The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-09-23
FOR FEMININE READERS
THE ADVANTAGE OF THE COURSE
DINNER OVER sFAMILY FEED"
College Training Out OF Favor with a
Certain Fashionable Class-A
Trade for Women.

man may be rich and increased in
goods and yet keep the safe path to heaven,
says Marion Harland, in the Philadelphia
North American. His wife may wear pur-
pie and fine linen, and both may fare
sumptuously every day. yet live godly and
sober lives and inherit everlasting life.
A statesman may take glass of wine
at friends table and yet hold fast 20
his integrity and deserve the confidence or
his constituents.
1t is entirely possible for the ascetic to
be as worldly minded as the epicure.
This preamble was provoked by the talk
of two men who sat behind me on subur-
ban train this afternoon. One, judging from
his dress and intonations, was minister.
/ fancy he would not like to be called
clergyman" The other took pains to re-
mark that he was "a self-made man." He
capped the remark by asserting that he
did not give in to worldly yanities, al
though he could buy them what practyzed
such three times over
He was. Furthermore. of the opinion that
1.-The country is going to the dogs all on &C
count of the sinful extravaganza and fol-
de-lols of women who think men are born
for nothing but to provide them with fine
clothes and fine furniture and to keep them
in style" He had mo manner of patience
with new-fangled notions like course din
ners and the like. Plain roast, billed and
fried, with vegetable or two and a slice
CT pie at O'Clock in the day, was good
enough for him or any other American
Christian.
Seems as if the Nation never will learn
righteousness, even when judgments are
abroad in the land. We've lost one Vice
President through denominations like course
dinners. They do say he eat eighty-odd Of
EN- hand running.
If such stuff were not current gossip, and
had not been repeated in so-called respect
able newspapers, the tale might better be
passed over in silent contempt.
The great national loss SO fippantly re-
ferred to by our self-made plebeian is too
fresh in our minds to allow us to laugh the
editorial-to which, by the way, the clerical
companion of the unworldly passenger re-
ferred-held up the eighty consecutive
course dinners as warning TO nation
that is making haste to be rich and luxuri-
Gus. The editor, the clerical indorser of the
admonition and the purse proud plain
man. who has no manner of patience with
such worldly vanities-one and all-devour
300 consecutive dinners every year. The
worldliness-ergo, the sin-of the function
lies in the arrangement of soup, fish, meats
and sweets in regular courses according to
rules prescribed by dietetic and social laws.
Such a meal, according TO our customs,
verges upon immortality. The family feed
is virtuous.
With groanings of spirit 1 recall
Thanksgiving feed to which L was one set
down. A genuine old-fashioned (hence al
together laudable) Thanksgiving dinner.
When my plate reached me the mountain
Gus contents almost touched my chin. I'M
prints, roast turkey, stuffing and gravy;
secundus, four kinds of vegetables. incud-
ing cabbage and turnips; tertius cranberry
GAUGE, pickles and currant 'jel." A SINH
lar collection confronted every one of the
ten iredestined eaters. Eight out of the
ten bent him and herself TO the task with
energy that cleared the dish,'' and, for
aught / know, licked the platter clean
before could disengage bit of the brown
bird from its membranes. Then every
body had second help. When time" was
called for plum pudding, mince and pump
kin pie all eyes stood out with fairness.
Ii came TO me like a revelation, in recall
ing that awful gorge" while my pursy
neighbor discoursed, that he imagined the
obnoxious eighty-odd course dinners, hand
running, to be equivalent to that number of
family feeds. In which case / fully
acquiesce in his objurgations. The mortal
was never created-Jack's Welsh giant no
exception-who could survive the undertake
ing.
He may never see this page. The prob
ability Is that he never casts his lordly eve
upon woman's department. There may
be others who require to be told that it is
more healthful, as we'll as more seemly,
to partake leisurely of many harmonious
| Titles than to gobble promiscuous whole.
The smooth sequence of courses-any one
or two, or three of which the diner may
refuse if he willis the friend, not the
enemy of digestion. 1t promotes appetite
and satisfies it in an orderly fashion. The
eater rises content and comfortable from
the table over which he has fingered for a
social hour, filling the waits with cheer
full conversation.
There is all the difference between such
gracious ceremony and the business-like
bot of the family feed. that We see in
| the leisurely sips Of the hummng bird from
| Hover to dover as compared with the gulp
| and gorge OF the bloated toad.