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Show Thf JT M ARTf f . - V Z7 rgwaHE Thanksgiving dinner er-H er-H alts an art which In mora H hurried and less hospitabla 3 seasons declines and falls F uL the art of carving. Tha question, "Who Is to carve?" if ) )M figures not least among tha PUh.ZaU domestic worries attendant upon the festive celebration. Comparatively few men nowadays combine the dexterity and speed demanded. de-manded. Faced by the necessity of having to carve, the modern man either ei-ther shrinks back appalled or takes up the steel with martyrlike resignation, and often with disastrous results. It was not so in the good old days. A certain immortal chronicle records that "Mr. Wilkes was very assiduous in helping Doctor Johnson to some fine veal. 'Pray give me leave, sir. It is better here a little of the brown some fat, sir a little of the stuffing.' stuf-fing.' " But somehow, midway In tha mid-Victorian age, the ability to carve passed from the commonalty. The roast left the dinner table for the sideboard. Perhaps butlers were then both numerous and cheap, or perhaps It was evolution. Mr. Strachey doesn't tell. But no one disputes the fact The young Englishman of today finds "the roast beef of Old England" as impregnable as would-be invaders did her "wooden walls." Yet the act of carving gives to hospitality hos-pitality a certain homeliness, an informality, infor-mality, which meals served from sideboard side-board or kitchen seem to lack. It Indicates In-dicates the host's personal interest In each guest ; it carries with it, moreover, more-over, a suggestion of unselfishness. While working for others, the carver must perforce forego, temporarily, conversation, banter, repartee. Ha must concentrate ; he must make haste; for the art Is long, the time Is fleeting, and the plates cool. Fortunately, the custom of carving the Thanksgiving turkey at the table has become a fixed part of the day's ritual. That this gracious art is thus kept from complete disuse, and is, Indeed, In-deed, exalted by reason of Its assocla-' tion with the most distinctly American f of the year's holidays, may even ap- pear to some old-fashioned, unprogres- sive souls as an additional cause for giving thanks. " f. I |