Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-06-15
EVIL OF EATING ALONE
Talk and COmpanfOnshfp Are Essen.
tfai to Proper Digestion.


From the Lancet
At time like the present when tho
marrying age Of the average man of the
miodle classes is being more and more
postponed. the physical ills Of bachelordom
come increasingly under the notice of the
medical man. 1t is not good for man or
woman to live alone. Indeed, It has been
well said that for solitude to be successful
man must be either angel or devil This
refers. perhaps. mainly to the moral as
poets OF isolation, and with these we have
now no concern.
There are certain physical ills, however.
which are not the least among the disad-
vantages of loneliness. OF these there is
many clerk in London many young bar
rister 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 a premature
dyspepsia is the only thing that ever takes
MIN to his medical man. There are some
few happily disposed individuals who can
dine alone and not eat too fast nor too
much nor too little. With the majority 1t
Is different. The average man puts hts
novel or his paper before him and thinks
that he will lengthen out the meal with due
elaboration by reading a little with and
more between, the courses. He will Just
employ his mind enough to help, and too
H.
he will provide that gentle mental accom-
paniment which with happier people con-
versation gives to a meal
This is your solitary's excellent idea In
reality he becomes engrossed I'm what he
is reading till suddenly finding his chop
cold he demolishes it in a few mouthfuls;
or else he finds that he is hungry and paw
ing attention to the book which he
filings aside, he rushes through his food
as fast as possible, to plunge into his arm
chair and literature afterward. In either
case the lonely man must digest at a dis
advantage. For due and easy nutrition
food should be slowly taken and the mind
should not be intensely exercised during
the process. Every one knows that violent
bodily exercise is bad just after a meal,
and mental exertion is equally so.
Wise people do not even argue during
or just after dinner, and observation OF
after-dinner speeches will convince any
one that most speakers neither endure
themselves nor excite In their hearers any
severe intellectual effort.
In fact. the experience of countless gen.
erations, from the red Indian of the woods
to the white-shirted diners of a modern
party. has perpetuated the lesson that a
man should not eat alone, nor think much
at this time, but should talk and be talked
to while he feeds. Most people do not
think much when they talk, and talking is
natural accompaniment OF eating and
drinking.
How does it fare with the many soli-
tary women of today? No better we know
than with the men, but differently Alone
or not man may generally be trusted at
any rate to take food enough 1--WE SUM-
pose, of course, that he can get IT'D With
a woman Ii is different. She is more emo
tional. more imaginative and less inclined
to realize the gross necessities of exist
ence. Therefore, the woman doomed to
dine alone as often as not does not dine
at all She gets dyspepsia because her
digestion has not sufficient practice; a man
gets 1t because 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
fats in London there thousands of
women doing for their solitary masters
or mistresses These women, whose main
occupation is to prepare food for others,
find 1t impossible to enjoy. or even 10 take.
food themselves. AS confectioners are said
to give their apprentices a free run of the
stock of the shop for the first few days,
petite afterward. so the women who are
always occupied with buying and prepar-
ing food grow unable to use it for them
selves. These people suffer from dyspep-
STA, which is cured If somebody else man
ages their kitchen for a week allowing
them to take meals without preparing ,
them.
1t needs no moralist to declare the evils
of solitariness. Man and woman Is a gre
garious animal. Physically and intellec-
tually we improve with companionship.
Certainly 1t Is not good to eat and to drink
alone. 1t Is sad fact of our big cities
that they hold hundreds of men and wo-
men who In the day are too busy and at
night too lonely TO feed with profit, much
less with any pleasure.