There has to be a lesson in this anecdote in the March 11, 1886 edition of The Chatham Record, but I can’t parse it just yet.
I will say I inexplicably enjoy the phrase “each bean perfect in its form”.
Real New England Beans
Every day or two I see the Massachusetts members wending their way in groups over to the Senate wing of the Capitol about lunch time, writes a Washington correspondent. That queer undertow which keeps the two houses so far separate, though they sit within a stone’s throw of each other, also generally makes the members patronize their own restaurants. On inquiry it turned out that the Massachusetts men went over to the other end to get some baked beans, which Senator Frye’s protégé, Landlord Page, serve in regular New England style. Those over at the House are weak in their color and baked into a mass, while Page has a knack of putting his beans upon the table with the real Yankee red tint and each bean perfect in its form. This is what catches the New Englanders, who all patronize Page’s bean pot during the week. But he tells me that he has made no money since he came to Washington, and on the contrary has actually lost some. He say the Senate restaurant is not a paying property, unless liquor is allow to be sold over the counter.
