Frying-Pan.—Introduction

This useful utensil, which is so much in vogue in all parts of the world, and even for other purposes besides cookery—for I have before me now a letter, written, at the Ovens’ diggings, on the back of a frying-pan, for want of a table; but in your letter you suggest the necessity of paying particular attention to it, as it is the utensil most in vogue in a bachelor’s residence. I cannot but admire your constant devotion to the bachelors: you are always in fear that this unsociable class of individuals should be uncomfortable. For my part, I do not pity them, and would not give myself the slightest trouble to comfort them, especially after they have passed the first thirty springs of their life. Let them get married, and enjoy the troubles, pleasures, and comforts of matrimony, and have a wife to manage their home, and attend to more manly pursuits than cooking their supper when they get home at night, because the old housekeeper has gone to bed; or lighting the fire when they get up in the morning, because the old dame has a slight touch of lumbago; and should he require something substantial for his breakfast, and want that utensil of all work, the frying-pan, finds it all dirt and fishy, not having been cleaned since he last dined at home.