Practical Trick of Tramp

1910

Money He Received on Leaving Smallpox Hospital Is Declined by Restaurant Proprietor

"I have not come to solicit alms, madam," he said to the restaurant proprietress; "I have just called to make a small purchase, and, at the same time, to show to you man's inhumanity to man, and what a cold, hard world it is in which we live. In the meantime, would you kindly put me up a nice beef sandwich, with a plentiful supply of mustard, etc., for which I will tender the equivalent in coin of the realm?

"As I was saying — thank you, madam, that will do admirably — 'tis a cold, cruel world. For instance, these few bronze coins, with which I am about to pay you for my sandwich, represent my worldly goods, and they were given with a niggardly hand this morning on my leaving the smallpox hospital.

"What! You won't accept them? Nor take the food back? I may take them and go? Thank you, madam; I wish you a good morning!"

The Kissing Cashier of Paris

1905

Ideas That Draw Custom

Proprietors of European Cafes Show Enterprise

In many of the European cafes of the cheaper order it is the invariable custom to print the daily menu on the napkin provided for the guest, so that when the latter desires to study the bill of fare he has to raise his serviette from his knee in order to do so.

But perhaps the most extraordinary custom in connection with restaurant life is that which obtains in a certain little cafe in the suburbs of Paris, where every customer whose bill amounts to 25 cents or over is entitled to receive a kiss from the very attractive young lady who acts as cashier to the establishment.

So used has the damsel become to the osculatory routine that she goes through it without the slightest reticence, looking upon it purely as a matter of business, and it is reported that the proprietor of the restaurant is more than satisfied with the result of his curious device for attracting patrons.

Another enterprising restauranteur has instituted the practice of making a present of a box of Havana cigars every New Year's day to those patrons who have been pretty regular in their attendance at his establishment during the preceding year.

Tallest Man Reported Ill

1915

Captain Bates, Aged 70, Is Nearly 8 Feet in Height

SEVILLE, Ohio, Dec. 16. — The tallest man in Ohio is ill at his home near Seville. He is Capt. M. V. Bates and is 7 feet 11½ inches tall. Bates' wife, who is caring for him, is slightly over five feet.

Being ill is a new experience for Capt. Bates. Until a few weeks ago he worked daily on his 150-acre farm here.

Capt. Bates quit the circus sideshows in 1880 and settled on his farm. He is now seventy years old.



Bullet Kills Rat; Also Man

Glances Off Rodent's Body, Hitting Spectator in Stomach

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn., Dec. 16. — The bullet which killed a rat in the restaurant at 239 Cedar avenue, claimed its human victim when Daniel Golden died at the City Hospital.

Tuesday night Thomas Christo, employed in the restaurant, took a shot at a big gray rat. The bullet killed the rat, glanced and struck Golden in the stomach.

Dine With Serpents "Adorning" the Table

1920

"Queen of Snake Charmers" Is Guest of Honor

NEW YORK, N.Y., Feb. 26. — With golden dragons as wall decorations, real, varicolored snakes upon the tables, and Jersey City's "Queen of Snake Charmers" present, the Reptile Study Society of America held its annual dinner in a Chinatown restaurant.

Jersey City's snake charming queen is Miss Alma Casals, blond and blue-eyed, who determined her vocation after a visit to the Bronx Zoo.

"They let me pick up a king snake," the young woman said. "Would you believe it, it was delightful. It formed a necklace for me and then a bracelet. I found snakes were easy to handle and I think they are just lovely."

Just to prove it, the "Queen of Snake Charmers" lifted a snake from a bag. She, as well as the other diners, was dressed for the unusual occasion in very usual evening dress. They represented the most prominent snake hunters in the country. Bags of snakes, with polysyllable names, testified to that. So did the discussion on the dear things, for the diners talked much of adequate legislation for the protection of reptiles.

