It is a terrible thing that not even our markets can be kept clean from this bad habit of so many people. In some parts of the world the man who spit upon the sidewalk, the floor of a car, or in any public building would be arrested and taken to prison. This may seem to some a hard punishment for what many people think is a small offense. We know, however, that many diseases are caused by this practice, and the man who willfully does anything which puts his fellows in danger from disease does as great wrong as he who endangers their lives in any other way.
Many people have catarrh, bronchitis, and consumption; all such diseases can be given to others in this way. The air can become poisoned, so that other people catch the disease. People in older countries have learned that if sick persons are careless about spitting in public places, they often endanger the lives of others; so it is quite right to compel all to stop this bad habit and to punish them if they continue in it.
Constant spitting is a bad habit in other ways. The saliva is meant to help digest the food. If one gets into the senseless habit of spitting all the time, the saliva is wasted and the digestion hurt. Then, too, it is an uncleanly habit. It makes floors and sidewalks filthy, and people who have been well brought up always have a feeling of disgust when they see any one spit in public places. If one must spit, he should do so in private, where no one need be disgusted by his act. Certainly no one who has regard for decency would ever spit upon the floor of a market.
We should make sure that all vegetables which we buy are fresh and in good condition. Food the least bit decayed should never be eaten. It is very dangerous in this climate, where people are more likely than in colder countries to have trouble of the stomach and bowels. Not even cooking will make decayed vegetables fit to eat. The poison in them irritates the lining of the food canal and makes us sick. Besides, there is very little nourishment in poor vegetables; so that if they are eaten, the blood gets thin and cannot feed the body.
Now that we have fruit and salad, we will buy some camotes and gabi, and some squash, here at this stall where everything seems so clean. Some tomatoes, too, but we will not buy any of the beans to-day; they seem soft and flabby, and we may be sure that they are not fresh.
Meat? Yes, by and by; but we shall do better to get that elsewhere. It is bad for meat to lie in the open air as it does here. Meat should be killed at least twenty-four hours before it is eaten, and if it is kept so long, it must be on ice. Otherwise, it spoils in a very few hours. Meat should never be left where flies can light on it, and you see that the meat here is covered with flies.
A Market as it should be.
Flies are great carriers of disease, and often take germs from place to place on their feet. Some of these flies may have just left places where there is fever or cholera, or smallpox, and they can easily leave the germs of these diseases on the meat where they next alight. So you see we should be very careful where we buy meat, and what sort we buy.
There is plenty of poultry in the market to-day,—chickens, ducks and pigeons, all alive, and dealers all anxious to sell. If we buy a chicken, we should get it home as carefully as we can, and it should be allowed to rest and get over its fright before it is killed. Then it should be killed as quietly and quickly as possible, as otherwise the meat will be feverish and bad for food. It should be killed some hours before it is needed for food, so that the flesh may cool. To kill it just before cooking, as is almost always done in this country, is a very bad custom, as flesh so killed is not wholesome.