Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-11-20
4 PLEA FOR PLAIN FOOD.
Hints That May Save Many Doctors
Hills and Valuable Lives.
New York Ledger

III l. not Il grncrdIlN UNDERSTOOD lict-
but a fact nevertheless, that some oi
the wcalthir-t and most luxurious ap-
pearing people live on the plainc,t
food There are children in the
families OF millinnairc- who would IL"
NOR" he permitted To partakc OF such
meal, a are given To the children OF
many a lab0ring man than they would
be allowed to Use articles that were
known to be poisonous. Many a
mechanics little ones live on meat,
warm bread, all the butter they want,
and that Of an inferior quality. coffee
as much as they choose, and cheap
bakers cake, which is in itself enough
to ruin The digestion of an ostrich.
The children of one family make
their breakfast of oatmeal or some
other cereal and milk, with bread at
least 81 hours old, little, very little,
butter, sometimes none at all. The
breakfast is varied by corn bread, well
done, little zwieback and sometimes
stale bread dipped in egg and cracker
crumbs and Drowned with butter. A
fresh egg is often the only article out
side of farinaccous food that they are
allowed. For dinner, which is the
middle of the day, they have some
well cooked meat, one or two vege-
tables, a cup of milk if they like it,
or weak cocoa, with plenty of bread
and butter and n simple dessert. Sup
per, which is very light meal, fire.
quently consists of graham crackers or
brown bread and milk or the pudding,
eaten with little molasses or maple
syrup.
A few days ago, in call at the
house of workingman, there were
five children seated at table, on which
was large dish of meat, swimming
with gravy, in which potatoes had been
cooked. These potatoes were saturated
with fat and almost impossible of di
gestiOn by any person of ordinary
constitution. There were hot rolls,
soggy looking and smoking from the
oven; parsnips fried in lard and rcck
ing with the grease. a pile of cheap
cakes, sufficient to fill good sized
four quart measure, stood on one
corner of the table; also two pies, with
crust containing so much lard that
they looked absolutely greasy. There
was coffee, dark and rank looking and
worse smelling, and this the children
were INDUCING in quite as much as
they pleased. They ate like little
wolves, with an unnatural and fero-
cious appetite. Two of them had
pasty, unhealthy looking compilations /;
one was evidently suffering from some
skin disease; the elder of the group
had an ugly looking eruption on his
face and ears, and the entire lot were
living examples of the results of a mis-
taken system of feeding. 1t was no
surprise to the visitor to hear, a few
days later, that two of them were very
ill, one hopelessly go, with cholera
morbus.
That the death rate among such peo
pie does not increase with frightful
rapidity is the one thing that the
thoughtful persons and philanthropists
never cease to wonder at.
The parents of these children would
undoubtedly have said that they gave
the little one the best they could af-
ford, but this was just exactly the
cause of all the troubles. They gave
them too much and too expensive
food. A proper diet would have cost
third of the money and would have
saved health and doctors bills, to say
nothing of their lives.