Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-11-06

has witnessed the feats of deglutition per-
| formed by CONNIE rcial travellers at a rail-
way station will cavil at this assertion. 1t
Is safe to attribute the national disease of
| dyspepsia to this cause fully as much as
] to the lndlgestible vians of which the ordi-
nary citizen makes his chief diet. And
this haste is not confined to the hotnl din
ing room or the railway eating house. In
| the private household as astonishing and
disgusting exhibitions of rapid gorging
may be seen as are ever witnessed In public
restaurants.
No one who had beheld the spectacle
could ever forget the fashion in which
me9ls were conducted in a certain home
where wealth and every evidence of out
ward refinement gave promise of better
things. The father, man of business
from his sixteenth year, plainly considered
eating the duty to be accomplished at the
table, and quite ignored such minor con-
slderations as the interchange of thought
or observation, or any of the social feat
ures usually connected with the operation
Of dining. If he could not quite equal
Napoleon the FIRST, who is said to have
often devoured his entire dinner 10 six
minutes. he did not fall far behind the
great warrior. Soup, meat, vegetables,
dessert, were swallowed In rapid success
sion and in almost utter silence The
slight delay inseparable from change of
courses are endured impatiently. Almost
before the last mouthful was down the
eager man would push back his chair,
spring to his feet, and, with a muttered
word of farewell, make a rush for the
street. In an instant the slam of the front
door would announce that he was on his
way back to his office.
His children are not backward in initial
ing him, and all the pleadings of their
refined, care worn mother were powerless
to check the influence of the father ex-
ample. With such rush at meal times,
elegant or even tolnrably decent table
manners were impossible, and the visitors
in the home found eating different bust
ness, when accompanied by the sight of
haste and habits that often could only be
described as revolving.
If the midday meal must be hurried.
let it be simple. There is no rhyme or
reason In attempting to dispose of three
or four course dinner in thirty Or forty
minutes. Ii only half an hour can be al
lowed for the repast. let this consist of
two courses only, either a soup and meat
course and d salad, or a meat course and a
dessert. These should be served promptly
but in an orderly fashion, and both the
conduct OF the dinner and the gastric
powers will be benefited by such sim
plicity.
Upon this point the house mother must
insist. Even if her husband will not con-
form to her wishes in this regard, she
should require from the servants and
children a certain amount of propriety in
serving the meal and decorum in its dis
cussion. After seeing that the dinner is
punctually served, aud that the courses
follow one another promptly, she should
herself set the example of deliberate eat
ing, and should strive, by the introduce
ton of interesting subjects, to encourage
the pleasant chat that is potent aid to
digestion. It will cost an effort to do this
when she is weary and harrassed by house
hold worries, but she will enjoy her own
meal more if her mind is, by any agree
able means, distracted little while from
her cares