Connecticut western news., 1877-09-07
Aldermanic Eating.

ment anything on subject so far re- moved from the questions usually dis cussed here as that of municipal junket- ing; but nowhere else, probably, could 1 obtain readers, who, as Matthew Arnold says, will E'let their conscious ness play freely around the subjcct,' who will bow to the teachings of his tory, and defer to the traditions of race, and who although belonging to that much appealed to class, the taxpayers, will not allow any considerations as to the amount of their tax bills to inter- fere with custom sanctiticd by imme- morial usage.
 The recent performance of Boston alderman who devoured $17 worth of food at one sitting has been very harshly commented upon by the newspapers. No voice has been raised in defense of that alderman. The alderman himself has disdained to justify the deed. A man cast in the antique mould of great ness, man who in these degenerate days possesses the capacity for eating and drinking which marked the Gre elan hero of IIomer's time, can well af- ford to await the vindicatiOn of impar- tial history. l cannot undertake to do him and his aldermanic brothers full justice, but l can at least call attention to the influences of history and tradi- tion under which they act, and say something in justification of much misunderstood class of officials.
 This habit of eating and drinking in connection with the transaction of the public business, is as old as the oldest Athenian traditions. Prof. Wilson, commenting on the % entertainment which Achilles prepared for the embassy described in the ninth book of the lliad, says:
 ''In nothing was the constitutions of the heroes more enviable than its na- tive power-of eating at all times with out moments warning. Never does a meal to any distinguished individual come amiss. Their stomaches were as heroic as their hearts. their bowels mag unanimous. It cannot be forgotten by the reader, who hangs with watering mouth over the description of his en- tertainment, that about two hours be- fore these three heroes, Ulysses, Ajax and old Phoenix, had made an enor- nous supper in the pavilion of Aga memnon. But their walk.
 Along the margin of the sounding deep had re-awakened their Slumbering ap- petite."
 In addition to the immense banquets in which all the Athenian citizens par ticipated, "spread was prepared every day for certain number of men chosen for the purpose. These men are re- quired to eat together, in the name of the city, within the inclosure of the Prytaneum, in the presence of the sacred fire and the protecting gods. ''The citizens who sat at the sacred table," says NJ. de Coulanges, in La Cite Antique, "were clothed for the time with a sarcerdotal character; they were called parasites"
 As early as the time of Tacitus, the Teutonic tribes from which we sprang had their sacrificial feasts after they had transacted the political business for which they were called together. Then each householder was obliged to pro- vide his share of the feast. How na- tural it is, therefore, that when the plan was adopted of having the busi- ness done by representatives should continue the custom of feasting, and should deem it a sacred duty to try to eat and drink as much as the house. holders had been called upon to provide, when the business was transacted in general meeting. When we look at it in that way, and reflect that this custom has been handed down from the alder men of the Teutonic village community to the aldermen who now frequent the Parker house, the action of that Boston alderman who has been held up to the execration of the taxpayers ap- pears in very different light from that in which it has heretofore been seen. That man was simply obeying an i'm pulse transmitted to him from his an- cestors who presided over the assemblies I centuries ago. Doubtless Darwin could describe how there comes to be a selec- tion of the tittest for such work. In Greece and Rome the gods were be- lieved to have hand in it. Clearly, there's divinity in these latter days that directs our votes for men of an un- bounded stomach. Nature appears to have provided every alderman with a capacity for taking in and digesting $17 worth of food at a time. Every one has heard of the wonderful feats per formed by aldermen in the way of eat ing and drinking, but who ever heard of an alderman having an indigestion, or being troubled with loss of appetite? History does not record single in stance. Let us then recognize the fact that these men are set aside for the per- formance of a sacred duty, and let us not waste our time or hurt their feel ings by saying unpleasant things when called upon to minister to such heroic appetites. As the low browed villain of the play says of the disposition among gentlemen to keep their word, Cts sort of religion with them fel- lers. ."-Atlantic Monthly.
 
 Hydraulics of the Ancients
 Father Secchi has written a letter to the Academy of Science on this curious subject. The monuments that he men, tiOns have been mostly discovered bv