Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1908-11-27
ARE We TOO
COMFORTABLE?


EDITOR CTTIzEN:-I clip from an
exchange an article giving the exper-
ience of an old Confederate soldier who
served faithfully for four years, never
shirking in presence of any duty or of
any danger. and he remarked that when
he surrendered at Appomattox half
clad, half fed and hardly shod at all, he
was fatter, stronger and felt better
physically than he had ever done before
or since.
This man, with thousands Of others,
slept out of doors, marched In rain and
snow, often all night, entering into
contest with the enemy at daylight
after a forced march, without other
food than cake of corn bread, baked
in the ashes it may be, and possibly
bit of bacon, eaten raw, with water for
drink, and that from the first muddy
stream he had access to, and in spite of
this was strong, athletic, cheerful. This
writer divided the ration to his COM
pany the last year of the Civil War,
and it consisted of pint of coarse corn
meal and aquarter of a pound of bacon.
Many man took the bacon, fat, greasy
stuff, such as few could eat now, and
frying it until it was 'cracklin,"
poured in water, stirred in the meal,
baked and ate the cake then and there,
and had no more until the next day.
Water from the adjoining swamp
washed down the coarse morsel, and he
slept soundly on the frozen ground. i'll
clad and often without shoes and
clothing. That last, memorable winter
of 1s64-5 he weighed for the first and
only time in his life 15l pounds. He
has never been able, in spite of gen.
erous feeding since, to attain over 40
pounds.
Doubtless it was the open air, the
stimulus of excitement and possibly the
absence of care-for the average soldier
grows to attain an insouciance unknown
to any other occupation-that gave op-
portunity for fattening. But in spite
of all it does seem that unless one
starves too much, spare diet is best
for the average man. The men who
have overturned the world physically,
have been as rule rather underfed than
overfed. We pander TO ourselves in
eating and drinking not only too much,
but we stimulate appetite with sweets
and condiments.
Fifty years ago statistics showed that
while one grown person in every four
died of consumption in the New Eng
land States, only one in 20 died of that
disease in Georgia. New England was
cold, inhospitable. dresry. Houses were
built to keep out the cold, and. this could
not be done without keeping out air. They
died for want of fresh air. In Virginia
of that day. and in Georgia as well, no
one ever saw any thing else than fire.
place, up the vide chimney of which a
steady draft of air was whirling. venti-
Iating the rooms as they could be venti-
lated in another way. 1t was not so
pleasant possibly, but were any harder
men and women ever grown than were
raised in the old manse, with the big
fireplace?
Really the subject has another and
almost pathetic side to it. Around that
fireplace at night gathered the family.
It was the place of reunion, of social
touch, Of homely but sympathetic in
tercourse. There the young and old
were brought together at night in
way and with an intimacy unknown in
our day; and there are those still living
who cannot look back to thesympathetic
touch of father, mother, brother. sister,
as it was shown by the fireside at night,
without the eye dimming and heart
swelling. 1t was home-home such as
made the best men and women that have
ever trod this Old Virginia soil, and
would to God we could have that home
influence again in its simple purity and
blessedness.
But possibly the columns of a news
paper are no place for such sentimen-
talities and close. j. B. H.