d figs grow anywhere and everywhere,
seventy-five cents for an order of brandied peaches and fifty cents for
an order of spiced figs. Even seasoned New Yorkers have been known to
breathe hard on receiving a check for a full meal at certain restaurants
in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

On the other hand, you can step round any corner in San Francisco and
walk into that institution which people in other large cities are
forever seeking and never finding--a table-d'hote restaurant where a
perfect meal is to be had at a most moderate price. The best Italian
restaurant in the world--and I wish to say, after personal experience,
that Sunny Italy itself is not barred--is a little place on the fringe
of the Barbary Coast.

There is another place not far away where, for a dollar, you get a
bottle of good domestic wine and a selection from the following range of
dishes: Celery, ripe olives, green olives, radishes, onions, lettuce,
sliced tomatoes, combination salad or crab-meat salad; soup--onion or
consomme; fish--sole, salmon, bass, sand dabs, mussels or clams;
entrees--sweetbreads with mushrooms, curry of lamb, calf's tongue, tripe
with peppers, tagliatini a l'Italienne, or boiled kidney with bacon;
vegetables--asparagus, string-beans and cauliflower; roast--spring lamb
with green peas, broiled chicken or broiled pig's feet; dessert--rhubarb
pie, ice cream and cake, apple sauce, stewed fruits, baked pear or baked
apple, mixed fruits; cheese of three varieties, and coffee to wind up
on.

The proprietor doesn't cut out his portions with a pair of buttonhole
scissors, either, or sauce them with a medicine-dropperful of gravy. He
gives a big, full, satisfying helping, well cooked and well served.
There is some romance in the San Francisco cooking, too, if the
oldtimers who bemourn the old days only realized it.

If this seeming officiousness on the part of a passing wayfarer may be
excused there is one more suggestion I should like to throw off for the
benefit of the promoters of the exposition. Living somewhere in
California is a man who should be looked up before the gates are opened,
and he should be retained at a salary and staked out in suitable
quarters as a special and added attraction. He is the most magnificent
fish-liar in the known world! I do not know his name--he was so busy
pouring fish stories down a party of us that he didn't take time to stop
and tell his name--but no great difficulty should be experienced in