Saturday, October 6, 2018

A Brusque but Genial Guest

Milwaukee, 
1885 


Mark Twain was staying the Plankinton Hotel when this menu appeared in 1885. He was in Milwaukee on tour with Southern author George W. Cable, who marveled at Twain’s talent as a stand-up comedian. Writing to his wife Louise the next day, Cable revealed that Twain “worked & worked incessantly on these programs until he has effected in all of them—there are 3—a gradual growth of both interest & humor so that the audience never has to find anything less, but always more, entertaining than what precedes it. He says, ‘I don’t want them to get tired out laughing before we get to the end.’ The result is we have always a steady crescendo ending in a double climax….his careful, untiring, incessant labors are an education.” 

The menu, which includes a notice of a reading by the two authors at a local theater that evening, transports us back to a time when, after dinner, you could walk down the street to see Mark Twain perform in person.

The hotel was built by meatpacking tycoon John Plankinton in 1867. Located on Spring Street (now Wisconsin Avenue), the upscale hotel was expanded several times throughout its history. The second page features an illustration of the elegant dining room as it appeared in the mid-1880s, when it could accommodate approximately 300 guests.


The usual house rules are shown on the back. A defining feature of hotel dining in the United States was the custom of the table d’hôte, or host’s table, where everyone ate together at set meal times, though there was some degree of flexibility. At the Plankinton, an early dinner was served from 12 to 12:30 exclusively for guests leaving on the 1 o’clock train. America had already earned a reputation as an eat-and-run society, driven in part by the demands of its vast railroad system.


Hotels that included room and board in the daily rate did not have prices on their menus. Typical for a hotel of its class, this dinner featured a couple of interesting dishes, such as celery ice cream and pieplant pie (i.e. rhubarb pie).  What’s notable about this table d’hôte menu from January 28, 1885 is the notice at the bottom informing diners that Twain and Cable were appearing at the nearby Academy of Music.


Twain wrote several letters to his publisher that week. Had he written to his wife, Livy, instead, we might know what he thought of the food at the Plankinton, as he often shared such commonplace observations during his travels. However, he did share his thoughts on the weather with a local newspaper. The next day, the Evening Wisconsin published an interview titled “Talk with Mark Twain.” Described as “brusque but genial,” the celebrated humorist remarked that winter in Milwaukee was “not calculated to promote one’s comfort.”

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Love your column! Always a treat in my mailbox!