Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 August 1899 — Absent-Minded Man's Feast. [ARTICLE]

Absent-Minded Man's Feast.

The celebrated French composer, Mellhac, who died lately, was one of the absent-minded geniuses. He was also a man of simple tastes in the matter of food. It is related of him that, on an occasion when one of his operas was being presented, he entered, in evening dress, a fashionable restaurant and threw himself down at a table, thinking earnestly about the musical event of the evening and about nothing else. A waiter brought him a bill of fare, and Monsieur Mellhac quite abstractedly indicated with his finger the first dish on the bill that his eye had struck. It happened to be the most elaborate and costly dish on the bill, and when the waiter went to the kitchen with the order there was commotion there. The proprietor himself arrived and he and the Chief cook devoted themselves to the preparation of the costly dish. One man was sent for this choice Ingredient, and another for another. Meantime Monsieur Mellhac waited, absorbed. At last the dish was brought with a great flourish, and the proprietor stood not far away to observe the result. When it was deposited on the table Mellhac looked at it with an expression of melancholy, interest. •.‘Did I order that?” he asked. “Certainly, Monsieur!” ‘‘Do you like It?” “But—but yes, monsieur!” “Then please take it away and eat it yourself,” ordered Mellhac, “and bring me two fried eggs!” The order was canted out, and the proprietor wondered if he had a madman to deal with. —Youth’s * Companion.