The San Francisco call., 1904-12-26
CONNECTION BETWEEN
love AND FOOD AN
INTERESTING Study
BY Dorothy FeDimore
THE close connection between
mans love and food is worthy of

mans love and food is worthy of
university monograph by a
specialist in domestic scence. Such a
work. if couched in noble language,
might revolutionize the higher educa-
ton of woman by furnishing college
girls with mental pabulum suited at
once to their intellectual needs and
their feminine aspirations.
To-day man is either less ethereal
or more ingenious than Shakespeare
was. or Milton: he does not look upon
music or smiles as adequate food for
the affections. Dickens showed deep
Insight Tito the nature of his sex when
nc made chops and tomato sauce an
important argument in breach of
promise suit. And DR.. Andrew Wilson
exploded one favorite illusion of
youthful lovers about the cheap sim
plicity of loves dietary by declaring
that bread and cheese. while good
enough meal for a farm laborer, would
prove indigestibe 10 city man. He
does not even hint that a modicum of
kisses would do the service OF pepsin.
Good coking, it is generally agreed,
is the logical basis of domestic hap
piness Tis the married mans critic
rion of wifely ability. 1t is the bache
lor's dream of a happy home. The
easy chair and pair of slippers at a
cheerful freside are out of date as a
lovers inspiration. The gas stove has
come into fashion in their place. Nor
car the mandolin and light guitar
oh
tic spells to lure the masculine fancy.
No longer do women. like sirens on
the rocks. attract the heart of man by
songs. Like Hebe, rather, they charm
Olympus by the more substantial
magic of nectar and ambrosia.
Even women's clubs have taken the
matter up. In Solmen convocation not
very long ago the Social Economics
Club of Illinois gave the cook stove
the place of honor among the three
essentials of a home. And an asso-
citation OF young society ladies has
been formed in a fashionable suburb
Of Philadelphia to learn the double
arr of winning a husband and retain
ing his affections. Feed him substan-
tally is the motto which they are
embroidering in golden thread on the
perforated cardboard of their maiden
dreams. with view of using this wis
dom as household adornment. just as
before them their grandmothers
framed Home, Sweet Home" to hang
over the mantelpiece.
Hetty Green, who has the reputation
Of possessing the wisdom of the SER
pent, puts upon the poor housekeep-
ilig of the American woman full blame
for the prevalence of divorce. If she
is right-and. since / would not dare
to contradict her TO her determined
face, ] viii not do so behind her equal
~ determined back-if our girls were
taught how to cook. the number of di-
vorces IN the United States, which the
last census estimated as 51,53S, would
be noticeably decreased. Possibly
with this reform in the education OF
American women, the bald-headed
eagle would in time come to be the
symbol of domestic as we'll as national
unity.
Mans position in regard to the rela-
tive Importance of love and food is
not different to-day from what it was
in earlier eras. King Solomans cry
vas oedy Ahc Win hdSOus, CoInlOIt
me with apples. for 1 am sick of love. .
Wordsworth put into gastronimic
terms his description of feminine
phantom OF delight
creature rot too bright and good
For human natures daily feed.
Some Of you may remember Lord
Cholmondeley's lovesick wall of woe
as it sounded to the lips of Sothern:
''Cahn't eat, cahn't sleep, cahn't
smoke Certainly Owen Meredith
that Myrtle Reed of former genera
tion, was right in declaring that the
great imperative masculine neeG is
food