The Cafe Habit

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 889, 5 February 1930, Page 4

The Cafe Habit

Custom and Use in Various Countries

Cafes In Europe range from the boulevard establishments of Paris, Brussels, Rome and Madrid to the German beer halls, the Swiss statgartens and the enclosed houses of Scandinavia. Whatever its type or the country in which it is found, the European cafe is a real place of entertainment. Sunday on the Continent is a day for ignoring anxieties and worries and setting out for enjoyment. It is then that cafes do the most trade. Types of every sort then throng them, and in all there is a desire to enjoy and forget. Authors of Bohemia like Leonard Merrick and Murger have found abundant food for fruitful observation in the boulevard cafes of Paris, where it is possible to sit on the pavement, and, while taking an aperatif, listen to the music of the orchestra and watch the crowd surging by. Indefinable Charm The boulevard cafes of Paris have figured more prominently than any other type of cafe on film and in novel and short Their charm may be indefinable, but none the less known and appreciated. Tradition affirms that Paris artists are frequenters of these cafes. Here their most startling pictures are said to be conceived. Here, too, the philosopher studies his kind and formulates conclusions probably in their way as astonishing as the artist’s pictures. The ordinary clerk, mechanic and merchant seek merely relaxation or a place where an idle hour may be spent. On the Continent the cafe is a sep’t of club with much of personal interest about it. In South Africa the cafe is generally an impersonal sort of place necessary for the satisfaction of casual cravings for tea, coffee or soft drinks; a place of rest; and sometimes a place for relaxation. Many Continental cafes have their regular frequenters who there meet friends and chat and revel for hours on end, a practice described in many stories of Paris life difficult, for this reason, for the Anglo-Saxon mind to understand. There newspapers can be asked for and read-at leishre. Directories and similar works of reference are handy for consultation. The leading Continental cafes often take in all the best European periodicals, which are at the disposal of clients. Deeply Ingrained So deeply ingrained is the cafe habit in people on the Continent that two or three hours a day may be spent there. Men have actually settled down to literary work in these establishments. It is not unusual to see cards, chess, draughts and dominoes in progress. Cafe proprietors are probably the only ones who suffer. Many who occupy their chairs and tables so long may spend but sixpence or so on refreshment. Alcoholic drink can be purchased with meals. This convenience, however, does not put the Continental cafe on the same level as the bar. The latter is always a place designed for quenching thirst; which is not the main purpose of the cafe frequenter. The bar is a British institution. It is well known that drunkenness is more common in countries where the bar has to fulfil one of the functions of the cafe. It has hone of the delightful distractions of the latter. In Germany Cafes in Germany fall into the category of beer halls, where meals or light refreshments can be obtained with beer. Many of these places are provided with orchestras, so that in all a jolly atmosphere prevails. Cafes in Norway, Sweden and Denmark also serve cold beer. It is the custom in these countries for business men to drop in during the morning for sandwiches and beer. The Lucerne statgarten is representative of many in Switzerland. Drink is also obtainable here, while in the evening dinner is taken under the trees, with the excellent Hungarian band playing good music. The selections played in the best European cafes are always of high standard. Patrons have a sure taste for what is worthy in music. . w e are often told that the Continental delight in Sunday cafes, theatres and bioscopes interferes with religious observances, and that to follow this practice would have a disastrous effect. There is so much to prove that the Sunday cafe h-bit of Europe has a good effect on the people. During other parts of the week there is not much time for such indulgence. The word cafe is, of course, derived from coffee, the original cafes or taverns being coffee-houses. It was Macaulay who said of tjie coffeehouse that it “must not be'dismissed with cursory mention. It might indeed. at that time, have been not improperly called a most important political institution . . . The coffeehouses were the chief organs through which the public opinion of the metro-' polls vented itself. . . . Every man of the upper or middle class went daily to his coffee-house to learn news and discuss it. Every coffee-house had one or more orators, to whose eloquence the crowd listened with admiration. and who. soon became what the journalists of our own time have been called—a fourth estate of the realm.” For political reasons Charles II tried to suppress the London coffeehouse, and in other parts of Europe similar attempts have at various times been made. In countries with a talent for anarchism, it is perhaps usual for those meditating crimes against the State to meet in secluded corners of favourite cafes, but, on the whole, the modern newspaper has usurped this function of the cafe. When Rhodes was a leading politician in the Cape Parliament, it used to be said he and Jameson met and plotted in Poole's Hotel lunch-room. This old Capetown landmark has now been pulled down.