The host ordered for himself, as usual, a portion of tongue and a
generous garniture of side dishes, and watched his guest with amused
tolerance. The lunch proceeded, interlarded with talk about topics of
mutual interest, and when a final halt was called the host had not
taken more than one-quarter of his cold tongue and very sparingly
of the accompanying side dishes. The guest had finished one of his
baked potatoes, and had sipped his ginger ale enjoyingly, but had
not taken more than half of the pint ordered. The appetites of both
host and guest were amply satisfied, but without any of the heaviness
which follows an unrestrained "hearty" meal. In tones of surprise the
one-sided conversation, relative to the strangeness of the proceeding,
continued as follows: "Well, I'll be switched! How in Wall Street did
that happen! I haven't eaten half my usual lunch, and yet I have killed
my appetite deader than the Ship Building Trust. I'm blessed if I can
understand it. The blamed thing is uncanny. I don't believe it's true,
but I'm satisfied all right even if I am hypnotised. Come and lunch
with me every day. You're engaged as a regular companion boarder, and
Freddie will pay the freight. You're cheaper than nobody. Come again!
Come again!! Come always!!!"
The above is not an unusual case. The personal influence of the author
and of his active colleagues has been visibly noted among parties
where there was no sympathy with the "starving fad," and where there
was even stubborn opposition to the thought of such a thing. But these
same groups of non-interested objectors have visibly decreased their
accustomed lunches and dinners, and some of them have found that a
cup of coffee and a roll, the same as is habitually taken in Europe,
outside England, serves as a breakfast better than the full meat affair
formerly taken. They persist in declaring that they are not influenced
by the chewing suggestion, but they show signs of _some_ restraining
influence, and observation reveals that in such groups the common
annual and quarterly attacks of illness are less frequently or less
severely suffered.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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