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CONCERNING THE FOOD QUESTION
The Multifold Waste in American Living,
Where the Workingman’* Money Cioes.
Scientific men arc too apt to shoot ovei
the heads of the jjeople in the discussion
of plain matters, but what Professor At
water had to say on “Food,” before the
American Association for the Advance¬
ment of Science, at its recent meeting in
this city, was at once suggestive and prac¬
tical. Ho noticed and blamed, as every
one must, the wastefulness which marks
Aiijfric.m lu me administration, whethei
at long the rich or tlio poor. He might
well have insisted on this point, habitu¬
ally o\ t rlooked by the people who pro¬
fess the deepest, interest in social ques¬
tions, for reform with regard to it would
instantly dispose of much that working
pro; le call by the name of a grievance.
Those who really desire to help the work¬
ingman (ami most men in this world have
l„ work), will show him, if they can,
limy far ho is able to control his own
future by living within his means, Th if
is the true secret of independence, and
the man who cun learn to apply it fo?
JiiiiiKelf has solved the problem of life.
■ The waste*in American living is, aa
Professor At water shows, manifold. W®
buy more food than We need; part of it is
eaten and the rest, which has cost hard
earned money, is thrown away; or it it
eaten merely because it is bought, and so
the system is overloaded and sickness fol¬
lows; or food is bought because it seem*
to )>e cheap, and eaten unnecessarily,
when less of a better kind would have
• lone good; or money is thrown away on
what is called a delicacy, which is, in
most cases, a mere momentary tickling
of 1 he palate. It is within the truth to
say that at least half of the daily expens®
ol‘ an American family for food and
drink is wasted; and the waste is unpar¬
donable. Meat seems to be a necessity
for most [ orsons, but nearly every one
eats it too often. Those who are doing
bard bodily labor during the day need
meat, perhaps, twice they a day in moderate
quantity; but even would do bettei
take at one meal a srtup, or stew, made
o I' the meat which would otherwise be
thrown away.
Many a man whose yearly earning*
amount to $1,000 throws away on use¬
less or on hurtful fond and drink at least
tflOOr—and it must not be supposed that
by drink beer or whisky is meant. There
is abuse of milk and of tea as well a*
abuse of beer; and the man who has hia
living to make should spend his money
only for things that he can use. A small
piece of meat cooked with vegetables by
simme ring on the fire furnishes a whole¬
some and nourishing meal for any family,
rich or poor; and for vegetables there is
a wide range of choice. The [>otato, use
ftil ns it is, is too exclusively relied on,
while i be family of the peas and beans,
jo ex tensive and so nutritious, is neglected,
There are manuals of diet to be had, from
any one of winch an intelligent mother
*
Of r family o learn short , tune .. how ,
a can m a
to choose and how best to prepare the
comparatively inexpensive table for her
household in place of the extravagant
dishes that now keep her and her hus
hand poor.
The moderation on which Professor At
water insists as necessary for the health
and the independence of workmen is still
possible for each one; but there must be
given to the subject a serious attention
and study. There must be co-operation
between the husband and the wite, and a
. tUed purpose o make the dollar bring
, ts The men of science reach
their . conclusions . from the study and the
comparison of many thousand cases, and
their hearer, if his mind is open to the
truth, must confess that their theory
agrees, point by point, with his own per
nal experience as a bread winner.—
Fnuik Leslie’s.
A Smart Boy Paralyzed.
The fool killer’s attacks are not alwayi
fatal, but they are generally effective in
awakening thought. I saw him getting
in his work on one of those smart boy*
who make life intolerable to the people
who have to live within a block of them.
The smart boy was aged about 12 years.
He met another boy about his own age.
The other boy was all business, chopping
wood. Not having exercised his smart¬
ness lately, the smart boy seized the op
portunity of [jutting his foot on the place
where the ax ought to fall.
Busy Boy—Take yer foot away.
Smart Boy—Dat’s all right; ye can’t
hit me.
B. B.—Go on now. I want to work.
S. B—Well, why don’t you hit away?
B. B—I will if you don’t hurry.
S. B—Go on then.
B. B—You’ll get hurt now.
S. B—Oh, no, you can’t hit quick
enough.
The ax came down. Its falling seemed
to paralyze the energy of the smart boy.
