The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-11-09


short cuts to wealth and comfortsand
thereby are piling upon themselves the
burdens of anxiety and distress and
poverty. More men are today eating
so-called pickup breakfasts, lunch
and dinner than ever before in the his
tory of the world.
Many a man is carrying to his daily
work a lunch basket, the contents of
which have cost, in money, more cash
than would be required to lunch his en-
tire family. if the lunch had been built
upon first principles and not upon the
modern ideas Of shortcut methods of
easy housekeeping. Take. for instance.
The contents of a lunch basket I saw the
other day belonging to a railroad brake
man. It contained six slices of bakers
bread, more than half a loaf, not less
h four ounces of sliced boiled tongue.
bought at the corner grocery, half a
bakers pie. a bakers cake. a package
of Saratoga potato chips and a bottle
of coffee. Now let US see what this
lunch cost that man. Over half a loaf
of bread, three cents: Saratoga chips,
five cents; a quarter of a pound Of boil
ed tongue, ten cents; a bakers cake,
five cents; bakers pie. ten cents; coffee
and sugar, two cents; a total of 50
cents The only thing in his basket
which was reasonable in cost and with
in his means was the coffee which he
got at first cost; other his lunch was
built upon shortcut housekeeping
methods and was far beyond what the
same LllOR would nave COST naQ II Deen
prepared in his own kitchen. A visit
| to our school houses at recess time and
a careful inspection of our childrens
lunches will reveal another evidence Of
shortcut housekeeping methods and
instead of the good. Old-fashioned lunch
that we as children enjoyed to the sat
isfaction of our appetites and to the
continued health and integrity Of our
young stomachs, We VIII find ever
present, ready-made, store-purchased
nicknackS.
Within the past Is years the dairy
lunch room has increased in numbers
all over the United States by bounds
and leaps until today 1t IS regarded as
one of the greatest money-making en-
terprises in which a man can invest.
OF course it is. Why? Because the
clerk who a few years ago carried to
his work a lunch prepared at home,
built from materials which we're pur
! chased at first cost and prepared over
his own kitchen fire, has been sup
planted by the miserable stuffs which
he now eats at the various lunch
houses at a cost to him from 900 to 500
per cent more than the same class of
food, more wholesomely prepared in
his own home kitchen. Look at the ar
ray Of so-called breakfast foods which
are now sold on the general market.
some good and wholesome, some me-
dunn. some horrfd and some down
right fraudulent. Good or bad. whole
some or unwholesome. they cost the
breadwinner three to four times as
much as equally as good. more whole
some and better foods could be pre-
pared in our homes from the raw ma
terials secured at first cost. For in
stance, one well-known article OF
breakfast food. which m-asduerades
under a false name, which retaiIs at Is
cents for two pounds. is nothing more
or less than a high grade of Southern
white cornmeal, which may be bought
at any frst-class grocery at three cents
per pound. Another variety of break
fast food is nothing more than a cheap
grade of -four mixed into a paste with
a little sugar or molasses, baked en-
hot cylinders into thin scales, boxed
and retafled at ten cents per pound. an
increase OF from 500 to 500 per cent
above the legitimate food value. and 50
it is all along the line.
Local baker shops have sprung uI
everywhere and gigantic baking estab-
Iishments are TO be found in ali large
cities. Bread baking at home IS al
most a lost art and the good old fash
! Toned ginger snaps and cinnamon