Langston Hughes

Here you will find thePoemAdvertisement For The Waldorf-Astoriaof poet Langston Hughes

Advertisement For The Waldorf-Astoria

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