The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-04-18
The Question of Lunches.


Unselfshness is a feminine virtue
which has called forth many admiring
and deserved tributes However, like
some other excellent qualities, it may,
| if not combined with common sense,
easily bring about results that one
could wish different. Generosity, for
example, is TO be commended, but a
person who makes gifts recklessly is
apt to come to want. To have a regard
for your appearance is eminently prop
er, but the moment that vanity holds
sway there is danger So, in forget
ting herself too utterly, the unselfish
woman runs the risk of losing her
health-of becoming a burden instead
of a help.
A very practical application of this
suggestion has to do with the noon
day meal of the woman who finds her
self alone at the luncheon hour. In
nine cases out of ten she will look
upon the getting of something to eat
as a nuiSance-a nuisance. moreover
to be put into the past as soon as pos
sible. If ii were the preparation of
lunch for Others-why, that would be
another story, But for herself, the
housewife thinks that cup of tea and
a piece of bread and butter will be am
pie. She does not consider that, be-
cause the morning has been full, and
her afternoon promises to be quite as
occupied, she owes a period of rest and
refreshment to mind and body And
this thoughtlessness for her own well
fare will work harm sooner or later.
No matter how busy woman may
be, she ought to make it a rule to stop
work for a time in the middle of the
day and eat a lunch that will do her
good. She will return to her work re-
freshed, and so will accomplish far
more than she could if she had not
been sensible. Then, too. the woman
who pays attention to her diet will
preserve her looks as we'll as her
health. Irregularity in meals. or in
sufficient or hastily taken food, will
bring the wrinkles to the face.
See if you cannot give yourself an
extra ten, or better, fifteen, minutes
for your lunch, and do not try to COM
bine some other occupation with the
eating. 1t is not a wise plan to have
a book or a paper beside your plate.
If you are alone in the house have
your lunch in the dining room rather
than on the kitchen table.
The little break in the routine will
relax the nerves, will change the cur
rent Of thought and will be a powerful
factor in bringing you through the lay
without getting over-tired.
OF course, if it be possible for the
housewife TO have her lunch with some
congenial companion or companions
the arrangement is always to be ia
vored. Solitude is not conducive either
to appetite or to good digestion In
one Jersey neighborhood there are half
a dozen women who have happily
solved the lunch problem. The nus
no nd nd
at home in the middle of the day; in
but one or two of the households are
there domestics. So what more nat
ural-and more sociable-than an in
formal luncheon club?
The club was like Topsy-it Just
growed." 1t came about not as the
working out of any special plan; the
friends simply found that by joining
forces at lunch there was added enjoy
ment for all of them. No one plays
the hostess and prepares the meal for
the rest-that would be an unequal d.
vision of things. Each gets her own
lunch, and, putting it on a tray, re-
pairs to the appointed place-one day
at this house, the other at that. The
one at whose house is the. gathering
simply provides an extra supply Of tea.
After the meal, perhaps fancy work.
or. it may be, the homely darning is
brought out-and a quarter or half an
hour is spent in conversation as he
needles play. When the neighbors sep
arate it is with anticiDations for the
This has gone on for some ,nrce
years-in winter around a dining ;ab!e.
in summer on a piazza or in a trees
shade. Might not the experiment lie
worth trying in other neighborhoods,
among other friends?