Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1864-03-09
Breakfast.
(FIom the Round Table, ]

anlsm, the old Romans utu not Know hOW
to breakfast. Antiquity's simple spread
for the meal, even in the mansions of the
patricians, consisted OF simple bread and
cheese. The equestrian order" starved
themselves in the early part of the day,
to gorge on the abominaOle compounds
they called luxuries late in the afternoon.
And yet those mistaken vOluptuaries fan
cied they knew how to live, and while
reclining on their couches, III an atmOs-
phere redolent Of garlic, and stufiing their
gastiums with sow's paps. incomplete
rabbits obtained by the "Cesarean ptin-
ciple," and lampreys fattened on the
ilesh of slaves. considered themselves in
the seventh heaven Of sensuOus enjoy
ment. We only remember 10 have read
OF one Roman v ho cared much about his
d.-assf The beastly Gaiba. Suetonius
says ~ Goo-hooed for it, If his servants
failed 10 bring it TO his bedside at day
light. His imperial majesty, was AN ex-
ception to all dietary rules; for after de-
vOuring supper enough for six, over night,
he could despatch breakfast of the same
proportions, in bed, the next morning.
No wonder his bloated imperial face was
of the same tint of his imperial toga. If
III alElCl are 10 pc DtAlCNcU,
breakfasts in the interior of that CONT
nent are scarcely of a kind that would
induce an individual 'not 10 the
manor born to rise early to partake OF
them. Bruce assures US that in Abyssin-
ia they consist of live OK collops, highly
peppered TO supply the absence of cook
ing-the collops being made into saus-
age-shaped fillets, which are thrust into
the mouths Of the guests by black Hebes
sandwiehed in among the males of the
company. The civilized epicure has no
objection to 4 steak only lust done
through;" but the Ahyssinian style seems.
if we may use the expression, to he run
ming ''rareness" into the ground. Clap
perton, who visited another part of Afri-
ca about a third of a century later than
Bruce, mentions among the items of the
Sultan of Baussa's breakfast carte, grilled
water rat and fried and stewed crocodile
eggs. The eggs, it may be supposed, were
somewhat musky, but as we have DR..
Ksne's testimony that rat soup is not a
bad breakfast in the neighborhood of the
North Pole, griiled rodent may possibly
be endurable under the equator. Leigh
Hunt, who had very good notion Of
SFSNA -Af eAAN NAACf nANA pa N1
Jackal TO Byron, was fed, as Tom Moore
says, with ''soups every day from the Ii
on's own PAN" has left behind him a
pretty fair receipt for a Breakfast in
Cold Weather" Here it is: ''Imprimis,
tea and coffee; secondly, dry toast; third
ly, butter; fourthly, eggs filthy, ham !;
sixthly, something potted: seventy,
bread, salt, mustard, knives, forks, &c
This bill OF fare is well enough as an En-
glishman's idea of the morning meal; but
1t would not meet the views of a Scotch
man or an American. We like the ac-
compartments Of the essayist's breakfast
better than the collation. itself. ''One of
the first things" Hunt, that belongs TO
a cold weather breakfast is good fire
There is 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 bla-
zing tre, a clean table cloth and tea
things the newly washed faces and
cpmbed heads of q set of good bumOred
and the sole empty chair, at its
corner, ready for occupation"
A very nice picture, but one would like
to have some guarantee for the behavior
ca time, to breakfast with q being Of
that genus, who, although perfectly good
humored, was possessed of lively desire
to wash his hands in the slop bowl and
put his chubby little feet in the butter
of urchinhood which inter-
fere with the sublime calm necessary to
epicurean enjoyment and perfect diges-
ton This may seem TO some folks an
il-natured reflection on 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, will entirely
agree with US. Few " peoples" as our
Hungary friend Kossuth would say, have
a better idea of the proper constituents
of breakfast than the "cannie Scots"
The Glasgow bodies" and exc the
burghers OF Inverness, at the foot of the
thoroughly understand what
IS good for the inner man in the morn
ing. Potted char-a rare fish Of the
Scotch lochs game pies, hot buttered
barley bannocks, and Oat meal cakes,
rolls, crumpets, whaffies, butter
ed toast, broiled '.finnan haddies," and
broiled bacon, are among the dainties
1AANS SCI bCAtAC A4SNAA AuttAA AZ A44etl
region. 1t must be confessed
that they flank. these comestibles with
forbidden dilutents-such as Glenlivit
and Usquebaugh. But what wifi you
have of 1.-THE climate is drizzly, and the
meckle Scotch mist seems TO quench the
fiery influence of the stimulants. But
after all, an American breakfast-especi-
ally at this appetizing season-is the beau
ideal of a matitunal feast. Juno, when
she banquets," has nothing equal TO it
What is Olympian ambrosia to buckwheat
cakes! And then at coffee-making we
can beat even the French. Not that we
always do it-but there are artists among
us whose decoctions of the fragrant berry
put the Partisan Cafes to shame. Our
broiled spring chicken is thing to thank
Heaven upon with epicurean unction.-
Talk of your English spatch cocks-they
are not worthy to be named in the same
decade with it. Done of an amber
brown, anointed with fresh butter, and
duly seasoned, it is dish to take reason
prisoner. Some prefer broiled quail and
one might
decide without great wrong to either,
1t were much better to have both than neither"
We wonder how the children of Israel
''fxed'' their quails. If Moses was the
man we take him to have been. he split
his birds down the back and cooked them
on gridiron. Again, the American por-
ter house steak-would that it had a
more melodious and less toperish name
is an article SUI generiS. John Bull be-
lieVes in rump steak-pummeling it with
a rolling pin makes it tender and yet
it is not tender after all. despite this
quarterstaf practice. Old Front-de-boeuf
cannot hold candle to us in the steak
He won't acknowledge it,
for he is one of those obstinate old heavy
fathers that never give anything up; but
the fact is patent to the unprejudiced of
all nations. OF buckwheat cakes We en-
Joy a monopoly. The less enlightened of
all countries of Christendom have not
had the sagacity to adopt the crowning
glory of the breakfast table. Like mon.
keys who warm their shiftless hands by
froo thar hor-a not ea,va ar,0t0b n l<aau