He looked at it with his mouth open and
did not move. It hit him square on the
| nste r The yell which he gave could be
heard a quarter of a mile away. He hop
ped round in a circle four times and then,
went home. Four fences, each six feet
high, were in his way, but that did not
matter. He flew over them apparently
without touching them at all. He flew
over the ground on one foot faster than
ho had ever gone on two before and at
every kind* hop he yelled, inventing a new
of yell with ornamental trills and
variations eloquently expressive of griel
for each occasion. The busy boy did not
close his mouth till the smart boy closed
the door of his house. Then he shook
his head and went on with his work.—
Brooklyn Eagle “Rambler.”
Libraries of New York City.
Recently published figures concerning
the ninety-five public libraries of New
York show that all but about a dozen be¬
long to clubs, societies or educational in¬
stitutions, and are, therefore, of no use ta
the general public. The classes—one ten or twelve devoted re¬
maining are of two
to consultation and reference, the other
to general circulation, and this latter
class is again divided into free and sub¬
scription libraries. Of the 1,400,000
books in the public libraries accessible of the city,
only about 100,000 are to any
and every one. These figures do not com¬
pare favorably with these furnished by
other cities. Boston has a free public
library containing 434,000 volumes. Cin¬
cinnati has one containing 145,000 vol¬
umes. Chicago has one containing nearly
100,000 volumes, while many other
smaller cities are in advance of New York
in proportion to tlieir size and popula¬
tion.—Frank Leslie’s.
Successful Business Men.
As a general rule successful business
men (merchants, politicians or bankers)
were members of large families. No hot
bed influence of wealth, or the puUed
training of an only child, d war led t.uir
early efforts at self reliance. No exti. w
«»>•“ » se ° money smotheme
the £ great f lesson of economy, without
whjc „ 0 3o)id foumlntioll of wealth w,b
ever laid. In early life no lesson of castle
or exclusiveness of blood chilled tlieir so
liability, but their minds were imbued
with the idea that true worth made men
and women of the first class.
The farmc: 's son raised on the scanty
farm, or the half orphan of a poor widow,
has no carriage in which to ride, so the son
soon learns to walk to fame and fortune,
In h* 8 youth no wealthy hand reaches out
to sustain and steady his steps, so lie eai ns
to save himself, and pushes forward with
m His father, with his scanty
£ ’ sets an example of economy which
in to the SQU through life, lu this way
t i )C I)00V tffcy from the farm, removed
f rom the fashionable vices of society,
comes to manhood and strikes out boldly
with a determination to hew his own way
to character and comfort.—Boston Bud
ceh
The “Yankeries” in London, which were a*
first regarded as a failure, are now quite at
thronged as the “colonies” were in their
prime. . . _ ..
ITALIAN WOOD GATHERERS.
Coal Hills Unknown to New York’s Italian
Tenement Dwellers.
Among the earliest risers in the city
are the gypsy faced women from the
Italian tenements of Mott and Mulberry
streets. The gray light has barely
streaked the eastern sky before, ingroups
of three or lour, by twos and singly, of
all ages, from the withered and wrinkled
crone of four score to the little girl of
eight years, they can be seen hurrying
along the streets to begin tlieir daily toil,
They seem to be always in high spirits,
and as they pass along they laugh and
chatter and show their glistening teeth,
and are as merry as bands of school girls
on the eve of a holiday. They are brave
helpmeets, these women, and by constant
labor reduce the household expenses of
Mulberry street to a minimum. Coal
bills with them are unknown. All the
wood they use for cooking purposes is
carried on their heads, often long dis¬
tances from [daces where old buildings
are being torn down. A reporter, stand¬
ing at the foot of Franklin’s statue in
Printing House square at daybreak on a
recent morning, counted sixty-three Ital¬
ian women in thirty minutes. They
came from the direction of the Italian
quarter and passed down Nassau street.
Each one carried a coarse cloth or towel.
Some were barefoot, some had shoes and
stockings, and still others wore the cow
skin without the stockings. Their black
hair, freshly platted and greased, was
tied in coils about their heads and tawdry
jewelry liung about their necks and from
their ears.
“Where are they all going so early in
the morning?” asked the reporter of a
big, broad backed policeman wlio stood
watching the women and swinging his
club.
The officer replied that a large six¬
storied building was being torn down and
they were going down to carry off the
wooden wreckage.
< i Several hundred of them go down
here every morning about this time,”
said he. “In about; twenty minutes, if
you wait, you will see them coming back
with loads on tlieir heads sufficient to
break the back of a brewery wagon
horse.”
The reporter waited. The swarthy
women still came in a stream from
Center street, crossed the square and hur¬
ried down Nassau street out of sight.
Presently the first of the industrious
housekeepers was seen returning stagger¬
ing under a load carried on her head of
heavy pieces of beams, broken laths and
fragments of dusty woodwork. Her
bundle was tied about with a stout cord.
