"It seems dinners are but innovations, whilst breakfasts and suppers are men's most ancient and natural meals."

"Laughter is one of the greatest helps to digestion with which I am acquainted, and the custom prevalent among our forefathers of exciting it at table by jesters and buffoons was founded upon true medical principles." - Hufeland.

"Food well chatted is half digested."

The Hour Of The Home Dinner

Fuller, in speaking of the ravens that brought Elijah bread and flesh in the morning and evening, draws the conclusion given at the head of this topic. In the main, this idea that dinner, or a midday meal, is an innovation accords with all history. Historians agree that the fact of the preparation of but a single meal in a day is one of the chief marks of distinction between savage and civilized races. The single meal of the savage is prepared toward the close of the day, after food has been secured from the streams, or as trophies of the chase. The world's events move in circles, and the innovation of a midday meal is surely disappearing in favor of the ancient custom of dinner after the work of the day has been accomplished.

In this custom there are advantages and disadvantages. If the family consist of growing children, a substantial midday meal becomes quite necessary for them. Throughout the whole period of school life the growth of the body is going on, the individual organs are increasing in size, and the entire framework is being constantly enlarged and strengthened. To meet this growth, there must be an abundant allowance of food - and food of the proper kind - to furnish new tissues (proteid) and to supply force and activity (carbohydrates). Then, too, monotony in diet, which is really less common from economic reasons than from carelessness or failure to understand the importance of the subject, must be avoided.

During the period of youth the foundations of future health or disease are laid; and, while more pains needs be taken in the case of children of feeble constitution by inheritance, a matter of such vital importance to all children needs be under the direct and constant supervision of a thoughtful mother. Adults digest and assimilate slowly, and, as only light mental or physical work should be undertaken after the ingestion of hearty food, a midday meal for them is not to be considered. In actual practice, the preparation of two dinners in one day is not the troublesome matter that it appears at first sight, for the number of meals is not increased and in families where two or three maids are kept and the heaviest work of the day has been completed, their dinner may be prepared with that of the children. If there be but one or two children, it is a simple matter to broil chops or a bit of steak or fish, which with a baked potato may furnish the pièce de résistance of many a dinner, leaving soup for the meal at night.

At night there can be no excuse for an indifferently prepared meal; everything can be made ready in the early part of the day and the final cooking and serving be completed without the rush and hurry incident when other work is going on. At least two dishes, as the soup and the dessert, should be suitable for children of school age, who should appear at dinner and be encouraged to add their mite to the pleasure of the occasion. If we cannot have music and dancing, "jesters and buffoons," to beguile us while we eat, let the brightness of the day that has come to us, the lively sayings that we hear, cheer the hours of the mealtime, and, lest we miss some good thing that will bear repeating, let us cultivate the habit of looking for brightness everywhere. The dinner being the formal meal of the day, plan to keep in reserve something to make both the menu and table attractive; holly and evergreen at Christmas, a pot of crocuses, primroses, tulips or jonquils in the late winter, a potted fern in a jardinière, a root of partridge vine with berries and a few green things from the woods growing in moist earth under glass in the late autumn, are attainable by many. In late spring and summer the children will find, in their daily rambles, enough delicate wild flowers or foliage to insure a pleasing and varied centrepiece. The influence of these little things is often more far-reaching than we imagine. Who could serve "soggy" potatoes or a burned and smoky steak, or what child would far overstep the limits of decorum without compunctions of remorse, or, at least, a sense of incongruity, at a table adorned with a pot of crocuses, tulips, or jonquils.