The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1877-11-21
Dieting.

heaven heiP the mai VINO oeSlns
10 Diet
We say it with all due reverence,
for We DO believe he needs help.
We are not talking Of sick people,
whose regimen has to be attended tc.
but of well people who are trying
hard to be sick
The man to whom we now espe-
cially refer can be found in every
community We viii call him Mr.,
Black.
A year ago he could not eat beans.
Beans were so much poison mixed up
with pork fat and molasses. They
laid like lead in his stomach, and
beans were banished from the house
hold Of the Blacks. His next edict
Of expulsion was issued upon pota-
toes. They were full of starch, and
starch dries up the blood. No pota-
toes for Black lie accidentally
found out that pepper is liable to irri-
tate the coats Of the stomach, so pep
per was prohibited Apples soured
the stom aeh-exit apples. Blacks
stomach was q very sensitive affair,
and it would almost seem as If be
would be better off without it.
He took to eating Graham bread
snd rye fritters. No butter, for but
ter makes bad blood: no sugar, for
sugar brings on biliousncss; no salt
in anything, because salt makes fel-
lows "humory" SO on through tho
whole catalogue Of eatables'
Now Black, from q kind and iodul-
gent husband and father, has been
transformed, through the agency OF
dieting. into the nightmare Of bis fam
lily, and the bete ROjr of the friends
at whose table be chances 70 sit.
For what good housewife, with o
moderate degree Of pride, could pre-
serve her equanimiGy when q guest
glances over her well appointed table,
refuses each dish offered him, and
says in sepulchral tone: 'I'll take
very small piece of cold bread, if
sou have no Graham"
Now, q man is not obliged to make
an ostrich of himself and swallow old
horse-shoes or oyster-shells whole,
but there is no reason why a moder-
ately healthy person, who works as
much as he ought. cannot eat what
be likes, end as much as he likes.
And if he is distressed by it, let him
saw his own wood, and get in his
coal, and scrub bis cfiice steps, and
be will not hear much from dyspep-
sia.
How things have changed since
the time of our grandmothers They
did not know there was such e thing
as dieting. We doubt if many ol
them had ever heard OF the word.
Graham flour, FaFina, Ridges food
and scores of other healthful com
pounds, were yet to be discovered
Extracts of Buchu and Plantation
Bitters were myths of the future, and
nobody ever dreamed II at corn bread
and salt beef were too heavy for the
stomach of o well working man OF
woman.
Our grandfathers aud graadmoth.
ers ate whatever they chose and 8:
much as they wanted; and after a
hard days work at wood-ehoppin 2
and spinning linen would ride TWEEN
ty miles over a drifted road TO some
old corner tavern, and dance till day
light, and then ride back again, an q
take mp the ax and the distsT a:
though nothing had happened
And the women brought up ten o.
dozen children apiece, and lived u
be hundred, and the men were halt
at ninety, and only died when theil
children and great, great grandchil
dred had no longer need for them.
Then paralysis, and apop!exy, anC
catarrh, and diphtneria, aud neural
gia, and any number of other diseas
es now so common were unknown
and if q person did die of consump
ton it took the destroyer thirty oil
forty years to complete the JOB.
Why is it that we are not so strong
as the people Of olden times? Why d.
we fail to live out half cur days
when we claim to be so wise in al
sanitary matters? Why are we, il
comparison with those ignorant
gourmauds of hundred years ago
nation of enfeebled dyspeptics, il
spite of increased facilities for health
and long life in spite of the fac
that we are continually dieting ?
Kaie Thorn, IN n y INeekly.