The Xenia sentinel. [volume] (Xenia [Ohio]) 1863-186?, 1864-02-16
Breakfast.

reanism, the old Romans did not know
how to breakfast. Antiquity's fash
ionabIe spread" " for that meal, even
in the mansions Ofthe patricians, con-
sisted Of simple bread and cheese. /
The " equestrian order starved them
selves in the early part of the day, to
gorge on the abominable compounds
they called luxuries late in the after
noon. And yet those mistaken vol
uptuaries fancied they knew how to
live, and while reclining on their
couches, in an atmosphere redolent of |
garlic, and stufing their epigastriums
with sows paps, incomplete rabbits
obtained by the 'Cesarean operation,
and lampreys, fattened on the flesh of
slaves, considered themselves in the
seventh heaven of sensuous enjoy
ment. We only remember to have
read of one Roman who cared much
about his dejeunef-the beastly Galba.
SeUtonius says he. boo-hooed for it if
servants failed to bring it to his bed
side at daylight. His imperial maies-
ty, however, was an exception to all
dietary rules; for after devouring sup
per for SIX, overnight, he could dis
patch a breakfast of the same proper
tions, in bed, the next morning. No
wonder his bloated imperial face
was Of the same tint as his imperial
toga-
If travellers in Africa are to be be-
liefed, breakfast in theinterior of that
continent are scarcely Of a kind that
would induce an individual not" to the
manner born to riselearly and par
take of them. Bruce assures US that
in Abyssinia they. consist of ive-o1
cOHOps, highly peppered to supply the
absence Of cooking, the cellops being
made into sausage-shaped fllets, which |
are thrust into the mouths of the |
guests by black Hebes sandwiched in
among the meals Of the company. |
The civilized epicure has no objection |
to steak only" just done through p
but the Abyssinian style seems, if we
may use the expression, to be run
ming ''rareness" into the ground.
Clapperton, who visited another part |
of Africa about third of century |
later than Bruce, mentions among the
items of the Sultan Of fBaussa's break
fast carte, grilled water-rat and fried
and stewed crocodile eggs. The eggs,
it may be supposed, were somewhat
musky, but, as we have DR.. Kane's
testimony that rat soup is not a. bad .
breakfast in the neighbOrhOod- of the
north pole, a grilled rodent may posi-
bly, be endurable under the equator.
Leigh Hunt, who had a very judic-
ious notion Of living, and who when
he played jackal to Byron, was fed,
Tom Moore says, with sops every
day from the lions own pan" has left
behind him a Pretty fair recipe for
Breakfast in Cold Weather" Here
it is: " "Imprimis, tea and coffee 4; sec
ond, dry toast third, butter; fourth,
eggs fifth, ham sixth, something
potted !; seventh, bread, salt, mustard,
knives, forks, etc. This bill of fare
is well enough as a specimen of an
Englishman's idea of the morning
meal; but it would not meet the views
of a Scotchman or an7Ameriean. We
like the accompaniments of the es-
sayist's breakfast better than the col
lation itself. "One ofthe first things"
says Hunt, that belongs to a cold
weather breakfast Isl good fire. There !
isa delightful mixture of the lively
and the snug, in coming down to ones
breakfast room Of a cold morning and
seeing everything prepared for us-a
blazing crate, a clean table-clOth and /
tea things ; the newIy-vashed faces
apd combed heads Of a set of good
humored urchins; and the sole empty
chair, at its accustomed corner, ready
for occupation" A very nice picture;
but one would like to have some guar
antee for the behavior Of the urchins.
It was our lot, once upon a time, to
breakfast with being of that genus,
who although perfectly good-humOred,
was possessed of a lively desire to
wash his hands in the. slop bowl and
put his chubby little feet in the butter
Of urchinhood which
interfere with the sublime calm neces-
sary to epicurean enjoyment and per-
feet digestion. This may seem to
some folks an iH-natured reflection Oh
" rosy childhood" but we venture to
say that the Breakfast Table Professor
of the Atlantic Monthly, or any other
man who understands the philosophy
of the thing, viii entirely agree with
Fow "peOples," as our Hungary
friend Kossuth would say, have bet
ter idea of the proper constituents Of
a breakfast than the Cannie Scots"
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