It is one of the most profitable enterprises in Europe for the amount of money involved, but that fact does not diminish the benefits conferred upon the public, and the generosity of the company to the poor, particularly in times of labor troubles and financial depression, can not be questioned.  Hundreds of bachelors and single women take their meals there regularly, and hundreds of families obtain their entire supply of food, wholesome and well cooked, at nominal cost.

There is a long official title to the company, but nobody ever mentions it.  It occupies a two-story building covering nearly half an ordinary block.  The location is convenient to the business portion of the city, the docks and the market-place.  There are two large halls, one above the other, containing five long tables, seating thirty persons each, thus accommodating three hundred customers at a sitting.  In the upstairs room it costs eleven cents in our money for a good dinner; in the lower room it costs nine cents.  There are no tablecloths and no napkins, but the tops of the tables have been scoured until they shine and everything is spotless.  The whole institution is a model of neatness.  It seems remarkable how it can be kept so clean with so many unwashed customers and so much business.  The windows are large and let in plenty of light.  The walls are covered with bright tints, and the waitresses wear white caps, aprons, and oversleeves.  At each place is a knife, fork, spoon, drinking glass, cup and saucer, and a piece of bread about three inches square.  Dinner is served from ten in the morning until six in the afternoon to an average of 2,500 people daily.  Some of them come twice.  They take a cup of coffee and eat a piece of cheese and bread at their homes early in the morning.  Then at ten or eleven, and again at four or five o’clock, they go to the “kitchen” for a square meal.  Thus it costs them not more than twenty-five cents a day, all told, for their food.  In the last ten years they have never served less than 1,500 people in a day.

The bill of fare varies from day to day, but we will take one day, Tuesday, for example.  A large dish of barley soup is served, wholesome and nourishing, a ball of hashed meat, with potatoes and rice, or boiled salmon, potatoes and turnips.

The nine-cent dinner is pretty much the same, with the exception of the soup; boiled potatoes and rice, or boiled salmon, potatoes and turnips.  A plate of soup alone, which in itself would be more than a meal for most people, being filled with meat and vegetables, is served for three cents.