Dishwasher Runs Amuck With a Bread Knife

California, 1921

History states that the Battle of Thermopylae Pass in ancient days was not such an exciting affair, and if so, it faded into oblivion, alongside of the affair of late yesterday afternoon in which Denny Zanatos, proprietor of the restaurant on Main street above Third, known as Guidi's, did a Marathon down Main street to avoid the wild charge of a Greek dishwasher in the same restaurant, who took after the fleet restauranteur armed with a butcher knife.

The assailant began arguing with Zanatos over wages. Then the battle began, resulting in the knife wielder being arrested by the fire chief and is facing a charge of assault with intent to murder. It is claimed that the prisoner chased Zanatos about the Guidi restaurant a dozen times, not giving the fleeing Athenian a chance to open the door to make escape. Finally a waitress came to the man's rescue and when the door was opened he made one grand leap for the street and would have made Atlanta in her race of the Golden Apple look like a novice had he been her opponent on the mythical cinder path.

—Woodland Daily Democrat, Woodland, California, Dec. 17, 1921, p. 1.

Insane Man Threatened to Kill Restaurant Keeper

Lincoln, Nebraska, 1920

Threatened to Kill Restaurant Keeper

Man Under Arrest Knew How to Use Gun

Told a Physician That He Intended Shooting Up the Place During the Evening Meal Hour

When two deputy sheriffs and a deputy United States marshal dropped into a South Tenth restaurant during the supper hour Tuesday evening and gazed curiously around and then consulted in whispers with the proprietor, cashier and other attaches, interest upon the part of everyone in the place became quickly apparent. The patron who had been but a moment before busily engaged in the mastication of a chop turned quickly upon his high stool and gazed with suspicion upon his neighbors on either side. Soon everyone in the long room as well as those in the kitchen to the rear had been apprised of the fact that an insane man had threatened to appear and shoot up the place and that the officers were looking for him.

The crazy man failed to reach the restaurant, but had he arrived it is thought he would have found it necessary to content himself with shattering dishes and coffee urns with his bullets, as it became speedily apparent there would have been no human targets in sight. As a wise general has at all times a line of retreat available, so has the long headed proprietor of a bean bureau who has been warned that armed invasion is imminent. So everyone from the boss to the dishwasher was prepared to duck and decamp at the first indication of hostilities. One well known lawyer gulped down what was in his mouth, slid from his altitudinous perch and throwing a bill at the alert cashier, vanished through the front door. He is said to have reached his office in record time.

But the madman came not. Deputy Sheriffs Anderson and Moore and Deputy United States Marshal Carroll went from the restaurant to the room which he had been occupying at 1448 0 street and there found him. He is named in the insanity complaint which had been lodged against him in the office of the clerk of the district court as M. L. Munger and during the afternoon he had called at the office of a physician and announced his intention of shooting up the restaurant.

He assured the doctor that the people at the place had been taking his meals, were determined to kill him, and had been putting poison in his coffee. It was his intention to go there at supper time, and upon the slightest indication that there was anything wrong he would kill everyone in the place. As soon as the man had left his office the physician reported the matter to the proper officers and steps were taken to place Munger under restraint. The deputies first visited the restaurant and after ascertaining that the slaughter had not as yet taken place, they went to the room of the demented man.

A knock at the door was responded to by Munger, who was at once taken charge of. The man had in his possession a large automatic revolver with a box of shells, and in his room was also a rifle with ammunition. He was very friendly with the officers, but insisted upon forcing cigarets upon Deputy "Bob" Anderson. He frankly assured that officer that the "pills" would lull him, that being the end avowedly aimed at. He was convinced that Anderson had a large family and carried life insurance and he thought that "he would be worth more dead than alive." Munger was locked up in the county jail and it was thought he would be given a hearing before the insanity commission some time during the day.

Nothing was learned by the officers of the family or antecedents of the unfortunate man, who claims to be a mechanic and an inventor. He had in his room a suit case, lined with sheet iron and fastened with five locks, and it was stated his patent is kept in this receptacle.

—The Evening State Journal and Lincoln Daily News, Lincoln, Nebraska, February 25, 1920, page 3.