Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1905-05-25
THE BREAKFAST HOUR.
L HAPPY STATE OF AFFAIRS
WHEN A MOVABLE FEAST.
Enforcing Rigid Punctuality Cues
tionable Virtue-Bells an 1mper-
Thence in a Home-Tyranny Of
Fixed Household System - "Try
Having an Elastic Breakfast
Hour" .a. ~-
By MARGARET E. sANGsTER.

BY MARGARET E. sANGSTER. I'D
Copyright. 1905. by Joseph B. Bowles.)
A cardinal point in the home manage
ment of many admirable housekeepers
is punctuality at the breakfast table.
Breakfast must be ready at the stroke
of the clock, and everyone must be
seated as soon as it is announced. The
argument for this is specious one.
How is the house to be set in order,
how is the daily work to get itself done,
If breakfast, of all meals the most i'm
portant, is delayed by drowsy people
who take their ease, to the confusion and
annoyance of the house mistress and the
disturbance of her system?"
I knew family living in a suburb of
New York who were compelled in chilly
winter mornings to be up and at the
breakfast table at six, the head Of the
house taking a -half-past six train to
business. No exceptions were allowed.
Guests staying in the house, an aged and
feeble grandmother, and the six chill
dren, all the way from II years old to
two. were obliged to come down in
stantly when the bell rang. A peremp-
tory rising bell sounded through the
house at quarter past five, and if this
did not rouse the children, the equally
peremptory summons of the mother did
so. The father, apologize, annoyed,
hurried, would have been thankful to
eat q solitary breakfast, but this, mad
anne would not entertain as feasible.
when papa has to go away so early,
and work so hard to support the chill
dren, it is little enough for them to be
downstairs early, and take breakfast
with, him. l cannot have breakfast
standing for hours, nor have trays gar
ried to rooms" she would say. Il am
sure grandmother is better for being up
early" In short, her system was inelas-
tic and inflexible, and no appeal could
be made from her decision. She was
an autocrat as really as the car, and
nobody dared protest.
am personally a rebel against bells
in a household. They are the proper
things in factories, prisons and orphan
asylums. Also in great institutions OF
every description where they save time
and labor. But I don't wish to be
aroused in the morning at home by an
intrusive clamor of bell, nor to be in
terrupted at noon by its impertinent
warning In a family there is generally
an understanding about the hours for
meals, and it is perfectly easy for every
one to obey this unformulated order.
so that all may gather in central place,
just before a meal is served, and there
may be a general response to the notice
Of dinner or luncheon, and the family
may rally without fuss and stir.
A bell disturbing the last nap Of an
elderly person or an invalid, is shock
ing discord in the morning. AS for chill
dren, they should never be wakened, but
should go to bed so early that, having
slept sufficiently, they will awake as the
birds do, without being called. But
they cannot do this, unless they have
the habit of early retiring, which should
never be optional with growing chill
dren.