News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1893-07-27
TERMS $I.5O.
VegetarIanIsm: The Basis Of all
Reform.


The following paper was read at the
Worlds Fair Vegetarian Conference
the first week in June.
While America shines as the liter
ary star of the world, and boasts of
her superior government and institu
tions of learning. she is not behind
her sister nations, whom she well
comes to-day, in all moral and social
reforms. One stepping-stone upon
another has been added by self-sacri-
ficing reformers, till Americas gigan-
tic reputation for right over wrong
sheds it's lustre from nation to nation.
And from this commingling of ma
tiOnal ideas from the worlds choicest
minds, we hope to deduce an added
line of march that shall lead all re-
forms above and beyond any prece-
dent; and this line is Vegetarianism.
From purity of food we expect to
devslop the highest type Of national
neutrality-suspicious., art, and science.
By purity Of food we mean that
which is free from disease and disease
producing elements. Whatever builds
the body builds the brain. Pure
food will show itself in the acts of
mankind, as well as in the human
form. If we live largely on animal
food we develop the animal nature;
we become brutal, demoralized, and
delight only with the coarser amuse-
ments; enjoy rude and uncultured
people; are fitted mostly for the low
er grades of labor. Animal food not
only detracts from the intellect, but
it makes the tissues unsavory. There
is more need of bathing; more need
of fresh linen; more need of pure air
to burn up the waste matter.
We boast, in this nineteenth cen
tury, of many improvements due to
Jealous and scientific reformers, yet
we do not hesitate to feed our stom-
| achs with the detestable swine, which
the wiser Hebrew banished from his
bill of fare thousands of years ago.
One reward to the Hebrew nation for
persistently discarding the unclean
hog, is, that no cancer has ever been
found among the Jewish people. DR..
Adam Clarke, when asked to say
grace at a dinner where there was
roast pig, reverently bowed his head
and said go Lord, if Thou canst
bless under the gospel, what Thou
didst curse under the law, do Thou
bless this pig" DR.. Clarke evidently
loathed the scavenger.
When we review the statistics and
note the increase of consumption, of
cancer, of tumors, and the various
forms of scrofula, is it not time to
sweep the unclean things from our
tables?
When we watch the agony of chill
dren suffering from diphtheria, scar
let fever and like putrid diseases, will
we continue to feed them on meat
| juices and other preparations of ami
NAL food? Their pure young natures
cannot use such impurities, and the
system is forced to eXpel them in
some form of disease. Dietary reform
me- ms less mortality from the cradle
to q. age. 1t means health, strength
and added years.
While there is an abundance o.
! srail.s, h-uits and vrgeta bles, which
are pure and free from disease, why
need we cling to our slaughteT-houses
and animal dinners? The purer
the body the higher the capacity for
enjoying all that is pure and en-
nobling in this life. If our tables are
spread without stimulating and eX-
citing foods there would be fewer to-
bacco users, fewer drunkards, less
suicides, and less crime. When the
stomach is free from spices, pickles
and animal foods it will not crave
the disgusting weed and the insane
wine-cup. Reform the diet and drive
the tobacco smoke from the house
and street, and the liquor seller would
starve for want of patronage. The
law-givers could have morning matt
nees instead of police courts. The
air is so vitiated with tobacco fumes
that we are partially robbed of the
greatest life-giving element ever be-
queathed to man. Scarce a turn can
we make but tobacco poison con
fronts us, and the diseases which fol-
low in it's path appall us. Heart fail
ure has become a national password
from life to eternity. Tobacco is
largely to blame for it; and animal
food with other faults in diet are
largely the cause of the tobacco habit.
"Cleanse yourselves from all filth
ness of the flesh" and crime will not
exist; purify your tables and your
morning prayers will reach nearer
heaven. The gallows would be cheat
ed of it's loathsome record if only the
grains, the fruits and vegetables help
ed to balance the brain. every
man that hath this hope in him, pur-
ifieth himself even as he should be
pure" L. M. BINGHAM, NJ. D.,
Springfield, Mass.