Truth. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1901-1908, 1905-06-24
THE EATING AND DRINKING OF
DICKENS.
(By G. M. Jackson. }

OF all the noted authors of fiction,
Dickens was pre-eminent in a knowl-
edge of what is good to eat and drink.
None of them seem to have been en-
dowed with his artistic ideas upon the
subject; none display the. fund of in
formation relative to the satisfying of
the hunger and thirst of that imagi-
nary individual we designate "the
inner man." He was extremely cpl
curean in his taste, although he many
times demonstrates a familiarity with
the democracy Of diet and drink, for he
was at home, equally in the cheap eat
ing house or the more expensive and
elaborate cafe. His schooling in the
economy of living was obtained, it is
fair to presume, when he was working
as a reporter at a moderate salary
while his education in the costlier style
of nourishment was doubtless acquired
after he became, in a measure, famous
because it is in Martin Chuzzlewit
written after his reputation was Sc
cured, that he displays the greatest
erudition in the science of breakfast
ing, lunching and dining. Eating ap-
pears to have been duty; a ruling
passion, which was strong, even when
death approached, for the last word of
his last novel, which he never lived to
complete, "The Mystery of Edwin
Brood" was Appetizer" his last de-
scription was that of a man sitting
down at table.
He was bachelor of arts in the uni
versity of drinking, his familiarity with
decoctions calculated to increase hilar-
ity, or provoke desire for sleep, being
vast and complete. Nor was he at all
selfish in this scholarship; he wove it
into the fabrics of his many charming
stories in such tasty patterns that he
who reads cannot fail to be impressed
Half an hour with some of his books
the most of them, in facts a tonic
sufficient to provoke an appetite for
something tasty and substantial in the
way of victuals, while some of his de-
scriptions of what is good to imbibe
are graphic enough to provoke a desire
for strong waters in the heart of tota
abStainer.
He was conversant with the food ant
drink of the rich and the poor, for he
handles with equal facility the ISLAM
bang dinner of Messrs. Guppy, Small
weed and Jobling, and the expensive
MONDAY lunch of Montague Tigg. H,
discourses learnedly-aye, and affec
tionately-on the fifty-year-old port O.
) Mr.. Tulkinghorn, and displays an al
most pathetic fondness when he men
lions straight, stand-up English beer.
He was appreciative when fine old Ma
deria or choice Burgundy was unde
r discussion and POLITICALLY erudite in hi
, narratives of Rev. Mr.. Stiggin's pin,
apple rum toddy or Dick Swiveller
choice purl." He wrote learnedly o
Wardle's old wine and was cneerfu
when he described Bob Cratchit's gin
. and lemons.
On light lunches course dinners ant
heavy meals he was an encyclopedia
: and his idea of the eternal fitness O
+ things was charming. His eating wa
correctly done and his drinking of
sort that appeals to the educated. HI
never ate supper dishes in the mornin,
or took cocktail after MONDAY.
{ 1t will be Remembered that Thomas
Pinch one winter day, drove Mr.. Peck
shifts horse, attached to Mr.. Peck
: shifts gig, down to Salisbury for tn,