The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1882-06-01
The Woman who Eats.

Vlvlu recOlleculOu OF u Clm0 IN Amer1-
can social history when it was fashion
able and "genteel" to eschew eating as a
vulgar and sensuous matter. Those
were the times when it was the custom
for high-bred and refined people to eat
only the most ethereal diet. The dear
creatures who (nominally at least)
dined on canary-bird's wing, or suf-
fered surfeit when they had absorbed
spoonful of clover honey, are no more.
How we'll we remember them. They
wore white muslin and blue ribbons
They seldom danced. They adored By
ron 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 improve
their compilations, and smelled at vine
gar 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 se-
cretly addicted to bacon and greens.
The public scorn for all solid food was
an affectation. It was fashionable to eat
next to nothing. 1t was needful to eat
a 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 lite to boast of their gastronomic
achievements and to announce their
preferences for certain dishes. A charm
ing young friend of Nine. d'Arblay,
c.asping her hands rapturOusly, and
looking DIR. johnson in the face, said:
"Oh, l do love mashed turnips p 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." 1t was
after Johnson's time that young ladies ut
boarding schools 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
naturally took to advertising their
liking for what our plain-speak
ing California friends call
square meal" The dear creatures no
longer pretended they lived on air. and
that eating and drinking were vulgar.
The languishing die-away creatures
whom we meet in 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 tell Bur-
gundy from Bordeaux, knows the differ
ence betwixt frontage 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 broiling of lobster. Some
thing good to eat is more to her than art
or even fashion. Such one, describing
an evening entertainment, said: 1T was
unusually swell. The gentlemen were
witty and clever, and the crab salad was
simply heavenly"
This is not an exaggeration. IT 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. III
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
a coarse and boisterous affection of hearty
liking for good eating and drinking is
better than deceitful pretense of alb
stemiousness that deceives nobody. Men
and women must eat to live. 1t is ahigh
state of society in which the pleasures Of
the table are male to minister to the
stern necessities OF existence. It 10 .
low state in which mon and women Ill
themselves mechanically, never consid-
erinx anything but the volume Of the
10 I'd absorbed. And there is no reason
Why women who are not convivial, at
least, should not be competent judges of
what is best in food and drink. OF
course, We admit that ell women are an
gels, but 80 long - angels dwell among
men they must partske Of the nature OF
mortals. The woman who cannot az
preciate good dinner il 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 . change that begins and ends
with eating and drinking habits. Lot
the pessimists soy what they will, the
present 10 an age Of Commences and
candor. There il less nook modesty,
lees Of the humbug of seeming. than in
any generation that has gone before Ne,