San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-12-06
EAT THE SIMPLEST FOOD.
How Jay Gould Stands the Strain of Bur
mesa Good Dietetic Rule.

How Jay Gould Stands the Strain of Bus
mesa Good Dietetic Rule.
The very best living is compatible with the
greatest simplicity, and the complex variety
of the set feasts of today is, as a matter of
fact, incompatible with really good living.
Jay Gould, talking about eating some time
ago. said: 81 do not believe that any man
can stand the strain of large business unless
he lives on the simplest food he can get. /
am very fond of baked potatoes They are
about the simplest things you can eat. do
not care for what are called fancy dishes
Plain meats and vegetables, good bread, good
butter and good mill are my staples. | don't
mean that | do not like some dishes that
cannot eat with impunity, but | am lucky
enough not to care much about them. i re-
member once at public dinner | ate some
dish which was very good to the taste, but
was sick for a week after it.
Now, when go to heavy dinner, / take
little soup if it is plain, piece of roast
meat or game, and some plain potatoes or
peas-or, in fact, any vegetable that is served
without sauce. These sauces spoil the food
for me. Then for the rest of the time l sit
at the table, play with something on my
plate, and pass the time as well as | can"
any better than that of any other man9 Sim
ply because he has succeeded better than
most men in associating causes with effects,
and is beyond question leading expert as to
causes, and food is prime cause.
Simplicity, then, is invaluable as a charac-
teristic of good food. 1t is also character
istic of the most refined gastronomy, for
there is a simplicity of elegance as well as a
simplicity of coarseness. The ash cake and
molasses of the Alabama field hand is a sim
pie meal The ash cake is merely lump of
paste of corn meal and water buried and
baked in hot ashes. But a canvas back,
plainly and properly cooked, with a glass or
two of rare, pure old wine, is just as simple.
Nothing but the best Is good enough for any
man who can get the best, and it is well tc
remember that quality being equal, the sim
plest food is the best.
What, then, shall we eat' There is the
best medical authority for saying, ''eat what
ever you want" The rule, like all others,
has its limitations. A man who is suffering
from the astronomical crimes of the past,
who has little by little destroyed his healthy
appetite and substituted therefor a morbid
craving for abhorrent mixtures, may no
longer go on in his sins without fresh pangs
for every fresh offense. But" the reader
will say, this is fat contradiction of the
first dictum, eat what you want and the
whole theory becomes an absurdity."
Not so fast. If your stomach is already
ruined, you are exempt But if it be ruined
you will please remember that it was not
ruined by intelligent eating, or eating in
compliance with the real demands of your
stomach and your appetite. 1t may have
been because you ate when you didn't want
to, or did not eat whens you wanted to, or
from some other cause than eating. Perhaps
your ancestors spoiled it for you, but don't
make the mistake of supposing that nature,
unless it is interfered with, will give you an
appetite for any food that your stomach can't
take care of.-New York Mail and Express.