The Lafayette advertiser. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], La.) 1865-19??, 1908-08-28
Al DAilLE CT LIFE
MATTER OF DIET IS MOST IMPOR.
TANT FEATURE.
In Consequences the Asiatic. with His
Diversified Feeding, Has Manifest
Superiority Over the White
Races Of tine Earth.

r "
A conspicuous factor In the bat
tie of life is omnivorousness, Or d.
versity Of feeding. That animal which
has but a single plant, for instance,
which it can use for food, may be an
initiated by frost or grub or any other
cause which would remove the plant
for a single season, says q writer In
the Pacific Era. That which feeds in
discriminatory on all plants will find
abundant s%ustenance under more ad-
verse circumstances. That whose
stomach receives vegetable or animal
food with equal favor has . still bet.
ter chance for surviving; and that
which can catch the most various sort
of prey is more apt to have prey al
ways at it's command than that whose
whose strength a overtake or over
come only the most slow-movin8 or
weakest animals. Man, the most per.
feet OF animals. and the one who in the
present conditions of the earth could
survive all others. has attained to
his position of mastery largely be-
cause he is, Of all animals, the most
omnivorous.
OF all the varieties Of man the
Asiatic, and especially the Chinaman,
Is most diverse in his food. All 10
meat to him-animal or vegetable. in
the air, on the earth or In the waters
under the earth. He can gorge HIM
self with Joy on the abundant meat
diet of the Englishman; he can dine
comfortably and happily upon . brace
Of mice. or exc u life for weeks
upon q few handfuls of rice. And all
the time he can work without ceas.
ing. He can pack more Of his kind
upon an acre of ground than any New
York tenement life can show. and live
there in what he regards as tolerable
comfort. In this he has precisely the
same advantage over the white man
a. the European had over the original
inhabitants of this country, and rs the
Englishman had over the natives Of
Australia.
1t is really. therefore. those char
acteristics Of the Asiatic which we
most despise, and which We regard ~
constituting his inferiority to ourselves
his miserable little figure. his
pinched and wretched way Of living,
his slavish and tireless industry. hia
indifference to high and costly pleas
ures which our habit Of generations
almost makes necessitiss. his capacity
to- live In swarms in wretched dena
where the white nan would rot If he
did not suffocate-all these make him
q most formidable rival for ultimate
survival Of the httsst.
Our ancestors emerged from the
broad and roomy environment Of pas
toral and savage life only few cen
turtles ago. and our Mfe-sustaining fac
| ulties represent what has been stored
up by heredity In the period which
has since elapsed. The eastern
| Asiatic emerged from these condi.
| lions ut q period 30 remote that no
human record or tradition be
found 90 old a. to refer to . dme
when China and India were not too
populous for the conditions Of savage
life. The accumulated experience Of
countless ages 10. therefore. stored ~
In the Asiatic's food-getting and food
saving capacity. and those ages prop
erly and fairly represent his superior
ity over W in the battle for the sur
vival Of the ittest II that battle Ia t.
be fought in = fair field with NO favor,
in open and undisturbed competition.