CITY SIGHTS.

405

c baker's dozen.' It is something thrown in? gratis, for good measure.
The custom originated in the Spanish quarter of the city. When a child'
or a servant buys something in a shop—or even the mayor or the
governor, for aught I know—he finishes the operation by saying—

* Give me something for lagiiiappe.'

The shopman, always responds ; gives the child a bit of liquorice-
root, gives the servant a cheap cigar or a spool of thread, gives
the governor—I don't know what he gives the governor ; support,
likely.

When you are invited to drink, and this does occur now and then in
New Orleans—and you say, * What, again 1—no, I Ve had enough;' the
other party says, * But just this one time more—this is for lagniappe.*
When the beau perceives that he is stacking his compliments a tritie
too high, and sees by the young lady's countenance that the edifice
would have been better with the top compliment left off, he puts
his * I beg pardon—no harm intended,' into the briefer form of * Oh,
that's for lagniappe.' If the waiter in the restaurant stumbles and
spills a gill of coffee down the back of your neck, he says * For lagni-
appe, sah,* and gets you another cup without extra charge.