1000 
27 7 
A Balanced Ration. 
“John,” said Mrs. Carter, “I want to 
have a talk with you.” 
“All right, my dear,” responded Mr. 
Carter. 
*' I want us to begin our housekeeping 
right,” continued the lady. “From a hy¬ 
gienic standpoint, I mean. Of course, at 
all those hotels, we could not help our¬ 
selves, hut in our new home we can 
live as we please! ” 
“Well, we will,” answered Mr. Carter. 
“The plumbing is exposed, the ventila¬ 
tion is all right, and everything in the 
house is according to the most approved 
hygienic standard. There is no reason 
why we should not live right.” 
“Yes, I know; but I was not thinking 
of the house. I was thinking of the 
diet.” 
“Oh, you’ll arrange that all right, I’m 
sure,” said Mr. Carter cheerfully. 
“I am going to try to, but you must 
help, too. You see, John, that most peo¬ 
ple waste a large part of what they 
spend by injudicious purchases.” 
“I believe that,” agreed Mr. Carter 
heartily. 
“Yes,” went on Mrs. Carter, waxing 
eloquent, for this was her particular 
hobby. “Not only by injudicious pur¬ 
chases, but by an almost entire absence 
of any knowledge of the relative nutri¬ 
tive qualities of various food products, 
and by processes of cooking and serving 
which very much reduce the value of the 
food. I want us to live well, enjoy some 
luxuries and save money on the same 
amount that most people practically 
throw away.” 
“You’re a sensible little woman,” and 
Mr. Carter kissed her. “But may I ask 
how all this is to be done? ’ 
“Well, you see, John,” and Mrs. Car¬ 
ter smoothed his coat sleeve with a 
satisfied air, “after we became engaged 
I took a regular course at the cooking 
school and graduated with high honors. 
They said that I knew more ot the rela¬ 
tive value of foods than any graduate 
they had ever had.” 
“I can well believe that,” answered 
the new husband fondly. 
“So,” went on the wife, shaking her 
head at the compliment, “in making out 
my dietary for the week I know that a 
man’s rations are scientifically enough 
when they contain 3,500 calorics a day. 
Therefore, it is a simple arithmetical 
calculation to compute how many calor¬ 
ics are necessary for the week and buy 
the food accordingly, so that there is no 
waste.” 
“But what in the world is a caloric?” 
“A caloric is a unit of heat estimated 
necessary to raise the temperature of a 
pound of water four degrees Fahren¬ 
heit, and the unit of energy adopted in 
estimating the full value of food,” re¬ 
sponded Mrs. Carter gliQly. 
Mr. Carter drew a long breath, and 
still looked bewildered, but brightened 
visibly as an idea struck him. 
“All right, my dear. You go ahead and 
attend to the calorics. I’ll eat them if 
they are good.” 
“And you won’t go to any of those 
horrid places down town for lunch, will 
you?” 
“No; Nellie. Not 'if you have calorics 
at home.” 
“Now promise, John,” pleaded Mrs. 
Carter, ignoring the ignorance conveyed 
in the remark. “I don’t want your di¬ 
gestion ruined, so promise that you will 
eat only my home cooking.” 
And the misguided man promised. So 
the Carters began their housekeeping. 
“Nellie,” said JVIr. Carter some few 
weeks after this. “Do you know that we 
have not had fried potatoes since we 
have been keeping house? i am very 
fond of fried potatoes for breakfast.” 
“Fried potatoes!” ejaculated Mrs. Car¬ 
ter. “Well, I should say not. They are 
one of the most indigestible things that 
one can take into the stomach.” 
Mr. Carter felt an inward protest ris¬ 
ing, but stifled it as he remembered his 
promise to stand by his wife on the 
diet. 
“You are not taking any of that olive 
oil, John,” continued his wife. “It is 
necessary to the system to eat half a 
pound of butter, and an equal quantity 
of olive oil a week. You don’t do 
either.” 
“I don’t like olive oil at all, and I 
never did eat much butter,” returned 
Mr. Carter, patiently. 
MOTHERS—Be sure to use“Mrs.Wins- 
l 'W’s Soothing Syrup” for your children 
while Teething. It is the Best.— Adv. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
“I am afraid that you are a little in¬ 
clined to self-indulgence, John. You 
must break that up. One can, if one 
will bring one’s will to bear on the sub¬ 
ject.” 
Mr. Carter laid down his knife and 
fork and opened his lips to reply. One 
look at the pretty face of his wife, how¬ 
ever, made him change the sarcastic re¬ 
mark to the good-humoreu one of: 
“Well, perhaps I am. I will be a dif¬ 
ferent man, I expect, after I have you 
to guide me for a while.” 
Mrs. Carter nodded acquiescently. 
“John,” she cried, some hours later, 
“what are you doing?” 
“Getting a drink, my love,” returned 
John, mildly, pumping a bucket of water 
from the well. 
“But you must not drink mat water. 
