, 1900-11-30
LIVE ON VEGETABLES.
SEVENTY-TWO FAMILIES WITH
QUEER CUSTOMS.
All Pledged I" Es,,ew Animal Foods-
win Not Keep Cows or Hens-Deny
Themselves the Use of Keroscns OIL
All Healthy. a

An Healthy. a
School District No. 2 in Hodgdon,
Me, is known all over eastern Maine
as the Balberry district, so called be-
cause it contains twenty-two families
who are rigid vegetarians. The sect
owes its origin to a corner in Chicago
dressed beef twelve years ago when
beetsteak vent up to fifty cents a
pound in the district, and plain soup
bones retailed for the price commonly
PAID for sugar-cured hams. AS the
rates were maintained month after
month without relief. the beefeaters'
Ire rose till they finally met in con-
V~ention and every person present
made a pledge TO eschew all animal
foods. They also agreed to confine
themselves to the use of vegetables as
lar as possible, not only in their foods,
but in every branch of their labors
where the producers of plants could be
made to take the place of animal or
mineral substances. The farmers
now keep horses or oxen to perform
labor that is too heavy to do by
hand, but they have no cows. They
use no milk or butter. They have no
hens to lay eggs or provide broilcd
spring chicken, and the gIunt OF the
porker is unheard of and the odor
of fried bacon unsmelled in all the re-
gion. Not only are sheep barred from
the community. but none of the resi-
dents will wear wOollen garments.
clothing themselves and covering
their beds with linen or cotton cloths.
Instead of butter they use cottonseed
oil. which they say is not only more
p~alatable, but cheaper and more con
ducive to health and longevity.
The members even carry their rob
by so far as to deny themselves the
use of kerosene oil, by all odds the
cheapest article for illuminating pur-
poses that there is en- the market. AS
tallOW taken from sheep or cattle is
prohibited, they have surrounded
their homes with barberry hedges,
which yield a fruit concealed in a
greenish-gray fat. popularity known as
barberry tallow. The berries are pick
ed from the hedge as soon as they are
iiBc dIIh boIIth until TIE sltdSt llS'S
to thetop Of the water. when it is skim
med off and made into dipped candles.
which furnish all the lights used
about the houses. A bushel of berries
will yield about six pounds Of tallow.
which will make candles enough to
last a family a month in the winter or
two months in the summer The light
is pnt worry r1nnr but tho hnrpinu far
gives off an agreeable smell. which
pervades the whole neighborhood and
has given the district a name which
has found a place on the maps. The
shrubs, when set out close together in
rows. make hedges which will turn
any domestic animal. and forming
durable fences which are inexpensive
and beautiful. The only tie that binds
the community together is an agree
ment to lead a vegetarian life. Some
of the families are orthodox. Others
are Unttarians and a large proportion
free thinkers. There are Democrats
Republicans and Populists in the COM
munity. all of whom argue that they
are right and their opponents wrong.
There are two families who hate each
other so heartily that one would not
go to aid the other when his house
was burning down and the lives Of
two children were in peril. These
families are o angry to quarrel.
They never speak as they pass; never
theless, each commends the other for
its vegetarian rigor and will suffer no
one to speak i'll of the practice. The
community is remarkably healthy, the
men and women retaining their full
vigor up to an advanced age. Con-
sumption, the fatal malady in the
county. has never visited the district
since it changed its mode of living.
The young men are big. red-cheeked
and vigorous. inc the girls are ia
nous for their beauty. Good judges
say that the diet has improved their
looks so hat no part of the county
can show so many pretty girls as the
Barherry district.