BACON AND EGGS AND OPTIMISM.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3599, 3 April 1924, Page 9

BACON AND EGGS AND OPTIMISM.

MB CHESTERTON ARGUES WITH MR. SHAW. WHY AMERICANS DRINK IN THE MORNINGS. Miss Peggy O’Neil suggested “orange cocktails” and other American fruit dishes as a variant on the British breakfast. Whereat Mr. G. K. Chesterton waxes Chcstertonio. with the further result that Mr. George Bernard Shaw’s views on bacon get a further airing. Mr Chestertoni opposes the suggestion that fruitarians are notoriously more intelligent than beef-eaters, and says that breakfasts are absolutely unknown on the other side of tho Atlantic. “I am very fond of America,” he says, “and admire many things in American society, but they should not raise the subjeert of breakfast in the presence of Englishmen. "They sleep in hothouses and wake up so thirsty that they are obliged to devour quantities of fresh fruit and drink gallons of iced water and alcohol. But it is not breakfast. OUR GLORIOUS HERITAGE. “If there is one thing that would justify an armed assault on the United States, it is this attempt to introduce such diet to the British, breakfasttable. “If there is one glorious thing in England which, must never die, it is breakfast of bacon,and eggs. “Anyone who cannot be bright over such a meal must be a confirmed pessimist indeed.” “Why bacom?” retorts Mr. Shaw. “Do Jews never enjoy their breakfast? Pessimists, who are always confirmed in their views by tho morning paper, are usually particularly bright and 'Told you sol’ at breakfast.” PIGS, PULLETS, AND MANNA. Mr. Chesterton concedes that the alleged “Bohemian's” breakfast fare of a pint of beer is inadvisable in modern society, but carries on with a. personal thrust: Mr. Shaw would have been a very intelligent man if only he had boiled elephant or fx-ied tiger for his morning meal. “Pardon me,” Mr Shaw retaliates. Mr. Shaw ‘is’ a very intelligent man. Mothusaleh could hardly have been ex pected to go on eating pigs and pullets every morning for 969 years. Manna will be the food for the future.” He concludes with the question: “Must wo always bo condemned to slops and marmalade? Now if Mr Chesterton had attacked buckwheat cakes and molasses, I should have sympathised. But fresh fruit! My mouth waters”