Her towel, folded into a pad, protected
the skull from the rough surface of the
load. The woman’s face was a study for
a painter in its expression of pure and
unalloyed happiness. Capt. Kidd, bear¬
ing away the spoils of a rich Spanish gal¬
leon, couldn’t have been more thoroughly
at peace with himself and all the world
than the heavily laden child of the Ap
penines as, with one arm akimbo on her
stout hips and the other used to steady
her burden, she steered straight for the
Bend of Mulberry street. As she passed
out of view other women with similar
loads on their heads hove in sight in Nas¬
sau a _reet. Soon that narrow thorough¬
fare was a moving mass of great bundles
of wood drifting steadily toward the
Bend.
“They make excellent scavengers,”
said the policeman. “The contractors
are glad to get rid of the wood and give
them every chance to clean up a torn
down building. The price of coal never
affects them Mulberry street Eyck.liana;
so long as the women can bring in wood
by the ton.”—New York Tribune.
Well Preserved Railroad Ties.
Near Reno, Cal., railroad ties laid down
nineteen years ago when taken up were found
to be in a perfect state of preservation. An
analysis, to determine what has prevented
the w ood from rotting, will be made at once.
Education of.Russian Women.
Statistics have just been issued aV
the number of women who have stuH
at number Russian of universities female students in 1886. amouiffiM| The H|
and 779, and 536 of different these 243 branches studied of pli?\W| mSB
matics; and 139 587 belonged Jews; 748 to the were Greek unmajH^ chH|
were
and 31 married; 437 of the ladies
the daughters of noblemen, office: ‘S, 1
government officials; 89 were daug htefl
of of Russian private priests, citizens, 125 10 of of merchants, peasants, 4 llj cl
soldiers, and 2 were foreigners. ssia Thff |
the zeal for female education in Ru
still as great as ever is shown not only la
the above figures, but also by th<; fa*
that a Warsaw lady has recently school
15,000 roubles' for a high
women to be built at Warsaw.—Pa 1 Ma
Gazette,
Must Go Abroad for Our Glitt er.
It is a singular fact that the
States, while strong in resources, is
tirely dependent upon foreign
for the gold and tinsel which is used
decorating when her dress officers parade. of the A armjy
navy on
officer, no matter what flag he fights
under, must have a certain amount
glitter about his shoulders or he
do justice to the government which
ploys him. Epaulets and shoulder kno
are as essential to a well regulated army
navy as are the guns and ammunifi#
used on the enemy. Yet, in spite of , 4$
fact that there are 6,000 or 7,000
in the United States who must have
cord, gold lace and gilded epaulets,
is not a single manufactory in the
try where this “war material” can ®
made.—Boston Advertiser.
Sabot Wearing in France.
In certain parts of France not
peasants, but well to do cafe
cabmen, tramcar drivers and
wear “sabots” in winter time, not
common, clumsy, all wood sabot, scf||
with uppers of stiff leather, the
only being of wood. They are wool®
“soques,” and are worn with
stockings and an extra stout sock,
like an ordinary elastic sock, with t
toe cut off, called a “chausson,” drav
over the stocking, so as to prevent t
heel and instep from being
rubbed. Children, from the time th
walk, wear them, and run about in tl«
just as well as in boots, and never ha
wet feet.—Boston Transcript.
Building Up an Empire.
Says a gentleman who lives in
Columbia: The way the Canadian "p
cific railroad is doing now is posiif \ |
laughable from an economic poi®
view. They are carrying goods fro mJ
United States through Canada im
United States, paying trail sport at
both line ends for and virtually carrying nothing. them oveJ Til
own .
be “building up an empire,” but it?
tainly not building up a road. i f
•----___
Gibbon, the Historian. >
had Gibbon been staying took very for little time exercise. with Lp J|
some
Sheffield in the country, and when r
was about to go away the servants! co
not find his hat. “Blessme,” exclain
Gibbon, “I certainly left it in the hal
my arrival here.” He had notyi I
out of the house during the whole
visit.—Detroit Free Press. W
The Saltan’s Merry Go KounvJ
The sultan of Zanzibar has had a® l 1
tie merry go round erected in the m
of his country palace. Every denil j
the His African favorite jungle is represented^^ is takeBf
amusement to
fifty of the ladies of his harem out lf§
palace, where he makes them ride loB|
for hours at a time whilst he
and drinks sherbet.—The Epoch. S
But for the house fly, says P;
Proctor, epidemics would carry
million people per year.