Don’t you know that it is full of bac¬ 
teria?” 
“Then what am I to drink, Nellie? I 
can’t go without water!” 
“Of course not. Here is some that I 
have boiled. I boil all the water that 
we drink.” 
“Phew!” he exclaimed in disgust. 
“How flat it tastes. Is that what is the 
matter with the water? I wondered 
why it tasted so. I’ll just take a good 
drink fresh from the well.” 
“Oh, John, dear,” cried Mrs. Carter, 
tearfully, "you mustn’t. Indeed, you 
mustn’t. It is full of bacteria.” 
“I guess they won’t hurt me,” laughed 
John. “I’ve always drank 'it so.” 
“Don’t do it! Please don’t, John! 
For my sake,” pleaded the wife. “It is 
so dangerous.” 
“Well, put some ice in this then, and I 
won’t.” He was a new husband, remem¬ 
ber. 
“Ice! Why, what would be the use of 
boiling it if we were to put ice in it? 
Ice is full of microbes.” 
Mr. Carter drank the boiled water in 
silence, and then went into the house, 
and read the paper until dinner was 
ready. 
“What cut of beef is this?” he asked 
as he prepared to carve the meat. “It 
doesn’t look like a roast.” 
“It isn’t. It’s the neck. I find that I 
can get more food value for less money 
from the neck than from the rib. For 
instance, 10 cents’ worth of the neck of 
beef will give me .36 of a pound of pro¬ 
tein, and 1,825 calorics; whereas, the 
same amount spent for the rib will yiekl 
only .13 of a pound of protein, and 1,449 
calorics.” 
Mr. Carter groaned. He had been ac¬ 
customed to dinners of soup, roast with 
all the accessories, salad, and a corre¬ 
sponding dessert. The rigid regime of 
Mrs. Carter, while it might be hygiene, 
was far from satisfying. In fact, a feel¬ 
ing of goneness was beginning to be his 
chronic condition. 
“Then,” went on Mrs. Carter, not no¬ 
ticing the groan, “I add potatoes, bread 
and fruit for the carbohydrates, and we 
have a meal perfect in food value, con¬ 
taining protein, fat, starch and sugar. 
All for the same money that a roast 
would have cost us,” she wound up tri¬ 
umphantly. 
“Well, for to-morrow,” said Carter, 
“let’s have roast pork with potatoes, and 
cherry pie.” 
Mrs. Carter stared at him a moment, 
and then said pityingly: “John, you are 
as ignorant as most people concerning 
food values. It won’t do, my dear.” 
“But why won’t it?” asked Mr. Carter 
a little savagely, “I like it.” 
“You promised me, John, that you 
would stand by me ‘in this. I think that 
you ought to when it is as much for 
your good as mine. Roast pork am. po¬ 
tatoes contain five times as much carbon 
as you need. It would make you go at 
double speed at the expense of your 
nerves and tissues. As for cherry pie”— 
she made an expressive gesture, as if it 
were not worth mentioning, and con¬ 
tinued—“you will soon get over these 
yearnings of a falsely educated appetite, 
and then you will ^ all right. I am 
afraid that you have been improperly 
brought up, John.” 
Mr. Carter glared at her angrily, and 
threw down his knife and fork with a 
bang. 
“If you mean, madam, in regard to 
calorics, proteins, and all the rest of it, 
yes, I was.” 
“O John!” Mrs. Carter rose from the 
table with her handkerchief to her eyes. 
“You are c-cruel when you know I’m 
doing the best I can.” 
What could he do! He had not been 
married long, and was not proof against 
her tears. He arose from the table, took 
her in his arms, begged forgiveness and 
promised to eat anything and everything 
she would give _im, if only she would 
smile. They made up, of course, and 
Carter bore himself heroically for six 
months through a dietary that tabooed 
pie, and was arranged according to food 
values. At the end of that time he 
found that he had grown thin and pale. 
His appetite had left biro entirely, and 
several times he caught himself reckon¬ 
ing up the per cent of protein and num¬ 
ber of calorics contained in the pieces 
of meat which hung tempting in front 
of the butcher’s. He stopped drinking 
water away from home, and was haunt¬ 
ed by the fear of bacteria. 
“See here. Carter,” said a friend, 
meeting him one day on the street, 
“what’s the matter? You look like a 
shadow. 
“I don’t know. Just a fancy,” re¬ 
turned Carter, too loyal to his wife to 
tell the cause. 
Carter went home feverish. Much to 
his wife’s alarm, he did not eat a mouth¬ 
ful of supper. Finally he went to bed 
and fell asleep. While he slept he 
dreamed. 
He was in an immense dining-room. 
Great roasts of beef and pork flanked 
by steaming vegetables, loaded the 
tables. Pies of mince and cherry were 
on the buffets; fruits, salads, water with 
huge chunks of ice floating in it, milk, 
cooled also by ice; everything that 
would appeal to the palate was there in 
tempting array. 
