The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-06-02
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

Ac OlHcT HlSHtt tAdt NAN not have to go downtown for anything whatsoever. and that I was to have a free night at home, I got up from the supper table feeling that I would have good time reading.
 
 Now, strange to say, when I had the chance I found that I had no relish whatever for papers, magazines or any of the current books of the hour. coundn't get up any interest in history, even biograpy palled on me. Prose had lost its charm and poetry failed to stir my imagination.
 It seems that once in my life the reading habit of lifetime had been atrophied. for no form of literature appealed to me. I was bit puzzled and worried, for miss few opportunities for self-improvement or amusement plead that I was dead tired, for I was physically ft
 It's an awful thing when a man gets in middle life to lose pleasure in any thing which has been solace to him in his quiet hours. Suddenly, to face the fact that I was wearied with papers, magazines and books came as a dist tinct shock and I was beginning to get alarmed. I began to wonder if a man could really lose his appetite for read ing in the same way as he could lose it for food
 And then I looked anxiously over to a corner of the dining room in which there is a bookstand filled with cook books of all kinds, and almost uncon- sciously I walked over and sat down in front of it. First, began to read the titles of the volumes and soon found myself lingering them with pleasure, and before I knew it I was devouring with relish the prefaces.
 
 We talk of good fairies and spirits who tease or watch over us, and I am just wondering if the little god which waits on appetite and whets our jaded us sized up the situation and with friendliness rushed to succor the men, tai dyspepsia which had attacked and put out of commission my mental de- sire for literary pap.
 was amused at some of the titles used by the authors of cook books to attract attention. One of them gave me a good laugh for a clever woman out I.o ,1A l scrawled across the cover, bound in white oil cloth, in a femine hand, "The Way to a Mans Heart" I am not com potent to pass on her recipes by mere- ly reading them, but one thing I know and that is, she is g heaven born head liner, and could go far in journalism. Y
 I didn't know there were so many cook books extant as I discovered on the shelves before me. It was a form of literature to which I had never taken any special liking, preferring to dip into it after it had been assimi- lated by my wife and translated by her into culinary poems or worked out as masterpieces in art and set before me l tQ pass judgment upon at meal time. A dessert may be a dream, an entre a prose poem, and the middle course works of art.
 found that some of the cook books | bore the name of those who gave them to the world, as for example, "The | Cook Book by Oscar of the Waldorf, Mrs. Rorer's New Cook Book" One ! showed forth the pride of town in it's | cooks, for Talladega sent out one con taining '4Oo' recipes, bringing back to me pleasantly the fact that when ] was one of '"The Bell House Boys" in Atlanta, Mrs. Bell, whom we all adored after much solicitation on the part ot the matrons of the Gate City, issued a dainty volume showing how she pre- pared her famous dishes. The Hillmar Cook Book was gotten out for the Hillman hospital.
 But just next to the charming wom. l ans dig at mans interior was "A Bachelors Cupbord," containing crumb. from the great cupboards of the grea unwedded, collected by A. Lyman Phil lips, with drawings by Will Jenkins and dedicated to the Sole survivors of the five bachelors of The Shack I give this as a warning to Buster Brown ct all, for it seems to onlook CTS that both Murray Brown and Frs I kline Ramsay are about to fall iron grace.
 I I had no idea that such specialize tions had been made in cook books
 found special ones devoted to suppers teas, dinners, and breakfasts. On showed forth "Chafing Dish Possibili ties" another 1865 Orange Recepies, with a companion volume of 1865 For efgn Dishes" How to Cook in Gas serole Dishes," and one Salads an Sandwiches" and one on Table Serv
 ice," proved to be well illustrate
 volume of over 250 pages. My attention
 was arrested by one calling itself "25
 Meatless Menus and Recipes" o
 course there was a copy of "Hoove Kitchen Wheat Substitutes"
 One of the most ambitious in til and size was Science in the Kitchen, by Ella Eaton Kellogg, scientifi , properties. together with practica r explanation of the principles of health
 full cookery, giving a thousand choic,