Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 April 1875 — Free Lunch in a Dry-Goods Store. [ARTICLE]

Free Lunch in a Dry-Goods Store.

One of the largest dry-goods establishments in Paris is that of M. Boucicault, which bears the name of the Bon Marche. It sells $10,000,000 worth a year. Of it Mrs. Isabella B. Hooper thus writes in a private letter published in the Hartford Courant: “ For the accommodation of customers there is a pleasant refreshment room, handsomely frescoed, and without money or price one may have a simple lunch for the asking. This arrangement was suggested, we were told, by certain American ladies/- who expected, of course, that a fee would be charged for the lunch; but M. Boucicault, perceiving that his foreign customers were often compelled through fatigue to step out for a lunch, and then did not always return, concluded to make them comfortable at his own expense, reaping his profit by the increase of sales; and he is fully satisfied of the wisdom of the experiment. He then conceived the project of a reading-room close at hand for gentlemen, that they might be kept m a peaceful state of mind while their wives and daughters were judiciously expending money for tbe comfort of the whole family. This also ought to be a success, for it is a most inviting room, filled not only with newspapers and conveniences for writing, but with books of most admirable photographs, which might attract the most fastidious, and should reconcile the grumpiest husband to his matrimonial fate. Certain American ladies, not being permitted to pay for their lunch, nor even to remunerate the waiters, have put up a ‘ poor-box,’ whichl heard of afterward, but did not happen to see, and its contents are faithfully administered, I have no doubt.”