Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1866-06-22
Conduct and Cooking.

Let any intelligent American spend a
try of Europe, among the better classes.
and he or she will return home convinced
that we are the worst fed and bred civil
lied savases upon the face of the earth
not but what we have great many as
well bred people in the United States as
we can find anywhere. We have few
good cooks, too. But these latter are SO
wide apart, that, after all, the conviction
is just.
Only last week, We dined one day at one
of our excelsior, first class hotels husband
and |. In the bill of fare there was grea-
~ looking, vegetable soup, blackisll
brown scum covering it, reminding Inc Of
the stagnant Shiny cypress sloughs had
seen in Florida. The coarse chunks of
cabbage, carrots, and turnips' floating un-
derneath were good types of the sluggish
alligators lurking beneath the surface Of
those Southern lagoons-almost as dang
erons. too if you eat he.indisestable abom-
nations, as the allIgators if they eat you
Bah ! That is not the proper way to make
vegetable soup for humanity. have a far
better practice, which Will make public ii
permitted, But first, | want to tell you
something more about that hotel dinner.
Roasttrrkey, greasy blue. burnt dressing.
looking like rotten squash, and tasting
like frozen potato. Roast charcoal
on the outside not quite dead. to say
nothing of being cooked, an inch from the
surface. Boiled potatoes-maslled two pot
atoes into one-grcat black cores left in,
and Jumps half raw, that would gag Il hall
starved cormorant. Entries and side dish
es just as outrageous. And the ,roprictors
of that first class hotel probably claim that
they employ first class cooks. We saw at
that table; men and women brutcs. that be-
ing told they We're anything else than ladies
and gentlemen, the very bon ton of Amer
ican society, would have lopked concentra-
tel lightning at the slanderer. a very
Poor ignorant innocent, \ very gentle
manly, well bred Gcnorsc, who sat next
me, was delighted, and laughed frequently
He SAID he had never seen SO many pigs
eating all together i'll his life.
\ fine lady. i'll flashing diamonds, prob
ably pastc, sitting next my Getoese neigh
bor, was drinking colc out of her saucer,
with her cheeks pulled ont with mashed po-
tatocs and veal outlets, making dngy rings
oil tiit ohoh WIN Iti toiiC Sup
At my husbands left hand a member oil
Congress was deliberately picking his teeth
with his fork. Next beyond him, a wom-
an,.-hs wife pcrhaps-was biting IA mouth
iul out ofa slice of bread and butter, hold
inc her knife III the same hand, and thrust
Ing the blade in among herpretty side curls
On the opposite side OF the table was Il
Hrssdier Gcneral-solnebody and Mr..
Briga,lier General cvrybody. his wife, the
CRIME de Ia creme of upper tendon,--the
General dainty spearing Il pece of bread
with his fork, as one stabs Il sucker, think
inc 1t horribly vulgar to take bread with the
fingers. and the next moment. ignoring the
butter knife entirely, slashed his own tou
blade into the butter slicing off slab, anC
leaving Il illet OF greasy turkey dressing ane
mashed turnips crcsting the cut butter
Mrs. Brigadier, durin" the time, was de
llbcratcly dipping her knife into dish o
salad, driving the spoon overheard, ant
transferring the material direct from the diSl
, to her mouth on her knife, in mouthfuls he
particularly delicate.
Everybody shoycled all sorts of victual
with their knives, seeming to think that til
three pronged forks were made only t
spear bread with, and to pin meat down t.
| their plates while they We're saving it in
t to mouthiuls, \ great many wiped thei
/. greasy fingers, foul mouths, and some eve
blew their noses on the table c,oth-tlci
napkins lying beside their plates uHfolded
. 1t was ho wonder that the Gcnoeso gentle
man WIS something amused and Il grca
deal disguised.
In our country, where conditions chang
so rapid dly-where one nj the very bottom
, of the wheel Of fortune .nay roll up on to
To morrow-t9rc is an especial ncccssit
that we should all learn, and learn to Oh
serve everywhere the ordinary rules of goo,
brced One never knows this week
what society he or she may be thrust int
next Monday, and it is of the first ncccssit
that We should be always prepared for e
mcrgencics'
There is no excuse for low bred vulgarit,
among any i'll this country. The hlmb
lest have ample opportunities of i'm
proving by observation. So let us observ,
and improve, in the kitchen. at the table
everywhere. making better dinners for. an,
better bred people of ourselyes.-Rura
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