The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1917-08-08
THE TEN VIRGINS.
"And Five Of Them We're Wise, and
Five We're Foolish"
(By Elizabeth Dejeans of the Vigil
anteS.)

NAAi"' DSJcoiio SpcHt IuOSI OL ucI
early life in the Orient, has lived sew
eral years in Europe, and is the au-
thor of a number Of novels, among
them 'The House of Thane," 'Thc
Life Builders" 1.-The Tigers Coat. She
has also contributed to various maga-
zincs.)
1T Is no exaggcration to say that we
women of America are "going forth"
to meet grisly bridegroom, pos
siblc world famine, a quite possible
food shortage. Our president has de-
ciared the immediate need of food
control. Mir. Hoover is graphing with
the problems of food conservation and
food efficiency, it is evident that food
regulation we must have. The market
manipulation. the gambler, and the
wastrel must be suppressed.
Each to his own field of operations,
the lawmakers to theirs, "the ten vir
gins" to theirs. 1t should be our
work. we women, to suppress the
wastrel. In the large sense, we
housewives-and non-housewives -
nearly all of us have been profigates
in the matter of food; without inten-
ton, because Of ignorance, or of care
lessness, or because it seemed pleas
ant or fashionable, we have been
wastrels. How many Of us saw any
real need Of the two extra courses we
added to a dinner? Or really enioyed
the superfluous superabundance of the
hotel or restaurant menu? And how
many Of us have really watched over
the garbage pail, or have enforced a
sensible economy in our kitchens?
And how many of us when suddenly
confronted by inflated prices became
panicky and boarded supplies?- the
most senseless and selfish of pro-
ceedings! Even now, when every pa
per is headlined with, "Conservation
of the Wheat Supply" Waste in
Wheat Products" ETC., how many of
us are considering healthful, nourish-
ing substitutes for the wheat-loaf? +?
The all-important wheat-loaf which
has risen so greatly in price but not
in bulk! Which must be guarded by
law and by individual effort. 1t be-
hooves us to think seriously of SUBJ
stitutes for wheat bread, and the
most reasonable easily obtainable are
rice and corn meal.
But 1 don't know that rice and
corn bread are good for my children"
a woman said to me.
She was surprised when 1 told her
that the grain of the rice plant forms
| larger part Of human food than the
product Of any other plant and is not
only the bread Of entire nations, but,
in several countries. is almost the ex-
elusive diet. She looked really inter-
| cstcd when I told her that I had been
reared on rice, fish, vegetables, and
fresh fruit-that from babyhood until
girlhood l had been practically a lit
tie Jap among the Japanese, and from
girlhood to young womanhood I had
lived south of Mason and Dixon's line
where corn pone runs a close second
to wheat bread.
But the children don't like rice-I
don't like it myself" she objected
and I've never eaten corn-pone."
Il don't like rice either, not the
pasty-cereal sort Of mess that we
Americans make of rice agreed,
but. cooked in the Oriental way, I
'ove it better than bread. I have it
vo meals day-I write my novels
on it--anyone can learn to like it. 1t
should be boiled as you boil a potato
in plenty Of salted water and the
water poured off when the grains are
tender. 1t is delicious then, and can
be fashioned into a dozen tempting
dishes-you can do as many things
with it as you can with a potato
And real corn-pone, not the sweet
ened. short-cake thing that Northern
ers call "corn-bread," is good, both
tasty and Wholesome. Do you suppose
that sturdy little Boy Scout of yours,
or your little girl who goes about with
flag pinned to her dress, would OBJ
)ect to one rice day and one corn -pone
day a week if you told them tbey
were doing their "bit" to win the
war? Not they! They are good SOL
dlers, our children. Those three or
four loavcs of bread saved each week
multiplied by thousands of families
VIII conserve our wheat supply by
Just so much, and the children not n
whit the worse for it And
YOU and your daughter and Your
i Il n Low