The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-08
By Margaret E. sangster.

(Copyrieht. 1905, by Joseph B. BoWles.l I am afraid there are thousands or homes in which good table talk IS un- known. People are preoccupieo or hurried, worried or cross, ana they eat in silence. The presence at the table of A single disagreeable or uncongenial person may impose silence on the rest, and conversation is limited to requests for the bread or the water, and to brief monosyllables, from the head or the house. while the children sit by like mutes at 2 funeral
 As the family table is the place where three times a day the whole house. hold is gathered, it ought to be the op- portunity for mirth, laughter, refined enjoyment and pleasant intercourse. Animals may be fed; human beings in taking food have something beyond the body in. view, and should renew brain tissues and spiritual necessities when they replenish life's waste and satisfy physical hunger.
 The morning train is a natural foe to breakfast talk. Few of us have the good sense and courage to rise a half hour earlier, and set forward the first meal of the day in order that it may be taken without haste, and with out that air of hustle which is fatal to repose. At noon the children hurry in from school and eat their luncheon with an eye upon the clock.
 As most of our homes are consti- tuted. the convenient time for leisurely lingering at the table and for agree able talk is found at the evening meal, dinner or supper. as the case may be Here is the time of times for ex- changing condolences about what has happened during the day. The mother has had her engagements at home, the fot nd haA ( work, and on each side there is sure to be something to relate which shall be a suitable peg on which to hang discussion.
 Of course. the family table is not lecture platform, nor a pedagogue's desk, nor an area for heated argument. There are homes in which the law of self preservation has induced the reign ing sovereign, who is the lady of the house. to lay down as an infiexibIe rule, never bring politics to the table. They provoke anger and bitterness. Where any subject excites strongly contrasting opinions that may be in- temperately maintained, 1t is wise to prohibit 1t, at an hour sacred to domestic peace.
 Whatever we do. we should not quar- rel at the table Dyspepsia Is one of the enemies that we as a people need to fight, and It's presence Is invoked by disputes over food Table talk should be light, cheery. bright and entertain ing. If anybody hears a good story during the day, he should save 1t to tell at dinner. IT there is in the newspaper a report of some great discovery, some new invention. some heroic deed, that is fit topic for talk when the family are assembled around the board.
 In some houses the old motto: Chill dren should be seen, and not heard, still holds sway and combined with it is another equally harmful to the effect that little pitchers have big ears. The plan truth of the matter is that noth- ing should ever be said in the family circle which the little pitchers" ought not to hear, that every sort of gossip, censure. criticism, and bit of doubtful information not intended for them should be reserved for places and times when and from which they are absent, and that well-bred children should be allowed their proper share in family talk.
 This does not mean that forward child should monopolize the attention of everybody; a precocious one make speeches at which the family smile ap- provingly, nor an obstinate one pound on the table till he gets an answer to his question. Well-bred children are taught not to interrupt, and to wait until there is an interval in the con versation of older people before they press their claims. A family Is not a penitentiary nor a reformatory. It is a republic, in which the rights of every member are, or ought to be, guaran- teed One right of childhood Is to learn. and much of the practical knowl- edge which children may learn Is ac- Quired outside of the school room and in the home.
 If there is one person more than another to be regarded with dismay, 1t is however. the one who may be de- fined as the educational parent. He Is so imbued with a sense of his respon- sibility to the rising generation that he side tracks everything that dnes not