Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1881 — Noblemen as Waiters. [ARTICLE]

Noblemen as Waiters.

A story is afloat to the effect that a foreign authoress who went to Delmonico’s up-town restaurant to dine found that the waiter who came forward to wait upon her was her own brother. The item was shown to the manager at Delmonico’s, and he was asked if there were any truth in it. He shook his head and smiled. “ Every now and then,” he said, “ some story of the kind is set afloat. Generally, however, it is about a waiter who is a nobleman. ” “ Is it not a fact that occasionally you have a nobleman among you ? ” “It is not at all unlikely. There are plenty of noblemen abroad who are very poor, and sometimes are hard put to it for a good meal. In such cases they often drop their titles. If they come to this country, why should they not work at waiting as well as any other business ? Then there are fast young noblemen who run through their means and emigrate. They have not been brought up to any business ; they are unacquainted with the ways of American life. But they know about table service, and a job as waiter is the thing they are best fitted for. Noblemen are not scarce in the Old World. In Germany the title goes to all of the sons of a nobleman. I have no doubt there are noblemen jerking beer in the Bowery. We have had noblemen occasionally among our corps of waiters. There is nothing surprising in it. We see men—merchants, brokers, etc.—who make a great deal of money. They live fast, spend freely, and make a big figure in the world for a time, and then comes a smash, and they disappear. Perhaps we may afterward hear of them working in a mine or herding cattle on the plains. There is nothing to surprise any one in finding that the waiter who takes your order is a Baron or a Count.”— New York Sun.