Of Food. 441 



dry rye-bread, weighing seven ounces avoirdupois,* 

 which is given them in their hands at dinner, but which 

 they seldom eat at dinner, but commonly carry home 

 in their pockets for their suppers, when I compare, 

 I say, this small sum with the daily expense of' the sol- 

 diers for their subsistence, I find reason to conclude 

 either that the soldiers might be fed cheaper, or that 

 the poor must be absolutely starved upon their allow- 

 ance. That the latter is not the case, the healthy coun- 

 tenances of the poor, and the air of placid contentment 

 which always accompanies them, as well in the dining- 

 hall as in their working-rooms, affords at the same time 

 the most interesting and most satisfactory proof pos- 

 sible. 



Were they to go home in the course of the day, it 

 might be suspected that they got something at home to 

 eat, in addition to what they receive from the public 

 kitchen of the establishment ; but this they seldom 

 or never do ; and they come to the house so early in the 

 morning, and leave it so late at night, that it does not 

 seem probable that they could find time to cook any 

 thing at their own lodgings. 



Some of them, I know, make a constant practice 

 of giving themselves a treat of a pint of beer at night, 

 after they have finished their work ; but I do not believe 

 they have any thing else for their suppers, except it be 



* For each too Ibs. Bavarian weight (equal to 123^5- Ibs. avoirdupois) of 

 rye-meal which the baker receives from the magazine, he is obliged to deliver 

 sixty-four loaves of bread, each loaf weighing 2 Ibs. 5^ loths, equal to 2 Ibs. 

 10 oz. avoirdupois ; and, as each loaf is divided into six portions, this gives 7 oz. 

 avoirdupois for each portion. Hence it appears that 100 Ibs. of rye-meal give 

 149 Ibs. of bread ; for sixty-four loaves, at 2 Ibs. 5^ loths each, weigh 149 Ibs. 

 When this bread is reckoned at two kreutzers a Bavarian pound (which is about 

 what it costs at a medium), one portion costs just 1$ of a kreutzer, or ^|$ of a 

 penny sterling, which is something less than one farthing. 



