"No. But a man who knew how to charge five dollars for a two-and-a-half supper came along, bought him out easy, stepped in and made a few thousands without ever taking his gloves off, as it were." "Now, that is not the way to look at the matter. The man who charged five dollars for a two-and-a-half supper did quite right and just what a portion of the public wanted him to do. They that paid it paid two-and-a-half for exclusive- ness. They paid a price that Tom, Dick and Harry could not pay, purpose- ly that those three objectionable persons might be kept out ; and, they paid it for better table-wear, finer furnishings and better service. There is a vast amount of working for nothing in the ordinary boarding busi- ness. Great apparent profits would turn out to be dead loss in many cases if all the principals were paid as exactly as the hired. helpers are. Summer boarding- house keepers will tend a garden four months in advance, turn the products into the boarding-house and count so much more made because they have no vegetables and fruits to buy when if they paid themselves for their gardening they would come out in debt. Such might even be the case with such an apparently renumerative supper as that previously detailed, and this will ex- plain why persons never become sudden- ly rich by setting up to furnish parties to order, and why they cannot afford to be cheap in their charges, and why, more- over, hotel-keepers themselves seldom make any profit on any suppers or ban- quets that are beyond the easy capacity of their own establishment without out- side help. If a little extra supper in a hotel requires the attendance until a late hour of three waiters, a pantryman or girl, and a dishwasher, the proprietor is not ordinarily expected to pay extra for such service, because, hiring by the month some accommodation is looked for from the help as an offset to the times of dull business when there is little to do, but the pay goes on all the same. But if these had to be specially hired for the occasion the cost would be one dol- lar each in most places, and half that amount in the very cheapest. A first- class cook in New York or Saratoga, if called in to prepare a private party can generally obtain ten dollars a day for his services. Ordinarly, a first-class caterer in any city, having such cooks in his employ charges for their services when they are sent out about $5 a day, and about such a rate the hotel-keeper would have to pay if he had not his own cook to command. Add then the cost of gas, of fires, the hire of dishes and tableware, hire of express wagon and a hand to go to and fro, pack and un- pack, the washing of napkins and table cloths and other like incidentals and the anticipated profits from even the finest ball supper may delusively vanish before you know how it all happened — unless you rush in slowly and know how to charge enough. 508— A School Commencement Straw- berry and Ice Cream Supper.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

"No. But a man who knew how to charge five dollars for a two-and-a-half supper came along, bought him out easy, stepped in and made a few thousands without ever taking his gloves off, as it were." "Now, that is not the way to look at the matter. The man who charged five dollars for a two-and-a-half supper did quite right and just what a portion of the public wanted him to do. They that paid it paid two-and-a-half for exclusiveness. They paid a price that Tom, Dick and Harry could not pay, purposely that those three objectionable persons might be kept out ; and, they paid it for better table-wear, finer furnishings and better service. There is a vast amount of working for nothing in the ordinary boarding business. Great apparent profits would turn out to be dead loss in many cases if all the principals were paid as exactly as the hired. helpers are. Summer boardinghouse keepers will tend a garden four months in advance, turn the products into the boarding-house and count so much more made because they have no vegetables and fruits to buy when if they paid themselves for their gardening they would come out in debt. Such might even be the case with such an apparently renumerative supper as that previously detailed, and this will explain why persons never become suddenly rich by setting up to furnish parties to order, and why they cannot afford to be cheap in their charges, and why, moreover, hotel-keepers themselves seldom make any profit on any suppers or banquets that are beyond the easy capacity of their own establishment without outside help. If a little extra supper in a hotel requires the attendance until a late hour of three waiters, a pantryman or girl, and a dishwasher, the proprietor is not ordinarily expected to pay extra for such service, because, hiring by the month some accommodation is looked for from the help as an offset to the times of dull business when there is little to do, but the pay goes on all the same. But if these had to be specially hired for the occasion the cost would be one dollar each in most places, and half that amount in the very cheapest. A firstclass cook in New York or Saratoga, if called in to prepare a private party can generally obtain ten dollars a day for his services. Ordinarly, a first-class caterer in any city, having such cooks in his employ charges for their services when they are sent out about $5 a day, and about such a rate the hotel-keeper would have to pay if he had not his own cook to command. Add then the cost of gas, of fires, the hire of dishes and tableware, hire of express wagon and a hand to go to and fro, pack and unpack, the washing of napkins and table cloths and other like incidentals and the anticipated profits from even the finest ball supper may delusively vanish before you know how it all happened — unless you rush in slowly and know how to charge enough. 508— A School Commencement Strawberry and Ice Cream Supper.

Cooking for profit