tarts. life. We cry for pie when we are infants. Pie in countless varieties waits upon us through Pie kills us finally. We have apple-pie, peach-pie, rhubarb-pie, cherry-pie, pumpkin-pie, plum-pie, custard-pie, oyster-pie, lemon-pie, and hosts of other pies. Potatoes are diverted from their proper place as boiled or baked, and made into a nice heavy crust to these pies, rendering them as incapable of being acted upon by the gastric juice as if they were sulphate of baryta, a chemical which boiling vitriol will hardly dissolve. Life is short, and we have no time to waste in eating. Thus our tables become railway-station counters, and we devour our food as if the conductor were outside ready to cry "All aboard." We enjoy less than any other people. We have no time for even our pleasures. Pie is at the bottom of all this nervous unrest. How can a person with a pound of green apples and fat dough in his stomach feel at ease? It is too much to expect of him. The offices of the digestive apparatus are delicate and nice. That foundation of earthly happiness, a good digestion, is not to be had by swinish feeding. We fry our food a great deal too much. Flour fried in fat is one of our delights. Dough-nuts, pancakes, fritters, are samples of what we do with good wheat flour. Fried ham, fried eggs, fried liver, fried steak, fried fish, fried oysters, fried potatoes, and last, not least, fried hash await us at morning, noon, and night. Roast beef is taken as a standard, it being the most called for and the worst cooked. The price of the dish is not always a guide to its quality, the 20 cent dish being generally as eatable as the 65 cent variety. At the cheaper houses potatoes are included in the prices above named. At the expensive houses potatoes are charged from 5 cents and 15 cents to 20 cents extra. An economical person may procure a small dinner at the best restaurants for $2, or may get one quite as good down town for 65 cents. For example : The William Street beef will be better cooked than the other. There is a steamy sodden flavor about the up-town dishes. Generally people are not disposed to grumble at the price of a restaurant dinner when they merely dine there occasionally. It is the homeless wanderer who has nowhere else to dine who feels hurt at finding bread charged at 10 cents for two slices when that is the cost of a whole loaf at the baker's. There are places on Broadway above Bleecker Street where, for $1 50, one may dine and have a bottle of red wine. At these houses the cooking is very good sometimes, though garlic is usually present in all the dishes. The tablecloth is not clean though, and there is a dissi Altogether it is a sad sight to behold a being in human form sitting at the feast which is prepared for him. What our women live upon, in addition to pies and fried things, is a mystery deeper than that of back hair. Candies cunningly variegated by nice chemical means, and hollow sugar-balls filled with cream and sugar, and chocolate drops, and molasses candy are supposed to form part of their diet. No won-pated look about the premises. Artisans, such der they appear sorrowful of countenance, and that their cheeks have no glow of health. Like the men, they take potations of warm coffee and tea, and, it is whispered, something in the way of alcohol or opium. The quantity of the latter article brought to this country and sold here would not disgrace China. Here, however, this kind of remark must stop, though the theme is endless. What we wish to is concerning restaurants. say So far as one can judge, there are about ten varieties of restaurants in New York; and by restaurants we mean places with tables and chairs and plate and knives, not counter eating-houses. The following list of prices for a plate of roast beef will give an idea of the various grades of eating-houses: Ann Street Restaurant, roast beef per plate 6 cents. 66 66 . 8 as sign-painters, house-decorators, piano-key makers, coach-varnishers, upholsterers, and musical professors are the usual customers, with a stray gambler or two, each with his pigeon under his wing. Further up town are the most expensive and the most unsatisfactory diningplaces. One does not get enough for the money when quail are charged at just about their weight in silver. A usually very wary and discreet person once invited two ladies to sup with him at one of these places, and made a neat calculation next morning which gave the above cost for quails on that occasion. A bank clerk, of generous turn of mind, has over his mantle-piece a receipted bill, nicely framed. The amount is $55 75. It represents the cost of a supper for himself and two ladies, and a boy of fourteen. This last person comes in for a great deal of the bank clerk's dislike. It appears that the youth ordered dishes with too much freedom, and had to be carried home with too much Champagne in his system. To be sure one finds style at these places. Waiters who resemble clergymen, with large salaries, soft chairs, cut glass, and a splendid view of a waterfall at the next table, make up a large part of the said style. Champagne at $6 per bottle, red wine at $2, and tooth-picks at 10 cents each, but charged in the bill with a dash (—), are among the luxuries. Dashes are used instead of items in the bill, and the explanation of their meaning is never thought worth while with a party waiting for one. Many wise old fellows, however, who are quite rich enough to indulge in the Union Square way of doing things, prefer to dine down town. There are sundry restaurants near Wall Street where Mr. Omnium can find