Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 March 1893 — The Influence of the Table. [ARTICLE]

The Influence of the Table.

Nowhere is the family life so exhibited as at the table. Here the family is united; here one disposition is contrasted with another: selfishness and generosity, boorishness and refinement, consideration and thoughtlessness—all are more clearly observed against the background of their opposites. Where the table Is regarded as merely a feeding place, it is degraded to the same position as the trough among some lower animals. Three meals a day, a neatly kept and a wellspread table certainly form a delightful adjunct to enhance the pleasures of a home, but when the body craves all attention, at the expense of the intellectual and moral faculties, the dally meal is not elevating, though It may renew the body.