The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1879-02-13
A Plea for yes etabIes.

In the London Times William q.
Ward writes to urge greater cultivs-
tion and use Of vegetables, especially
of leguminous kinds. he speaks very
good word for lentils, which were Of old
q favorite dish in Egypt and Palestine,
but are almost entirely unknown to this
generation. Lentils, or "lentiles," as
the Bible calls them, are sort OF black
bean inclosed in long pod and ripen-
ening with thick skin. The -four is
very sweet and nourishing. According
to Boussingault's scale fifty.six parts Of
white haricot beans, or fifty seven parts
OF lentils, or sixty-seven parts OF peas,
are equivalent to 100 parts OF wheat
-four. This shows lentils to have
high value as nutriment. They make
delicious soups and can be cooked in as
many attractive ways as the common
bean. Mr.. Wards chief object seems
to be to introduce to the poor q sort OF
food which shall be at once cheap and
wholesome. On this point he says:
How trifing is the cost of human
food II only what is necessary is sought.
Eight to twelve cents per day is suffi-
cient to provide for a strong man and
keep him in health and strength.
Oatmeal should not be omitted here.
Best Scotch oatmeal can be bought at
the mill for three cents per pound /.
Nearly one cent more will Re required
to bring it home. A pound will make
the breakfast for four strong men II
boiled for half an hour as porridge. For
child or man better food there is not on
earth. Every pound gives more nutri-
ment than four pounds OF lean beef"
He insists that rheumatism may be
cured and neuralgia greatly modified by
a strictly vegetable diet, and that q
workingman will get as much strength
out of vegetables es out Of meat. He
becomes quite enthusiastic in speaking
on this point, and thus breaks out:
"This vegetarian teaching not only
places human food on a scientific foun'
dation, but at once removes three-fourths
of human diseases. 1t uproots drunken
ness without leaving even O desire fol
alcoholic drinks. Vegetarianism would
suppress all poverty and nearly all suf'
fering. 1t would make excessive luxury
on the one hand impossible and abiect
poverty on the other hand equally i'm
probable. All wars would cease. Man
kind would become one great brother
uoOu' 4hO WuOl6 CI6dblOu SAOohSpi
and travaileth in pain together unit
now;' but it would then be healed an(
harmonized. All sham kings and shan
thrones would vanish as vision, and III
alone whose right it is to reign would b.
king over a renewed people in renewed
world"
Perhaps this writer, who is a man o
considerable note in England, and care
full observer, remembered that He wa
not a vegetarian; but that fact does no
appear to have dampened his ardor at all
Whether vegetables are an absolute
specific for rheumatism and also a pan
acea for all other human W es may b.
we'll doubted; but it is probable that th,
poor, especially the American poor, ca
too much meat for either their purses o
their. health. If lentils can be mad
popular as food it will no doubt mark al
improvement ir the condition of the race
Many new and important vegetable
have been added within the last two o
three hundred years. How should W
get along without tomatoes, radishes
celery, Indian corn and potatoes, whicl
civilized nations a comparatively littl
while ago knew nothing OFF Probabl
there are no lentils whatever in Ne,
York, but it is worth considering whethe
their introduction and cultivation is no
something thoroughly worth while. T
add an edible to the market is to dimin
ish human suffering. - Ne,o Yor
, GrdDhic.