A rich man may live very expensively and very ill; and a poor man
may live frugally and very well, if it be his good fortune to have a
good cook in his wife or in his servant.
The most worthless unit in a family is an ill-managing wife, or an
indolent woman of any sort. The fair sex are sometimes very acute in
what concerns themselves. They keep a tight hand over their dressmakers
and milliners. They can tell to a thread when a flounce is too narrow or
a tuck too deep. But if their knowledge only extends to their own dress,
they are not help-meets, but incumbrances. If they know nothing of their
kitchen, and are at the mercy of the cook, their table will soon become
intolerable. Bad soup, soft and flabby fish, meat burnt outside and raw
within. The husband will soon fly from the Barmecide feast, and take
refuge in his club, where he will not only find food that he can digest,
but at the same time fly from the domestic discord that usually
accompanies ill-cooked victuals at home.
Mr. Smee says that "diseases of the digestive organs greatly exceed in
England the relative number found in other countries." The reason is,
that in no other country do men eat so much ill-cooked food. The least
observant of travellers must have been struck with admiration at the
readiness with which a dinner of eight or ten dishes of various eatables
makes its appearance in foreign inns; particularly when he remembers the
perpetual mutton chop and mashed potatoes of the English road.
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