Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-10-31
THE DIET OF THE PLAINS.
Mighty Men Who Throve on a Regi
men of Meat and Coffee.

Mighty Men Who Throve on Rsg1-
men of Meat and Coffee.
From the Kansas City Journal
The Hon. James r. Meade, Kansas pio-
neer, plainsman, ex-senator and capitalist,
believes that the food best fitted for the
human stomach is bread and meat washed
down with coffee. He points to his own
Ngor at the age of sfxty-six as evidence
of the value of this diet. alleging that he
has eaten little else all his life, and laying
particular stress on coffee as an article OF
diet Writing to an eastern friend on this
subject, Mr.. Meade says:
I'm the fall Of 1859, I, young man, full
OF life and vigor and loving hunting and
adventure above all else, went into the
heart of the buffalo range in central KAN
sas and established a hunting camp known
as Meades ranch. on the Saline river.
where built a number of cabins and made
preparations to stay.
II was fascinated with my new life on
the plains, and entered heartily into it.
Carried away by the excitement of killing
so much big game. and reaping such rich
harvest. / exerted myself to the utmost
limit from daylight to dark. AS an Illus
tration. I in one day killed. skinned and
took the tallow out of twenty-five buffaloes
myself. using Misunderstanding rifle and
butcher knife as my only tools, and walked
nve miles going and coming from camp.
I'm my youth cared very little for vege-
tables of any kind, and on the plains we
had but three articles of diet-meat bread
On form of 'fapjackD and coffee; of
which meat was the main part. the others
to make complete ration. The amount
of meat we ate seems almost incredible.
"In September or October of 80 l shot
large. fat cow elk, and as the weather was
quite cool 1 kept the entire carcass and
several gallons of fat. In a little over
week three of us ate up the entire animal
and made soup of the bones. and along
with it at each meal we made flapjacks.
fried In the tallow, and drank all the cof-
Zee we wanted, usually two or three cups
to each person at morning and evening.
and also at noon. if we had time to cook
at noon.
While meat was our main reliance. and
we had no end of the choicest parts of buff
falo. elk, antelope turkey. &C., 1T seemed
a necessity to have coffee, strong and in
large quantities. No matter what extreme
physical labor 1 had undergone. nor how
completely 1 might be exhausted. quart
of strong coffee would restore me to fresh
life and spirits at once, all fatigue would
pass away. and in an hour 1 was ready
for more eXertion.
with our coffee we wanted sugar. and
usually had it. If not, the coffee, while
not SO delightful. was drunk in the same
quantity. Milk we never had on the plains.
l think it safe to say that a quart of cof-
fee In the morning and another at night
(also as much in the middle of the day if
we had time to make it, was our average
best green Rio coffee and roasted it our
selves in a Dutch oven we required it
perhaps a weeks supply at one time-and
often pounded it in tin cup instead of
grinding it.
so long as we had an abundance of cof-
fee there seemed to be no limit to our
physical endurance. When that was gone
we very soon started for the ranch, where
l kept large supply. l will say here that
neither myself nor any of the many young
men had in my employ at various times
used or cared anything for liquor though
we could buy an excellent article of whisky
for So per barrel. We never took it with
us on our hunting expeditions. simply be-
cause we cared nothing for it: but we
would as soon have left our rifles at camp
as to start out without coffee.
THE last half of the winter of 80 spent
hunting on the upper waters of the Solo
mon river with two men. Toward spring
there came a snow nearly two feet deep
on a level. Every day with my heavy rifle
(swelve pounds) waded in the snow. trav-
cling miles. We had no horses with us,
and I came to camp strong. nervy, vigor-
Gus until our coffee gave out. Then my
knees grew weak. L came in tired had no
boiled oyer the grounds in the coffee pot
several times, and one evening, coming in
exhausted. ate the entire remainder, and
felt. relieved. In a few days we started
for home.
'tAs an illustration of our gastronomic
possibilities, one summer, after being
being on straight meat, bread and coffee,
we started for Leavenworth, our base of
supplies. with our loads of hides, furs, &c
The first farm on our route was on Lyons
creek, where a thrifty Dutchman named
Warwick lived. We camped there, and 1
went to the house and bought a bucket of
milk and five dozen eggs while my young
men were getting supper. There were five
OF us.
At that meal we ate the usual supply of
meat. and with our coffee drank the entire
bucket of milk: also ate the five dozen
eggs entire. Two of the men had a quar-
rel. one claiming the other got more than
his share of the eggs.
Il have continued to drink coffee con-
tinually to this time, frequently drinking
quart of cold coffee at noon. with sugar
and cream. and not eating anything, as 1
do not seem to require anything else. 1 am
strong. active. vigorous, have an unusually
strong babe of fifteen months of age. l eat
almost nothing but meat, bread and coffee.
Stomach is ready for business at all times"