=208. Respectable Eating-Houses.=--But not all people are teamsters seeking a lodging, or rascals seeking a carouse. Honest hard-working men and women must buy their meals every day. The simplest method, if you care nothing for appearances, is to halt before one of the cooks who station themselves in the open street with caldrons over small charcoal fires. At the end of copper sticks they attach little cups with which they bring up boiled peas, or some form of stew to be eaten on the spot. Of better grade are the _cauponæ_ (eating-houses); these are ordinarily arranged with a long counter open to the street whereon is arrayed a tempting display of dainties, and above this are marble shelves set with cups and glasses. We see also a place for heating liquids over a charcoal fire. On going inside a typical restaurant, one comes to a long room filled with small tables and backless stools for the use of the guests. The walls are covered with tolerable frescos showing scenes of eating and drinking, while from the ceiling dangle strings of sausages, hams, and other eatables. Really good meals can be ordered here, also good wine at reasonable prices. Most of the guests are honest, quiet tradesmen who go about their business, and every sign of a brawl is promptly repressed. When two youths in servile dress begin to exchange blows over a cast of dice, the strong-armed proprietor promptly gives them a push toward the door with the firm injunction, “Please fight outside.”[128] =209. Thermopolia--“Hot-Drink Establishments.”=--Such places are genuine restaurants where more attention is given to the food than to the beverages. Hardly any eating-house, however, can really be popular unless it does business also as a _thermopolium_, a “hot-drink establishment.” Coffee and tea are unknown; but hard-working folk around the city find _calda_ very refreshing especially after the toil of the morning. Calda is a kind of diluted wine mixed with spices and aromatic herbs, and heated up into a sort of negus. It is in constant demand. In fact a cup of calda and a little bread and peas make up the average poor laborer’s luncheon; therefore the samovar (_authepsa_) is continually steaming in all the Roman eating-houses.