DIETETIC CURIOSITIES. 39 



out rushed the black domino, returning like Antceus with ever-renewed 

 strength, it seemed, from a contact with mother earth. The burghers 

 of Prague looked on, wondered, admired, and finally broke out into 

 enthusiastic applause they began to comprehend ; it was the consist- 

 ent, most natural and appropriate acting out of the part which the 

 domino required the character role of a fat burgomaster who alter- 

 nates his official duties with short calls at a lunch-table and only the 

 fortieth call suggested superhuman powers and an investigation of the 

 mystery. 



North America, with all its strawberry short-cakes, clam-bakes, and 

 railroad restaurants, is perhaps, after all, the land blessed with the most 

 natural diet. Healthy food, which is the not-often-used privilege 

 of the rich in Europe, abounds on the table of the poor farmer here. 

 Our five or six largest cities emulate the vice-centers of the Old World, 

 and have not learned yet to sin with grace and long impunity ; but the 

 populations of our glorious rural districts, in the valleys of New Eng- 

 land, on the Western table-lands, and in the paradise of the Alleghanies, 

 live more faithful to nature than any white men since the days of Cin- 

 cinnatus, in the golden age of Italy, and in consequence are healthier 

 and healthier-looking than any contemporary race, the peasantry of the 

 Tyrol and .the Swiss highlands alone excepted. There we meet our 

 physical superiors ; but our inferiority is not hopeless, and if we would 

 just fry a little less and cook more, and substitute milk for coffee, Vir- 

 ginia and Vermont would soon turn out boys to match the prettiest 

 Gemsenjiiger of the Alpenland. 



Hoeing corn and wood-chopping make a hoecake with bacon or a 

 dish of brown beans more palatable than all the piquanteries of the 

 Palais Royal ; and even the hog and hominy of the poor tar-heel squat- 

 ter are preferable to the Irish potato-mess or the cabbage and quass 

 diet of Panslavonia. Exercise in open air as an aid to eupeptic beati- 

 tude ranks above all the " old reliable correctives " from the Paracelsian 

 quintessence to Hostetter's bitters. A Persian satrap asked the Spartan 

 ambassador for the receipt of the famous black broth of Lycurgus, but 

 confessed himself unable to relish it without extra spices. " The spices 

 you lack," remarked his guest, " are Spartan gymnastics and a bath in 

 Eurotas." 



In Texas, Arkansas, and the Southwestern Territories, we may find 

 habits primitive enough to suit even a Thoreau or an admirer of the 

 patriarchal ages. Abraham treated his angels to a souper-dinatoire of 

 roast veal, barley-bread, and milk more than the Arkansas traveler 

 could count upon at the end of his day's journey. But the air of the 

 prairies, Rocky Mountain adventures, or the vicissitudes of a North 

 Carolina State road can make the homely symposion of a log-cabin as 

 sweet as an evening with Philemon and Baucis. 



It has been remarked that the yearning of homesickness is never 

 produced by the recollection of city luxuries, but of rural diet and 



