The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-05-06
The Woman Who Eats.

| NlNlu IeCOlleCllOIl VI Il tlIne III American
social history when it was fashionable
and ''genteel,' to eschew eating as vul-
! gar and sensuous matter. Those were
The times when it was the custom for
nigh-bred and refined people to discuss
only the most ethereal diet. The dear
creatures who (nominally at least,)
| dined on a canary-bird's wing, or suf-
Tered surfeit when they had absorbed
a spoonful of clover honey, are no more.
How well we remember themi They
wore white muslin and blue ribbons.
They seldom danced. They adored
Byron byron who hated to see woman
eat,) and talked of Kant, and wished
that there could be a new moon all the
year round, The younger portion of
that generation ate slate-pencils to i'm
prove their compilations, and smelled at
vinegar cruets to make them look pale
and interesting. To look at one of these
girls one would say that they had never
seen any food more substantial than tea
and toast. To follow them into the pri-
vacy of home would be to find them Sc
cretly addicted to bacon and greens.
| The public scorn for all solid food was
! an affectation. 1t was fashionable to eat
next to nothing. 1t was needful to eat
great deal. And fashion carried the day.
Fashion moves in cycles. In the time
of the great Samuel johnson it was
thought fit and proper for young women
in high life to boast of their gastronomic
achievements and to announce their
preferences for certain Dishes A charm
ing young friend of Nine. d'Arblay,
clasping her hands rapturously, and
looking DR.. johnson in the face, said:
80, | do love mashed turnips!" The
aged cynic, slowly pulling himself to-
gether, said: 'My dear young lady, as
the experiences of life accumulate, and
the attractions of this mortal existence
sink to their true valuation, hope you
will find something more worthy of your
affections than mashed turnips" Itwas
after johnson time that young ladies
at boarding adored Byron and
were content with diet of slate-pencils
and water. When the muscular cricket
playing and brawny school began to be
popular with men, the women very nat
urany took to advertising their liking for
what our plain-speaking California
friends call a''square meal The dear
creatures no longer pretended that they
lived on air, and that eating and drink
ing were vulgar. The languishing, die
away creatures whom we meet in the
old-fashioned novels exist no longer
The young lady of the present time is
not afraid of sunshine, rain. fog and
freckles. She is robust, athletic and
hearty. She can tel Burgundy from
Bordeaux, knows the difference between
tromage Roquefort and Gorgonzola, and
is critical as to the exact time required
for the cooking of canvas back, and the
number of minutes safe for the proper
broiling of lobster Something good
to eat is more to her than art or even
fashion. Such one, describing an
evening entertainment, said: lit was
unusually swell. The gentlemen were
witty and clever, and the crab salad was
simply heavenly
This is not an eXaggeration. 1t is
merely reaction from the lackadaisical
and sentimental age of our grandmoth-
ers The days are gone when it was
fashionable to wear thin slippers, lace
tightly, assume languishing air, and
pretend to live on next to nothing. Ii
the matter-of-fact, eating and drinking
generation of young women that has
come in does sometimes trench nearly
on the bounds of genuine refinement,
we can forgive the apparent trespass.
Even coarse and boisterous affectation
of hearty liking for good eating and
drinking is better than deceitful pre-
tense of abstemiousness that deceived
nobody. Men and women must eat to
live. 1t is high state of society in
which the pleasures of the table are made
to minister to the stern necessities of ex-
istence. 1t is low state in which men
and women fill themselves mechanically,
never considering anything but the vol
ume of food absorbed. And there is no
reason why women who are not con-
vivial, at least, should not be competent
judges of what is best in food and drink.
OF course, we admit that all women are
angels, but so long as angels dwell
among men they must partake of the
nature of mortals. The woman who
cannot appreciate good dinner is u
libel on her sex.
Let no man say that the change of
woman from the sentimental, insipid and
angelic creature of the last century to
the vigorous and hearty person of to-
day is a change that begins and ends
with eating and drinking habits. Let
the pessimists say what they will, the
present is an age of genuineness and
candor. There is less modesty, less of
the humbug of seeming, than in any
generation that has gone before us, if
we may accept as true the pictures of life
given us by Smollet, Fielding, Fanny
Burney, Thackeray and the writers of
the time of Queen Anne. The civilized
world admires the delicate and fragile
beauty of American women. But it is
the pride of the country that feeds the
world with beef grain and game, that
the rare flower of American lovliness is
no dollhouse plant, reared in nicely adj
justed atmosphere. The womanliness
and the manliness of our country spring
from a rich and nutritive soil. We have
the best provision for the table in the
WORLDLY Y. Times. tr, '
Six years ago young man named
John Trimm, known as somewhat eccen-
trio, left Lewistown, Me-, for business
trip to Portland. He did not return at
the time appointed, and subsequently a
body found in Portland harbor was iden-