New-York tribune., 1903-01-29
THE PHILIsTINE MADE WISER.
He Learns Things About the Vegetarians
and Their Herbivorous Diet.

solitary Philistfne wandered into Lyric Hall.
in East Twenty-eighth-st. last evening, where
sixty-sx of the selected herbivorous were holding
the annual meeting of the Vegetarian Society of
New-York, and the things he learned surprised
him. He learned that the society had In tae
course Of the year held eight regular meetings, at
tended by nearly hundred persons, and had
held several dinners. including one with the Thr-
teen Club which really should count as three or
four. These things the annual report of Secretary
Montgomery told the Phistine. who was further
more informed that there were seven vegetarian
restaurants in this city. and that two new ones
would soon be added to the list. one near Twenty
third-st. and another in Forty-second-st, at none
of which could either fish, flesh or fowl be obtained
by the hungry who would be invited instead to
feed upon olives and protose and nuts and other
bloodess pieces of resistance
All this the Phistine, but What
most amazed him was the enthusiasm Of the de-
voted sixty-six, over whom Ernest H Crosby pre-
sided. He could not understand how ANYBODY couid
get up much earnest excitement over 1000 so
far away from the dinner table. and he Fazeo
with omen mouth at the smiles of encouragement
that rippled over the faces of the sixty-six when
the secretary congratulated them upon the splendid
outlook for humanitarian reform during the COM
ing year.
MY goodness" murmured the Phistine softly
to himself II didn't know vegetarianism was
religion.
Everybody smiled approval when President Cros-
by announced that next month he was to address
a
Conn. on the principles of vegetarianism Later he
would speak the Liberal Club of this city upon
the inspiring topic. Also, he had with MIN
some tickets for meeting at Cooper Union at
which several speakers would discuss Present
Duties in the Philippines. This last Jared little
or the Phstine's of connetation, but he for
got it in contemplating the holy joy that exuded
from the secretary's countenance when he an
nounced that General John l. Warner. Adjutant
General of of Idaho. had applied for men,
bership in the society.
But the secretary had further tiumphS 10
unfold. One of them Commissioner Homer
Folks's plan to If of the meat now eaten
by the Of the city's charitable institutions
might be excluded from the municipal dietary.
Also a woman in Grafton. VT, had sent one dollar
for Mrs. Kingsley's pamphlet on The Boodless
Diet But Secretary Montgomery had reserved the
cream of the for the last. and he positively
beamed on his delighted audience when he as
s1red them that Mrs Ella Wheeler Wilcox had told
him that she almost vegetarian now She
has given up eating her four-legged friends and
confines herself to chickens and birds This he re-
garded vastly important in view OF the fact
that the 'poetess of passion was writing so much
nowadays on humanitarianism.
The further business of the evening included
pathetic appeal from a woman sufferer who wrote:
Bananas do not agree with me-" and besought
suggestions the hour TO prepare the hliing
fruit so that her lamentably sensitive digestion
would not rebel. The Philistnes brain reeied
under the contemplation OF the ramhcations OF the
subject when IL announced that a man VINO
ran a Ieper colony in Dutch Guiana had declared
his intention OF trying to cure the dread disease
of leprosy by application Of the vegetarian diet
Ralph Waldo Urine author of In Tune with the
Infinite" was elected president of the society In
place of Ernest Crosby. who declined TO serve
again and the enthusiastic Mr.. Montgomery. after
being reelected modestly affirmed that he was
really the best for the place. only he wanted
four assistants. who were duly authorized
After that the Philistine sat in his corner and
heard several sneakers discourse upon various ar
tcles of the creed a man named Green told how
vegetables had saved him from excruciating head
aches pains In the back spots before the eyes,
rngings in the and other Affections from which
the carnivorous suffer untold agonies. Mr.. Green
hoped ito make the light to shine in many shadowy
haunts of darkness and bemoaned the many years
sp-ent by himself in carnivorous darkness.
Upon all of these things; upon the glad in
teiligence that vegetarian boarding houses were
springng up in Manhattan and in Brooklyn; upon
the plethora of vegetarian gymnasiums and upon
many other ferns of vegetarian activity the Phll-
istine pondered. But II still another censid-
Grafton that converted him When the meeting
he sought the mercy seat ana demanded
a membership application blank
"Ahr' said delighted vegetarian, then YOU
realize al last the beauties Of our creed?
Nope" replied the Philistne. but l want 10
! soak the beer trust.