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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.