Travelling on the cars, a short time since, we had for a companion a shrewd Yankee who had the honor to be postmaster of his city, and at the same time was engaged in the boot and shoe trade; one of those stirring men who, if he did not possess genius, had its nearest kin—activity, and illustrated the fact that a man might do two things well at one and the same time. He gave us samples of human nature which is quite apropos to the general subject. In discussing the eccentricities of merchandising, he said that usually wealthy customers entering his store would ask to see his cheaper class of boots, such as would do service, "honest material, but not the most expensive," and from that class would make their selections; but, whenever parties entered whose means were known to him to be limited, and yet whose "pride of family" and personal vanity were in increased ratio to their decreased capital, he never ventured even to suggest the class of goods taken by the wealthy, lest offense be given. His rule was to show to such his very best goods first. They wished to display "a notch above their betters." And so with the cake question. Some of even the poorest families of New Englanders doubtless eat more of this material than does the Royal family of England, if it could but be known.
There remains yet another article of food to be proscribed. We refer to the pork question. All ought to be good Jews on this subject. Their prohibition is, we believe, founded on the intrinsic unhealthfulness of the thing itself. Its use is universal in this country, and in the South it forms the chief meat diet. This latter fact comes of their mode of agriculture more than original preference. They devoted all labor to cotton growing, and had their meat and grain to buy. The question with the planter in laying in his supplies was what would go farthest, at a given price, as food for his slaves. Bacon and flour were always found to answer the economic query best. The West furnished bountiful supplies, and readily floated these products to a market, where competition was not only not thought of, but entirely out of the question. Cattle and sheep raising (outside of Texas) had no growth or encouragement among them. The planters soon fell into the habit of using bacon on their own tables, and the result is, it has continued to form the staple article for all classes there for several generations. The darkies have rather flourished upon it, while the whites have suffered greatly in consequence.
Its use undeniably produces scrofula, salt-rheum, tetter, ringworm, humors in the blood, rheumed eyes, enlarged glands, sore eyes, and lastly, cancer. Almost any community in the South will afford several examples of one or all of these diseases, and all directly traceable to the excessive use of salt pork. In a somewhat sparsely settled neighborhood near Central Georgia, known as Social Circle, a dozen cases of cancer alone can, in one form or another, be found, and that is one of the most salubrious sections in all the southern country.
They have become so enamored of "hog and hominy," that they are fairly superstitious or foolish regarding the use of some other kinds of meat. For instance, mutton, in any form, they are disgusted with as a rule. We tried to get at the reason while sojourning there, but never fairly succeeded, though the impression was, plainly, that they did not think it proper food for white people anyway, and then the "odor was so disgusting," and altogether it was only fit for "trash folks." We scarce hope to be believed when we state, that we have seen young ladies refuse to sit at the table where this dish was served, and served, too, out of compliment to their guests from the North.
This same feeling was largely shared by the colored people, and, while it was no infrequent thing for the "smoke-house"—where the bacon was kept—to be broken open in ante-war times, taking the risk of detection and dogs, it was almost an unheard-of occurrence that a sheep was stolen. They roamed, what few there were, at will and unharmed, except by dogs and wild beasts—the special benefit accruing to their owners being simply the wool. During and since the war, matters have been undergoing a change, and sheep raising is receiving more attention, and beginning to be valued as an article of food. Still, during weeks last winter, the Atlanta markets did not show a single carcass of mutton, notwithstanding the great extent of country tributary to it by means of her railways.
This change above referred to, while of slow growth, is, in part, owing to the example our troops set, the experience of their prisoners, their straitened circumstances, and lastly, to the infusion of Northern society among them.
While there are undoubtedly tenfold more of those diseases in the South consequent on the use of pork, than what there is at the North, yet its consumption is vastly in excess with us of what it should be. There is no doubt of this. Scrofula, salt-rheum, and ophthalmia, are among the chief developments at the North. At the North greater and better variety of food among all classes is in use, to say nothing of better cooking, which wards off some of the worst results.
The natural tendency is to greater use of pork in the more northern than in the Southern States, since the climate would seem to call for it; but we have shown its use at the South to be the result of circumstances more than of original preference and probable inclination, since all peoples of low latitudes, of a high standard of civilization, elect a lighter diet than those of cooler climates.
There are some who declaim against the use of any and all kinds of meat for food, and advocate a purely vegetable diet. There is much that can be said in its favor, and it ought, with fruits, to form at least two of the three daily meals. The system would be in better tone, and the mind as well. But there are extremes in all things, and these sometimes govern the conduct of men. A happy medium is usually the best, and for our climate, we believe the use of the right kinds of meat to be not only healthful but eminently proper. The natural law aids to this conclusion. We see the people of the tropics indulging largely in fruit, which an allwise Providence has placed there and adapted to their wants; again, at the poles the inhabitants live almost wholly on the fat of animals—a half-dozen tallow candles being eaten at a meal, when supplied by strangers. The intense cold requires this heavy fuel to supply the needed heat and comfort. What would an exclusive vegetable diet be worth to them, exposed as they are? With us, lying between the two extremes, with a climate and country abounding in both fruits and animals, with seasons of cold and heat in nearly equal extremes, it seems quite rational that a mixed diet, regulated by common-sense rules, is the best. Certainly the highest civilization to which man has yet attained is found in the temperate zones, where neither the one nor the other extreme in diet has obtained.
A manifest advantage and improvement in general health can, however, be effected by paying a more enlightened regard to those things whereof we dine. People with gluttonish inclinations can easily and do make themselves sick while subsisting on an entirely fruit diet; hence, if discretion is needed in the use of the simplest articles of food, of course it cannot be dispensed with while indulging in other sorts.