The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-12-24

On Regent street, in London, a great
dietary grocery and restaurant has Just
been opened, says an exchange. AS far
as appearances go, this shops wide plate
glass windows differ little from the
grocery that caters to the commonplace
family needs. Banked up behind the
glass are tins and jars and pots and boxes
OF the usual larder supplies, but right
there, at the appearance, the likeness of
this fancy grocery to any other ceases.
You observe with start that the maid
ems who stand about ready to serve you
are quite unlike the shop girls of everyday
experience. Nearly all wear imposing
eyeglasses and have passed the zenith of
their first girlish freshness, perhaps, but
all are serious, capable and wondrously
intelligent looking women whose mission
any one of them will assure you is to dis
pense scientific foods to suffering human
ity.
NOW if you will just look around, ''she
said, directing with wave of her hand,
'tyou will see shelves and counters full of
food, from which, so far as science can
make it possible, every ounce of injurious
ingredients has been removed. We sell
pretty much every dainty and solid that
will tickle fastidious palate or satisfy
a ravenous appetite land yet it has been
all, BY hand and machine, so examined,
distilled, sterilized and prepared that a
two-year-old baby could taste of very
nearly everything and yet never be
minute the worse for its experiment..
Diabetes. glycosuria, indigestion,
obesity, rheumatism, govt, nervous dis
orders of many kinds, sick headaches.
weak livers, insomnia and even consump-
ton are among the diseases we cater for
and successfully. Then we don't scornSto
render aid to the men and women who
suffer from low spirits, who are martyrs
to their dentists, who are victims of cold
feet, chilbla:ns, poor appetites or abnor-
maily ravenous ones.
1t really does not make much differ
enoe what your ailment is. We sell foods
to correct nearly every disease you can
pane, from low spirits to galloping con-
sumption; we conduct 6 big restaurant
and we send out supplies to schools and
hospitals, and we treat here persons ap-
parently in the last stages of mortal dis
eases. though our best patrons are men
andswomen who are, to all intents and
purposes, perfectly well.
Ihat ls, our most valued customers
are women who are fearful of growing
fat, pretty girls who don't want to lose
their brtghtacolor and eyes by indigestion,
hard working business men who can't
afford TO give up the struggle, but must
hon r1iar ltxyO oil
sound In wind and limb, who wish to
live outstheir three score and ten years
in.full enjoyment of every faculty.
"The really i'll people, she went on,
dropping lot Of fresh biscuit into a
paper bag, ARE sent to US by the physi-
clans, who in the last few years have
come to put more faith in diet than in
many priceless drugs and the rest are
men and women who run down after
season of high living and wish to try the
effects of diet on their own hook
'Medfoine" with q lofty glance, "not
q drop of it, there is not gramme of
such goes into one of our biscuits or sand
witches, or cups of tea. That Is where the
wonders of the dietary system are seen.
Suppose, for example, you were to drop
in here, lean over the counter and whisper
to me that you had gained ten pounds in
the last three weeks and were continuing
in the road that, leads to the rapid de-
struction of good figure. Furthermore,
you might explain that you had not the
moral courage to resign your daily cups
OF tea, your allowance of bonbons ana
breakfast rolls.
Well, why should you, when there are
tea and bonbons and delicious cake and
the lightest of rolls to be taken with
immunity, provided in their makeup the
sugar and starch are eliminated, sacchar-
inc and gluten put in their places, and
q LA no
in our big kitchens, where every cook is
an expert chemist, breads are kneaded
ana baked that the pluInpest woman can
eat of heartily and without pang; cara
mels and chocolate creams are turned out
lit for the most sensitive stomach by the
aid of test tubes and thermometers a
drIwing of tea is made that the frailest
old lady could drink with joy and never
feel her nerves afterwards.
When, however, physician sends us
a patient to be increased or reduced in |
weight he, or she, is put on the scales
and course of menus is drawn up to be |
followed at home, or in the restaurant |
above the shop, which is kept open for
The especial benefit of persons who can |
not get at home Just the food thew re
quire. Every day the patrons weight is
taken, and three meals ale set fit for a
prince. by -and-by, when the ~director of
the restaurant thinks enough flesh has
DeeH puIleu Oh TO be consistent with good
health, the patient is allowed to eat at
home under list Of rules.
Everyone, though, who eats in the res
taurant is not under the care of the direc-
tor. Those who suffer from occasional
attacks of dyspepsia will drop in for
week and have their meals quietly in a
corner, or a twinge Of rheumatism will
send in an elderly gentleman for course
of corrective meals and
But here the communicative young
woman was called off TO attend to q
stream of customers who bought bottles
OF little saccharine tablets, in place of the
sugar sold in the average grocery. Sow
-four. which comes all the way from
China, Eand is valuable, because it CON
tains SO small a modicum of starch was
in hot demand, end yet was run close by
almond -four, another preparation Of
ground and powdered almonds from
which almost al the starch had been
By and by the laxative saleswonan
got back to her curious customer and
:.
a Sy3s