good, wholesome cuts from well-cooked joints, and old-fashioned mealy potatoes, boiled in their jackets, and comforting beverages in abundance. No wonder he has no appetite for the family dinner at 6 P.M. Not far from Theatre Alley, down town, is a queer old French restaurant. You descend steep cellar stairs, and enter a low and not nice smelling room, with sanded floor, hard chairs, and a little bar tended usually by a woman. There is an alcove at one end, under the sidewalk, formed of oyster-shells and bits of tinsel, and sometimes a boy with a violin will seem to afford music to the feast. Before "gold went up" the dîner du jour at this place, consisting of soup, one entrée, and cut of roast meat with one vegetable, and cheese with bread at discretion, would be had for 25 cents, with a pint of red wine at 12 cents extra. Now, however, the price for the "diner" is 35 cents, and the wine 20 cents-55 cents in all, and a very cheap and good dinner it is, with no fried dishes and no pies. The wine is good. Hungry people, who are generally cross, become amiable after the second glass, and bow to Madame as they depart with much grace. There is an inner room at the back, and when the door opens in the afternoon one can see a goodly table spread and long-necked bottles on racks within, and after a time a portly gentleman dropping down the stairs and entering. Madame bows very low to those who dine in this room. The German style of cooking has its lovers, and they fill the purse of many restaurant keep ers. There are places in Broadway where sour cabbage is considered a wholesome and proper dish for all, and where "one pancake!" in Dutch, is the waiter's constant cry. This practice of crying one's dinner is not, by-the-by, very agreeable. It is not quite pleasant to hear the waiter cry "Broiled quail, currant-jelly, fried potatoes, Sauterne on 6," and "Corned beef and cabbage on 5," when you happen to be the one at table 5, and not at table 6. "Ein lager!" has a solitary sound, and betokens thought and reverie on the part of the one ordering it. "Zwei lager!" means fun and jollity. The Dutch restaurants are noisy. Lager bier, though said not to intoxicate, has a decidedly exhilarating effect as its first stage; after that comes a stupor, which is expressed by "tangled hair." It is, without question, the most miserable stuff that the stomach is required to find room for. Greasiness in various degrees distinguishes the German dishes. Dirt in all degrees is VOL. XXXII.-No. 191.-RR present at the German restaurants. Plates and cups with pieces chipped out, leaving black marks where the fracture occurred, and knives which know no cleaning, are always to be found. When the grease, which is so freely used, takes fire in the kitchen below, or in the rear of the dining-room, there is a suffocating odor which attends the decomposition of animal fat dispersed through the room. The air of the street is refreshing after a dinner in a German eatingcellar. The coffee is good, and the bread very good also. The butter is usually a neat mixture of butyric acid and lard. It is not wholesome. The prices are generally as follows, say for dinner: The lager bier may amount to as much more if one loves that particular beverage. In Houston Street and in Bleecker Street the variety of Restaurant known as the English chop-house is to be found. Here can be had stewed tripe, liver and bacon, mutton-chops, porter-house steak, and cuts from "joints." The bill of fare is a written one hung up at the bar. The prices are moderate, and the food better cooked than in almost any of the other eating-houses. There is a wholesome and appetizing taste to the English dishes. Though they fry a little there is always to be had broiled chops and a genuine "broiled steak"-a thing of beauty unknown to most American housekeepers. On tripe days those who like to fill their stomachs with that of another animal are accommodated. English pickles, not made green with copper oxyd, are furnished gratis. A little dinner costs as below: Sirloin steak or cut of joint.. Glass of ale or dish of tea Total.... 40 cents 10 10 66 60 cents Half-and-half, or "arf-an'-arf," in the English, is a standard drink. Tobies of ale, at 10 cents the toby, are always being called for. Altogether, it is a good place to dine at after going the rounds of the other houses. Poached eggs and Welsh rarebits give a sporting, noisy tone to the house, and the visits of gentlemen distinguished in the ring render a dinner exciting. Generally, however, the landlord maintains good order in the room, and is quite capable of fighting his own battles, being big of muscle. The customers are rather noisy at times, and given to profane swearing. In one case the writer found that the man at the next table swore at the rate of 224 oaths per minute, or say 1350 per hour, without any visible provocation, but merely from habit. Another man, who might have been a horse-dealer, also was very profane, but his oaths were of the vicious kind, and the landlord, with an oath, reproved him for his conduct. The gamblers who come in to dinner are quiet and civil. at this time within forty miles of the port, and an advance of their forces was daily expected. Ward proposed to the "Foo-tai" (Viceroy), if allowed to enroll and equip fifty Malays, to take, with their assistance only, a town named Soonkeong, thirty miles in a direct line, but in re [EDITOR OF HARPER'S MAGAZINE,-It is probable that few, if any, of your readers have heard much of the efforts made to suppress the gigantic revolution existing in China since the year 1849. I propose, therefore, to give a brief account of some of the principal incidents connected with it, limiting myself to such events as occurred near Shanghai, and in the southeast portion of the Province of Kiang-su, and the northeast part of Che-kiang; for in this part of the Celestial Empire it was that Americans dis-ality, on account of circuitous approaches to tinguished themselves, particularly in the military move ments made to suppress this great revolution.