Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1877-01-17
TO BREAKFAST INTELLIGENTLT.

TO BREAKFAST INTELLIGENTLY.
How the Frenchman, the Scotchman,
Break fast|Ths Rules ofPhvsicians ana
the Habits of Genius
From the Pail Mall Gazette.
To breakfast inteIlig emily may be re-
garded as duty, for q good breakfast
Is followed by good work and light
spirit, and therefore he who mas broken
his nights fast in rational manner
becomes in proportion useful and
agreeable to his nejghbors. There are
two distinctive methods of feeding in
the morning. They may be defined as
the English and the French. The Eng
lishman, whether In Britain or Amer
lea or in Australia, as rule breakfasts
earl y and largely, deeming it by no
means an act Of suicidal tendencies to
rise at eight and dispatch q beefsteak,
washed down by pint of tea at nine.
The Scotch have the same idea of
breakfast In principle, but apply it
more generously; commence with por-
ridge, proceed to animal food, and wind
up with marmalade. Long years ago,
DR.. Johnson's prejudices against the
Scottish race vanished at the sight of
Scottish breakfast The great lexicO-
grapher, as out awe struck ancestors
liked to call him, did ample justice first
to the repast set before him, and subse-
quently to his hosts. The Yankee break
fasts much as his cousin, though he has
an uncomfortable tendency to add iced
water to his earlier not less than to his
later meals, and to indulge in "milk
toast" an abominable mess which
tastes like toast day old which has by
accident been dropped into hot water.
In San Francisco it is common to begin
breakfast with plate Of fruit, which
is wonderfully appetizing on d bright
summer morning; but, after a cup Of
tea or coffee has gone the same way as
! the fruit, an alarming sense Of disten-
sion is produced, and there is often a
friend at hand to suggest an early glass
Of Curacao as the one thing needful to
set you TO rights. Therefore, a man
who has any business to transact would
do well to keep peaches resolutely
apart from buttered toast and It's &C
companying beverages. "An English
breakfast are words which call up so
many pleasant memories, and such a
genuine picture of comfort, that one
hesitates to stigmatize it as an utterly
barbarous institution. And yet, in
spite of the kissing urn, itself a COM
pazion, the paper leisurely skinned,
the fresh morning toilet one sometime
sees, and the pleasant gosslp-lt
is said that a man is never con-
ceited till luncheon-time-ln splte
of these attractions, our most
national meal is the violation of all
the rules Of hygiene and common
sense. In the first place, the stomach
is not prepared at that early hour for
the rude exercise to which we con-
denim it, while lie the second place the
mixture of tea or coffee and meat Is
Objectionable for two reasons. Physl-
clans have shown that the action Of the
tannic acid in tea upon meat is such
as to render it highly indigestible, while
coffee is scarcely happier IN its results.
It may, perhaps, be urged that the
English breakfast is not taken lmmedl-
ately on rising, a good many persons
being in the habit of getting up at
various unreasonable hours from 5 A.
NJ. onward, and devoting the interval to
work. Here, again, medical science
steps in and strongly dissuades us from
working on an empty stomach; though
one is bound to admit that some ex-
cellent work has been done-notably
SCOTS novels, if not MS poems-before
breakfast. But no rules can be laid
down for the guidance of ordinary
mortals from the habits OF genius.
Schiller would lock himself up at night
with a bottle of sparkling Rhine
wine and compose till morning; but
one would not therefore be IN
clined to recommed al aspirants
for poetic honors to pursue similar
course, lest sleeplessness and red eyes
should indeed be apparent, but another
"Wallenstein or Maria Stuart " be
found lacking. In the matter of
breakfast the French have given the
law to Europe and the Latin world, and
had we been wise we also should nave
been content to learn Of the "great
nation" Our neighbors have long rec
ognized the cardinal truth that the
stomoch, on first awaking to conscious
ness and sense Of another days
troubles, requires to be cOmforted and
STAYED with gentle and stimulating all
ments: hence the early cup Of coffee
or chocolate with morsel of bread,
followed at an interval of three or four
hours by the substantial meal which
it then begins imperatively TO demand.
The second breakfast is OF course the
equivalent of the Brittanic lunch, ex-
cept that it seems somehow or otner to
be lighter and brisker affair. Inc
fact is that the Briton who mas taken
the first solid meal, in accordance with
national customs, has no need 1of
lunch, which somebody has described
as an insult to breakfast and an injury
to dinner. Though there can be no
doubt of the soundness Of the french
rule in regard to breaking the nights
fast, namely, by gradual and well con,
sidered steps, there has been good
deal of discussion as TO the prophecy
of beginning the day with cup OF
coffee and milk.
DANIEL PRINCE, of Agawan, who with
his brother at Goshen are the Oldest
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