American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1878-12-21

ner be without children! or without
whole plum pudding placed steaming
before the host, who solemnly puts the
match to the spirit of fire which sur
rounds it, and raises confagration
amid the shouts and applause of the
Juveniles
Imagine the Christmas turkey carved
at the side-table, and dispensed without
stufing or gravy! Imagine the plum
pudding sliced by servants, or lady -fin-
gers and ice-cream doing duty
for dessert! The very thought almost
gives one an agde.
A Christmas dinner can not be fash
ionable dinner then, for we must have
the children; the lordly turkey must be
placed on the table intact, and sur
rounded by his satellites; the bowl of
rich, brown gravy, the "snow" pota-
toes, the mashed Swedish turnips, the
boiled onions swimming in milk-white
sauce, and above all, the brilliant red of
the cranberry, that gem of the marshes,
more precious than rubies if people only
knew what was good for them. OF
course you may have canned asparagus.
the delicate cauliflower, or any other
more or less costly vegetables that you
may fancy, but to old-fashioned, homely
people, Christmas dinner table would
not be complete without the accessories
first named.
An ordinary fashionable dinner party
requires great deal of attention to its
plate, and glass, and damask-but l
have seen very successful Christmas
dinner which boosted little of either.
In fact, the tablecloth was plain cotton,
the dishes and plates were not all alike,
nor were they different on purpose, and
of tumblers there was not enough to go
round; but the turkey and the pud'sng
did, and every body was-~rpy.
Not th--&1s not very pleasant to
-.-r~c good Christmas fare beautifully
placed and properly served; 1 confess
to weakness myself for handsome ia
BILE furniture, and when I am rich
enough ia retirs, ".do" my own work
and wash my own dishes, I mean to
dine off cut glass and exquisite china
every day. But Christmas dinner is T
superior to all such considerations, 1t Is
not impaired by luxurious "environ-
ment," as the philosophers say, provid- |
ed the essentials are there-love, chart |
ty, and unity; but where these are it IS
easy to see that the damask, and the cut
glass, and the delicate china would not |
ho inf
of giving some bills of fare for Christ
mas, but guess it is not worth while;
it is a great deal more interestirg for |
every body to make out bill OF fare
for themselves. am sure every good
housewife will want to do it. Many OF
them, know, will stay awake at night
settling such important questions as
whether the turkey shall be stuffed with |
the ordinary force-meat, or oyster-dress-
ing; whether oyster soup or vermicelli !
shall take precedence; whether plum
pudding shall come first or. mince-pies,
or both together; and shall there be
grapes, or oranges, or both, with |
the nuts, raisins and apples for
dessert. You see 1 am thinking for
common, middle-class people who have
not colored man-servant or pompous
protested cook to think for them, and
who do not have nuts, and raisins, and
fruit added to their pies and puddings |
every day. 1 do not know but these
poor people get more fun out OF 1t
though, when the occasion does come.
Do you think "Katie,'' who teaches
school, would miss taking part in the
Not for Joseph or any
body else The evening upon which |
the raisins are to be stoned and chopped, |
the apples peeled, the citron cut, and
other lengthy preliminaries gone through
with, is anticipated as one of supreme
a regular ''bee" is organ
lied, of which the lords of creation can
only obtain glimpses, but in which they
are permitted to take no share. Men
are to be pitied for some things; they
eat, but they never know what they are
eating beyond the rudimentary pota-
to. They know nothing-that is, the
majority of them-of the ingre-
dents which go to make up their favor
lite dishes, much less the art required
for their connection. They swallow
their food as the animals swallow
theirs, and with no more realization of
the infinite mysteries in its compound
ing. What woman, for example, could
even look upon restaurant plum-pud-
ding without q shudder, or see the
Laavy ,,,aSS covered with 80 hothr kinds |
of sauce without wondering if any but |
the stomach of an elephant or rhinoce-
ros could digest itP But men "get
away with it, and do not know that a
pint of bread, crumbs instead of flour,
a little less set more perfectly prepar-
ed and blended, and dainty hand in
the preparation and mixing of other in
nyould have made Hyperion