-G. B.] W ARD, a former associate of Walker, the it, fifty from Shanghai, on a canal leading to that city from the lake Tai-hou. The terms agreed on were that, if successful, Ward was to raise a further force of 1000 Chinese, and 25 European or American officers; his Malays were to be paid, and himself sufficiently re filibuster, during his South American expedition, was the first American or European who rose to distinction and found favor in the eyes of the Imperialists. He landed in Shang-warded. hai in the latter part of 1860, and finding no employment there, offered his services to the Viceroy of the Province. The Taepings were Soonkeong, the town which Ward proposed attacking, was well fortified, inclosed by a wall four miles in extent, and nowhere less than forty feet high. It was crossed diagonally by two canals; at each of the four entrances through the walls where the canal entered the city was a gate, invariably closed at night and opened before dawn. Moreover, there was a garrison of 4000 Taepings in fancied security within the walls. Ward perfectly understood the time and manner in which the so-called water-gates were opened, and proceeding up the canal with his fifty men in boats, he arrived under the walls of Soonkeong three hours before dawn, and quietly posted his men, fourteen at each gate, excepting at the fourth, where he himself stood with the remaining eight. His orders, previously given to the Malays, were to lie concealed five minutes after the gates were thrown open, so as to insure simultaneous action among the four detachments, and then to rush in with as much noise and tumult as possible; to fire the nearest buildings, to kill all that were met, and to make for the centre of the town, discharging their muskets, and create as great an uproar and panic as possible Every thing answered admirably! The gates were opened at the usual hour, and within one or two minutes of each other. Ward's orders were followed implicitly, and in less than ten minutes the Taepings, struck with a sudden panic, fled, leaving every thing behind them. Numbers were killed, and those who did escape were glad to do so without arms and even without clothing. A force of Mandarin troops that had been held in readiness, in anticipation of Ward's success, were put in charge of the town, and ever after retained it. Ward's first success was very opportune. The Viceroy soon placed implicit confidence in him, and, quite contrary to the usual Chinese practice in such cases, fulfilled to the letter the promises he had made to reward the captors in the event of the attack on Soonkeong proving saccessful. From 1000 in less than a year Ward had the force raised to 3000: organized it into regiments and batteries, established a good system of recruiting, secured guarantees for the regular payment of officers and men, and made his little army as efficient and serviceable as a force of that size could possibly be. In frequent encounters with the Taepings Ward was invaria bly successful; so much so, indeed, that the force soon secured for itself the name of "The Invincibles," which it kept to the time of its final disbandment, notwithstanding several defeats it afterward sustained-not under Ward's leadership. General Ward, as he was now styled, became a naturalized Chinese subject; received the order of Mandarin of the Red Button; was presented with a large tract of land near Soonkeong, the scene of his first victory, together with one of the finest houses in the French settlement at Shanghai: this latter being a private gift of the Foo-tai. All went well till October, 1862. Every thing promised success to the Imperial cause, and Ward, who had several times been wounded, was in a fair way to drive the Taepings completely out of the province and the surrounding districts, when he received, on the 22d of that month, a wound in the lower part of the stomach, which proved fatal. He died, suffering great pain, within twenty-four hours. Burgevine, a well-educated man of fair abilities, also an American, succeeded Ward in the command of the "Soonkeong Force," as it was now called, from the fact of its being quartered in that town. He was even more successful than Ward; routed the rebels in every engagement; and on one occasion, at Koh-ding, with his force of 5000 disciplined Chinamen, disastrously defeated the Taeping horde of 95,000 unorganized, and ill-armed, half-starved men. This defeat, though bringing no great fame to Burgevine, put an end for a while to the Taeping incursions in the province of Kiang-su. The Force was placed in winter-quarters in Soonkeong, and remained there quietly for some months. Considerable irregularity had existed for a few months past, since Burgevine's accession to the command, in the payment of the officers and men. Notwithstanding urgent and repeated requests from Burgevine, no steps were taken to pay the troops, and the men becoming mutinous, the General, to save the threatened pillage of Soonkeong, as a last resource determined to go in person and demand a sum sufficient to pay the whole contingent; and in the event of his claim being unattended to he |