The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-07-18
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

| ing pleas sure out or tnelr imaginary travels by lingering railway folders or guide books
 knew a man once who got great gustatory joy in lingering the lahels washed eff of wine bottles after he had washed down the dryness in his throat with their sparkling contents. His vas not the joy of the future but joyful remembrance
 I have even heard of gourmands who had the power to make their mouths water IF the mere handling and readirs of bills of fare. But this is all beyond me I can sympat thize with the literal ness of Ingersoll, who, in the midst of the silver craze said that "a paper dol lar without dollars worth of silve: or gold in the treasury to redeem it was no more q dollar than bill of fare was . dinner"
 I refuse to get my appetite up until I can see the tempting dishes or smell the savo1y cdors. It is true that l hold  dinners I have eaten, and that I can look forward with pleasurable feelings to an invitation to dine out, but when my inside dinner bell rings l can get more comfort cut of 10 minutes with my feet beneath a mahogany laden table of del- icacies than can out of perusng score of books beautifully illustrated show ing tables decorated in the latest style.
 Now, ia spite of all that I have writ ten about my indifference to reading about eating; in spite of all that l have said about my, preference for the actual food, I confess that every now ana me so hungry that L want to put 1t aside and. make a raid on the pantry or hit a bee line for restaurant 1 got hold of such a book the other day. It was "A Diary from Dixie" It had the same effect on me of story | read one lonesome Christmas that I put in by myself Tn Paris in my sudden, days. It was the description of how the old black cook went out and got the turkey, killed and dressed it, came m and stuffed il with oysters, and in cook ing it and browning it poured out just such a. stream of talk as I had scores of times when q boy heard from the lips of old Harriet, our family servant. It was too much for me, and 1 did no. try to keep back the tears.
 
 l have travelled much and visited or tals, and am familiar with the various national dishes and the excelencies ot noted chefs, but it is my honest and deliberate oEinion that there is no cook ing or more appetizing dishes than are to be had in the homes in the south where there remain the servants from ante-bellun days. landed in Norfolk once after a stormy trip from New York, on which I had been awfully sea sick. l was sure enough hungry was the days before the advent of the Greek) anG l asked the proprietor if he ! had anything especially nice. Notion ing me to follow he carried me back to the kitchen and told the negro COON | to open the door of the stove, and | just beginning to take on it's final coal of brown. Grinning, he safd Boss, dis aih't no shipped-in turkey. We got him out in de country, and he shore am fine and fat I saw the oyster 1 dressing in' the pan, and l went oack | and took niN seat, and told the waite-' 1 to serve ne from that turkey until 1 | said enough 1 ordered some celery, d cup of black coffee and this, with tha. | turkey, was my dinner. l never knew | before the truth of the old saying "tha. d turkey is an inconvenient sized bird on account of it's being too much for one man and not quite enough for two. " I'll wager right now while am writ l ing that some of you who are reading l this le ealing to mind times in your | own life when you made q big dent m turkey, loaded up on cranberry sauce 1 and stuffed on celery, and come precious near falling to sleep in spite of the 1 big cuo of atter-dinner that you swai ! lowed to keei you awake. 1 have oniy
 eaten q few wild turkeys in my lite; :, the tame cnes are good enough for me when they are cooked by old-time dar- l key cooks who were trained by ou.
 mothers or Srandmothers. "
 
 l Now, here is what 1 was going to write aboiit before | unlocked the doors 1 of memory and began to reminisce.
 Mrs. Chestnut, in "A Diary from Dixie, ' gives Hs delightful pictures of the life of the arstocracy before the war-just , those inside, intimate Slimpses tha, come to us like breath Of spring over l a bed rf roses. We see behind- the curtains at Montgomery, Charleston, Co. ] lumbia and Richmond, the way they lived during the war. It seems that shs l had been so much dined and wined 1 that she wanted to return some of the 1 hospitalities. with a breakfast luncheon l or a mat4nce to repay for the suppers,t dinners and breakfasts that she had l had given ln her honor.
 l Please remember that l am d prohi oi
 tionist in bone dry state, and that in 1 recalling other days and times. | am i but setting down the story as appears ! in the diary without sponsoring it. It's chapter oat of past when customs about drinking were quite different from | now. So do not think that l have fallel, J off the water wagon or that I want to |, climb down. But here goes; I set IL 1 down just as l find it. Some who reao : it will joy that such things no longer are permissible in this climate. while I others n,ay sigh for what they are
 pleased to call the good old times when i every southern gentleman had his wine cellar and sideboard.'
 1 She was regretting that it was war times and that people had no variety, Hnd, therefore, had to make up for il, l in exuulslle cookery. She was how