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.
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