The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1868-09-23
VIII the Coming Man Drink Wine.

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VIII the Coming Man Drink Wine.
The Atlantic Monthly, for August contains an inter-
esting article under the above title We copy as fol
lows:
There is para graph now making the grand tour of
the newspapers which informs the public that there
was dinner given the other evening in New FORK,
consisting oftweve courses which kept the guests I'VE
hours at the table. For five hours men and women
sat consuming food, occupying half an hour at each
vvand. What could sustain human nature in such an
amazing efforts What could enable them to look into
anothers faces without bllshing scarlet atthe In
fanny Of such time food and digestive force
What concealed from them the iniquity and deep Vu
garity OF what they were doing The explanation OF
this mystery is given in the paragraph that records the
crime There was different kind of wine for each
course.n
L Even an ordinary dinner party-what mortal could
eatt through sit out wthouta constant slipping Of
wine to keep the brain uddled and lash his stomach
to unnatural exerton. The joke Of it Is, thatWe all
know and confess to another how absurd such BAN
auets are and yetfeW have discourage and humanity
to feed their friends in way which they can enjoy
and feel the better for the next morning.
When saw Mr. Dickens eating and drinking his
way through the elegantly bound book which Mr.. Del
monco substituted for the usual bill of fare at the din
ner given by the press last April to the great artist
when, say, saw Mr.. Dickens thus engaged, Won
dered which banquet was the furthest from being the
right thing the one to which he then yainy trying
to do justice, or the oae Of which Martin ChuzzeWit
partook on the day he landed i'll New York, at Mrs.
Pawkin's boarding house. The poultry, the latter
occasion, disappeared if every bird had had the
use Of its wings, and had flown in desperation down
human throat. The oysters steWed and picked leap
ed from eir capacioas reservoirs and slid by scores
into the mouths of the assembly, The sharpest pickles
vanished whole cuccmbers at once, like sugar pnms,
and no man winked eye Great heaps Of indigesti
Bile matter melted away as ice before the sum- It was
q md an wfD to- thn
company adjourned from the Dining room to "the
bar in the next block, where they imbibed
strong drink enough to keep their dinner from pros
trating them. $3.50 fl.
The Delmonico banquet was a very different affair.
Our public dinners are all arranged on the English
SYSTEM for have not yet taken up with the fine,
sweeping principal that whatever is right for England
Is wrong for America Hence, meta lady was present.
1t was wise man who discovered that small guam
ty OF excellent soup is good thing to begin din
ner with. He deserves well of his species The soup
alays the hungry savage within us, and restores
civilization, and to another. Nor is he to be
reckened traitor to his kind who first proclaimed
that little very nice and dainty fish, hot and crisp
from the fire, is pleasing Introduction to sub
santla v1ands. Six oysters upon their native SHE'LL
fresh from their ocean home and freshly opened small
in size, intense in flavor cool but not cold radi
atlng from central quarter of emon-ths, too,
fine conception, worthy of the age in which we live.
But in what language we characterize Alright the
abandoned man who first presumed to tempt Christians
to begin repast by partakng of all three of these
oysters, soup and fish? The object is defeated The
true purpose Of these introductory res is to appease
the appetite in slight degree to enable US to
take sustenance with coposure and dignity and dis
pose the company to cover conversation. When
properly constituted person has six oysters
plate of SOUP and the usual portion of fish, with the
proper quantities of potatoes and bread he has taken
as much sustenance nature requires All the rest
of the banquet is excess and being excess is also
mistake it is a dminuton of the sum total of pleas
ure which the repast was capable of afordng. But
when Mr.. Delmonico had brought US successfully So
far on our way Through his book; when we had con-
sumed our oysters ourcream of asparagus in the Du
style, kettle drums in the manner of Charles
Dickens, and trout cooked SO as to do honor to
Queen Victoria, we had only picked up few pebbles
on the shore of the banquet while the great ocean Of
food stood still stretched before llimtable The
fet Object, after the manner Of Lucdus, the stuffed
lamb in the style of Sir Walter Scott the outlets la
Fenimore Cooper the historic pates the signs of Man
talini, and dozen other efforts of Mr. Delmonicos
genius remained to be attempted.
No man would willingly eat or sit through such
dinner without plenty wne which here plays its nat
ural part supporting in doing wrong It is the wine
which enables people keep eating for three hours
and to themselves with highly concentrated food
without rolling on the floor in agony. 1t is the wine
which puts it within our power to consume, in d.
costing dinner the force that would suffice for the
digestion of three.