Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-02-24


grows in forest, teid or s.r>4m, fruits CT
sun-kissed tropics ard flowers of every
cline. have wooed pailed appetites and wor-
ried Disguised digestions until diners out
began to feel like Aurelius who said:
when We have meat and similar dishes
before us We receive the impression that
this is the dead body of fish and that the
dead body Of a bird and that other the
dead body of a pig. That this .Falernian
Is only little grape juice and this purple
robe some sheep wool dyed with the blood
of shell fish. Such then are these i'm
pressions and they reach the things them
selves and penetrate them and so we all
see what kind of things we are" Nor is
1t much wonder that they sigh for surcease
of this dining business Each member of
the cabinet has fed all the other members of
the cabinet and the President as well, and
lowered" them all till Flora dropped her
wilted wand and declared there was no
new freak in her family which she could
present to kill the doors about the tables
of Epicurus. The foreign contingent of the
official family has lived up to its tradi-
tons for sumptuary magnificence and
munificence. The Supreme Court went the
whole pace ard Senators and Congressman
Jagged but little behind. Opposite Hia-
watha's silver canoe or the century old gilt
center piece of the state dining table the
President dispensed ceremonious hospital
ity two evenings each week until Lent put
an end to the dreary gastronomic feasts
and he gladly washed his hands of the
whole business in the lily of the valley
perfumed finger bowls. Now they are all
counting the cost in expended strength
impaired digestion, exhausted vitality.
1T balances on the wrong side" said
one charming woman whose dinners are a
real delight. People who live to eat are
not desirable friends, and people who eat
to live deprecate the style of entertaining
which makes a resident physician almost
as much of a necessity in ones family
as the butler or chef"
A Western Womnn's Plan.
The wife of a western Senator, who is
yet little new in Washington life, says
she likes it very much indeed, AL but the
feeding. This breakfast and lunch, tea
and dinner business, the everlasting nibble
nibble nibble is wearing my soul to rib
bons. Why, it would drive ostrich into
dyspepsia and bring a billy goat to his
death bed. i don't believe it is Christian,
and for my part the people who come to
visit me shall do ii for desire of my COM
pany and not for the qualification of their
appetites." So she omitted the feeds"
Consequently there is no ola podrida jam
Z
cream of intellect high breeding and Gull
ture.
The course of the Senator's wife was the
wisest. There is nc doubt in the world
that we eat too often and too much and
place too high an estimate upon the pleas
ures of the table. AS a political factor
dining has become a fine art The easiest
way to tame the animals is to gorge them
until they are too stupid to hurt one. The
way to mans heart is said to lead
through his stomach; ii may also lead the
way to mental and moral qualification,
for when wine is in wit goes out and the
pages of history have not infrequently
related the enactment of amazing changes
of policy following close upon political
banquets, when the host, as Goldsmith
puts it:
too deep for his hearers still went on
defining,
And thought Of convincing, while they
thought of dining
Dinner lubricates business" was Bos-
wells theory, while Byron declared that all
human history attests that 'since Eve
ate apples much depends on dinner"
/ The art of dinner giving is to satisfy,
not satiate, but far too many overlap
the goal and turn over to Claudius the
scepter that Epicurus should weld In
stead of tickling the palate with just
enough to insure prime condition for men,
/ tai or physical effort the goose is gorged
/ until his liver quits business in despair.
| This plan often depletes the census and
makes a change in the counting of a quo
rum in Congress, but man or two less
/ seems to be of no moment when one has
| a reputation to sustain as a dinner giYer.
Pliny once said, simple diet IS bes5. for
| many dishes bring many diseases, and rich
sauces worse than even heaDinS sew
/ eral meats upon each other pliny ought
/ to know something about it, for in his lay,
| and long before him, in fact. the Roman
/ censors had to pass sumptIary laws in
| which they attempted to regulate the cost
] of entertainment, the number of guests tC
/ 10
! eaten. At one time zone hen was permit
ted to be served up. and that not fattened
| for the purpose" England's sumptuary
! laws were curious affairs, but there could
! be no doubt that they leaned in the right
/ direction. One pa ssed in the time Of Ed
ward III had this preamble: Through
! the excessive and over many costly meat
which the people of this realm have used
more than elsewhere, many mischiefs have
happened, for the great men by their eX-
| ceSSeS have been sore grieved, and the lesser
people, who only endeavor to initiate the
/ great ones in such sorts IF meats, are
| much impoverished whereby they are hot
! able to aid themselves nor their liage lords
/ in time of need, as they ought, ana many
| other evils have happened as we'll to their
| souls as their bodies" and then the law
! enacts that mo man of whatever condition
or estate shall be allowed more than two
| courses at dinner supper or more than
| two kinds of food in each course. except
on the principal festivals of the year, when
| three courses at the utmost were allowed -
In Mcdiaeval Europe.
| In medieval Europe eating was costly
practice and must have been a regular
| tramp's paradise. Every table, from
that of the twenty shilling freebooter tC
| the table in the baron's hall aud abby re-
fectory, was open to all corners with free
fare, bread, beef and beer" Hospitality oil
that sort if practiced now would soor
| bankrupt a Congressman, yet the free din
ner of old England and the free officia
dinners of Washington had for their in
| ception the same desire, the controlling Of
power and patronage. In our attention L
the luxuries and cXtravagances of the
| table, however, we do not ape The fnSlisl
nor yet the SaXons, but feudal EDme Tn,
Saxons were good feeders, but they wer,
far from being epicures, and just as fal
from being gluttons. The SaEons woul,
have been classed as "hustlers," or in Ok
| lahoma diction, as ''sooners." They
swarmed over Italy, took possession Of
large part of France and finally roupdeC
up in England. People of their characte
and temperament do not succumD to tn
tyranny Of appetite. though the Saxon
seemed to have lived very Well. The ban
quet table of the SaXons was oblonS il
shape. The cloth was most often of Grim
son with borders of cloth Of gold. Til
chairs had concave backs and the peopl
sat at table we do: that is. with regar
to sandwiching the sexes. The SaXons live
principally upon meat. Th9y haI but on
vegetable, and that was kaleworth. Fish
flesh and fowl were used Unfortunately
They also ate sea hog and pOrpUiSe, tw
dishes long since fallen into dsuge. The.