The Portland daily press., 1874-02-17
Good Living at Two Dollars a Week.


Good Living at Two Dollars Week.
DIR. Dio Lewis, in one of his sprightly books
on the subject of health published several
years age, incidentally shows that much
more economical style of living than is gen
orally adopted even by the poorest classes,
might be made to compcrt with degree OF
physical vigor and mental buoyancy much
greater than now generally prevail. He tells
us Enthusiastically how he once lived whoie
week, in the warmest summer weather,ln Dos
ton, the dearest market in the United States
on forty-tpo cents performing meanwhile
very unusual amount Of both mental and
physical labor and finding that he had gained
half a pound in weight at the end of the ex-
pe:iment! The staple of his diet was crack
ed wheat, hominy, oat meal, the cheaper kinds
Of meat cooked in stews, beans and hulled
corn. On such food, he finds by personal ex-
perience and close professional observation for
many years, that he could feed family Of
ten persons, a week in Boston for two dollars.
In cheaper markets he would undertake to pro-
vide for the same family at a rate so low that
he hestates to name the sum, insuring his
boarders at the same time. more perfect health
better looks, clearer brains and longer lives
than nicer and more expensive feeders enjoy,
besides giving them much keener relish Of
the pleasures of the table.
These statements attracted considerable at
tention from the press Of this and other cities
at the time they were published. They had
a perceptible effect, too, supported as they
were by the Independent experience of many
unprofessonal observers. But unhappily
they apparently did not reach or failed to i'm
press large number of individuals of the
most numerous class likely to be benefited
by them. Many invalids and other people in
comfortable circumstances who Lave an intel
ligent apprehension of the means to be en-
ployed in obtaining and preserving good
health, have adopted plain fare as sanitary
precaution. But there are very few persons
whose pecuniary circumstances make econo-
my of special Importance to them who know
how TO obtain wholesome and appetizing food
at prices which they can actually afford. 1t
is singula If fac: that oat meal and corn meal
are commonly more conspicuous articles of
diet on tho cables of the rich than on those Of
Sne poor. 1t is another singular fact that the
baked beans, brown bread, hominy and In
dian pudding, which exist in books as the or
binary fare of farmers and the rural popula-
ton, are oftener affected by the denizens of
cities than by country people. The farmers
like poor city people are infected by the great
American mania for saleratus, superfine -four
and beefsteak, and their tables are dis6gured
by the green and yellow streaked biscuits, so
prolific of dyspepsia and its kindred horrors.
In the country the glorious old brick ovens,
whence formerly issued the traditional feast of
cutivator ofthe sol, have fallen into disuse.
The oats are all given to the horses, the barley
and corn are sold for -four with three X.'s
and the leathery steaks which the itinerant
butcher finds market for, scores of miles
from any city. The pies, cakes and preserves.
the jam, the fried meats and the numberless
inventions of pastry cooks for disconcerting
eupeptic stomachs have, even in the depths of
the cnnntry- qnita nnshad- from their places
OF honor the wholesome old kings of the ru-
raj banquet. The country housewife would
be quite ashamed to set before guest the
plain dishes which used to make good cheer.
Her bread must be of the whitest-or yellow
esther cakes of the richest and she will not
fail in furnishing forth her table with an inn
mense variety of the nameless edible knick-
knacks which her city cousin would never
think of producing. If you want oat meal
pudding or porridge, good baked beans or
wholesome and digestibIe graham bread, you
must 60 to the city for them-yes, and gener-
ally to the homes of the af1uent. The poor
city lahorer pays for his fare double and treble
as much as he ought and lives only half or
quarter as well as he might. For he COM
petes with his rich neighbor in buying steak
at from 80 to 40 cents pound, for one thing.
The best cuts of course go to the rich Gus
toner, even if there be no difference in the
price, and tie poor customer must fain con-
tent himself with what is left. Now in
the first place poor steak is an abom-
ination to gods and men, however pre-
pared. and good steak requires in its prepara-
ton for the table about as much skill as is re-
quired in managing delicate affair of di-
plomacy or Of love, so that, il nine cases out
of ten, the laborer or person of small income
who enters upon this ruinous competition,
gets tough indigestible section of bovine
muscle and sinew for his breakfast or dinner,
when for fifth of the price he could buy the
cheaper but equally good parts of the animal,
dcllghting and soothing with the delicious
stew made therefrom the long-suffering stem
ach. There is not only ignorance but foolish
pride standing in the way of this kind of
economy, which is at the same time perfectly
practicable and more effective than can be
p-acticed in any other direction. People do
not like to be suspected of a want of respect
for their stomachs, and especially the stom-
achs of their family, and dread the reputa-
ton of not living we'll Accordingly
all through this hard winter, ignorant and
foolish people of all classes 60 on daily
offering themselves living sacrifice to those
twin idols of the American tabIe-beef steak
and bread of superfne -four,