The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-03-04

orgy. meat is suited TO a phlegmatic,. and
very much unsuited to a nervous race
like Americans. The use Of coffee is as
much abused as the use Of meat the
American lives in and for the moment
and so never hesitates TO draw drafts
upon the future. The coffee stimulates his
jaded nerves and makes them do more
than they are naturally fit for. But even
latent nervous power is a fixed quantity,
though he never dreams So or course ne
eXhausts IL long before the race is run,
and he drops out and is forgotten by the
painting one who catches his place.
l think / forgot 10 enumerate the corner
drug store in the list of ills that shorten
life in America. And it does not deserve
10 be forgotten, for it certainly divides
houors with its rival, the quick lunch. Yet,
on reflection, I do believe the latter has
the heavier score 90 its credit. And
Scientifically ii is the more interesting OF
the two. The drug store has been reckoned
with for ages, but the quick lunch as a
f2 tor in mortality returns is a charac-
tensile development of new world civili-
cation. All morning the business man has
been rushing and thinking, thinking and
rushing. Suddenly he discovers it Is
y o'clock He sees his friends hurry
ing toward the quick lunch restaurant, for
a lunch a twelve is as necessary form
as a shave and a clean collar in the morn
X
lowing lunch all his life; so. though he
knows Wen that he can i'll afford the nfteen
minutes he is going 40 waste on it, he
finds himself iustinctvely jostling the
crowd who are struggling and striving, as
if for dear life, to get into the restaurant,
for one human mass is pouring out while
the other tries to pour in; they jam and
charge another like crack football teams,
and when two men get shoulder against
shoulder and pin one another they glare
a each other with all the venom of Gagged
wild beasts. inside, the oppos ng teams are
jostling savagely, while jacketed walters
bob through them shouting uniutelhgiole
orders at the top of their voices. and the
clatter of plates and clang of knives and
forks and spoons assail the numbed ear
like the noise of pandemonium A HUNDRED
men crowd the counter and the tables,
firing the food into their mouths and swal-
lowing it untouched by tooth, economizing
time, too. by bringing their mouths in the
closest possible proximity 10 the dish
for 10 make a knife and fork travel foot
further than is absolutely necessary is
evidently considered criminal waste.
Tine eyes OF the devourng multitude pro-
trude, and the veins of their necks and
foreheads, like blue BEDFORD, show
through the fiery red of their perspring
skins When our friend grabs a vacated
seat, for which five other men sprang, and
ana seats nlInSeH, MS HelSAOOrS, WitHout
delaying knife or fork on their swift jour
neys gives him the sidelong glance which
a dog disturbed in picking a bone would
give an intrudiug brother. Our friend
banks an order to the walter, who, in
ilffy, has placed it before him; he swal-
lows il, grabs his hat and check, charges
down the aisle. hngs a piece of money at
the cashier, and using his head wedge
fashion. dives through the seething mass
who truggle at the door, and with the as
pect of one VINO has performed a trying
duty, rushes breathlessly 10 an appoint
ment.
Now I have not seen amy American
mortality returns, and do not know what
are the proportions ascribed 10 the differ
ent causes of death. But after close OBJ
servation and mature elaboration have,
for my own use, drawn up a mortality ia
be which I am prepared to vouch for,
and from which. if the official figures diff
fer the official figures are decidedly mis-
reading Here is my table land I chai-
lenge doubD, calculated on the basis of
every 100 deaths in the Eastern states OF
America:
Cause. Mortality.
Epidemic and pulmonary dis