gentlemen sitting in groups and couples about these gorgeously decorated
halls, enjoying their wine and each other's company, thus presenting
scenes of gayety and festive pleasure that are seldom outvied, even in the
ball-room and the opera in this country. A band of musicians render music
from an elevated platform all evening, and an open space in front of the
platform is provided for the accommodation of those who delight in the
dance. The waiting girls of these cafes are usually ladies of remarkable
beauty and refinement, whose elegant dresses, graceful manners and rare
accomplishment in conversation and address, are well in keeping with the
charming brilliancy of the hall, and the merryand refined company around
them.

It is astonishing how cheap these splendid accommodations of the cafe,
almost princely in their style, can be rendered. A person may enter a cafe
early in the evening, sit down with his friends and acquaintances, order a
glass of wine or beer and enjoy the best music and the pleasures of the
most refined society for an hour or two, and when he leaves, his purse is
only from three to eight cents the poorer for it. A gentleman may take a
lady to the cafe _five_ evenings in a week, for between thirty cents and a
dollar. He may spent twice as much or even ten or fifty times as much, if
he washes to spend his time in a building whose very window sashes and
external ornamentations glitter with gold; but such a lavish expenditure
of money is not _required_ to be comfortable and happy. These cafes are
very orderly houses. It is not fashionable to consume a glass of wine or
beer in less than half an hour, and many drink the whole evening at one
glass. No one can get drunk at this rate, and any one who would drink fast
and should become wild, he would not be tolerated in the cafe, as no lady
would remain in his society.

There are some fast drinking-houses even in Paris, and more in some