The audience, metamorphosed against its will into charitable hosts, now
remembered the starving fellow-beings who were there to eat.
H. R. motioned. A bugler advanced to the front of the stage and sounded,
_Charge_!
The soup began to pour out of the faucets. In fourteen seconds 12,137
cups of steaming soup _a la Piccolini_ were before the guests.
The audience applauded madly. It was perfectly wonderful what charity
could do--in fourteen seconds!
The guests were very hungry. The soup, however, was very hot. This made
the drinking audible to the remotest recesses of the Garden.
Again the bugle blew. The charitable crowd instantly ceased to look at
their guests and gazed at the electric traveling-cranes carrying laden
trays. Over six thousand well-fed spectators pulled out their watches
and timed the entree.
It took twenty-nine seconds to place the entree before the guests.
"Quick work!" said the watch-holders, approvingly. It took the guests
much less than twenty-nine seconds to eat the entree.
The bugle blew for the third time.
The roast appeared. The rear curtain dropped. Behind it was another on
which could be read, without the aid of binoculars: