
pickles, which, too, were Of special variety.