Soup, soup and soup please.

Boulevard des Italiens in Paris at night, by Eugene Lami.

Snippets 147.  On October 22nd 1881 the first ever issue of Tit-Bits was published, with a simple aim of extracting all the best quotes from other newspapers, magazines and books.  It was successful enough to run for over a hundred years, until 1984.  The following amusing quote is from the very first issue:

An Englishman in Paris went into a restaurant to get his dinner.  Unacquainted with the French language, yet unwilling to show his ignorance, he pointed to the first line on the bill of fare, and the polite waiter brought him a plate of thin soup.  This was very well, and when it was despatched he pointed to the second line.  The waiter understood him perfectly, and brought him a vegetable soup.  “Rather more soup than I want,” thought he; “but it is a Paris fashion.”  He duly pointed to the third line, and a plate of tapioca broth was brought him.  Again to the fourth line, and was furnished with a bowl of preparation of arrowroot.  He tried the fifth line, and was supplied with some gruel kept for invalids.  The bystanders now supposed that they saw an unfortunate individual who had lost all his teeth, and our friend, determined to get as far from the soup as possible, pointed in despair to the last line on the bill of fare.  The intelligent waiter, who saw at once what he wanted, politely handed him a bunch of toothpicks.  This was too much, the Englishman paid his bill and left.

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