Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-10-30
EATIMa IM hAsTE
T0 It May Safely Re Attributed the N0
 tional Disease of Dyspepsia.

tional Disease of Dyspepsia.
 There is no doubt that the average American eats too rapidly. Noone who has witnessed the feats of deglutitioD performed by commercial travellers at a railway station will cavil at this asser- tion. It is safe to attribute the nation al disease of dyspepsia to this cause fully as much as to the indigestible viands of which the ordinary citizen makes his chief diet. And this haste is not confined to the hotel dining-room or the railway eating-house. In the pri- vate household as astonishing and dis gusting exhibitions of rapid gorging may be seen as are ever witnessed in public restaurants.
 No one who had once beheld the spec tacle e,could ever forget the fashion in which meals were conducted in a cer- tain home where wealth and every evil dence of outward refinement gave prom ise of better things. The father, a man of business from his sixteenth year, plainly considered eating the duty to be accomplished at the table, and quite ignored such minor considerations as the interchange of drought or observa- tion, or any of the social features usu- ally connected with the operation of dining. If he could not quite equal Napoleon the First, who was said to have often devoured his entire dinner in six minutes, he did not fall far be- hind the great warrior. Soup, meat, vegetables, dessert, were swallowed in rapid succession and in almost utter si- lence. The slight delay inseparable from a change of courses was endured i'm finnflyy A1ponot hnfnrn fhn 1ouf mouthful was down, the eager man would push back his chair, spring to his feet, and, with a muttered word of fare- we'll, 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 were not backward in initiating him, and all the pleadings of their refined, care-worn mother were powerless to check the influence of the fathers example. With such rush at meal-times. elegant or even tolerable decent table manners were impossible, and the visitor in the home found eating a difficult business when accompanied by the sight of haste and habits that often could only be described as revolt ing.
 If the midday meal must be hurried, let it also be simple. There is no rhyme or reason in attempting to dispose of a three or four courseU dinner in thirty or forty minutes. If only half an hour can be allowed for the repast, let this con- sist of two courses only, either a soup and a meat course, or 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 simplicity.
 Upon this point the house mothea must insist. Even if her husband will not conform to her wishes in this re- gard, she should require from servants and children a certain amount of pro- priety in serving the meal and decorum in its discussion. After seeing that the dinner is punctually served, and that the courses follow one another prompt 1y, she should herself set the example of deliberate eating, and should strive, by the introduction of interesting subjects, to encourage the pleasant chat that is a potent aid to digestion. It will cost an effort to do this when she is weary and harrassed by household worries, but she will enjoy her own meal more, if her mind is, by any agreeable means, dis tracted little while from her cares.- Christine Terhune Herricl1, in Harper's Bazar.