Editor’s
Note: The following work is in the public domain and was presented to the
Internet by www.gutenberg.org
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/19642/19642-h/19642-h.htm
Of
note is how this 19th century writer describes the role of women in
the restaurant scenes of New York.
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF NEW YORK LIFE
Or, the sights and sensations of a great city (as of
1872).
By
James D. McCabe, Jr.
This Great City, so wonderful in its
beauty, so strange to eyes accustomed only to the smaller towns of the land, is
in all respects the most attractive sight in America, and one of the most
remarkable places in the world, ranking next to London and Paris in the extent
and variety of its attractions.
Its magnificence is remarkable, its squalor
appalling. Nowhere else in the New World
are seen such lavish displays of wealth, and such hideous depths of
poverty. It is rich in historical
associations and in treasures of art. It
presents a wonderful series of combinations as well as contrasts of individual
and national characteristics.
It is richly worth studying by all classes, for it is
totally different from any other city in the world. It is always fresh, always new. It is constantly changing, growing greater
and more wonderful in its power and splendors, more worthy of admiration in its
higher and nobler life, more generous in its charities, and more mysterious and
appalling in its romance and its crimes.
It is indeed a wonderful city.
Coming fresh from plainer and more practical parts of
the land, the visitor is plunged into the midst of so much beauty,
magnificence, gayety, mystery, and a thousand other wonders, that he is fairly
bewildered. It is hoped that the reader
of these pages will be by their perusal better prepared to enjoy the
attractions, and to shun the dangers of New York. It has been my effort to bring home to those
who cannot see the city for themselves, its pleasures and its dangers, and to
enable them to enjoy the former without either the fatigue or expense demanded
of an active participant in them, and to appreciate the latter, without
incurring the risks attending an exploration of the shadowy side of the Great
City.
J. D. McCabe, Jr.
New York,
March 21, 1872
CHAPTER XXXIX.
THE RESTAURANTS.
New York is said to contain between
five and six thousand restaurants. These
are of every kind and description known to man, from Delmonico’s down to the
Fulton Market stands. A very large
number of persons live altogether at these places. They are those who cannot afford the expense
of a hotel, and who will not endure a boarding-house. They rent rooms in convenient or inconvenient
locations, and take their meals at the restaurants. At many nominally reputable establishments
the fare is infamous, but as a rule New York is far ahead of any American city
with respect to the character and capabilities of its eating-houses.
 |
| Cafe Martin Delmonico's on Fifth Avenue |
The better class restaurants lie along Broadway and
Fifth avenue. The other longitudinal
streets are well supplied with establishments of all kinds, and in the Bowery
are to be found houses in which the fare is prepared and served entirely in
accordance with German ideas. In other
parts of the city are to be found Italian, French, and Spanish restaurants, and
English chop houses.
 |
| Delmonico's Menu, 1899 |
The fashionable restaurants lie chiefly above
Fourteenth, and entirely above Canal street.
Delmonico’s, at the northeast corner of Fourteenth street and the Fifth
avenue, is the best known. It is a very
extensive establishment, is fitted up in elegant style, and is equal to any
eating-house in the world. The prices
are very high. A modest dinner, without
wine, for two persons, will cost here from four to five dollars. The fare is good, however. The house enjoys a large custom, and every
visitor to New York who can afford it, takes a meal here before leaving the
city. Delmonico is said to be very rich.
A young man, to whom the ways of the house were unknown,
once took his sweetheart to lunch at this famous place. His purse was light, and when he came to scan
the bill of fare, and note the large sums affixed to each item, his heart sank
within him, and he waited in silent agony to hear his fair companion make her
selection.
After due consideration, she ordered a woodcock. Now woodcocks are expensive luxuries at
Delmonico’s, and the cost of one such bird represented more than the total
contents of the lover’s purse. He was in
despair, but a lucky thought occurred to him.
Turning to the lady, he asked with an air of profound astonishment:
“Do you think you can eat a whole woodcock?”
“How large is it?” asked the fair one, timidly.
“About as large as a full grown turkey” was the grave
reply.
“O, I’ll take an oyster stew,” said the lady, quickly.
The fashionable restaurants make large profits on their
sales. Their customers are chiefly
ladies, and men who have nothing to do.
Their busiest hours are the early afternoon, and during the evening. After the theatres are closed, they are
thronged with parties of ladies and gentlemen who come in for supper.
Some of the best restaurants in the city are those in
which a lady is never seen. It must not
be supposed that they are disreputable places.
They are entirely the opposite.
They are located in the lower part of the city, often in some by-street
of the heavy business section, and are patronized chiefly by merchants and
clerks, who come here to get lunch and dinner.
The fare is excellent, and the prices are
reasonable. The eating houses of Henry
Bode, in Water street, near Wall street, Rudolph in Broadway, near Courtlandt
street, and Nash & Fuller (late Crook, Fox & Nash), in Park Row, are
the best of this kind.
In the last there is a department for ladies. Between
the hours of noon and 3 pm, the downtown restaurants are generally crowded with
a hungry throng. In some of them every
seat at the long counters and at the tables is filled, and the floor is crowded
with men standing and eating from plates which they hold in their hands. The noise, the bustle, the clatter of knives
and dishes, the slamming of doors, and the cries of the waiters as they shout
out the orders of the guests, are deafening.
The waiters move about with a celerity that is astonishing; food is
served and eaten with a dispatch peculiar to these places.
A constant stream of men is pouring out of the doors,
and as steady a stream flowing in to take their places. At some of the largest of these
establishments as many as fifteen hundred people are supplied with food during
the course of the day. A well patronized
restaurant is very profitable in New York, even if its prices are moderate, and
the higher priced establishments make their proprietors rich in a comparatively
short time. The proprietor of a Broadway
oyster saloon made a fortune of $150,000 by his legitimate business in five
years. A large part of the income of the
restaurants is derived from the sale of liquors at the bar.
The principal uptown restaurants are largely patronized
by disreputable people. Impure women go
there to pick up customers, and men to find such companions. Women whose social position is good, do not
hesitate to meet their lovers at such places, for there is a great deal of
truth in the old adage which tells us that “there’s no place so private as a crowded
hall.”
A quiet but close observer will frequently see a nod, or
a smile, or a meaning glance pass between the most respectable looking persons
of opposite sexes, who are seemingly strangers to each other, and will
sometimes see a note slyly sent by a waiter, or dropped adroitly into the hand
of the woman as the man passes out, while her face wears the demurest and most
rigidly virtuous expression.
Such women frequent some of the best known up-town
establishments to so great an extent that a lady entering one of them is apt to
be insulted in this way by the male habitués of the place. These wretches hold all women to be alike,
and act upon this belief.
No comments:
Post a Comment