With the „connoisseur's eye of the great routinier” |
the Prater waiter |
Prater waiter. Without wasting any thoughts on it, they give themselves up to their instincts – and it is part of their instincts not to wash their hands, not to blow their nose, to let their face's sweat drop onto the bread which you acquire to eat right there for a change, to put the hand onto the backrest of your chair, their sleeves rub your face while they hand over something to your neighbour. Not until they have been a Prater waiter for years and have become more unhurried, calmer and - most importantly - the head waiter, they acquire more gentle manners.Then, they have the slightly lethargic connoisseur's eye of the great routinier - the eye and the face of men, who believe to have thoroughly studied the human nature, due to the fact that so much human voracity, so much human jaggedness, has passed before them in so many years. |
Source: “Gustl, Liliom und der dritte Mann” by Dietmar Grieser. A literary stroll through the Prater |