The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1871-11-24
verniouiar Diet.

lowing on very interesting subject:
The inconsistencies of mems di-
etary tastes are as noble as their mo.
raj conduct, We ridicule the Chi
nese fol eating puppies, while we
are eating Holsters. We eat shrimps
but shudder at the Arabs locusts.
Why should there be such a po-
ther made about worms as an article
of dietI That there are worms not
convenient, we admit The hairy
covering of many caterpillars would
be likely to incommodate the eater.
But 40 such objection applies to
the remarkably delicate apple worm,
OF to the chestnut worm, or to the
apple,tree borer, or to scores Of
the other tender, juicy, and no
doubt delicious worms.
Coesider the matter calmly. What
is q chestnut worm! What are his
habits, and what the probable char
acter of this delicate substance as an
article of luxurious diet2 He is
born into aplace where no dirt can
enter. From the egg he is apart
from the world, a recluse, as it were,
a chestnut monk. He knows no
such variety in diet as too frequent
lv clogs the human stomach and
clouds the brain. He awakes to
conscious existence by the STRINGS
of hunger, and finds around him
walls of delicious chestnuts sub
stance, which, by the concurrent tes-
timony of boys innumerable, and
adults not fewer, is eating fit for
king. 1fa worm eats kings food, is
itnot royal food for worm?
He eats no slops, infames his lungs
with no burning liquors, corrupts his
blood with no condiments,or strange
mixtures. He is born into chestnut,
he feeds upon chestnuts, and every
part of him is but refined and vitali-
zed chestnut. We all know that the
vegetable kingdom stands lower in
the scale Of creation than the animal;
and Of course, when vegetable is
changed to an animal it rises, and
in this second form it excels its for
mer and inferior condition. Only
the most choice portions of the chest
nuts are eaten by the worm. These
rare and exquisite particles are at
tenuated and sublimated in the mys-
terious process Of digestion. They
rise to a purer state. Chestnuts not
eaten remain only ches5nuts. But
chestnut in whose bosom is nourish-
ed an organized creature finds itself
translated, and may say, 81 die that
l may live. I was a chestnut. i am
become Worm!'
What wonder, then, that he who
eats the worm eats the chestnut in q
higher and refined formi Because
men do not reflect uwon these rarely
beautiful transmigrations, they go on
cherishing preiudlces against the eat
ing Of worms. Stories are told which
greatly amuse the unrehecting, but
which cause the truly philosophical
to omarvel. As when the Irishman, ,on
biting open chestnut, saw worm
draw back from the sudden flash oil
light, and exclaimed, "Ye spake too
late" and swallowed him. The
Irishman was a true philosopher
He had q nut with a soul in it. His
traducers would have thrown away
both the nut and the fair form which
represented the most ETHEREAL proper
ties of it.
The same train of illustration
Whould show how unWise are dietary
prejudices Of men in respect to nu-
merous other worms. Will there
never be a more rational judgment?
Shall so large provision in nature
for mans nourishment be suffered
to go unused, only because men have
been educated to disgust at things
essentially clean, comely and. deli
cious?
l have an object in these remarks.
Of course l have. Worms devour
my substance. They destroy my
cherries, my apples, my pears, my
plums; they bore my trees and de-
stroy them. They fill the ground
and torment my radishes, my.pota-
toes and every esculent root. My
farm is one vast vermicular menage-
rie. My flowers are disfgured; my
leaves are cut and consumed, and
my substance is destroyed by rob-
bers whom l cannot arrest nor de-
stroy. 1 have spent sums Of money
for vermifuges which never
drove away a worm. 1 have
powdered them, squirted them,
drenched them, smoked them. Ev-
ery vile smell have l courted, and ev-
ery nauseous thing have l compound
ed, in hopes of inducing self-respect-
ing worms to take themselves OF.
They nibble away, not even pausing
to cay. 1--WE still hvew
We have noticed that as soon as
any article began to be in demand,
new and unforeseen difficulties
sprang up in securing it. Things
that grew with unfailing certainty
and abundance in the pastures, or
along the roadside, became tender,
uncertain, and even precarious, when
regularly cultivated for market uses.
Now, if 1 could only excite in the
public mind longing for worms,not
only would they be eagerly collected,
and the number of them be thus
greatly lessened, but, following the
universal law, they no doubt would
begin to fail in constitutional vigor,
grow less and less prolific, and finally
disappear altogether. Then what
apples, what pears, what plums, what
roses without a slug, what cherries
without spot, what trees without a
ragged leaf, and what jolly Westches-
ter farmers! Help me then to pro-
mote a Vermicular Diet!
ave know a girl" says some one,
$50 industrious, that when she has
nothing else to do she sits and knits
hnr brow -