The New York herald., 1922-10-08

~ ging his Imagination with for
eign" dinners in queer restaurants
in lieu of sojourn in Europe-is an index
at once of his climate, his civilization and
his pocketbook.
Culture and the pocketbook are variable
and forever in gastronomic conflict.
Dearth of the first and redundance of the
second will enthrone corned beef and cab
bage on gold plate-for I have seen 1t
done-and even wash 1t down with Rain
water Madeira of a cobwebby and sacro-
sanct age. Eheu fu0dces.
To finance culture so that 1t can eat
what its supersensitive palate Graves is
just as difficult as to civilize a pocket
book. and to do either properly requires at
least two generations of something more
than fasting and prayer. One does not
easily wean plebeian palate from pigs
knuckles and sauerkraut to genuine ap-
probation of cdndpe Lucille, and no less
mournful is the life being nourished on
Bologna sausages and rye bread, amid
haunting memories of the casserole of the
"Boeuf la Mode in Paris and the un-
forgetable bouquet of Romance Cont
So. It's the palate, and back of that
the traditions, and back of that the in
eyitable climate. Nine-tenths of the ma
tional and racial dietaries in the world are
made by climate and ninety-nine one-hun-
dredths of the people who live by them
don't know why they do it. The chemistry
of food is as unknown to them as the
cuneiform writings of ancient Babylon.
They eat a thing because it's handy and
because their forebears have eaten 1T for
ages unnumbered. There was reason"
but nobody knew what it was.
And In most parts of the world they
don't know yet. All they know is that it
fits them. It's only where a Domestic
Science brigade has started folks along the
path of calory madness or the vitamine
has taken hold upon Imagination that peo-
pie have learned to understand the diet Of
their daddies-and in some cases to for
swear 1t. And this is spreading. Science
has the world by the throat. Gastronomy.
one of the oldest of arts-or perhaps OF
religions-is making way for tabloid.
The time honored palate, which has kept
even luc PehAb VI Ait'hhAiiu DSAN4iio
it's back six days In the week so 1t might
reveI in tasty things on Wednesdays and
Sundays. is in fair way to vanish when
science really comes into It's own, along
with the tail and the little toe, so valuable
to our prehensile ancestors. But the palate
has been grand little member. Since some
millions of years before Lucullus, man.
kind-and womankind, to be perfectly i'm
partial-has been spending more than a
quarter of its earthly time trying to in
vent new ways to tickle the darned thing.
on the whole it has succeeded marvelously
well. 1t has made vittles very interesting.
This palate worship has wrought
strange things. it has ransacked the ami
NAL, vegetable and mineral kingdoms for
new juices and subtle savors; it has given
birth to a vast literature-and seasoned all
literature; il has woven itself into the
most complicated and momentous diplo-
macy of nations. More treaties have
really been made over the dinner table
than in all the council chambers since the
beginning of time. Lunch" is the great
est adjunct of business the world around.
Birth, death. marriage-commercial tri-
umph or social success. They all spell
Eats" and will continue to do so down to