There is no doubt that in this country the present generation is far more luxurious than the one that preceded it. Living is to a great extent a question of habit. At the present moment a Russian soldier is paid at the rate of a shilling a month, and his only ration is rye-bread baked into biscuit, washed down with a draught of water. The British workman of the day requires a hot meat dinner, cooked from fresh meat expressly for him alone. Were his wife to supply him with cold meat, he would probably grumble. In the last century a labourer was content with a piece of fat pork boiled on Sunday. Possibly in the next century we shall have our soup kitchens for the poor altered into turtle soup kitchens; for it is a fact that the luxuries of one century become the necessities of the next. It is a question worthy of consideration whether this country has not reached that pitch of luxury and self-indulgence which all history teaches us is the turning-point in a nation’s greatness. Ananius, Azarius, and Misael have told us that we thrive better on pulse and water than on the king’s meat. Let us hope as a nation that, unlike the king in question, seven times may not pass over us to cure us of our luxury and pride. I will not enter into a description of the various uses of the more expensive luxuries now sold in tins. I refer to truffles, cocks’ combs, _fina cière_, _ragout_, _foie gras_, etc. Mushrooms, however, are exceptions. They seem like gifts of nature, and, like the manna of old, they require us to rise early and gather in our harvest fresh, not forgetting that, like manna, they will not properly keep till the morrow. It is, however in cases like this, when the food is of a perishable nature, that the invention of preserving in tins is so useful. There are probably few of what may be called accessories to food more useful or more delicious than mushrooms. Mushrooms are preserved in tins in two forms, by far the most common one being quite plain in water. Were I to give a list of all the various dishes in the composition of which mushrooms enter, I should require as many volumes as I am allowed columns. I would, however, remind housekeepers that small tins of mushrooms can now be obtained at sixpence each from all respectable grocers. I will give one or two simple cases to illustrate the various uses to which mushrooms can be applied. First, mushroom sauce. You can have brown mushroom sauce and white mushroom sauce. To make brown mushroom sauce from tinned mushrooms, open the tin of mushrooms and add the contents, liquid and all, to about an equal quantity of good, thick, rich, brown gravy. The mushrooms should be chopped small, and served in the gravy just as they are.