The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1878-05-02
The Fine Art of Eating.

Inc FINE Art OF Eating.
A pretty young lady the other day
treated herself in restaurant to a lunch
which for artistic simplicity can not be
surpassed. Most young ladies with an
inclination to lunch. would have called
for an unknown quantity of meringues
and bakers trash, ending with heap.
ing saucer of ice-cream. No so this
young lady. She had a solid, rosy, well
nourished look about her which indicat-
ed, a priOri, that she lived on better
things. Her lunch fulfilled ones ex-
pectation. She sat down, calmly look
ed over the bill of fare from top to bot
tom, and then, ignoring all creams, GUS
tards, meat-pies and mixed messes, qui-
city ordered brown bread and butter
and young onions. She ate them in a
beautiful manner, too. 1t was good to
notice how daintily she tackled the ten
der, pale green shoot, dipped it into the
tiny pyramid of salt and conveyed it to
her mouth. She ate six of the tender,
pale green onions, and enjoyed them.
She was fond of the onions, and had
none of that affected squeamishness
about eating them which most young
ladies display. She ate them honestly,
and her way of doing it showed thatshe
was quite accustomed to the table man
ners of "good society" a aa
The young woman with her. onions
had the true idea of the fine art of eat
ing. 1t is to have only few dishes at
q time, to have them abundant in guam
tity, and of the best quality. No epicu-
rean would consent to have dozen or
fifteen courses at his dinner, consisting
of mixed-up and shaken together mate
rails from the four corners of the earth
Such a dinner is alike destructive of ap-
petite, digestion and all that is aesthetic
in the art of eating. 1t savors of the
too muchness of galvanized iron orna-
mentation in architecture. The true
epicurean's dinner will always be made
up of only a few dishes, but those I'M
surpassed in material, cookery and
furnishings. Variety he has in plenty,
but he obtains it by having fewer dishes
at once, and so stretching out the good
things of the appetite further through
time rather than, by taxing French
cook-books and his own brains, to dis
cover for him some new mixture. He
always thus has something good to
look ahead to for the next time, so
to speak Much of the worry and
work fashionable Americans make over
their cookery might be avoided, and
much both of time and food material
now wasted might be saved if we I'M
derstood better the fine art of eating. 1t
is a serious mistake for cook to spend
her time and worrying her brains pre-
pairing half dozen different dishes,
which, after all, are apt to be badly
cooked, when three excellent dishes will
answer better in every way. The half
dozen dishes may be snobbish, but they
are not really appetizing.
To broil steak, to make cup of
coffee, to bake loaf of bread, white or
brown, these are the three foundation
pillars of all good cookery. The history
of civilization, civilized cookery as well,
passes from simplicity into floridness,
and from foridness into simplicity again,
but it is the simplicity of true art. One
kind of rightly cooked meat, vegetables
ditto, two or three dainty little side
dishes, and pyramid of perfect, lus-
ciouS fruit-no one who really knew the
true art of enjoying his food would ac
cept any thing more. And he would
have different round of dishes every
day for week, because they would be
so much to choose from. Ks
As was said, however, the foundation
of cookery will always be beefsteak, eof-
fee, and bread. Our English friends
make merry over our shortcomings in
the above staples. Almost no English
novel is written containing any refer
ence to Americans, that it does not have
some allusion to the sole-leather beef
steak of the United States. Next after
the beefsteak the Englishman's notes of
travel deal with our muddy, bitter cot
fee, and our vile hot bread. One will
be surprised when he stops to recall the
hospitable mansions in which he has
breakfasted at different times, to think
how few of the housekeepers broiled
their steak instead of frying it, stepped
the coffee instead of boiling it, and had
wholesome, homemade bread. Those
benevolent ladies who are forming them
selves into associations to kindly help
and guide friendless and unframed
young women, would confer an untold
benefit on humanity if they would teach,
first themselves, and then the unframed
young women, how to cook beefsteak
and make coffee and bread as it should
be done. r.r..
No matter now deliciously cooked
ones food may be, though, there may
be surroundings which take away his
appetite. If he raise his eyes in pub
lie dining-room and behold countless
host of his fellow-men eating with their
knives, plunging those dangerous i'm
plements well down their Threats at
every mouthful if they sit curled up like
the letter S, with their elbows propped
upon the ia BILE; if they "schlurf'' their
soup and coffee like quadruped; if they
talk so loud that he knows every bottle
of ale and vanilla custard that are or
dered in circuit of 10 feet about him,
the epicurean will hardly care much for
his dinner. Refined and dainty table
manners are an indispensable element of
the fine art of eating-eating being an
operation which is not superlatively
pretty to look at at its best.-Circinna
Ii Commercial. ..t....
Female Places for Hiding Money.