Dinners and Luncheons Part 8

DESSERT

"'Tis the dessert that graces all the feast, for an ill end disparages the rest."--_Art of Cookery._

BON BONS

"I can teach sugar to slip down your throat a million of ways."--_Dekker._

JELLY

"Feel, masters, how I shake."--_2nd Henry IV._

PUDDING

"My morning incense and my evening meal the sweets of hasty pudding."--_Barlow._

ICES

"I always thought cold victuals nice; My choice would be vanilla ice."

--_Holmes._

FRUIT

"How gladly then he plucks the grafted pear, Or grape that dims the purple tyrants wear."

--_Horace._

FIGS

"In the name of the prophet, figs!"--_Horace Smith._

CHEESE

"Pray, does anybody here hate cheese? I would be glad of a bit."--_Swift._

ROQUEFORT

"At which my nose is in great indignation."--_Tempest._

"A last course at dinner without cheese," says Savarin, "is like a pretty woman with only one eye."

COFFEE

"One sip of this Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight."--_Milton._

CIGARS

"By Hercules! I do hold it and will affirm it to be the most sovereign and precious herb that ever the earth tendered to the use of man.--_B. Jonson._

"The man who smokes thinks like a sage and acts like a Samaritan."--_Bulwer Lytton._

CIGARETTES

"I never knew tobacco taken as a parenthesis before."--_B.

Jonson._

WINES

"Good, my Lord, you are full of heavenly stuff."--_Henry VIII._

"I feel the old convivial glow (unaided) o'er me stealing, The warm champagny, old particular, brandy, punchy feeling."

--_Holmes._

"Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used; exclaim no more against it."--_Oth.e.l.lo._

"I pray thee, take the cork out of thy mouth that I may drink."--_As You Like It._

"This wine should be eaten, it's too good to be drunk.--_Swift._

"Fill the goblets again, Cnacias. Let us drink the last cup to the manes of famous Lysander, and then, though unwillingly, I must warn you of the approach of day. The host who loves his guests rises from the table when the joy reaches its climax. The pleasant memory of this untroubled evening will soon bring you back to this house, whereas you would be less willing to return if you were forced to think of the hours of depression which followed your enjoyment."--_From "An Egyptian Princess."_

TWO PIES

"If you would know the flavor of a pie, The juicy sweet, the spice and tart, you must Be patient till the fiery core is cool, And bite a little deeper than the crust.

"If you would know the flavor of a man,-- G.o.d's mud pie, made of Eden's dew and dust,-- Be patient till love's fire has warmed him through, And look a little deeper than the crust."

--_Aloysius Coll._

TABLE STORIES.

Upon one occasion when six fair women and half a dozen brave men, gathered round a hospitable board, had fallen into that state of "innocuous desuetude" from which nothing but heroic measures would relieve them, a still small voice was heard asking if any one present could tell why the "Athenasian creed is like a tiger?" It chanced that no one present could guess, and when the propounder, a delicate, spirituelle looking woman declared that it was "because of its d.a.m.nation clause," there was a roar of laughter that successfully put to flight all stiffness and formality.

A well-known gentleman gained quite a reputation among his set by propounding a French riddle, which is sometimes called Voltaire's riddle, because no one ever answered it. He wrote on the back of a card the following: "Ga" and asked if anyone could make it out, saying the answer was what every one had or should have had when he sat down to dinner. The card went round the table and made conversation for some time. After fruitless efforts, all gave it up, and he wrote underneath the "Ga" as follows:

Capital G. Small a.

G. grande. a pet.i.te.

J'ai grande apet.i.te.

I have a good appet.i.te. See?