Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1918-10-20
By JOHN H. KEARNES

world.
The old world, with its easy-go
ing stride, following the path of th'
least resistance, receded from view
on that fatal day when the "Blond'
Beast" of the withered hand ant
Berserker soul cast aside the sheep
skin cloak and, in the raiment o.
the werewolf, unleashed the pack O
hell on an unsuspecting world.
1t receded from view when Amer
lea joined the forces of democracy
in its titanic struggle against the
last bulwark of autocracy founded
by theMudal barors who established
their caste and state by predatory
oanditry when civilization in Europe
MAS young, and the law of might
was the only law.
To adapt ourselves to the new
universe we have surrendered un'
conditionally many Of our old pre-.
rogratives, much of our SAVIOR faire
multitude OF our old beliefs and
practices and considerable of our in
dividual idiosyncracies.
In fact, we have almost rehabili-
tated our personalities and our So
cial and political condition--sur-
rendered the old, Internationally, to
the new.
1t has been the natural conse-
quence of world catastrophe-the
evolutionary process of the greatest
of revolutions.
Our Greatest National Sin.
In America, before we entered the
war, our greatest national sin was
that of extravagant waste. 1t is
true we had heard OF conservation
but our practice of the virtue was
largely along academic rather than
practical lines.
Waste was a condition that en-
tered nearly every phase Of our
lives, and it was saying in this
country, and we were rather proud
OF it, that the waste from an Amer
lean table would feed two or even
three old world families.
1t took the shock of war with the
gaunt spectre of famine at our
threshold to compel us to surrender
Internationally to Old Man Thrift
In the PARKWAY antebellym days
food was so plentiful that it was
an incident. in our lives. We dined
as mechanical function or as a
source of pleasure.
Food Viewpoint Changed.
Today food is an obsession. We
are interested in dietetics. We study
food for its values-as a fuel to
keep the human machine in running
order. General High Cost of Liv-
! ing compels us to study every ele-
ment of food from the economic
rather than the gustatory stand
point.
Prices are fascinating to US and
we watch their fluctuations from day
today and it has come to pass that
the bachelor who was as ignorant
of the cost of butter, eggs, bacon
and beans in 1914 as he was of the
~>meaning of Egyptian .heiroglyphics
is now as conversant with these
costs as is the average housewife.
Food conservation has become a
momentous problem. The price OF
beans and sugar is so much of a
tragedy that the public will nc
longer laugh good naturally at the
5 grocer or the restaurant man, who
will adulterate the legumes with
small stones or the saccharinous
product with sand.
Boston Bean Eater in Court.
Only recently a case of public
Intolerance with such petty prof.
teering came to the august notice
81 OF the Massachusetts, supreme court
1t happened this way.
A certain woman went into Bos-
ton restaurant and asked, as is the
custom, for Boston's sacred food
But she later brought against that
. food provider the charge, whereas
she had asked for beans, they had
given her stone. That is, false
!. and perilous pebble, disguised as a
bean, had secreted itself among the
priceless legumes. Biting upon il
with that trusting eagerness with
which Bostonians approach beans
! she wrecked upon its resisting rock
two good teeth, one natural, the
other artificial.
So she did appeal to the courts to
award her recompense for so rude
and disastrous betrayal of conf
dence, and in the course of time the
matter came before the highest
court of the state.
The lower courts awarded the
plaintiff damages of $50. 1t seems
to have been agreed without hest.
tation that to adulterate beans with
4 stones was a very serious thing,
even though the adulteration was in
voluntary. Thus the integrity OF
beans was maintained.
Beans Must Be Beans.
But the defendant restauranteur
quibbled. Granted that the stone
ought not to have been there it was
I not admitted that its presence was
the fault of the restauranteur. He
bought it for a bean, he served it in
good faith as a bean. They must 60
Y