Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-06-28

Written for TUE EVENING STAR.
MIDSUMMER HINTS FOR HEALTH.
Sanitary Precautions to be Taken at
Summer Resorts.
WHAT Is NEEDED BESIDES COOP AIR TO BUILD UP
THE BoDY-pAsTa1 As MEANS OF DEATH
sHUS THE DEADLY PIE-cooLISa AND HEALTH
Full DRINKS.
~ EOPLE are leaving city homes for
:: e.: ::s: ma =: =: !:
spare to the health of the bodies under
their gowns.
Families go away from town languid and
thin, pale and blue Tipped, to return pasty
faced from the mountains and seaside, freckled
and burnt, not with the clear tan like bronze,
which is beautiful in its way as the pink and
white of an English girl, but that coarse fiery
hue like crisped flesh, which is too like erysipe-
las to be desirable or becoming.
What good most people get from the summer
vacation is from air and change Of scene. The
food in general is most unfit for hot weather,
the drainage is simply dreadful and the water
worse. II any one wants to get rid of an
be to invite him to a summer sojourn at a
boarding house and feed him assiduously on
clam fritters and fried clans. hot breakfast
cakes and UNDERGONE oatmeal for breakfast
fat mutton and string beans, spinach and
early cabbage dripping with fat, and suet pud-
dings in August and sure-to-kill pastry Of the
consistence of tripe.
PASTRY AS MEANS OF DEATH.
Modern pastry was vehicle Of death I'M
known in the time of the Medici, or they would
never have risked their throats by sending
white arsenic in confectionery or putting
chopped horsehair in an enemy's victuals.
That compound Of lard dripping and white
flour which has just escaped baking in I'M
derheat produces morbid effects in the system
which exactly follow the symptoms OF slow poi
son.
Pastry is like religion, it must be the right
| sort or it is the worst diaboIism. IL tomb
! stones told the truth they would say, "Died of
green currant pie and boiled dinner in the
| midst of his usefulness" or ''She died, de-
pfored by her friends for tart temper caused
by too much fondness for strawberry short
cake and Washington pie" or ''She was widely
beloved among the Kings Daughters and
active in the Society of Christian Endeavor,
but she never attended to her health; her
system was never cleansed from years end to
year end; she lived on the worst food and the
| closest air she could get affronted her body
and Its Maker in every way, and died suddenly
of Brights disease, just as life was worth
| living. May heaven have mercy on her sinful
SOUL"
In choosing resort for summer one does
not omit questions as to how far it is to church
! or station, whether o'clock dinner is served
or there are spring mattresses on each couch
matters of just interest and comfort But add
such pertinent inquiries as these: Do you serve
oatmeal or cracked wheat for breakfast Can
l have brown bread and fruit three times
day? Have you water filter in good condi-
ton? How far is the well the water supply
| from the cesspool and drains? And, last but
not least, have you well-ventilated earth
closet? All boarding houses and summer re-
| sorts should be visited monthly by q sanitary
| inspector with power to enforce necessary i'm
proyements for the health Of inmates.
PERMANENT IMPROVEMENTS.
| My dear madam, you can't depend on sun
and air to undo all the injury to health by care
less diet and bad drainage. You may come
back feeling fresher for a time, but the effect
is short and the strength which should carry
you through the fatlgues and inferior condi-
tions of city living three parts of the year you
have been cheated Of by the cook and the pro-
! prietor together.
| Suppose you should for your own sake do
little evangeliZing for health and take dollars
worth of cracked wheat, for instance, into the
| country with you to be served at your own Ia
| BILE. 1t is surprising In how many parts Of the
| country this article is wholly unknown. The
| grocers do not keep it, the housekeepers do
| not know it when they get it or how to pre-
pare it. They send for expensive health foods
| and fine preparations which are not nearly SO
| good for sedentary folk the coarse rolled
wheat or the clean cracked wheat which costs
not over or 4 cents pound and is much
| easier to cook and more relishing than oat-
| meal.
En- PEASANT madam, who value your figure,
| it is less fattening.
| For beverages, instead of the cheap soda
water, with Its corrosive ingredients and sirups
| made from spoiled fruit, insist on having pure
lemonade or fruit juices. Good soda water, as
| offered by the best city druggists, or any man
who understands his business is not bad
thing for health or taste, although caution
ought to be used not to pour down a large glass
of iced drink when one is warm, after the almost
invariable habit The rule with everybody,
! men and women alike, seems to be to see how
soon they can swallow the soda and depart
The result OF turning pint of cold, acid water
into heated stomach is to burden it with too
| much liquid. reduce the temperature with
dangerous suddenness, and headache or cramps
are in the direct line after this.
DRINK YOUR SODA SLOWLY.
Good soda should be slipped; quickly drink
ing off the effervescence, which is mere foam,
an interval Of q minute or two should be
| allowed before the last half of the glass is
taken. Clerks should know this and give Gus
| toners time, without warning by looks or
| actions that they are expected to leave In the
shortest possible order after boiling their soda
and paying for it. A glass OF soda SO taken is
refreshing stimulus, better than food in
very hot noon, but tossed off as most people
take it ID q recipe for cramps and indigestion
If it is poor soda, tasting of metal with the sill
yer worn off, or standing in silver too long,
| favored with sirups made from oranges or
lemons whose musty taste is plain to all refined
palates, the less one takes the better for life
and health. Girls who serve the cheap soda
fountains at fancy stores well know this from
experience. and the old hands rarely touch
soda themselves. The girls behind the counters
who depend on soda to keep up their strength
| through the close days iniure their digestion
by il, and perhaps owe more of their sudden
| indispositiOns to it than they imagine.
BY all means take a quarter pound Of baking
soda with your medicines and use for any acidity
of the stomach one-fourth Of a teaspoonful in
half glass OF water; hot water if there is pain
and uneasiness. Most summer troubles of
health begin with fermentation. which is active
in hot weather, and anti-acids are indis-
pensable.
USES OF BAKING SODA
Try powdered charcoal or magnesia, lime
water soda till you find which suits best,
but have the latter ready, for cup of hot soda
water taken in time will often prevent the
worst summer attacks OF nausea and cramps