Page:Morley--Travels in Philadelphia.djvu/130

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114
DARKNESS VISIBLE

night to sustain and replenish the toiler whose business it is to pass along the lonely pavements of midnight. Waiters and waitresses of the all-night shift, we who are about to eat salute you! Let it be a double portion of corned-beef hash and "coffee with plenty." And many a midnight luncher has blessed you for your unfailing good humor. Is it not true, admit it, that most of the happy recollections of mankind deal with food we have enjoyed?

You will find it well worth while to take a stroll up Ninth street some evening. You will usually find a roasted chestnut cart at the southeast corner of Market street. The noble savor of cooking chestnuts is alone worth the effort of the walk. Then you can pass on northward, by the animal shop, where the dogs sleep uneasily in the window, agitated by the panorama outside; past the cuckoo clock shop and the old Dime Museum. As the street leads on to less exalted faubourgs you will notice that it grows more luxurious. Windows glow with gold watches, diamond studs, cut glass carafes. Haberdashers set out $8 silk shirts, striped with the rainbow, infinitely more glorious than anything to be found on Chestnut street. And then, at Race street, you can turn off into the queer sights of Chinatown.