Fine living . . . a la carte? <br />Come to the Waldorf-Astoria! <br /> <br />LISTEN HUNGRY ONES! <br />Look! See what Vanity Fair says about the <br />new Waldorf-Astoria: <br /> <br />"All the luxuries of private home. . . ." <br />Now, won't that be charming when the last flop-house <br />has turned you down this winter? <br />Furthermore: <br />"It is far beyond anything hitherto attempted in the hotel <br />world. . . ." It cost twenty-eight million dollars. The fa- <br />mous Oscar Tschirky is in charge of banqueting. <br />Alexandre Gastaud is chef. It will be a distinguished <br />background for society. <br />So when you've no place else to go, homeless and hungry <br />ones, choose the Waldorf as a background for your rags-- <br />(Or do you still consider the subway after midnight good <br />enough?) <br /> <br />ROOMERS <br />Take a room at the new Waldorf, you down-and-outers-- <br />sleepers in charity's flop-houses where God pulls a <br />long face, and you have to pray to get a bed. <br />They serve swell board at the Waldorf-Astoria. Look at the menu, will <br />you: <br /> <br />GUMBO CREOLE <br />CRABMEAT IN CASSOLETTE <br />BOILED BRISKET OF BEEF <br />SMALL ONIONS IN CREAM <br />WATERCRESS SALAD <br />PEACH MELBA <br /> <br />Have luncheon there this afternoon, all you jobless. <br />Why not? <br />Dine with some of the men and women who got rich off of <br />your labor, who clip coupons with clean white fingers <br />because your hands dug coal, drilled stone, sewed gar- <br />ments, poured steel to let other people draw dividends <br />and live easy. <br />(Or haven't you had enough yet of the soup-lines and the bit- <br />ter bread of charity?) <br />Walk through Peacock Alley tonight before dinner, and get <br />warm, anyway. You've got nothing else to do.<br /><br />Langston Hughes<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/advertisement-for-the-waldorf-astoria/
