THE RISE OF THE RESTAURANT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 273, 11 August 1908, Page 5

THE RISE OF THE RESTAURANT.

Tho rise of tho restaurant has affected homo life in mauy ways (says tho "Ladies' Pictoral"). It has added another plume to the haughtiness of tho cook, who now feels herself justified in stipulating, before agreeing to the entreaties of a new mistress, to accept the situation, that the family shall dine out at least twice a week in order to givo her nerves a rest. This applies to quite small households, and not only to the wealthy classes.

The restaurant is also responsible for having widened to a very great extent the circle of acquaintances whom the average entertainer invites to luncheon or dinner: There is a very great difference between asking a person into tho privacy and intimacy of the home, and merely ffeeding him on the best of everything, in the more impersonal luxury of an expensive'restaurant. Thousands of business .obligations, of politic engagements and matters of duty,, are worked oft' every season in this manner.

Fish-knives wero never, known in the English aristocracy until tho restaurants brought them in: they were just oue of thoso

littlo hygienic conveniences which, for soiuo reason, had always been considered middleclass. All the inconvenience and the subdued acrobatics necessary when one was faced with fish and no better implements than a fork and a pieco of bread' were considered good style, and it certainly must be admitted that they formed an excellent test of whether a person had been used to deal with his food in this manner. If not, it was obvious that ho did not belong to tho upper classes. This terror is now removed from the path of tho newly rich. The fish-knifo and_ the fishfork lie ready to hand, and tho obstinacy with which bones and skin refuse to be removed

with any decency by a crust and a prong is now a thing of the past. Before the introduction of the restaurant as an everyday factor of daily life, no woman dreamed of wearing a hat in the house. To-day there aro, few hostesses who entertain a luncheon-party in their own homes "in their ■ hair," as the Americans put .it. The obvious interpretation of the wearing of tho hat by your hostess at luncheon is that you are not expected, to linger too politely after tho meal, and that the beggar's programme of eating and going is now quite correct. The shortening of the afterluncheon talk harmonises quite comfortably with the restlessness of the age, which would render it tedious to the guests and terrible to tho hostess if it were incumbent on tho party to remain together for a couplo of hours after the meal. Dining out in Dickens's day, when dinner was, at three or four o'clock, involved 'tho whole of the afternoon and evening being spent at ths house of one's entertainer as a matter of course. How few of us could face with anything approaching calmness the fact' that our guests would spend Lis or eight hours in our company. How lew of us would accept an invitation that involved tho same length or endurance.

Music at meals is now considered necessary as a stimulant to conversation. liaised voices havo become inevitable if the stimulant is to bo obeyod. Thero are hardly any smart restaurants in London without a band, and tho habit of speaking loudly is far, more easily contracted than broken. This is one of the causes of tho sustained shouts in which p. great many people nowadays carry on all their conversations. Music does stimulate our thoughts, and those who really care for it enough to "wish to liston to it for its own sako aro comparatively few, and do not appreciably alter tho averago of the talkors. And we must not forgot ono delightful advantage of the restaurant,_ wliero colour, light, flowers, and even china and glass aro all arranged with the idea of making a becoming environment in which every pretty woman looks her prettiest and every plain woman looks her best. ' Tho publicity of the restaurant and.'tho skill with which it is ornamented havo given to Englishwomen a more artistic appreciation of their own status as part of tho picture to tho general observer, and its ccr/tro'to their guests. Englishwomen dress better, dress with greater taste, movo more gracefully, and do their hair bettor since the restaurant camc among us than they ever did before.