A bachelors cupboard

Ginger ale Is not the worst beverage in the world with a good rabbit, while lime and seltzer is a refreshing drink at any time in the year. The poor hall bedroom laddie with his pathetic makeshift on the window ledge may not afford such an elaborate layout. But for a dollar he may invest either in a little alcohol stove with a quart skillet in which to cook his cereal or boil water for his tea, or Stocking the Cupboard buy a few feet of tubing and a tiny gas stove. One bachelor who earned a scanty $15 a week made for himself a really attractive cupboard from a tall shoe box, perhaps four feet in height and half as wide and deep. It was stained, a row of brass headed nails driven around the edge, some shelves nicely fitted in, a few hooks added and a denim curtain, and in it was his whole outfit nicely concealed from inquisitive eyes. And he had some feasts too, if they were cooked in a ten-penny frying pan on his little gas stove. That he made his coffee in a woman's afternoon tea kettle with an alcohol lamp was his affair; and it was nectar. His tastes were simple, at the same time he had a variety. In the morning, a cup or two of delicious coffee with condensed cream, one or two English muffins nicely toasted and buttered, a couple of eggs, fried, boiled, or scrambled, as he elected, or perhaps poached on a bit of toast, and a bit of fruit, made a splendid breakfast for a chap leading a sedentary life. The down-town luncheon and dinner were more elaborate, and if he wished a bite in the evening when a friend dropped in, or he came in late from his weekly night at the theatre, there were all sorts of appetizing things to be concocted in the tiny frying pan, in which a basin was set and surrounded with water in lieu of a chafing dish. Finally he bought a double boiler, thus escaping scalded fingers from too close contact with steam. What did he eat? The usual thing culled from a cookery book dedicated to the chafing dish — and some Stocking the Cupboard concoctions of his own, which appear In another chapter. But no one I ever knew could do up oysters and clams and crabs as nicely as he; sea food was his specialty, and, living on the coast, he was able to gratify this taste, even to the extent of serving on his one table for some admiring chap as delicious a Lobster Newberg, devilled crab, or oysters panned, California pepper — roasted or fried, as ever were tasted. His oysters, fried in oil, as Minico Finelli used to do them in Philadelphia, were luscious. His weekly bill was very small — but he never made the mistake of buying cheap things and always Insisted upon the best of butter, eggs, and whatever else he bought. " I have generally found that In buying so-called ' bargains ' In edibles," he said, " there is so much waste that it invariably pays to buy the best of everything. The satisfaction of knowing that It Is the best more than makes up for the few extra pennies spent." "Manners are of more importance than laws. " — Burke. "What Is a gentleman? " a young debutante naively asked of her uncle, a club man and " gentleman of the old school." The world-old query provoked the following reply from the man, who was too wary, however, to fall Into the pitfall laid for him.