The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1902-01-24
N.@%I
EVILS on. EATING ALONE

AT q time like the present, when
the marrying age Of the average
man of the middle classes is being
more and more postponed, the physi.
cal ills of bachelordom come in.
creasingly under the notice Of the
medical man. 1t is not. good for
man or woman to live alone. j In
deed it has been well said that for
solitude to be successful man must
either be an angel or devil. .ss3
This refers perhaps mainly to the
moral aspects of isolation, and with
these we have no concern. There
are certain physical ills, however,
which are not the least among the
disadvantages of loneliness. OF
these there is many clerk in
London, many a young barrister,
rising perhaps. but not yet far
enough risen; many a 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 ever takes him
to his medical man.
There are some few happy dis
posed individuals who can dine
alone and not eat too fast, nor too
much or too little. With the ma
jority it is different. The average
man puts his novel OF his news
paper before him and thinks that
he will lengthen out 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
accompaniment which with happier
pe opl> cow ersation gives to a meal.
This is your solitary's excellent
idea. In reality he becomes en-
crossed in what he is reading, till
suddenly, finding his chop cold, he
demoilshes it in a few mouthfuls,
or else he finds that he is hungry,
and paying no attention to the book,
which he filings aside as he r1shes
through his food as fast as posi-
BILE, to plunge into his armchair and
literature afterward. In either case
the lrnely man must digest at dis,
II
For due and easy nutrition food
should be slowly taken and the mind
should not be intensely exercised
during the process. Everyone knows
that violent bodily exercise is bad
just after a meal, and mental exer-
ton equally 80. 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 en-
dure themselves nor excite in their
hearers any severe intellectual
effort. In fact the experience of
countless generations, from the red
Indians of tho woods to the white
shirted dinners 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 a natural
accompaniment of eating and drink
ing.
How does it fare with the many
solitary women of today2 No better,
we know, than with the men, but
Alone or not, a man
may generally be trusted at any
rate to take food enough. 1--WE
of course, that he can get
it, With woman it is different.
She is more emotional, more imagi-
native and less inclined to realize
the gross necessities of exisrance.
Therefore the woman doomed to
dine alone often as not does not dine
at all. She gets dyspepsia because
has not sufficient practice "a
man gets it because his functions
practice it too often in the wrong
way. Men and women are gregari-
GUS animals. ]],I:,; u, i
lectually we improve with compan
Cenertinly it is not good,
to eat and to drink alone. 1t is a
sad fact of our big cities that they
hold hundreds of men and women
who in the day are too busy and at
night to lonely to feed with profit
much less with any pleas ure.-Lon-