Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 March 1886 — Onions For Eight Hundred. [ARTICLE]

Onions For Eight Hundred.

The man who went into a Union Square cheap restaurant, sat down at a table with no cloth to it, and ordered a, beefsteak with onions, was entirely 1 commonplace. His clothes were neither Brand new nor threadbare, his linen was medium as to freshness, and his beard showed about a day’s growth. His voice, in saying, “Plenty of onions and tho steak rare,’’ was neither imperious, as though coming from a man accustomed to command, nor pleading, as of one asking for a favor. He leaned back in his chair listlessly while waiting for the meal, and when it was served he ate with a good appetite. Who was he ? Ido not- know. Then, why describe hijn ? Because his steak and onions were partaken of by 800 persons. The kitchen in which they were cooked adjoined tfle cellar of the Union Square theater, and ev'ery smell made by the process permeated the auditorium above, going into the nostrils of- a large audience, First, the odor of frying beef mingled with the emotions engendered by a melodrama. Next, the stench of the sizzling onions sickened the assemblage. This struck me as a greater discomfort of many for the feeding of one, individual than I had ever known of.— New Yorfc Letter .