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REFRESHMENTS T THE GREAT EXHIBITION OF 1851.
Divers invitations for tenders have been issued by the Commissioners, on terms that seem to us rather hard, for the supply of refreshments at the Crystal Palace. In the first place, nothing eatable or drinkable is to be taken out of the areas; an arrangement that may be agreeable enough to the police and others, who dm4 a refectory in every area Lhey come to, but which will hardly be acceptable to the public in general.
No cooking is to be allowed on the
premises, and, consequently, as far s eatables are concerned, it will be weless to display at the exhibition any of the raw material.
All stale pastry is to be removed between the hours of six and eight in the morning, when the boys—those wholesale contractors for dry rubbish, in the shape of yesterday’s buns and tarts—will have to he in attendance, unless the whole can be sent to a sort of clearing-house, at a distance, where the juveniles may have an opportunity of effecting the required clearance.
The contractor is to be bound to supply, ratis, pure water in glasses to all visitors demanding it; but the Committee must have forgotten, that whoever can produce in London a glass of water fit to drink, will contribute the rarest and most universally useful article in the whole Exhibition.
As we ape expecting visitors from all nations, we may look for a sprinkling of Red Men, to whom it would be a mockery to offer bread and butter, ginger-beer, or even Soyer’s Nectar; and we can only recommend that the contractor should be bound to keep a set of kangaroos, in sizes, to suit the appetites, more or less moderate, of the Indian epicure.
The scheme of the Committee allows nothing for the diversity of tastes among all the nations of the earth, but proceeds on the presumption, that the whole world will be satisfied with tea and bread and butter. When the Ojibbeways were in this country, they were roused into the most frightful state of excitement at the opening of a bottle of ginger-beer, which suddenly went off with a bang, when they raised the war-whoop with such alarming vehemence, that the future sale of ginger-beer in the Exhibition Room was prohibited.
We recommend, before it is too late, that the regulations as to the refreshments should be modified in such a way as to provide for the admission of the food of all nations to the Great Exhibition.