All Being
Seated, The Maitre D'hotel Claps His Hands, And In An Instant, At One
Coup, The Covers Are Nipped Away, As If With The Same Hand, By
Waiters Stationed At Regular Distances Around The Tables.
Then the
serious work of eating commences.
If any embarrassment arises, a clap
of the hand calls attention to it, and a sign directs its immediate
remedy. Then, as each course is finished, another clap stations the
waiters again at their old places, and at a wave of the hand all the
dishes skip off the table. Then, the table being cleared of dinner
dishes, the whole posse of waiters march two and two round the tables,
and leave the room by a side door. In a few seconds they return again
in the same order, each man bearing three dishes, and fall again into
their places. Then, all eyes being fixed upon the maitre d'hotel,
clap one, and down goes one dish from the hands of each waiter
all along the tables. Clap two brings down dish the second; and
clap three drops the third. And at a table of nearly 400 persons
all are thus served with dessert, as before they had been with each
course, in about half a moment, and each at the same time. Even in
changing knives, forks, and plates, a system is adopted. A portion of
the waiters, obeying a sign, fall out of line, and divide into threes;
one of each three bears the plates, one the knives, and one the forks;
and each party goes round its allotted length of table. Black No. 1
dots down a plate opposite each person; No. 2 plants a knife on one
side of it; No. 3 puts down a fork on the other side. The men do this
with an even regularity of movement, and a gravity which is quite
amusing. All this rapid and regular action drives dinner on amazingly;
indeed, it almost hurries you. In fifty minutes all is over, and the
table cleared. The Americans, who seem to know the value of time,
generally get up and decamp immediately after the last mouthful, which
is perhaps a sensible plan.
"At Saratoga we found a party of Indians. Eighteen of these children of
the forest, who had been down to New York to sell toys and ornaments,
which they manufacture in the winter, were on their return home, and
were encamped outside the village during Sunday. They showed little of
the costume of their tribe, or rather, I suppose I should say, want of
costume; one man wearing a pair of red plush breeches, and some of the
women having bonnets. Still there were the features, the attitudes, and
the language of the aborigines. We visited their camp at night, a
collection of gipsy-like tents, and conversed with one or two of them,
which led others to steal out and listen. I say steal out, for it was
only upon turning round, that I became aware that we were suddenly
almost surrounded. One man spoke very good English. He said they were
Oneidas, or as he pronounced it 'Onidehs,' and were going back to their
country, where they would remain with their tribe, about two hundred
and eighty of whom were left, till next year, and then come down again.
"On Sunday evening I witnessed another and a very different spectacle.
A Methodist preacher came into the village in a little four-wheeled
car, with a square black hood over it, and preached from his car, on
what is termed by the common voice 'Nigger abolition.' He was
accompanied by a young woman and a very pretty little child, who both
sat behind him. He soon got an audience, amongst whom were several men
from the Southern States. He denounced slavery in no very measured
terms, and soon provoked the Southern men to interject - 'Why don't you
go into the South?' 'Why, Sir,' was the reply, 'you know, it would be
as much as my life is worth.' 'Nonsense! we will give you five hundred
dollars to go, and you shall be safe.' 'To what State, Sir?' 'Georgia,'
replied one voice; 'Alabama,' another; 'North Carolina,' another.
'Why,' was the rejoinder, 'three of our preachers were expelled from
those very States not a month ago.' 'Your niggers here are free, and
they are worse off than ours; why don't you mend their condition
first?' And so the attack and reply went on (this was Sunday evening)
for half an hour, amidst laughter, jeers, and the occasional
propulsion, by fellows behind, of some unlucky lad or other against the
poor preacher's horse; a movement which endangered the woman and child
especially, but which appeared to give great satisfaction to many, and
which no one interfered in any manner to prevent. I left the spot in
disgust. I have seen, however, as much petty intolerance at home. I
returned from my walk in time to hear the preacher pronounce his
benediction, in the midst of which there arose a hideous yell: three or
four boys were shot against the horse, and the car was nearly
overthrown; after which a shouting multitude followed the retreating
abolitionist for some distance, to harass and annoy him, as he drove
with difficulty away.
"On Monday morning, recruited by the previous day's rest, I left
Saratoga, and travelled forty-one miles by railway through a partially
cleared, and, in many parts, very beautiful country, to Whitehall,
which is at the southern end of Lake Champlain, where we took a
steamer, a nice, orderly, and comfortable boat, and steamed to Rouse's
Point, 132 miles further. The scenery of the lake is very beautiful.
The ruins of the old fortress of Ticonderoga rise upon it, standing
upon a steep rocky headland, and commanding the lake, which narrows at
this point; a wide expanse of water swelling out both above and below.
Ticonderoga was taken from the French by the English, by the use of
artillery fired down from the mountain above it.
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