Backbite

Skeptics who affirm that no news is printed in any U. S. sheet which might give affront to the advertisers or possible advertisers of that sheet were shocked last week to see in at least two Manhattan newspapers an account which cast terrible aspersions upon that powerful dining-room incorporation, the Horn & Hardart ("Automat") Co.

This item related how a woman, Katherine Puree by name, had entered an Automat, procured a sandwich, eaten the first half of it with impunity. As she began to chew the second half, she felt something in her mouth that seemed to be moving, independent of the action of her teeth and tongue. She screamed, spat vehemently, alarming many nearby customers of the Horn & Hardart Co. When the object she ejected passed her lips it bit her, causing her lip to bleed. A curious insect -or reptile -about a quarter of an inch long, badly mangled by Miss Puree's teeth, lay upon the floor. Miss Puree declared that it was a lizard; the manager of the restaurant held that it was merely a roach, wasp or centipede, that its evil look was due to its own, not to Miss Puree's blood. Miss Puree brought suit against the Horn & Hardart Co., asked $2,000 for the "mental and physical anguish" she had undergone as a result of the beastly sandwich. The court, explaining that a restaurant is responsible for the quality of its food, awarded her $1,000.

Skeptics, marveling that they had been (permitted to read of this happening, took a vow never to order a sandwich in the Automat, reformed their former low opinion of the honesty of the U. S. press. "There is a big advertiser /- gone," they said, wagging their heads.