The Portland daily press., 1871-09-13
DAILY PRESS.
PORTLAND.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1871
How 10 Have a Good Dinner

| A good deal has been written abou, .o,;,o
ana IL VIII always continue to be subject of
the nrst Interest, for most men
are more Interested about their dinner than
their Libraries. Money is spent more willing
~ ior dlnner than for anything else. and there
is there is little hesitation about adding un-
necessary luxuries to it, dainties that are eat
en- 1or most part with little appetite, the cost
OF which would iii little time furnish a
mouse with books, pictures, flowers, and
works OF beauty, which would be a constant
least TO the eyes. Most people, however, eal
only with the mouth.
, Ihere is something almost cOmical about
tie serious devotion to eating, the anxiety of
WITCH sls the cause IN so MANY households
.ne time II consumes, the importance attach
GU N II. What an immense amount of work
t nieo 10 ior their dinner; for il pretty much
u ~, .o.a " tna'. IL 1t were not for the din
| her, WhaC leisure the housewife would have.
Wnat Toll the man would be spared, whose
money is SO fast absorbed by the grocer. the
butcher, the wine merchant.
wen, eating must be admitted to be a nee
essary pleasu and it ought to be pleasure.
Inc man VINO does not enjoy his dinner is an
| migrate, no more to be trusted than the man
| touched by fine landscape or painting OF the
same. But dinner depends so much upon
the appetite one brings to it, that it is great
wonder men do not pay more attention to
| that. There is no expense they will not un-
| dergo to get tempting dinner. They will
send to lands end tor game, to waters end
for fish they will rake the sea and search the
air for delicacies. They will summon science
aud epicurean invention to find out new
temptations tor the palate. A fine dinner is
the result of high civilization. 1t represents
great toll, and skill, and money. But it does
not turn out that it gives pleasure in prOpor-
tion to the tronble and expense of it. The
man who spen Is so much on his dinner, as a
rule, does not get what LIE is after. There is
something lacking in the estimation which he
has forgotten.
That something he finds if he is ever temp
ted to go into the woods ior a summer vaca-
ton. There was never anything like the
trout he cooks ON forked stick after a hard
days row or march. There was never such
sweet pork as he fries in his pan; there
was never anything so good: as the flap
Jacks that the guide tosses up, and served on
chip with maple sugar scraped. He is
bound to have some as soon as he gets home.
And he does have the trout, and the pork,
aud the fiapjacks on his own table, but they
are not at all the same that he ate in the
woods. They wouldn't be the same if he
should have them cooked by the same guide,
with dirt and leaves and ashes, and the s.nel
OF smoke and pine boughs stirred in.
Is it then true that we cannot have good
dinners, that is dinners which are thoroughly
rellshed, without going into the woods, or
back to barbarous methods? Must we live
only on the simples, cooked in the plainest
manner? What feasts those are which hunt.
ers have in the far west-buffalo meat roast
ed before the fire, antelope steak, and-cau-
ned peaches! We have canned peaches here,
but how much better they ale when eaten al
ter buffalo hunt!
The fact is, we spend good deal of money
to stimulate an artificial appetite which is a
good deal worse than money thrown away.
we want variety, which they do not have in
the woods; and good cooking, which is want.
ing in the woods, and in the country general
ly; but we do not want all the excess and
flummery that goes so largely to make up our
present meals. If we would expend half the
money and thought on getting an appetite
Tor dinner that we do on the dinner itself, the
| result would be much more satisfactory For
the appetite is the important thing after all.
AS rule, in civilized life, men eat too much,
and too often to Thoroughly enjoy a good din
ner without having done anything to get
ready for it.
Fond as most men are of eating, and ready
as they are to pay money to get the enjoy
| ment of it, one is astonshed that so few arc
willing to take walk, or run race, or do an
hours hoeing. or t..ke any healthy bodily ex-
ercise, which would do more for their dinner
than all the luxuries Of the season which are
| squandered on it. The gentleman who Or
ders his gardiner to NOV the lawn, and goes
bis way till dinner time, having ordered big
dinner, and took no exercise to insure enjoy
| ment OF it, will not have actually 50 good
dinner as the workman who has cut the
| grass and dined for one tenth of the cost of
his employers dinner. We work for our din
| ners altogether too hard and mostly in the
| wrong direction. Less dinner and more ap-
petite would be more economical and satisfac-
| tOrV.