The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-05-24
SUNDAY COOKING AND EATING.

SUNDAY COOKING AND EATING. 7 The Milwaukee Free Press, breaking away from state and National politics for 2 brtsf few. minutes. fiings few dor hicks at Sunday dinners. It says: +
 It ia the great meal of the week. and It comes ab0ut four hours after the great sbreakfast of the week, which is eaten late and. when people. are hungry. It comes after a forenoon when nobody has been exercising at all; after people have been in church or spending the forenoon over Sunday newspapers; that is, those who have not been hard at work preparing 1t. It comes at the hour of the day-or an hour later, when on other days people take light lunch looking forward to the evening dinner. It makes the hardest day in the week for those who prepare the meal. keeping them busy with 1t and clearing up after 1t un- til the middle of the afternoon
 There's a world of solid truth in this indictment, and 1t applies with special force to homes where the woman does the housework. Unless there is some pressing reason for 1t, breakfast is not eaten at. an early hour on Sunday like it Is on other days, and by the time that meal Is disposed of and the breakfast dishes cleaned up. it is time to start the dinner to cooking. Then, even when that meal is eaten at or near noon. the house. wife can rarely get to rest before two in the afternoon. and then. as they some- times. express 1t. she Is "too tired to rest" For the same reason. the male members of the family, who have risen early and worked hard all the week, want to lie later on sunday morning, so. as The Press says. the. dinner comes without proper wait between it and breakfast. It Is not as enjoyable under such condi- tions. nor Is it sor well for the health of the family And. for the very reason that the Sunday dinner is usually the most elaborate meal of the. week, all who partake of it, not having had proper time to digest breakfast. are apt to eat more than is good for them. Breakfast at o'clock and full dinner at noon is not good program.
 The Press proposes as remedy 'to have ,breahfast on Sunday at about the usual hour for there of the week. Then light lunch at the usual hour-a lunch g. little lighter than on other days be- cause. having done nothing between 1 times, a lighter one is all that is needed.
 Then at about the weekday dinner hour, have a light supper which can be pre- pared without the assistance of the maids, who will not be about at that hour, any, howl. This doesn't seem to meet some. of the main objects sought for. To rouse the family on Sunday mornings and have them eat breakfast at the usual hour for working people would cut out the morn ing rest on the only day they have to enjoy it.Then, if a light lunch is eaten about noon, would not ali hands be hun gry enough to make heavy meal of the proposed light supper" and thus fail to be benefited by change of habit? To our mind. there is really no remedy for the evils complained of. If each man or woman would only eat such food, and in such quantities, as nature requires. the problem would be settled, but that would require such a change of customs as can hardly be hoped for. No man, sitting down to dinner at his own table, if guests or strangers, are present. would care to leave the table when he had eaten as much as was good for him, and if he remains at table until all are done,
 he must either eat too much or appear
 eccentric; and perhaps give the guests
 reason to think the dinner was not good. It was saying of old Socrates that
 ''bad men live that they may eat and
 drink, whereas good men eat and drink
 that they may live" and that marks the
 difference between the two extremes. It
 is not that those who live to eat and
 drink are necessarily wicked, but they
 are bad from hyglenic point of view.
 And all this doesn't solve the question:
 of Sunday rest and Sunday cooking and eating.