The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-01-10

! commiserate those "goddams' who may
be seen each tourist season insisting
upon being served with heavy break
| fasts a panglaise in continental hotels.
! But it does not flourish on our soil,
! chiefly, perhaps, because 1t clashes with
4 the hours usually given to field sports,
and more than one hostess Of repute has
| had to revert to the normal British
meal-times,
| Approach to maturity-let me name
| five-and-fifty as the prime of life in
both sexes, though others may be found
| to fix the age both earlier and later
| approach to maturity, say, is usually
accompanied by an increasing reliance
| upon luncheon as prop, but it must
be admitted that there is some risk Of
it's being overdone Luncheon parties,
even where that terror of uncertain di-
,, gestions, daylight champagne, is not
offered, sometimes differ no whit either
in profusion or duration from dinner
parties You do not hand a lady to the
luncheon table, indeed, but license to
sit next whom you choose is not always
afforded you. Name cards for the
places at table have made their ap-
pearance, and SO sheep-like is the docili-
ty with which people follow almost any
decided lead, that the spread of this
custom Is matter of imminent appre-
hension. Guests are not arranged ac-
cording to precedence of rank; the
luncheon table is the favorite hunting
ground of the 1ion--dramatic, literary,
artistic or otherwise-and you may es-
innate with considerable precision the
position you have attained in any Of
these spheres by observing the place as
signed to yourself in the concentric dis
posal of the party at table in relation
to the star Of the day.
1t Is hazardous-very. In the judg-
ment of some the sole justification for
titles-hereditary or otherwse-exists
in the immutable laws of precedence
which regulate the order of a feast
They relieve host Of all responsibility,
and although exalted rank is not always
inalienable from agreeable social quail
ties, although Dulness-"born god
dess" will at times assert her right to
the chief rooms of our feasts it is not
the hosts fault if some of his guests
bore one another. 1t was not he who
decreed that a maid of honor should
rank before the wife of a baronet; 1t is
part of the British constitution that
she does But he goes on ticklish
ground who attempts to adjust his par
ty on their individual attainments.
Whatever care and tact are applied to
arranging luncheon party (and these
cannot be applied to better purpose,)
the meal itself loses half it's charm If it
is suffered to part with at least the sug-
gestion of impromptu.
And let 1t not last too long. Lunch
con should be dealt with only as stay.
Many people want-all are better If they
get-no more. Shooting luncheons have
attained an exorbitant excess; / have
seen-and partaken Of voraciously--a
hot joint served In an osier bed in the
Mayfiy season and the most ascetic is
not proof against, the persuasion of an
agreeable host. Most sportsmen must
have noticed that open air exercise
abates the appetite for luncheon. A
very moderate ration carries one COM
fortably over long day. but that RAJ
ton must not be in the form Of sand
wiohes. Oh, MOI How little that noble
earl suspected to what melancholy Sc
ries of pale, insipid arid atrocities he
was lending his name! Perhaps with
out that name-without any convenient
specific ternl-the unhallowed union of
bread and meat would have withered
in its honeymoon, and some more bene-
fetal and less excruciating form Of food
would have held the field.-Pall Mall
Gazette.