The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1871-10-10
Dinuer Time.

A wel-known proverb tells that the rich NAV
dine wheE they like, but the poor must dine
when they can; and although this question
OF dinner-tlme is most important one both
TO rich and poor, it has been solved in very
different way at different times of the worlds
history.
As modem nations become more highly
civilized their hours gradually grow later and
later; but even II various reasons could be
gwen TO account for Bh,s doSliuatioo II IL
nevertheless a great evil, which no one has
been been either willing or able TO stop Some
few men have chosen TO keep to primitive
hours, but by so doing they have been forced
to leave society, and, in Consequence, society
has soon dropped them out OF her memory.
The ancients were more natural IN their
habits than we are. Thus, the Roman cii-
zen rose with the lark, and went to bed when
darkness came on, and It was only the rich who
could afford to live by candle-light Those idle
persons among them Who did 80 were called
by Seneca, in contempt, lucifugde.
Fashion now forces her votaries to reverse
the proper order OF things. by dining az night
and suppins in the morning. Dr.. FRANKLIN
when m..tters were not so bad as they are
now, tried good-humore1ly TO show the peo-
Pile OF France the advantages to be gained
by the adoption OF early hours; and he cal
culated that in the city of Paris alone 90 075,-
900 francs, or nearly four million pounds,
WOuiu Oc Sdstu ctCIJ year Uf Juc eCOQOIuH OF
using, sunshine instead OF candles from the
2Oth March to the Goth September. The
Emperor of Brazil, in his recent visit to this
country, appears to have been puzzled by our
late hours. One day he visited Lincoln's Inn
between six asd seven in the morning, and,
was surprised not to find any lawyers there.
Another day he started off from his hotel be-
fore breakfast to Kew Gardens, and returned
for that meal at eight A. M.
When tho dinnar waa aatan rlv In, the
morning, it was not always the practice to
| take a previous me al, so that, in point of fact
| the old dinner was the knfe-and-fork break
| fast, such as Is common now on the conti-
| uent. In Cotton's "An9ler," the author says,
my diet is glass OF ale as am dressed,
| and no more till dinner, Viaior answers, II
| will light a pipe, for that is commonly my
breakfast, too"
| In 100, the dinner-hour had shifted to two
| o'clock; at that time Addison dined dur
/ ips the last thirty years of his life, and Pope
| through the whole of his life. Very great
| people dined at four as early as 1I40, aud
| Pope comp aims of Lady Suffolk's dining at
| that late hour; but in 1851 we find the Duch-
| ess of S0merset's hour was thre-. This, how
| ever, only shows that slightly different dinner
| hours were prevalent at the same period; and
| we know that when the Ducness OF Gordon
asked Pitt to dine with her at saven, his ex-
cuse was that he was engaged TO sup with the
| Bishop of Winchester at that bour.
In 1870, the poet Cowper speaks OF four as
the then fashionable time; and about 1S04-5
| an alteration took place at Oxford, by which
those colleges that dined at three began to
| dine a, four, aud those that dned at four
postponed t6air time 10 five. After the bat
tie of Waterloo, s!,x o'c ock was promoted 10
the honor OF being the a'nner-oour; So~, Now we
haze got on to eight and MI 'as sP's"~
/ tells us
| The gentleman who dimes the latest
is IN oar streets esteemed the greatest;
4 But sureY, greater tnan them ali
| Is ne who never dimes at all"
We have seen that, within four hundred
years the dinner hour has gradually moved
through twelve hours of the day from nins
| A. M. to nine P. M. Nature, however, will
revenge herself on fashion, and have her own
L ruau IN fha Ionu rum. for as the dinner h.,nt.