Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-09-14
BEANS AS THE STAFF.
More Nutritious Than Wheat, They
Might be Substituted
WITHOUT INJURY TO THE RACE.
What History and Poetry Tell Of the Le-
guminous Luxury.
USED As BALLOTS AS WE'LL AS FOOD
WRITTEN FOR THE p1srArcH.l


rwRITTEg FOR THE DrsPArcHl
We remember of baving seen an article by
an eminent speculative philosopher, who
was none the less a practical economist,
which in substance was an answer 20 the
query, "What might have been the effect on
mankind in general had beans been adopted
in the place of wheat as the sustaining food
of the race?" There were many reasons ad-
vanced to prove that from a scientific point
OF view beans were better adapted than
wheat to subserve all the purposes OF that
cereal. And from this point the PROPOSE
tion would seem worthy of consideration.
To botanists the bean is known as the seed
of certain plants which grow in pods. Such
kinds of fruit (taken together the pod and
the seed) are called legumes; and hence the
term leguminous is applied to such fruits or
plants as the bean, the pea. the lentil. etc.
The old English word pulse was applied to
all that class. Beans are cultivated for
food all over the world, but they differ in
quality and kind from each other, as they
are divided into varieties or families, all Of
a given variety being alike, but the varieties
differing from each other. The common
bean in all its varieties is cultivated both
in Europe and America. The French bean,
kidney bean, or haricot, is another variety.
In the warm countries, such as India and
China and in some parts of South America,
where they form very important part of
the diet of the Inhabitants, many other
kinds are known, but are used exclusively
there.
USED GREEN AND DRY.
The French, or haricot bean, is used in
England more generally in its green state,
the whole pod being eaten as vegetable or
prepared as pickle. 1t is said that through
Germany and the Netherlands the pods are
preserved In pickle by almost every family
for winter or spring use. In France it is
cooked in very many ways, both in its
green state and dried. In America the har-
icot, or kidney bean, is in general use in
its green state curing the summer, and
since the canning process has reached its
present perfection large quantities of it are
put up for winter use.
The common bean is more nutritious than
wheat and there is no product of the veg
etable world SO nutritious as the haricot.
Professor Liebig once said that flour quarts
OF beans and two pounds of corned beef or
pork boiled to rags. in 30 quarts of water,
will furnish good meal for 40 men,"
Sir Henry Thompson says that "haricots
are good enough to be welcome at any
table," What a part they sustained as the
food of our armies during the civil war any
old veteran will tell you off hand. 1t has
been said that the German armies could not
have been susrained in their winter CAM
paigns of 1901, had it not been for Erb-
swursh-that is dried peas and beans COM
pressed and mixed with certain portion of
bacon or lard, and used as soup.
BACON AND BEANS.
OF those used, dry or not in the pod, the
common bean called varIously the white,
field, navy or Boston bean, is of the class
most generally used in America. Indeed
some have not heisitated to call it the ma
tional herb of America, as they call bacon
and beans the national dish. Such bold ex-
peessions are scarcely warranted; but in like
manner some have declared, as though put
to vote, that the golden rod is the national
flower.
We may remember here how DR.. Frank
lin objected to the eagle being taken for
the svmbolical bird of American freedom.
He declared there was nothing American
about it; that it was not the representative
of any ennobling or generous characteristic;
and in its stead advocated the adoption of
the turkey-the turkey being partly an
American bird of royal bearing. with the
additional quality of being good to eat.
Nevertheless the eagle was adopted, and we
have taxed at second hand the emblem of
every imperial despot from Caesar to Bona
parte. If, therefore, the bean is the
national herb, it comes to that distinction
by adoption ESQ to speak) and not by any
birthright.
Some varieties, notably the Lima, are of
South American origin, but the common
bean was in use as food in the earliest times
of which We have record. One kind is yet
known as the Egyptian, or sacred; and dried
and shriveled specimens are still found in
old tombs.
OF BIBLICAL FAME.
They are twice mentioned in the Bible;
once as one of the articles of food which the
subjects who were loyal to King David in
the time of the rebellion of Absalom,
brought to him and the people with him
who were "hungry and thirsty and weary
in the Wilderness" and agsin are they
spoken of as food by Ezekiel in his prophe-
cies, which were uttered in the fifth year of
the first captivity of the Israelites BY the
at period of time about 600
years B. G.
Its antiquity is also well attested in pro-
fame history. That it was a common article
with the Grecians is evident from the we'll
known circumstance of its use in taking the
votes of the people. They then answered
for ballots, and the voter, in the selection Of
the magistrates, or in passing on any public
matter, made his choice by dropping a white
or black bean into the urn, or the receptacle
used for collecting them. So also the early
Romans voted in their Comitia, or assem-
blies OF the people. A white bean, in the
language applied to this system, "signifed
absolution or acquittal, and black one
We read that Pythagoras, who ranked so
high as philosopher, and whose system of
the universe was accepted as the right one
down to modern period, forbade his dis
ciples to eat flesh and beans, for the reason
that he supposed them at the creation Of the
world to have been formed of the
SAME SUBSTANCE AS MAN.
It is supposed he got his secrets from the
Egyptians. But much later philosopher,
Sir William Temple, according to the obser-
yatlon of Thackeray in the article devoted
to Dean Swift in English Humorists,"
says that this old precept meant that wise
man should not meddle with public affairs
This is not direct wsy of coming at it, but
it is ineligible enough when the bean was
used as ballot.
But in America it has been known and
used since the landing of the pilgrims at
Plymouth, or at least from the next year
after. To what great prominence the his
torians, the essayists and the poets of New
England have raised ii; how they have
clothed it in all manner of excellencies, is