The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-09-03
Virginian
HIS APPETITE.

Ills APPETITE.
This is a capacious subject, wide
and deep mi long. A boy, when
asked IL he could name the three
graees, said, Yes; breakfast, dinner
n supper"
He eats because he has an appetite;
he has an appetite because he has to
have food; he has 10 have food be-
cause he has a body to build, and is
building it entirely out of food-solid
n liquid foods. He has to build a
house in which his growing soul a
have plenty OF room, which will also
be the machine for accomplishing HE
mission In the worid-alI of it built
out OF food. He is also accommodating
reserves with which to meet the drafts
that life's duties and exigencies will
make on him.
A mans body is already built and
he needs only enough o TO keep UP
the repairs and decorations and do
his work with. while a boy has to take
in enough each day to go on with the
building as well as the repairs and
decorations, do his work and put
something into the reserve fund be-
sides. He starts In at a rapid pace.
seeking refreshments every waking
hour, and by the time he Ia Is or 16.
he has reached a sped that Is as ex-
citing to the o~nlookers as il is exhilar-
ating to him.
His reputation in that respect
stands on the solid foundation OF
achievement. A teacher, in talking to
some friends about the %gustatory hab-
its CT certain animals, said: Now. the
caterpillar will eat 500 times It's w
weight in one months time" and an
old lady. somewhat deaf. leaned over
and asked: Whose boy did YOU say
II was?"
1t must also be said that the food
supply is partially used up In HIS
activities. That is the way hts body
assimilates the material. and II takes
food to keep him going. His fret six
years are his most active time, n he
does not slow up much till he is 10.
I At ls his brain is fully grown, though
hts mind Is not. and his heaviest eat
Ing IL Just as he is finishing the brain
structure. So we ran say that the
two reasons for his great consumption
Of food supplies are his constant activ-
tiles and his building enterprises-
fuel for himself and material for his
building.
Every one Of us with a spark Of
memory a CONFIRM these statements
from his WI experience. In the
spring time. down on the farm, / used
to go out TO the field IN the morning
with ali the pockets. in coat and trou-
gers, full of apples and ceme back at
noon with those apples on the inside,
but ready for a dinner OF nam and
/ eggs and cabbage and potatoes and
green's and milk and two kinds OF hot
/ bread and pie and cobhler and the
rest. Then apples again in the after
noon. to prevent utter starvation and
10 prime the appetite for supper. And
Il was Just the way to do, too. An
iron constitution is now the result of
those marvellous gastronomie feats.
Now. as he has 20 have that food
for those sacred purposes, what a for
tunate thing II ~ that he likes 1t
! Otherwise II would be mere drudgery
like the work of the roustabouts lead
ing a steamboat because the mate
drives and curses and threatens them.
That appetite of his. unless It Ia
tempered with. is one OF the most I'm
| teliIgent Of all the faculties with
which hi works, and helps him solve
some vital and far-reaching problems.
HIS Judgment will. help some when Ii
learns some things. But the appetite
Is looking after his interests all the
time, desiring and discriminating and
appropriating and discarding. For the
building he Is erecting and the ma
chine he is constructing out OF his food
require three things great variety
| of material, the best quality and great
quantities. In his body are such cle-