At a pleasure resort it is the same as on board a steamer or at the first table of a public banquet, everybody sits down to the table at the same instant, and, to all appearances, begins instantly to wish I that he were the only guest and all the other people were waiters so that he might be instantaneously served. It may seem somewhat ridiculous in people who have really nothing else to do to become so impatient over a little delay in receiving their meals; but with that we have nothing to do; to be successful in serving meals it is quite as important to get them on the table expeditiously as it is to have them well cooked.

It happened that I was a passenger on two excursion steamers belonging to the same line on the great lakes and saw on board one of the very worst, and on the other the very best method in practice for dealing with this difficulty. The first was the newest, largest, finest, steamerof the line, the pet of the company, and, being too good to adopt common ways, its dining saloon was run on the plan of those high-priced restaurants which get about one customer in every half hour, and keep him reading the paper another half hour, while they cook a meal for him, but it did not work on this steamer, where a hundred people sat down at once, and did not want to wait over a half minute apiece. There was nothing on the tables that people could help themselves to. The waiters were almost invisible; a few ladies at the further end took up all their time putting a little more water in their tea, and changing their beefsteaks for one a little better done, while all the rest at all the other tables sat unnoticed and getting madder the longer they sat. Perhaps a waiter with a tray load of cups full of coffee would be captured by one table, and another with meat or rolls by another, but very seldom did all the parts of a meal meet together at any one place; the service was, therefore, an utter failure, and the quality of the cookery could not even come into consideration, no matter how high the pretensions of the boat to superiority might be. The other boat had two long tables with a large part of the staple articles that go to complete a meal set upon it within easy reach - the individual butters and creams, bread, pickled jellies, mustard, sugar, cheese, salt - there was a saucer as well as a plate at every seat. When the steward's bell taps for breakfast as the passengers filed in and cook their places the waiters at the same time came on with their trays ready loaded with the dishes which were surest to be called for - beefsteaks, ham, eggs, chops, hot breads and fried potatoes - and with cups of coffee, and by the time the people were well in their seats, the full meal was before them, and if the waiters were then sent off by a few for chocolate, hot milk, boiled fish instead of fried omelets, or a little more water in the tea, they did not leave the great majority in a state of suffering and suspense. There is a good deal in having plenty of waiters; and yet that is not all; for often there are so many they are in one another's way, because of the impossibility of getting the cooking or carving done just enough to keep them in motion. It is scarcely necessary to say that all was joy and peace and contentment on this steamer where the passengers found their soup just being set at their place as they reached it and where the ice cream and cake came even before they were ready for them, and the waiters seemed almost troublesome by their frequent offerings of fruit and glasses of water, while the other steamer, the too good one, came into port loaded down to the guards with remains of good intentions, of good things that were provided, but could never be served, and with execrations and maledictions of the dissatisfied. Bestowing some thought on these things before we pull the bell rope at our little summer house, we have the eggs broke and dishes ready for immediate frying, the gridiron chock full of steaks and chops already sizzling over the glowing charcoal and the gravy made ready; and we get the housekeeper to come, like a good fellow, and dish up the stewed tomatoes, potatoes, oat meal and side dishes generally, while we are turning out the omelets and eggs, or carving the roast, and our "sec" is making toast or serving ice cream and fruit.