Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1872-10-05
The Cost of the Table.
From the New York Times.

lIIOui LIiC ASeW L YIN
The original and. until recent days the gen
orally accepted meaning of the word ''meat" is
simply food. This is apparent; for example,
another mans poisou," aud in the sign, Horse
meat and mans meat" which disa appeared
from wayside inns only within the memory of
the last generation. The change in the mean,
ing of the word would seem to indicate general
conclusion that flesh is the most important ar
tcle of mans diet, and so is par excellence
meat or food IF so, this conclusion itself has
been not without its effect in the advance Of
the price Of this article of food; and it also iu-
dicates change in customary diet which we
venture to say is not entirely beneficial. In
particular does this last remark apply to our
own country There is no civilized country in
the world in which so much meat is eaten, or
in which so much iswasted by bad cooking, by
profusion, and by absolute unthrift, as there is
in this country
Whether this meat-eating is beneficial seems
to be more than doubtful. Are our men or
our women stronger, healthier, larger~limed,
ruddcr, and farer than Europeans of CORES
pondiug occupations and habits of life? The
Irish girls who come out here and 90 into do
mestic service come generally with rosy cheeks
and full figures. They probably have not eaten
fresh meat once week in their lives; In many
cases not oftener than once month. Once
here, they rush ravenousy at the joints, the
steaks, and the chops which are to them lux
urious living. The result is almost invariably
that they lose the figures and the rosy cheeks
that they brought with them, and that came
with, if not Of, diet Of potatoes and butter
milk. The more obseryant of them have al.
ready begun to notice this themselves. And in
the second generation the change is very mani
FAST 1c nall
ture than your Irish girl OF the second genera
tion. ,.s
In brief, We all of us here eat too much meat
--too much for our health, probably, and GER
tainly too much for the well-being of our pock-
cts. Great, brawHy Scotchmen live month af-
ter month on oatmeal and buttermilk and
little whiskey, and healthier, harder-working
class of men it would be difficult to find. Why
must we be every day eating flesh and fat? !n
particular, why should our women and child
rem be, like Sir Andrew Aguecheek, such great
eaters of beef? Among our more comfortably
situated classes it is safe to say that they eat
meat twice a day. There is no need OF this,
and more, it is not wholesome. Women who
are not hard workers, and children, are much
more healthy upon lighter and less copcen-
trated diet Children until they reach their
teens do not really need meat at all, and are
much better in health and in looks for not
having it.
In countries where the science of living is
better understood than it is with US, they live,
even among the wealthier classes, upon bread
and porridge and milk and fruit. The boy who
may be seen at American hotels and boarding
houses making his breakfast OF beetsteak, ham
and eggs, and broiled fish, all of them at once
before hius, and eaten in alternate bits, IS un-
known in Europe, where he would have his
loo ~, bic broad and milk There
is nothing more certain In regard to this SUBJECT
that that our consumption of meat, particularly
by women aud children, is needless and un-
wholesome
But if this be true, what shall be said of our
extrayaeance 10 our use of this same most
costly article of food We are profuse in our
provision, but n our use we are Viciously waste
full. We all want to have the most costly cuts,
and we all cook our meat in the most wasteful
way, and we all waste-that is, throw away
and allow to spoil that which would support
poor family in France. To get joint or
steak, and then to roast or broll-say, rath-
er, to bake or fry-it at range or cook,
ne.stove, is the sum and total Of our general
knowledge of cooking. The meat is wasted and
spoiled in the cooking, by which its bulk and its
nourishiug properties are diminished; 1t IS vast
ed in the eating, and what remains is also often
wasted, when it is not flched by servants Tor
the tables of their mothers, and their
cousins And for this destruction OF good
and costly food, the neglect Of personal super
vision on the part of housekeepers is mainly &C
countable. Much Of it is due also to the abso-
lutte ignorance of the younger housekeepers,
who have learned nothing and have wished,
and now wish, to learn nothing OF the proper
direction of a kitchen.
These, then are prominent among the causes
al NJ Or
ate means find in providing for their :ables an
unnecessary consumption OF the costhest and
not the heathiest articles of food a wastetul and
injurious cooking of it and lack OF watchtu-
ness over the kitchen and the meat safe on the
part of housekeepers If men and women who
feel this difficulty will but have the courage to
face the risk of being called mean, and will dl-
minish their consumption OF meat and regulate
it we'll. they will do much to relieve themselves;
thev will gain in health as well as in comfort,
and in doing so they will, by diminishing an
unreasonable and extravagaut demand, DO some
thing to reduce the price of meat and diminish
in two ways their own butchers bills.
ELEGANT THIEVES IN DoMtNo.-The rob-
berv bv masked men of MIR. Samuel Pope, a
wealthy citizen of Patterson, n D., whose resi-
dence is on the suburbs of that city, has been
briefly stated by telegraph. A correspondent
siiI Mr 'Gs Pope was Awakened about II
Monday night by somebody in the room. aod
almost dun bstruck' by the appearance OF hye
men standing at his bedside with drawn re,
volvers. Two more stood at the window ;appa,,
rently on guard. They were we'll dressed, and
all wore black masks, except one Of the party,
who had white one.
Mr.. Pope was Informed in gentleman y
and polite manner that no harm would ensue II
he but remained quiet a warning, it is un
necessary to saw, that under the circumstances
he obeyed. He was then tightly bound with
his hands behind his back with piece of strong
tarred rope, and his feet were tied together.
He was then put into closet under the stairs,
against the door of which we're placed sack
Of salt and kcg of nails The robbers in the