Woman's chronicle. (Little Rock, Ark.) 1888-1???, 1889-06-08
SCHOOLGIRL Diet.
ICY NJ. Hall, NJ. d., in Christian Union.


"Candy -eating is the dissipation of the Ameri-
can girl, said the principal of young ladies'
school, in my hearing, the other day. This is true
She buys it; she concocs it after intricate formu-
lac; candy bounds her horizon, and abounds in her
armament. 1t is her passion, her sentiment, the
sweetest thing in her love- making; and beribboned
boxes, baskets and cornucopias, filled with be-
wildering and satiating devices in chocolate and
glucose, accompanied by the loveiest of little
tongs, decorated with the sweetest of little bows,
all come on the wings of love to the bower of
beauty (though one young lady told me that her
gentlemen friends brought her bottles of pickles
instead of candy, because she "oved pickles
besto). But these tender tributes play sad havoc,
spelling the teeth the complexion, the BREATH the
digestion, and, as no girl can have dyspepsia and
an angelic temper at the same time, our hero of
the candy boxes betakes himself to bachelor apart
ments in wonder and disgust, nnocently unaware
of the fact that his prospects of domestic bliss
have been wrecked by his misapplied sugar-plums.
Seriously, this passion for candy among young
girls is doing an enormous amount of harm. Apart
from the fact that it is eaten at irregular and un-
suitable intervals and that it is often vilely pois-
oned and adulterated, the effect of too great
proportion of sweets in the diet is to clog the
portal or liver circulation, and give to the blood
too much carbon in PROPORTION to the active tissue
forming material, The system becomes deranged,
the secretory organs inactive, and coated tongue,
pimply or pasty complexion lassitude, and irri-
liability are the outward and visible signs of the
candy cachexa.
Again, we have girls who drink tea or coffee, or
boh till their nerves are as one girl expressed it,
'all on the outside" The pickle girl, the pastry
girl, and the peanut girl are all familiar specimens.
Perhaps some of my readers will remember the
little girls who wroteyt to est. Nicholas" giving q
list of the articles which they carried to school for
their luncheons. One says "My favorite lunch
a potted tongue sandwich, an orange and piece
of mince pie" Another says: "a little girl who
goes to my school used to bring for her lunch a
lemon, an orange cream puff, and great big
green pickle; but she has now gone to California
for her health" A third says: II eat taffy ap-
pies, oranges, caramels and peanuts" And
finally, young miss gravely announces that she
takes for her luncheon six pickles, six pieces of
Bread and bottle of strong tea. ''Strong tea
and cracked ice' was the sum total of one young
lady's breakfast order which fingers in my memory
still
The girl in boarding school or college, besides
devouring an unlimited quantity of confectionery
has Gin nine cases out of ten), somewhere in her
room, gourmand's corner, where all sorts of
potted, picked, and preserved denominations are
indscriminately slowed, and where she retires to
bolt these indigestibles at the most unreasonable
hours and under the most unfavorable conditions.
Her stock is reinforced, monthly or semi-monthly
by "bOx from home," the principal portion of
the contents of which is cake-fruit cake, cocoa
nut cake, all sorts and kinds of cake, make as rich
as the most lavish use of the richest ingredients
will admt-a mince pie, and jar or two of
pickles; quantity Of candy and nuts go to fllup
the chinks. Headache, malaria, excuses from les
sons, a week in the infrmary, and, from home, an
agonized letter of warning to the principal of the
Al