Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-12-21

PEAN BREAKFAST DELUsIoN AND DIsAP-
POTNTMENr.
From the Chicago Times.
DR.. Holmes work, ''The Autocrat Of the
Breakfast Table," could not have been written
by any but a man brought up with the purely
Anglo Saxon idea of the first meal of the day.
1t is chatty, discussive, brilliant and informal,
like the talk about the breakfast table, Albeit
1t describes clearinghouse board, 1t is home
like and winning 1t appeals to Americans
especially because of these qualities. Our cou-
sins across the water appreciate it no less than
we do There is such charm about the meal
at which the talks are made to take place. and
this charm so completely pervades the book
that apart from all other considerations this
alone would insure it popularity. Breakfast, as
we understand the meal. is the most homelike
OF our repasts. 1t is. perhaps, the one of all
others about which most memories cluster We
do not look back to a remembered breakfast as
to q dinner, to recall what we ate or drank, but
to think of who was there and what he or she
said. Physicians are tolerably well agreed that
breakfast should be solid meal. 1t is bad, we
are told, to indulge in much exercise on an
empty stomach. Ergo, eat heartily before going
about your duties. We do SO in America, but
very many people outside America do not. Take
the English meal as an example. 1t is an en-
w
understand by breakfast. Doubtless it is, in the
strict sense. break fast-that is, it is sort of
stay-stomach, something that enables nature
to get along until luncheon; a repast which,
still informal. corresponds more to our ideas of
what the first meal of the day should be- But
why this difference?
The truth is that in America we adhere pretty
closely to the English meal hours of 100 or $50
years ago. while in the mother country a change
has taken place that has put dinner back to
ntr han &c nafnn 1o&n
night; has made tea an afternoon excuse for a
gathering, and while making breakfast later and
lighter than of old. has rendered midday lun-
cheon necessary. That is the case in nutshell.
We went along with the stream until we sepa-
rated from England, and then we halted. and
with few exceptions we have chung pretty closely
to the Old-tne hours. 1t would be- were there
time. interesting to enquire to what extent our
meal hours have affected our habits both social
and other. There would not be much to sur
prise one who is in the habit of tracing great
things back to their small fountains. did such an
investigation establish the fact that our push
and viGOr depended at the start to no small ex-
tent upon the hours at which we took our food
This suggestion is not advance with any refer
ence to its possible physiological or hygienic
bearings. but solely with view to the conyen-
fence OF the hours. One thing, at least. is GER
tain, ana that is that everything in America
with the solitary exception of newspaper work.
now hinges upon our meal hours. Business Oc-
the gulf. from east to west, are adjusted to
them. Society is slave to them. Home life
revOiveS around them.
So much by way of prelude to glance at the
causes that make breakfast in an American
house the enjoyable thing it is. First of ALL so
much Oh the English custom has been retained
as to invest the first meal of the day with in
forlnality. Then it is pre-eminently the meal at
which the wife and mother presides. At dinner
pater famlllas rules the roast. Journalism,
Of and Of
If there be visitors at the board, make the
occasion one of ceremony. One feels during
much OF the meal as if he were sacrificing to a
fetish CT prmneSs. and while there NAV be no
reason for it, he is never wholly at his ease I'M
til the cloth is removed and the ladies gone.
chairs are drawn closer. glasses filled and re-
serve sent after the women But at breakfast
there is no such feeling. The pretty lady behind
the urn never looks SO nice. is never so charm
ing. as seated there in her neat morning dress
Dusylng herself to supply the wants of
her household And then the talk. The aban-
don OF it is perfect. One tells of his dream the
night before and adds little to its horrors that
he may entertain the children, or the lady cousin
by his side. Perhaps she has had one, too, and
after some cOaXin@ she tells it. looking lovely
enough to kiss while she does so. All sorts of
topics are introduced and discussed. Refreshed
minds plan for the day. and discuss the play or
the opera of the night before. So the talk runs
on freely, bound by no rules for by common
T..
This disregard of rule is very comfortable
Every man in the world, and woman, too for
that matter, feels more at ease in slippers than
in boots and there is such sort OF thing as
slippered state, when the stiff leather and
buckram of the day are yet TO be donned. that
pervades the breakfast hour.
There is delightful originality about the
average American breakfast table tempered in
households under the gentle sway of cultured
woman by refined taste. And what can be
nj hon bafS 10 of, tod
culture mind you; no mere blind copying of
the thing or the style on which some autOcrat of
society has set the stamp of fashion. Enter this.
that or the other English breakfast ROOM and if
the people can afford it you will find your cup
an exquisite thing, your plate. your knife and
fork spoon and egg-cup all elegant; but their
elegance is of a certain sort that has obtained
the linprimatur of some social potentate. Even
the talk runs in certain confined channels. dis
tlnctly enough marked. it may be, but not Origi-
nal: sets talk alike. But here one misses that
and is glad to miss it. People sometimes talk
about cosmOpolitanism as if it were great and
a desirable thing. Ask the cosmopolitan himself
what he thinks about it, and he will tell
you, unless he has seen the world to very little
purpose. that he Wearies of the sameneSs it
brings. and prefers one touch of originality to
VIDE reaching intinities of life, after the world
model. This originality makes it hard to de-
scribe the breakfast table. by which is meant the
material thing itself In one thing we are GER
unless it is not ours, but is borrowed from Eng
land. 1t is not easy to account for this, for we
are inventive enough to have developed new
forms. and we have in our country all the ma
terials requisite to the production OF the best
ware. Still, it is a truth. Let us be consoied,
however; we don't eat china. What we can eat
we have in greater variety and abundance than
any one else, and generally, despite all that is
said to the contrary, it is nicely cooked. AS
consolation Tor those aesthetic souls that dote
Oh the utter, it may be mentioned that it is
whispered a reform is to be effected in cups and
saucers. Rumor even says. without limiting
how they are to be replaced, that they are to
disappear from the breakfast table. Oscar has
pronounced them shapeless. Be it so; it is
enough to know that they cannot 20 until SUBJ
stitutes have been provided
A word about some other breakfast tables.
The difference between the English and Ameri-
can is slight. 1t is not so much in it's tone as in
what is on the board. Our transatlantic cousins
have everything very nice; they distance us
altogether in the form and material of their
plates and other crockery; they have not
learned to discard good steel for plated iron that
will not cut, and they believe in light meal at
the breakfast hour. Cold bread takes the place
OF our hot, fresh rolls; beefsteaks are rarely
seen. In France the wandering American finds
breakfast, as he understands it, a delusion and