Evening star., 1923-08-28
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FOOD. Ar
temas Ward. No. so Union square.

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FOOD. Ar
temas Ward. No. so Union square.
Suppose that Mr. Lucius Licinius
Lucullus, B. c., could have had for his
own using this sumptuous summary
of food lore. In that event, it is clear
that the fame of those ,"feasts of
even. to this far day in a nightly in
creased candlepower of glory. Then,
too. the epicurean triumphs Of that
old pagan would still have been serv-
ing more substantial purposes than
their present restricted ones of mere
poetic reference and vague gestares
toward polite learning
However, neither epicure. nor poet
nor pedant has part or parcel in the
quite utilitarian purposes of this
! book. Neither the pagan past nor the
modern world of letters is Of the
least concern here to Artemas Ward.
Rather does he stand wholly within
the present and the Immediate future.
Rather does he plant his feet squarely
upon the supreme fact that, in, the
midst of plenty, this has been half
starved world. In this connection he
repeats the. plausible theory that
and many of It's Ills, are an uncon-
scious response to the itchings of hun
ger and not an expression of a nat
ural state of sin. An Ignorant misuse
of food has. through the long, years
of the past. been unloading it's crimes
, upon an already overwhelmed devil,
and would have been doing this yet
had not science stepped in with !ts
miracles of disclosures as to the
power of food. not only In the body
<f h,,t tn 10 mi
as we'll And the people caught up
this miracle of food that science
spread out before then They not
! only became convinced of its. truth
but already they have grown pub
| lie conscience toward proper FEEDING
as a prime element OF individual
worth and as a basic condition of
collective integrity and power
4 X x
| Right in the midst of this general
| awakening toward the Importance OF
an enlightened food program as an
essential of individual and collective
wel.-being; Artemas Ward steps out
I with thirty years of research on this
vital theme, all completed and round
cd up in volume of imposing and
impressive front. Green as a growing
garden splashed with sunshine on the
outside the book itself covers 500
pages of selected food facts In an or
cIearest of type on paper Of good
substance and fine finish. There are
here many pages of rainbow hue for
! all manner of edible things-piant,
flower. fruit, cleaning scale and our-
nished wing-supported by many
more pages of photographs portray
ing far localities of food source, the
processes of preparation, TRANSPORTS
ton, marketing. Merely as book
personality this one has distinction
and appeal -
| The text itself leads one in orderly
progression from A to Z-from Aba :
lone" the sea snail OF the Pacinc
coasts. to ''zwiebach,'' the twice baked
For good measure and further help
fulness of the practical sort the au-
thor has supplied a dictionary of food
names in six different languages,
those most likely to be used in this
country. He has. besides. given a list
and bedevil bills-of-fare in smart and
near-smart hotels, those over which
the one-tongue man from Oshkosh
turns himself into a perfect babel of
profanity without. however, getting a
ray of light on the particular tongue
in which the blamed thing before hun
is written. a complete and useful
and highly impressive book, IS these
mere eNternals go 10 prove.
81 =
| Once inside, the book offers story,
adventure and romance. One is GER
tafn. however, that these haa no place
in the purpose Of Artemas Ward.
Rather do they lie as inherencies of
the various themes themselves. Clear.
ly, the authors part here was to pro-
duce a book of practical intent and
solid substance. This he has done.
Naturally. no one consults a book OF
this sort in regular order, any more
than he would handle a dictionary in
that way. Instead. he hunts for what
taken to some far place where an
exotic food grows. He is there set
down among the natives rs they cul-
tivate and harvest and pack the prod
act, and then he is sent sailing across
the seas to great factories and mar
kets. And, one morning. upon HE
own breakfast table, he finds one OF
the things that has. sent him on the
long trail. And. right here. he re-
builds the scenes that went into the
perfecting of this food or drink and
!involuntarily he realizes himself 10
those distant people who are at the
moment indirectly serving him
often the food product is of the horne ne-
, grown variety-for they are all here.
domestic and foreign. alike. And this
one, too, gives out much that is new
and useful as to its source, Its culti-
yation, its modes of manufacture and
distribution, it's food value, its prepa-
ration for immediate use, with a
naming of those complements and
supplements that round 1t to a full
inutritive value. The range of prac-
ticaI and useful information given
4 IL .tnh hl,,.r H. nv,1 1yA :
riety And this fund of information
serves it's good purpose in three well
defined ways. First, 1t greatly ex-
tends the average food list. thus Sc
| curing the variety that both taste and
full nourfshment REQUIRE Next. 1t
manner so simple as to make this
important topic available to any
average reader. Again, 1t gives the
best ways to prepare food in order
to get from each its best nutritive
value. Beyond these three vital
noints the book sketches the history
of each food from it's source to its
destination as food factor, thus
rounding out consideration of the
entire field. A model of useful fact,
| good arrangement, simple statement
an open and available study on an
all important theme.
Let us see what this author does
with any single topic. The book falls
omen at avocado" and that subject
will do as well as another. We often
see this big and green and rather for
looking fruit among the COM
lmoner sorts that pile the carts of the
Iyenders and the windows of the shop
| keepers. Alligator pear" we call
a. a. I, rnIh Rut Mr. Ward tells us