The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-10-18

sion of all disagreeablc subjects should be
kept from the dinner table,
All that Is unpleasant lowers the pulse
and retards the digestion. All that is
cheerful invigorates the pulse and helps
the human being to live more brave and
useful life. No one should bring an unbe-
coming grumpiness to the dinner table.
Be grumpy next day if you choose (when
the terrapin may have disagreed), but not
at the feast. Bring the best bit of news
and gossip (not scandal), the choicest
critlque of the last novel; the cream of
your correspondence; be sympathetic,
arniable and agreeable at feast, else it
were better you had stayed away. The
last lesson of luxury is the advice to con-
tribute of our very best to the dinners of
our friends, while we form our own din
ners on the plane of the highest luxury
we can afford and avoid the great "too
much" Remember that in all countries
the American lavish prodigality of feast
ing, the expensive garniture OF hot-house
flowers, is always spoken OF as vulgar.
How well it will be for US when our splen-
did array of fish, flesh and fowl shall have
reached the benediction of good cookery,
when We know how to serve it, not with
barbaric magniticence and repetition, but
with delicate sense of fitness.
Mr.. Webster, himself an admirable din
ner giver, said of Goldfish salad that it
was ''fit TO eat" He afterwards said, and
it made him unpopular, that certain
nomination was not lit to be made"
That led to a discussion OF the word
''it," the fitness of things, the right
amount, the thing in the right place,
whether it be the continent of a salad or
the nomination to the presidency. This
is the thing to consult, to think OF, in a
dinner: let it be fit to be made.
An American dinner resolves itself into
the following formula:
The oyster is offered first The Ameri-
can oyster in all his salt sea freshness
raw, on the half-shell, a perpetual stimu.
liant to appetite, slice OF lemon, bit OF
salt and pepper, his own luscious juices,
his perfect fiavor--what can equal an
American raw oyster? The jaded palate.
worn with much abuse, REEVES and stands,
like Oliver, asking for more.
The soup follows. To this great subject
We might devote chapter. What visions
of white and brown. clear and thick fresh
beef stock or the maritime delicacies OF
cray fish and prawn rise before US, every
color from pink cream to all the shades
deep down to the heavy Venetian red OF
the mulligatawny or the deep smoke tints
of mock turtle and terrapin-the subject
grows too large for mere mention; we
should give chapter to soup.
Fish-here again the ocean even is In.
adequate to hold them all. Have we not
trout, salmon, the great fellows from the
great lakes; have we not the exclusive
ownership of the Spanish mackerel
Have We not the fee simple of terrapin
and the exclusive excellence of shad?
This subject again requires volume.
The roast! All! here we once bowed to
our great mother, England, and thought
her roast beef better than ours. There are
others who think We have caught up on
the roastS.
Our mutton does not equal always the
English southdowns, but we are even
improving in the black-nosed woolly breth-
rem who conceal such delicious juices
under their warm coats.
A roast saddle of mutton with currant
jelly-but let US not finger over this thrill
ling theme! Our venison is the best in
the world!
As for turkeys-we discovered them
and it is fair to say that, after looking the
world over, there is no better bird than a
Rhode Island turkey, particularly if it is
Hang him week with truff1e in him;
stuff him with chestnut sauce.
But We anticipate. We dream.
AS for chickens-there France has us at
disadvantage. There seems to be a secret
of fowl feeding, or rearing, in France
which we have not mastered. Still we can
get good chickens in America, and noble
CdpOnb, Dub lhCy dlC NCly CApChoiNCs
The entrees-here We must 60 again to
those early missionaries to savage shore,
the Delmonicos. They were the high
priests of the entree.
The salads-these daughters of luxury,
these delicate expressions in food of the
art of dress, deserve separate chapter.
And now the sorbet cools our Threats
and leads us up to the game.
The American desserts are particularly
rich and profuse. Our pies have been
laughed at, but they also are "fit'' to eat,
especially mince pie, which is first cousin
to an English plum pudd ng.
Our puddings are like our Western seen
cry, heavy but magnificent. Our ices have
reached under our foreign imported artists
the greatest perfection. Our fruit is
abundant and highly favored.
We have not yet, perhaps, known how
to draw the line as to desserts. The great
''too much" prevails.
Dc we not make our dinners too long
and too heavy? How great an artist
would be he who should so graduate din
ner that there would be no tomorrow
in It'll
We eat more like Heliogabalus than like
that gourmet who took the beccaico out of
the olive, which had been hidden in the
pigeon. who had in his turn been warmed
in the chicken, which was cooked in the
OK. which was roasted whole for the birth
day of king. Eat only the beccafico
from the olive.
The first duty of guest who is asked to
one of these dinners is to be punctual.
Who wishes to sit next Mr.. MANY Courses
when he has been kept waiting for his
dinner?
Imagine the feelings of an amiable host
and hostess, who, after having taken the
trouble of getting up an excellent dinner,
feel that it is being spoiled by the tardi-
mess of one guest! They are nervously
watching Mr.. Many Courses, for hungry
animals are frequently snappish, and
sometimes dangerous.
The hostess who knows how to invite her
guests and to seat them afterwards is a
power in the state. She helps to refine.
elevate and purify our great American con-
glomerate.
She has not the Englishman's Bible. the
peerage, to help her seat her guests. she
must trust to her own intelligence to do
that. Our great American coneIomerate
repels all idea of rank or the precedence"
idea, which is so we'll understood in Eng
land. Even those more choice intelli-
gences, which in older countries are put
on glass pedestals, are not so elevated here
as TO excite jealousy.
The highest grade of mediocrity is
reached by this republican hostess. 1t is
not always safe rule at dinner to trust
to that.
Therefore the hostess has not to contend
with much that is puzzling in the seating
of her guests.
But if she says to herself: al will place
those people near each other who are sym-
pathetic she will govern her festive
board with the intelligence of Elizabeth
and the generosity of Queen Margharita.
And she must avoid too many highly
scented flowers. People are sometimes
weary of the rapture of roses" Horace
SAYS avoid at an agreeable entertain n
ment discordant music and muddy per
fume. and peoples. mixed with Sandman