Evening star., 1924-12-08
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL,

feeding his face."- to use an ex
pressive Americanism?
To do this, however, with the mini
| mum amount of harm to the digestion
and eyes, 1T is necessary to eat food,
that are light in quality.
i could not recommend Spencer!
First Principles" with prime roas
beef, or treatise on the higher
mathematics with Welsh rabbit.
The thing is more subtle than that
Mush and milk, now, will go will
! almost any book. The proper enjoy
ment of reading eating calls fol-
something that will last as well a:
something that is not too heavy
First get big bowl of very no
mush.
Then, no matter how much colo
milk you pour over it. the mush will
be too hot to eat for time. This
gives you a chance to read severa
pages undisturbed. No one could
say that this was hard on the diges.
tton. The steam from the mush has
started the appetite juice to flowing
and you sit there inhaling the fumes
The diversion Of the attention to
the printed page does not divert the
trusty appetite juice in the least. The
stomach is not interested in your
mental fare, but only in the pabulun
in the bowl
Preferably one. sits close to the
table. The book is held tightly in
the left hand, at an angle of 40 de-
grees, more or less, the proper angle
for reading. This position allows the
eyes to travel across and up and
down without changing the focus toe
much.
No wonder they say reading when
you eat is bad for you! Think OF
any one trying to combine these pur-
suits who knows no more of the
technique of the art than to place the
book fiat on the table,
Such a position forces the eyes to
unnecessary work, diverts blood from
the digestive organs and spoils both
reading and eating.
Holding the book properly. then,
is the first point. The second is to
have a minimum of dishes on the
table. How can YOU read while you
eat IL the book butts into the butter,
or how can you eat while you read
If the volume blankets the grub?
1t takes all the pep out of the
pepper 20 lose that totally unneces-
sary condiment behind the pages of
your paper, while at the same time
easy by such interference.
The third great point is to be the
only person at the table. This may
seem selfish, but it is absolutely
necessary. Every husband who has
tried reading the morning paper at
the breakfast table knows this to be
a fact
No, when you want to read while
you eat, get a table all to yourself.
Danish the rest of the household for
the time being. Play Napoleon. Hog
the entire table, clear off the dishes
and go to it.
spoonful of mush properly salt
ed-half a page of your book-an-
other spoonful of mush-another half
page of the book-mush-book
ook-mush-book-
So it goes. Ii must not be thought
that mush and milk is the only thing
one can eat when he reads at table
But the article, whatever it may be,
ought to be like some linked sweet
ness, long drawn out. 1t ought to be
capable Of infinite prolongation, like
the TarZan tales.
The animal crackers of ones youth,
too, are excellent stuffinE when read
ing They go particularly we'll with
exciting novels of the "Graustark
type. One may allow two pounds of
crackers for a two-hour novel, four
pounds for four-hour book, and
so on ad finitem and ad bustum