In Chinatown the men and the women do not eat together.

This is also the custom of China, and hence there is not what we look upon as an essential element of home-life--father and mother and children and guests, if there be such, gathered in a pleasant dining-room with the flow of edifying conversation and the exchange of courtesies.

Confucius never talked when he ate, and his disciples affect his taciturnity at their meals.

Though in scholastic times, in European institutions and in religious communities, men kept silence at their meals, yet the hours were enlivened by one who read for the edification of all.

The interchange of thought, however,--the spoken word one with another, at the family table, is the better way.
Silence may be golden, but speech is more golden if seasoned with wisdom; and even the pleasant jest and the _bon mot_ have their office and exercise a salutary influence on character and conduct.
The food of Chinamen generally is very simple.