[Footnote 5: Read before the Indiana State Sanitary Society, Seymour,
March 13, 1884.--_The Sanitarian._]
By VIRGINIA L. OPPENHEIMER, M.D., Seymour, Ind.
"We may live without poetry, music, and art,
We may live without conscience, and live without heart,
We may live without friends,
We may live without books,
But civilized man cannot live without cooks.
"We may live without books--
What is knowledge but grieving?
We may live without hope--
What is hope but deceiving?
We may live without love--what is passion but pining?
But where is the man that can live without dining?"
Thus saith the poet, and forthwith turns the world over into the hands of
the cook. And into what better hands could you fall? To you, my fat,
jolly, four-meals-a-day friend, Mr. Gourmand, but more especially to
_you_, my somber, lean, dyspeptic, two-meals-a-day friend, Mr. Grumbler,
the cook is indeed a valuable friend. The cook wields a scepter that is
only second in power to that of love; and even love has become soured
through the evil instrumentality of the good-looking or bad-cooking cook.
This is no jest, it is a very sad fact.
Now, the question arises, how can the cook preserve the health of her
patrons, maintain happiness in the family, and yet not throw the gourmands
into bankruptcy? Very simple, I assure you.
1. You must have _the_ cook. I mean by this, that not every one can occupy
that important office. The greatest consideration in the qualities of a
cook is, does she like the work? No one can fulfill the duties of any
noteworthy office unless he labors at them with vim and willingness.