Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-10-04

A wcll-known proverb tells that the rich may
| dine when they like, but the poor man must dine
when they can; and although this question Of
| dinner-hme is most important one both TO ricl
and poor, it has been solved in very differ
cnt way at different times of the worlds his
| tory.
As modern nations become more highly civil
lied, their hours gradually grow later and later
but even if various reasons could be given Il
account for this declinatOu, it is nevertheless 8
great evil, which no one has 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 consc
quence society has soon dropped them out of hel
memory.
The ancients were more natural in their habits
than we are. Thus, the Roman citizen rose with
the lark, and went to bed when darkness came
on, and it was only the rich who could afford tC
live by candle light. Those idle persons among
them who did so were called by Seneca in con
tempt, t9cgUgG.
Fashion now forces her votareS to reverse
the proper order of things, by dining Mt night
and supping in the morning DR.. Franklin
when matters were not so bad as they are now
tried good-humOredly TO show the people OF
France the advantages 10 be gained by the
adoption Of early hours; and he calculated that
in the city of Paris alone 90UI5OOO francs, OF
nearly four million pounds would he saved
every year by the economy Of using sunshine IN
stead Of candles from the Goth of March to the
Goth of September. The emperor Of Brazil, in
his recent visit TO this country, appears 10 have
been sadly puzzled by our late hours One day
he visited Liucom's inn between six and seven
in the morning. and was surprised not 10 find
any lawyers there. Another day he started of
from his hotel before breakfast to Kew gardens,
and returned for that meal at eight A. NJ.
When the dinner was eaten early in the morn
ing, it was not always the practice TO take pre-
vious meal so that in point Of fact. the Old din
ner was a knite-andlork breakfast such us is
common now on this continent. In Cotton S
"Angler," the author says: Only diet is glass
of ale as am dressed and no more till dinner"
Viator answers: 81 will light pipe, for that IS
commonly my breakfast too"
In 1900 the dinner hour had shifted to two
o'clock; at that time Addison dined during the
last thirty years of his life, and Pope through
the whole of his. Very great people dned ut
four as carly as 1740, and Pope complains Of
Lady Suffolk dining at that late hour; but in
1851 we find the duchess of Somersers hour
was three. This, however, only shows that
slightly different dining hours were prevalent at
the same period; and we know that when the
duchess Of Gordon asked Pitt to dine with her
Mt seven, his excuse was that he was engaged to
sup with the bishop Of Winchester at that hour.
At 1880, the poet Cowper speaks of four as the
then fashionable time; and about 1919 an al
iteration took place at Oxford by which those
colleges that dincd at three began TO dine at
four, and those that dined at four postponed
their time to FIVE. After the battle at Waterloo
six O'Clock was promoted to the honor of being
the dinner hour. Now, we have got on to eight
and nine the epigram tells us,
"The gentleman who dimes the latest
Is in cur street esteemed the greatest;
But surely greater than them all
Is he who never dimes at all"
We have seen that, within four hundred years,