The Indianapolis journal., 1899-01-15
ONLY 35 CENTS A WEEK
THAT is WHAT 1T COSTS ONE PHILA-
DELPHIA MAN TO LIVE.
Government Experts Say 50 Cents a
Goes Seven Times BETTER.
Philadelphia Press.

~ - --C~ NAaaASd4Algs AAt - etDtS ~ AZ AA'
share of the days work and he is decided
ly cheerful and contented. Evidently he is
not glutton, for he is serenely Indifferent to
the temptations OF the flesh pots of Egypt.
He seems to have no hankering after the
groaning board. His simple diet contents
him.
He is no italian organ grinder, who can,
if he wishes, live off the garbage barrel,
nor is he a thrifty German who has his
own vegetable garden on the roof, neither
is he the remnant of an aristocratic Pole,
who lives in the slums and subsists on ten
cups of tea a day and one Slice of bread.
He is Philadelphia citizen, a genial old
man, firm in his holding to the tenets of
his faith, taking his morning bath, keeping
his room clean and bright and social.
He is fond of his neighbors fond of the
streets of great city. In truth he is a
normal individual; his neighbors say that
he is a crank probably he is, but he is an
economical crank, and as he keeps the good
red blood in his body don't see why any
one should complain
He lives far down on Twelfth street, and
does not mind talking of his meager fare.
1T may not be luxurious he says, "but
it satisfies me-" There is a deal of philos-
ophy in that.
get any further There is no escaping that
fact. He may get further, according to some
other mans point of view. because he may
consider wealth and fame and honor as the
necessary things to work for but there is a
great and general feeling underlying the
human mass that to be satisfied is after all
the ne plus ultra of existence.
Men may become satisfied by different
chdnnelS, and this man says he is satisfied
IN his way of living. His neighbors have
tried to deter him from his path, the good
housewives of lower Twelfth street have
argued with him, or rather did argue with
him, for they tried hard a decade ago to
convince him that he was not putting
enough food into his stomach to support a
child.
The new housewives who have come in
during the last decade tried to begin the
argument all over again but the older
matrons told them it was no use.
There may be a sigh Of regret in the good
hearts OF the men of the neighborhood that
this man is able to- enjoy life as well as
they enjoy it and spend only one-twentieth
as much on his stomach
WHAT THIS MAN GETS TO EAT.
The ldnd-hearted man who keeps the cor
ner store and who deals iii beef and canned
sardines, in American cheese and pork
chops, in fresh and stale bread as the Gus
toner wants it, kerosene oil by the inch or
gallOn-this storekeeper began his career by
trying to persuade the old gentleman to eat
more. He offered him things, thinking it
was dire poverty that kept his fare down
to S5 cents a week. The old gentleman
smiled sereneIy, took the things gladly, and
never increased his allowance
Then the storekeeper began to watch him
with exceeding interest, and after two or
three years of this behavior on his Gus
TONER'S part he began TO put down tie aver
age of the food that the man ate
L got this list from the stOrekeeper. He
was very much interested in it and told
" Uyb II x4yoC a fN IA i'm,
about his business,
See that man going out of the door, he
said i have story about him that might
interest you, and out came the little list.
I went to work Immediately upon the
story, and found out the life of what /
think is one of the most interesting of Phil
adelphia's characters.
He is the man who can give the govern
ment a lesson or two on economy, and he
viii not feed people on bad beef and moldy
crackers either
He is dietician, and he is not eating idly
anything that may happen to come his way.
He made up his mind two decades ago that
Americans ate too much. He studied the
Italians and the great hulking athletes of
the slums. He looked into the bills of fare
of other countries, and he was more than
ever convinced that the Americans ate too
much. They loaded their stomachs unnec-
"AH civilized men," he said "have a
tendency toward gluttony. To be an cpl
cure is only the refined way of spending
more money on the stomach than ON any
thing else"
The corner grocery shopkeeper told me
that he and the man had many a talk over
the big stove in the back of the shop about
this question of food. The man had made
his determination to try the thing, and if
he still kept healthy in body and mind and
his stomach's cravings were satisfied in the
quantity of the food he ate, then why not
keep this up forever?
What is the use of loading the system"
he said, Just because other people do it. .
He and Mrs. Sarah Tyson Rorer would cer-
tainly shake hands over that sentiment for
while the QpnfIamQn n
Rorer's chemical knowledge of food he has
arrived at the conclusion that the right
Things IN small quantities at the right time
are far. more wholesome and fesh-making
and stion-sparing, than to eat without
thinking whenever meal is set before you.
rms ola gentleman eats no scraps, and
he eats nothing that is bad. He investi-
gates his food as carefully as the army board
is now investigating the food of other Amer
lean citizens. His meals consist pretty
much OF the same things, but he gives him
self variety of choice among these things
He does not believe in tea, coffee, desserts
or ices; he thinks all these are luXuries Of
the stomach, neither. necessary to good
heaith adt nor nor to to the palate One, trains the
palate INTO the notion Of eating them.
WHAT HIS MIDDAY MEAL is.
His staple meal is in the middle of the
day. and it always consists of soup-good
rich soup. With this he has bread and
baked potato. Some days, instead of the
baked potato, he has what the Southernerz
call COW peas, which form the great nutri-
tious food of the contemplating class in the
South. The colored workers of Dixie know
the value of these little brown peas, and
eat them every day they can get them.
He buys them for cents a pound, and
as they swell very much in cooking and be-
come mucilaeinous only few of them are
needed to make up his DISH He cooks them
with piece of salt pork. which he buys in
small quantities, and as he is his own cook
he does not have TO put down so much for
waste in the kitchen. He shaVes off lit
tie piece of fat and lean, no more tnan the
old mammies give the little colored children
to chew on. This he drops in with the
peas for two or three cookings. Some
times he allows himself milk, but rarely.
Rice is one of his staple foods He has
learned this lesson from the great saYannahs
and the coored people can live entirely on
rice and bacon Rice is most nutritious; 1t
swells considerably in the cooking, and he
never needs more than a garter of a hand
bread a week, which he gets a little stale
and therefore buys it for 212 cents a loaf
lie thinks stale bread much more healthy
than fresh, and when loaf gets a little too
dry he crumbles it up and puts it in his
soup first before he serves ii TO himself.
Often he toasts the bread, and, cutting
1t into little squares, drops II into the soup
When you have your chef DO the same
thing you think you have a luxury He
does 1t for economy, but IT has the same
He also knows the great value of cab
bage. The stOrekeeper at the corner, who
is interested in him, picks out a big cab
bage. 1t has gained nutriment as il has
grown older and It's size is a recommended
ton. This he brings home from market
once a week and 1t costs his customer 3 or
4 cents
He takes the outer leaves off first and
g