The New York herald., 1921-05-15

there it will lie unopened except when a
discussion arises about the quotation con-
cerning cooks, around which the entire
volume pvots, and with which everybody
will claim to be thoroughly familiar, but
which nobody will be able to quote.
For the benefit of those who wish to learn
these lines without reading the poem we
quote:
we may live without poetry music and art
We may live without conscience and live with
out heart;
we may live without friends may live
without books
But civilized man cannot live without cooks
He may live without books-what is knowledse
but grieving?
lie may live without hope--what is hope ou'
deceiving?
He may live without love-what is passion
but plnng?
But where is the man that can live without
dning?"
This passage would have been very useful
had il been read daily TO the militant suf-
fragettes of England who went on a hunger
strike to gain their freedom.
As a matter Of fact we don't agree with
Mr. Meredith about his remarks on dining
at all We would find it very difficult TO get
along without the things he mentions, and
we have been getting along very well with
out cooks for several years now, although
we understand that the cooks union still
believe themselves Indispensable and have
adopted the quoted passage as their motto
We grew to dislike dining in the days when
we used to go to parties. Everything went
very we'll at these affairs until the walter
came around with a plate on which was
piece of ham a slice of roast beef, dash
of chicken salad and a paper cup full OF
green peas. ON this plate was laid a fork
but no knife This you took with your right
hand. In your other hand you received
napkin. Then they appeared with little
plate of buttered rolls. which you took in
your other hand They came quickly then
with a little cup of coffee. which you re-
ceived in your other hand Next came
slab of ice cream and cake before you could
POSSIBLY eat what had been given you anJ
this you held I'm your other hand. 4 cent?
pede might have managed it fairly comfort
ably, but not us particularly without
knife.
The only thing you could do was to drape
these things around you as carefully a.
possible and sneak out into the back yard
where you could either roll the ham and
roast beef into balls and swallow them whole
or become persona grata with the dog, drink
the green peas slug the coffee al one gulp,
and then return calmly to your fellow guests
nibbling at your ice cream and cake, muir
murng the while What delightful refresh
ments," while they stare at you in open eyed
wonder, plainly inquiring Of each other
How does ne do it?"
weil, owen Merediths poem is all about
eating There is a very sentimental love
story that runs through it also, but every
now and then they stop for another meal
and this gives Mr. Meredith a chance for
some more remarks about eating. lie falls
into a curious error, however as all men do
who talk too much about one subject. He
writes that this is what will happen to those
who miss a meal:
indigestion. that conscience Of every bad
stomach,
Shall relentlcssly gnaw and pursue him with
some ache
or some pain"
Which Of course, isn't true at all. No one
has ever yet been troubled with indigestion
because Of eating too little. On the other
hand. quite the contrary.
As in most poems loosely thrown together
there is some remarkable rhymng. This
for instance
Both rider and horse might have been in
tricc
Hurrd horribly the grim precpicc.'
In defence Of his fondness for dining the
poet has n few verses which explain why he
writes:
THE man who seeks ono thing in life. and
but one,
May hope 10 achieve II before life Is done
But he who seeks all things, wherever he goes
Only reaps from the hopes which around him
he sows
A harvest OF barren regrets"
we have always understood there was an
inside story about that passage on coolsf
The incident arose this way: Mrs MEREDITH
had been to a card party. She came home
triumphantly with the silk stockings, but
there was no dinner. The poet had refused
an invitation TO dine at his club because II
was corn beef and sauerkraut day at his
house and he did not want to miss the
weekly event. He became so infuriated
when he learned that he would be expectel
to be content with fried eggs and sardines
that he retired Immediately 10 his study and
penncd the lines around which he after
ward decided to build the story of Lucille.
This book win be very useful as a Christ
mas gift from some boy to his best girl. but
he must not expect her to read 1t.