SILENCE AND HASTE AT DINNER.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2587, 23 April 1877, Page 3

SILENCE AND HASTE AT DINNER.

We might-enlarge upon the horrors of faspepsia, its. disastrous influence upon jfuroracter, its power to acidify and eclipse all the sweetness and light of living, even where it does not put an end to life outrightj only to receive the crushing reply from fire or six thousand suffering husbands, "We know all that probably as well,as you. But how can we help ourselves? If we were independent of the duties and responsibilities of active life, we might and certainly would, very gladly eat our dinners with leisurely enjoyment ; but the demand upon our time and thoughts is such that we cannot do as we would; we are parts of a great machine, and ape driven to sacrifice our •pleasure, our health, may be, and possibly what we regret still.more, the good temper of our "wives, because of*, the rights and requirements of those with whom we have to do business."

This is verys largely the cace where dinner is eaten before the day's work is done. And when it comes in the evening, physical fatigue and nervous exhaustion from the conflicts of the day are notunseldom equally fatal to the social enjoy? nient of dinner. It is easy to say that men should lay aside their business schemes and anxieties at such a time, and we admit that it is the moral and physiological duty of men to try to do so ; still men, as a rule, have not yet reached a stage of moral development at which duty perceived is equivalent to. duty done. When the penalty for wrong-doing is apt be indefinitely deferred, as in the case

of silent and hast}'"eating, anrl when the reward for right doing is not alway* immediately apparent, right-cloing is likvly to depend upon incidental conditions; and here the truth com pels us to observe that the ladiei are often quite as much to blame as the gentlemen for the unsocial and unsanitary habits of eating which the latfer so frequently acquire. For our own part, we approve of the morning paper at breakfast. Generally it is the only means of securing deliberate eating at that hour. It is easy enough for those who have little to do to enjoy a social breakfast at tenor devon o'clock in the morning ; but earlier-—and especially if the battle of business is to fellow at once —humanity is not social, and conversation except with regai'd to the morning's new.*, is all but impossible. The morning's paper, therefore, is in most cases not only a sanitary brake upon the jaws at break? fast,, but a real blessing, to the family as well as to the reader's stomach.

At the midday meal business is pressing and time brief. As a rule, whatever a business man eats at such a time must bo taken hurriedly. The effect is bad, it is true; but, it is,a choice of evils—either to eat quickly or go without. For this reason it is, whenever possible, the custom to take the main meal of the day after the business hours are over. It is with reference to this meal, we take it, that the just protest against haste and silence has been uttered. ''

The pestilent heresy, moral as well as sanitary, that it is unbecoming an immortal being to enjoy his dinner is well nigh extinct; we crust the once prevalent insanity of self-immolafion upon the altar of business, push, and worry is also dying out. Active men are learning that the human machine can be run to death, that moderation pays best in the long run, and that no time is more wickedly wasted than that which is unduly saved (?) from the hours of rest and recreation—including iv the latter the dinner hour. In the scientific code of conduct, deliberate aud enjoyable eating is one of the fundamental virtues. It ranks with justice in the moral code. It is virtue, too, which can be and ought to be, cultivated by ail, most of all by those who are doing the world's best work.

But, generally speaking, it is a virtue the cultivation of which calls for effort on the part of the ladies, as well as selfrestraint on the part of the gentlemen. No sensible man will willingly .hurry through a meal when he is keenly enjoying the food and its accompaniments; and it depends chiefly upon the ladies to secure such conditions at the family table. How they can do so, it is not for us to say. There can be no general rule for their attainment any more than a single specific for all diseases. The special conditions and requirements of each household and the idiosyncrasies of its members must chiefly determine the course to be pursued.

There is one point, however, a very important one, which ladies very often overlook. It is this : Civilisation and hunger are incompatible. All the virtues and graces of humanity—certainly of male humanity—fly before an empty stomach. It may be possible for a man to be hungry and amiable at the same time, but it is not safe for any wife to presume upon so unlikely an occurrence habitually. Ignorance of the physiological truth has been the ruin of many an otherwise happy household. And we may set down, from both observations and experiences— premising that our experience in this respect has been exceptionally happy—that preprandial discretion is the severest test of a wife. Just before dinner is the worst possible time to bothpr a husband with questions or complaints, or even with efforts to be aggressively agreeable. Then is the time above all others when social science should grace the home, and make it seem to the tired man the most delightful and restful place on earth; Half an hour of quiet just then is the best possible preparation for the social enjoyment of thf coming meal, for then the nervous tension and mental strain of business care and anxiety can be gradually relaxed, and the entire system brought into conditions for, enjoying food and the amenities of social life. Yet how frequently does 7 ,|he wife: choose that particular time to tpeak of her own trials and troubles, the misconduct of servants or children^ the pe.tjy requirements of the household^ or other things trivial or disagreeable^ and then marvel that her husband's temper is .not so sweet as it ought to be"! The offence is worse even than introduction-of such topics at meal time. Another" physiological fact is often overlooked by well meaning wives who have to complain of their husband's haste or taciturnity at table i that is the softening influence of a little savoury and easily assimilated food to begin with, something calculated to allay the irritant cravings of hunger while stimulating the appetite ; this specially when the gentlemen are J mentally or physically exhausted by the labors of. the day. At such times soup is even more conducive to sociability than wine.—Exchange.