Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1901-06-26

t1e marrying age of Lle average man 6; the middle ci isses is being more ana more postponed, the physical ills ci bachelerdom com3 increasingly under the notice of the medical man lt is not good for maA or woman to i've alone. Indeed. it har been well said that for solitude to be successful a man must be either angel or devil. This refers, perhaps, mainly to the mroal aspects of isolation, and with these we have now no concern.
 There are certain physical ills. how ever, which are not the least among the disadvantages Of loneliness. Of these there is many clerk in Lon don, many a young barristef, rising perhaps, but not yet far enough risen. many business man or journalist who will say that one of the most trying features of his unmarried life is to have to eat alone. And pre- mature dyspepsia is the only thing that eyer takes him to his medical man. There are some few happily dis posed individuals who can dine alone and not eat too fast, nor too much nor too little. With the majority it is diff ferent The average man puts his novel or his paer before him and thinks that he will lengthen the meal with due deliberation by reading a little with, and more between the courses. He will just employ his mind enough to help, and too little to interfere with, digestion. In fact, he will provide that gentle mental ac- compartment which with happier peo- pie conversation gives to a meal
 This is your solitary's excellent idea. In reality he becomes engross- ed in what he is reading till suddenly finding his chop cold he demolishes it in few mouthfuls; or else he finds that he is hungry and paying no at tention to the book, which he filings aside, he rushes through his food as fast as possible, to plunge into his armchair and literature afterwards. In either case the lonely man must digest at a disadvantage. For due and easy nutrition food should be slowly taken and the mind shuold not be intensely exercised during the pro- cess. Everyone knows that violent bodily exercises is bad just after a meal. and mental exertion is equally so.
 Wise people do not even argue dur ing or just after dinner. and obsorv:t- tion of after-dinner speeches will cen. vince any one that most speakers neither endure themselves nor excite aal effort
 In fact. the experience of countless l generations from the red Indian of | the woods to the white-shirted diners of a modern party has perpetuated | the lesson that man should not eat l alone, nor think much at this time. but should talk and be talked to while 1 he feeds. Most people do not think | much when they talk. and talking is | a natural accompaniment of eating and drinking
 How does it fare with the many sol l itary women of today? No better. we know, than with the men, but differ ently. Alone or not a man may gen orally be trusted at any rate to take food enough eve suppose, of course, is different. She is more emotional, more imaginative, and less inclined to realize the gross necessities of ex- lstence Therefore. the woman doomed to dine alone as often as not does not dine at all She gets dys- pepsia because her digestion has not sufficient practice; a man gets it be- cause his functions practice it too often in the wrong way
 Worst of all, perhaps, is the case of the solitary cook In the myriads of small flats in London there are thousands of women doing" for their solitary masters or mistresses. These women. whose main occupa- tion is to prepare food for others, find it impossible to enjoy, or even to take, food themselves. As confec- tioners are said to give their appren- tices free run of the stock of the shop for the first few days, knowing that it will effectually cure appetite afterwards. se the women who are al ways occupied with buying and pre- pairing food grow unable to use it for