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ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF THE CO-OPERATIVE LEAGUE.
As at once, an inroad on antiquated and degrading customs, and the establishment of new and elevated habits, a series of public meetings was held on the antient festival of Boxing Day, at the Farringdon Hall, Snow Hill, the central place of meeting, of the Co-operative League. The design appears to have been to add to the real novelty of the season, by presenting, on terms, within the means of all who have any money to spend in amusement, rational and interesting entertainments, in lieu of those inferior and debasing revelries, which have for ages disgraced the English character, whether considered as Civic or Christian. Many of the company being advocates of vegetable diet, the first novelty consisted of a physiological feast, from which animal substances, as well as fermented drinks, were altogether excluded. At about one o'clock, about eighty ladies and gentlemen sat down to a repast, wholly supplied from the vegetable kingdom. The dishes corsisted principally of farinaceous articles, with potatoes, peas, brocoli, and the other usual culinary productions of the garden. The plum pudding was not forgotten, an ample supp'y of that rotund object of gastronomic desire, being added to the repast, void of course, of the indigestible suet, with which the article is commonly intermixed. An abundant dessert closed the physical part of this entertainment, which was succeeded by a lively discussion on the merits of a vegetable diet for the human race.
At six o'clock, the friends of Co operation - assembled to partake of a brotherly cup of tea. The influx of visitors was very great, amounting probably to three hundred, which occasioned some inconvenience at the moment, but the company, having duly honoured the sober beverage, turned willing ears to the sentiments and speeches in favour of co-operative or progressive principles on which society and its institutions should be based. The addresses were intervened by some animated choruses by about thirty members of the Apollonian Society. This part of the proceedings occupied until nearly ten o'clock, when those so inclined, remained to vary, and still further enliven the meeting, by joining in a cheerful and well egulated dance. The hall was gracefully decorated by festoons of evergreens studded with fruits; and not one drop of inebriating drink, or even of the production of the slaughter-house -, was introduced during the whole entertainment, which, on these grounds, has indeed some right to be called a Holy-day. When we add, that the whole charge was ninepence each for dinner, and sixpence for supper, etc., it will be perceived, that this reformation from the old revelries and debaucheries, and stupidities of boxing day, is proof that the truest pleasures are indeed the cheapest, and that the thoughtful among the industrious classes, have the power to cater for their own rational amusements, as well as any other circle of society. Several ladies and gentlemen of celebrity in the literary and artistic world who were present, expressed their gratification in the opportunity of assisting on an occasion so novel and so praiseworthy.
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Reference:
Howitt’s Journal of Literature and Popular Progress. Edited by William and Mary Howitt, volume 3, number 54, 8 January 1848; London: William Lovett, 1848; “The Weekly Record”, page 32https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015009233969&seq=44&q1=%22vegetable+diet%22
