Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-04-24

rency, but were charged on the aver
age of 81 a day for food The cost
of this food was enormous. A one
half pound tin of glucose jam, i'm
ported from New York City cost 81.
A No. 2 tin of canned sauerkraut con-
tanning less than two pounds cost 81.
A No. / tin of canned sausages con-
tanning less than one pound cost 81.
Because of the prohibitive prices
placed by the commissary department
upon all food products in the luxury"
class the laboTers relied upon the
cheapest food in camp, which was
white bread baked from patent flour
supplied by New York City jobbers in
thousand barrel lots.
In addition to the white bread (acid
forming) there were enormous guam
titles of hard white crackers (acid
forming) and tapioca (acid forming)
made from the root of the native
cassaVa plant.
Like farina, cream of wheat, corn
flakes, pearled barley and cornmeal,
cane sugar and corn syrup, tapioca is
carbohydrate food from which the
alkaline bases have been extracted,
and which, like all other denatured
cereals breadstuffs and refined sugars,
inevitably leads to a condition of
acldosis in the tissues of those who
dItempJ 10 i've upon II.
In the form of luXuries, purchas-
able at prices which the men could
not afford to pay, were such foods as
canned pork and beans (nearly bal
anced as to acid and base-forming ele-
ments), canned spinach (Which the
men rejected because they did not like
it,, canned wieners (acid forming),
canned jam (acid forming), corn
flakes (acid forming), oatmeal and
condensed milk (well balanced). The
oatmeal and condensed milk were
confined to the officers quarters.
Bor breakfast the laborers had black
coffee sweetened with sugar, white
crackers or white bread. The fact
must here be emphasized that as they
had to pay heavily for all their food
they economical as much as possible,
believing, as all other people believe,
that inasmuch as bread is the staff of
life and in itself is sufficient to main
tain strength, energy, and health, they
could get along well enough on a
bread diet until the completion of
their work, thus saving some money
for their return to civilization.
At noon they consumed coffee and
sugar with bread, crackers, dried cod
fish, ham or Xarque. Xarque Is dried
beef which looks like leather. 1t is
packed in slabs or layers weighing
fifty pounds each. Each slab is sew
eraI lnCneS JTlCk ana as nara as WOOu.
AS is the case with the cereals, bread
stuffs, Goldfish and ham, so also the
xarque represented predominance of
acid forming elements.
In the evening they ate more bread.
crackers and xarque, occasionally in
dulging themselves in the expensive
luxury of a can of sauerkraut, a can
of pork and beans or a can of jam.
Their bread, "the staff of life" was
enough. so they implicitly believed.
The French, Jamaicans and Barba-
dians grouped together and made
what the others called 'sinkers."
sort of large doughnut composed of
white -four, sugar and water, cooked
in lard (acid forming).
Let 1t be remembered that all the
food in the laborers' camp, with the
exception OF the beans, were of the
forming type. The base forming
elements were not only deficient. they
were not present
Acldosis, whether called beri- -beri,
pellagra, pernicious anaemia, general
prostratlon or general breakdown, re-
mains acidosis and the foods that
cause It In mild or violent forms re-
main always of the acid-rorming, de-