Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1877-11-30

3 -sa Stxn = r Re s-..-As5 tlsss gslssHT
Heaven help the man who begins 10
diet! &C. '........ -.
We say 1t with alr due reverence, for
We do believe he needs heIp. & 1s~@a
We are not stafkias q sick pecp.e,l
whose regimen has to be ataenasi Aos
but sf.sll people xho ere kssss hard
Tie man 10 whom a'x xxe : nov cSws especial.
" refer can BE found IN evesy eomsssi1
nifty We willcalf him NJ. Blsck.d y
A yeas ago he could not eat beans.
Beans were so much poison mixed up
NTH rcrk IA snd moisuses. They "laid
ike lead in his stomach, and beans
were banished from the household cf
the Blacks. His next edict ofexpuisios
was issued upon potatoes. They were
full Of starch, and starch dries mp the
blood. No potatoes for Black He &C.
eidently found out that pepper is liable
to irritate the coats OF the stomach. 50
pepper was prohibited. Apples soured
the stomach-exit apples. Blacks stou,-
ach was very sensitive affair, and it
would almost seem as Il he would be
better of without II. -s'ea4f
He took to eating Grahssa bread aud
rye ffitters. No butter. for butter
makes bad blood; no sugar, for sugar
brings on billousness: no salt IN sHy-
thing, because salt makes fellow "hu-
mory." So on through the whole cata-
logue Of eatables. ..~
Now Black, from a kind and indul-
gent husband and father, has been trans
formed, through the agency Of dieting.
into the nightmare Of his family. and the
bette noir of the friends at whose table
he chances to sit. ..
For what good housewife, with mod
crate degree ofpride, could preserve her
equanimity when guest gIances over
her wcll-appointed table, reiuscs each
dish offered him, and says IN q sepul-
chral tone:
"I'll take very small piece of cold
bread, If you have no Graham."
Now, man is not obliged To make an
ostrich oihimselfand swallow old horse
shoes or oyster shells whole. but there
is no reason why a moderately healthy
person, who works "a much as he ought,
cannot cat what he likes, and as much
as he likes. And IL he is distressed by
it, let him saw his own wood and get
in his coal, and scrub his Office steps,
and he WILL not hear much from dys-
pepsia.
How things have changed since the
times Of Cur grandiathers They did
not know there Was such a thing a di-
etins. We doubt If MANY OF them had
ever heard the word. Graham -four,
Farina. Ridges food and scores OF other
"healthtul' compounds. were We: TO be
discovered. Extracts of Buchu and
Plantation Blttcrs were myths Of the
future, aud nobody ever dreamed that
corn bread and sal, beef were too "h-a-
w" for the stomach OF a we'll orking
man or woman.
Our grandfathers and grandmo,hers
ate whatever they chose and as much
as they wanted; and after a hard days
work at wood-chopping and spinning
linen they would ride twenty miles over
drifted road to some old corner tav-
ern. and dance till daylight, and then
ride back again, and take up the AK and
the distaf as though nothing had hap.
pened.
And the women brought up ten or a
dozen children apiece, and lived to be
hundred, and the men were hale at nine
ty, and only died when their children
and great, great grandchildren had no
longer need Of them, ---r
Then paralysis, and apoplexy, and
catarrh, and diPtheria, and neuralgia.
and any number OF other diseases now
so common were unknown, and If per-
son did die Of consumption il took the
destroyer thirty or forty years to COM
ple,e The job.
Why is it that we are not so strong a.
the people ofolden times' Why do We
fail to live out half our days, when We
claim to be so wise IN all sanitary mat
ters: Why are We, in comparison with
those ignorant gonrmands Of hundred
years ago. a nation Of enfeebled dys-
peptcs. in spite of increased facilities
for health and long life in spite Of the
fact that we are continually die;ing,-
.str York Weekly.