The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-09-08
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

1 topic and one that plays a great part Tn | home making.
 Now the greatest fault I find with
 ''Encyclopedia Britannica" Is it always
 knows too much and its burdensome
 for an ordinary man to select out Of
 the wealth of material the very simple thing for which he is in search. One
 suffers from an embarrassment of
 riches.
 Whenever I am guilty of using the | great English reference work I re-
 new my sympathy for the countryman
 who sat himself down on stool in city restaurant and ordered eggs, and was visibly set back when asked by | the waiter to be more definite in his order. He was bit unified and fired
 at her to bring them in any of the
 three old ways. boiled, fried. or scambl- them.
 Now here is chance to indict mod
 ern life for being too complicated, for recently I picked up cook book which had about one hundred pages and the proud boast of the author was that the reader would be able to find one hundred and twenty different ways in which to prepare them for the table. am a good deal like the country broth CT, any of the old big three ways of cooking them will suit me, but I am insistent in preferring that they be fresh.
 just happen to remember at this point what consider was very clever bit of repartee on the part of plain looking working man who in giving his order for eggs was given scornful look by the waitress, and a curt request to name the manner in which he wanter | them served. With a smile that was childlike and bland he asked her to please name over the different ways
 in which the hotel cooked them. Without detecting the humor turk l ing in his eye or getting on to the courtesy of his manner she began to rattle off the dozen or more styles, l such as hard and soft boiled, standing up or laying down, blind or one eye | open, dry or wet. and having exhausted her repertoire, she breathlessly awaited
 his order. but he had not yet finished l with the supercillous maid. and sought
 further information.
 Believing in safety first he modestly
 asked if it made any difference in
 price as to how they were served, and
 when sharply told that it did not, he quietly asked her, if the hotel had adopted such liberal policy, to please
 bring his in decorated with ham. It i was up to her to get mad or to laugh.
 and she chose the latter way out of what was getting to be rather embar-
 rassing situation and beat it for the l kitchen. Then he winked at the man | opposite.
 1 But this is to be guilt and not an I egg story so [ hasten on to relate my experience with the encyclopedia which | is too full of information for the busy l investigator who does not wish to ex- | haust a subject but just dip in and
 get bite and make quick get away I Now it's useless to attempt this with l the staid old Britannica for grandma
 will not stand for it. If you want g quick lunch she will cite you to a
 United States production the Worlds
 Almanac, which dispenses it's dope in
 capsule form suited to the American l taste
 But having you where I want you
 I am going to ask you to swallow the ] definition of the quilt la Britannica
 which is as follows: Probably COW erlet for a bed consisting of a mass of feathers, down, wool, or other soft | substances, (evidently the writer had
 never tackled the variety used in many
 of the hotels in the small towns in i Alabama, for I have seen some which like towel in newspaper office had
 the ability to stand alone) or other soft 1 substances, surrounded by an outer
 covering of linen. cloth, or other mate | rial"
 Now willy nilly I am going to pick
 here and there for I fear if I do not
 you will bolt before you learn just
 what the learned encyclopedia thinks
 a quilt is. Just keep in mind that the
 name quilt implies two or more fabrics
 held together with many stitches, and | that our own beloved Webster defines
 a quilt as anything that is quilted.
 especially as quilted bedcover or a
 skirt worn by women; any cover or garment made by putting wool, cotton, 1 etc, between two cloths and stitching l them together"
 l But the American information being so simple that any one can understand
 it. I will camouflage a little and see
 if I can't mix it up bit with the help
 of the English editors. Here goes. ''The word quilt, came into English from
 old French cuilte. This is derived from Latin culcitra, a stuffed mattress or cushion. From the form culitra came
 old French cotra, or coutre whence
 coutre points this was corrupted into
 counterpoint, which was in turn chang
 ed into counterpane. The word pane is
 also from the Latin pannus, a piece of
 cloth. Thus 'counterpane. a coverlet
 for bed. and quilt are by origin the l same word.
 However. usage has restricted the
 meaning of the word quilt until now