Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 May 1893 — ROBBING THE HUNGRY. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ROBBING THE HUNGRY.

ENORMOUS PRICES ASKED FOR FOOD AT THE FAIR. Eating a Costly Habit at the Fair—Sharp Devices for Extortion— Samples of the Charges Made-Leave Your Appetite at Home. Ozone Only Is Cheap. Chicago correspondence: If eleven beans « ost 40 cents the second week of the Fair und deposits are required for the return of egg shells, how long will it take boiled potatoes to bring $1 each? If one nibble of cheese and one of crackers can tell for 35 cents and rice pudding retail at 30, how long must a man with a big appetite and a moderate salary go hungry.’ If staff beef made on tho grounds is worth 50 cents a cut and skinny pie is sold at 25 cents an eighth, what will the average visitor take for his eating habit.These are some of the perplexing questions which now bother tho patrons of the Fair restaurants. Cnee within the fence there is no chance to slip out for a snack and the only alternative for the person with a stomach lhat needs daily attention is to choose in which particular language he desires to be released of his savings. There are French cases where it costs to sit down, and English taverns where the barmaids serve and guess at the bill; Polish resorts. with strange and deadly cocktails of benzine, absinthe, and vitriol; German victual houses with the fragrance of lusty boiled dinners, and the great casino when 1 thousands shiver in the lake winds and sit in amazement at the rates per plate. An appetite is an unnecessary adjunct, and to satiate such an uncomfortable thingat the 'World’s Fair grounds is simply an impossibility to a man of ordinary means. About all that is left for the person who has not a pocketful of money, and a big pocket at that, is to go down to the lake front any time he gets good and hungry and get filled full of fresh air and scenery. This is not a diet conducive to obesity, but it is better than losing flesh and many pounds sterling, which will result from an encounter with the average bill charged just for an average meal without any frills. It is not necessary to get into the realms of fancy dishes to be frightened out of a year’s growth by the

gigantic proporions of the “Please pay the cashier.” .. , One of the guards—and tjiey are the wisest people of this generation— dn a moment of extravagance ot-dered a piece of pie and a cup of coffee, and nearly fell in a fit when he had to pay a half-dollar for the epicurean repast. When asked by a brotner guard why he did not eat a regular dinner, he replied: “I couldn’t; 1 only had $6 in my clothes. ’’ They Have It D nvi Fine. The restaurants have the problem of extortion figured out to a nicety. Visitors cannot get out of the grounds and get back on ihe same admission. That, of course, would be an injustice to the exposition company; so with the people inclosed in the stockudge, they must either curb their appetites or let the reins loose on their pocketbooks. One of the many pleasant devices for extracting money from tho man that is athirst and hungered is a neat little appendix to tho bill ot fare w.iich announces that cofiee Is 10 cents per cup and in the opposite corner the brief announcement that cream is 15 cents. The man who orders coffee is asked as lo whether he is used to taking cream when he Is at home down on the farm. Certainly he is, and he lolls back and thinks of the big Jersey cows and the cream that he sells his neighbors at 15 cents a quart When he comes to settle his bill, by dead reckoning, by latitude and lonuitude or by logarithms, he is generally 15 cents to 4 bits behind the official count. “Oh, I thought that ‘Cream, 15 cents,’ meant a glass of cream. '’ “No, it means cream for coffee.” If he is a wise man he pays and departs with an internal vow of bringing a ham sandwich in his pistol pocket for the morrow’s repast and drinking water frem the pale-blue tanks tha’ a e about the only tree things distribute,! around the grounds. If he is unwise and irate

he makes a rumpus, only to have the head waiter come around with a contemptuous air and do a simple problem in arithmetic for him while those who have been through the mill titter aloud at the individual who does not know that 10 and 15 are 25. Many people do not care for soup or a course dinner, but those who are incautious enough to order soup pay for the same at the rate of 25 cents a throw and think that they have received two doses, on settlement. Good old corn beef and cabbage fluctuates between 40 cents and half a dollar, while a tiny dish of Boston’s pride with a small chunk of Cincinnati's principal industry is worth 35 cents without a sprig of parsley to garnish the dish. Then, too, the beans furnished are of a small and inconsequential growth, resembling BB snot ra’her than a vegetable product. It can be easily figured up just what a good, comfortable meal will cost the average man who has no secondary appetite or who has not burdened himself with , a false one by the use of liquors, which one of the bills calmly declares are 35 cents a gulp. ulienne, 25 cents; roast of beef or gigot de presale, 75 cents; flageolets pois, ton a e a 1* American, 50 cents; coffee, demi-tasse, 10 cents; total, SI.OO.

True, thl« is not the average price, bul it’s near It; and the moral is, don’t eat. Bring your appetite back with y«o. Save It 63 a curiosity to show your friends, as a relic that was saved intact from the forty thieves. You may grow’ thin if you attend the Fair often or for an extended period, but either forget your digestive apparatus or take a lunch and crawl off by some lagoon when you eat it. Complaints concerning the extortion practiced were so long and loud that President Higinbotham disguised himself and made a personal Investigation. He found these restaurants to be regular robbers’ roosts, and the officials have now decreed that the extortion must cease. In a previous letter I said you could see the fair for 50 cents. So you can, but you can’t monkey with a World’s

Fair restaurant for anything like that amount. Random Fair Notes. The attendance at the fair on May 3 was 31,274. The workmen employed on the Algerian village are on a strike for back pay. Ons of the Arabs who took part in the riotous outbreak in the Arabian village was sent to the Bridwell for thirty days. There is mourning in the Javanese camp at the Fair, news having been received of the death of the Sultan of Solo, the Javanese ruler. Albert Beck, in charge of the Austrian exhibit, “tipped” a man who transferred his goods to him. The man was a customs officer and Herr Beck was arrested. The order against smoking on the grounds has been countermanded. It was the bugaboo of the Columbian Guards, who each averaged enforcement of the order ten times a minute. Two months ago “Count” Heinrich von Bludzen was arrested in New York City for a series ot audacious swindles. He was tried in court and released. He has just been found in a World’s Fair restaurant, acting as a waiter. During the next three weeks 1,500 employes of the Exposition Company will be dropped from the pay-rolls. General orders have been issued for a sweeping reduction of the force of clerks, stenographers, draughtsmen, and other employes. Uncle Sam doesn’t stand very high at the Fair. Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue Frank E. Stanloy was denied admission when he showed his badge and sa : d he had been sent to examine a cigar factory in the Plaieance. He was told to buy a ticket “like any other guy.”

FORTY CENTS EOR DROPPING YOUR FORK.

MUST HAVE A PASS BEFORE YOU CAN EAT

SOME RESTAURANT TRICES.