"If _you_ prepared the sauce, dear master," interjected H. R., who happened to be present, "I'd rather eat it than any other artist's filet Châteaubriand aux--" Piccolini bowed to him profoundly. Then he shrugged his shoulders at the others. "Nevertheless," he said, with conviction, "Omelette soufflée--" "What can you expect from the other members?" whispered H. R. to him. "If we prolong the debate there won't be any hungry men alive to eat our dinner. Yield, dear master, for the sake of humanity." Then he said aloud, "Let's try beans." The Commission therefore reported progress and adjourned for the day. The newspapers, spurred thereto by the avalanche of letters and favorite recipes from charitable ladies in Brooklyn, who gave their names, addresses, and terms per week, devoted much space to the ideal hunger-appeaser. For the first time in history New York began to take an intelligent interest in menus. Everybody talked about eating as if Hungarian orchestras and Brazilian dances did not exist. Presently the newspapers announced on unimpeachable authority that serious dissensions existed among the members of the Public Menu Commission. It was hinted that resignations would be called for. Applications for the vacant places and suggestions from really competent men poured into the editorial rooms. It made the commission, as usual, an editorial target. More space! That impelled the Commission, speaking with difficulty by reason of the swollen lips of the chairman, to announce the menu. H. R. had it printed on academy board. New York, on the tiptoe of expectation to learn what an ideal hunger-appeaser would consist of, and how it could be done for twenty-five cents and how the commission could decide without bloodshed, made haste to read the menu: Soup à la Piccolini Entrée à la Hôtel Regina Roast à la Perry Vegetable à la Weinpusslacher Dessert à la Fitz-Marlton Bread à la Prof. Preston Milk à la Pasteur Coffee à la Manhattan Tea as Wanted O. K. H. R., _Sec._ The exact recipe of each dish would be made public after the Hunger Feast. It would remain a secret until then! More space! See? Could the newspapers help it? Didn't people have to have something to talk about? If they didn't, what could the editorial writers have to write about? Knowing that talk must continue in order that interest in the Hunger Feast might not abate, H. R. himself went to the shops on Fifth Avenue. The shops elsewhere would follow the Avenue fashions. He told each window-dresser the same thing.