The Elk Mountain pilot., 1899-11-28
FEED THEM ON NUTS.
WHICH REFERS TO THE POOR
OF SOCIETY.
A Theorist Who Made Himself Ridic-
u1ous Without Knowing It-A sample
of the Ignorance on Tap In Boards
of Charity.

There is less of absolute ignorance of
the lives of the poor among the people
of the upper classes who try to look
after their welfare than there used to
be, and more and more it is being
realized that the people who deal with
the poor must know their conditions,
says the New York Times. But there
is still vast and laughable amount OF
ignorance to be found among the peo-
pie in responsible positions. A wom-
an who belongs to the board of man
ayers of an establishment which looks
after the welfare of the poor was air.
ing her theories the other day to pro-
fessional cooking teacher who has had
much experience among the poorer
people. "Of course" she said, among
other things, you teach the poor wom-
en- who come to you to make nice
bread. 1t is so much better than any
thing they can buy" NO. 1 don't"
was the answer. II cant do it very
well in the time given me, and they do
not need it, anyway. i find that the
best way to do in teaching the very
poor is not to give them ideas they
will never try, but to teach them to
do the things they do as well as 1t is
possible. The poor people have lived
largely upon potatoes and bread and
tea for long time, and II is not prob
able that we can make a very great
change in their diet soon. With a lit
tie fat pork and a cereal added 1t Is
not as bad diet as some people think.
Bread by itself is pretty poor stun,
anyway, from an economic standpoint.
The women who come to me go to the
big bakeries and buy bread that is
day old much cheaper than they can
make it themselves. and there is not
an appreciable difference in the quail
ity. Anyway, after they have been
out working hard all day they would
not feel like coming home and making
bread" do you use nuts much In
your cooking?" continued the theorist;
there is so much nourishment in nuts,
| think" "Nuts?" The woman who
knew the condition of the poor was
tempted to make an exclamation that
would not have been respectful. Feed
ing the poor on nuts" she said quietly
after a time, would be very much
like trying to feed the people who have
trufles and olives. They are very
good in themselves, but it will be some
time before they will be introduced
extensively as a staple article of diet.
When / try to get a poor woman to
give her children a drink made OF
cocoa shells because it is much better
for them than tea, while large guam
tity of shells can be purchased for nve
cents. and she tells me she can't az
ford to buy the milk to put with them,
l don't make many more suggestions
that will take any amount of money to
carry out" well, can't help think
ing" persisted the theorist, that II
the poor people would buy barrel OF
nuts instead of such quantities OF po-
tatoes, they would be better off," And
the woman who knew, thinking OF the
few cents worth of potatoes that were
bought at a time, the conditions and
size of the homes OF the very poor, and
the idea of a laboring man taking OIL
basketful of nuts for his dinner, had
not a word to say. Her thoughts were
too strong for utterance.