Carter’s mouth watered; but, alas! 
when he approached the meats, proteins 
and calorics appeared to rise from them. 
Carbohydrates reared great heads from 
fruits and vegetables; bacilli jeered at 
him in the ice water; microbes looked 
stealthily out from the milk. A feeling 
of fierce anger seized hold of him. 
Was he to starve because of these 
creatures? Well, let them do their 
worst. A drink he would have in spite 
of them. Catching up a cup, he stated 
into the water. Instantly, bacilli, mi¬ 
crobes and bacteria of all kinds sur¬ 
rounded him. With beating heart he 
walked boldly among them. Suddenly 
an enormous bacillus that he had not 
seen before darted toward him. Af¬ 
frighted, he dropped his cup, and tried 
t> run. But the monster was upon him, 
and seized him before he could take a 
step. Its huge body covered him; its 
hot breath was upon his face; its fangs 
were creeping closer and closer to his 
throat, when—Carter gave a shriek and 
sjrang from the bed. 
“Why, John! What is the matter?” 
asked Mrs. Carter, sitting up. 
“Matter?” growled Carter, picking 
himself up from the floor, where he had 
landed. “Matter enough, I tell you. 
To-morrow begins a new state of things 
at this house. I’m going to live decent¬ 
ly if I have to eat all the bacteria in 
the world. Calorics and all the re3t 
o f them have got to go. They have had 
their innings. Now comes mine. Do 
you hear, Nellie?” 
“Yes, John,’ ’ replied Mrs. Carter 
meekly; she had been married long 
enough to know that when Carter, used 
that tone things must go his way. 
The next day at dinner the following 
was the bill of fare. 
Soup. 
Roast pork with potatoes. Apple sauce. 
Onions, beans, tomatoes, peas, corn, 
Cherry, mince, apple pie. 
Ice water. 
And Carter was happy. 
—Portland Oregonian. 
jyjACBETH’ S “pearltop’* 
and “pearl glass” lamp- 
chimneys do not break from 
heat, not one in a hundred. 
They are made of tough 
clear glass, clear as crystal. 
They fit the lamps they are 
made for. Shape controls the 
draft. Draft contributes to 
proper combustion; that 
makes light; they improve 
the light of a lamp. 
Our “Index” describes all lamps and their 
proper chimneys. With it you can always order 
the right size and shape of chimney for any lamp. 
We mail it FREE to any one who writes for it. 
Address Macbeth, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
NO DIRT LEFT 
in clothes washed with the 
‘•BUSY BEE WASHER” 
100 pieces in one hour anil 
hard work done. That 
the record. AGENTS 
ANTED.. Exclusive 
on In W 1*1 
l * ,.l f o frirmtl 
Old Dresses Made New. 
EASY WAY TO HAVE GOOD CLOTHES 
FOR LITTLE MONEY. 
Home Dyeing a Pleasure with 
Diamond Dyes. 
There’s no easier way to save expense than to 
dye over your dresses, wraps, ribbons, etc., with 
Diamond Dyes. A package costs but 10 cents, 
yet it will often save the expense of a new dress 
or jacket. 
It’s easy work to use Diamond Dyes. They are 
prepared specially for home dyeing, and will dye 
more goods for the same money than any other 
dyes. 
Never use dyes that claim to color all kinds of 
material with the same dye. Diamond Dyes can 
he depended upon to make colors that will not 
fade or crock. 
Sample card of co’ors and direction book for 
home dyeing mailed free on request.—W ells, Rich¬ 
ardson & Co., Burlington, Vt. 
WAIUH AND UHAIN hUK UNt DAY’S WORK. 
Roys and Girls can get a Nickel-Plated 
Watch, also a Chain and Charm for se,ling 
IX doz. Packages of Bluine at to cents each. 
Send your full address by return mall and 
we will forward the Jilulne, post-paid,and 
...... . ' Ja,rr* Premium List No money required. 
HUUINIi, CO. BoxSOO Concord Junction, Mass. 
COE’S 
ECZEMA CURE, SI at druggists. 25c 
box of us. Coe Chem. Co., Cleveland, O. 
Half-a-Century’s Product. 
During the last half-century nearly Seventeen Million 
Singer Sewing-Machines have been made and sold. This 
tremendous product would make one gigantic machine 
head that would reach from the Singer factory at Elizabeth, 
N. J , to the factory at Kilbowie, Scotland. Its base 
would be about three thousand miles long and twelve 
hundred miles wide. The top of its needle-bar would be 
fifteen hundred miles above the earth. 
ONE MILLION SINGER SEWING-MACHINES 
WERE SOLD DURING THE YEAR 1899. 
The reason Singer machines are so much preferred is 
because of their uniformly easy operation, great capacity 
and durability. A Singer machine outwears’ all others 
because of its superior construction from the best mate¬ 
rials ; every part can be exactly duplicated in any City in 
the World. 
SOLD ON INSTALMENTS. OLD MACHINES EXCHANGED. 
The Singer ITanufacturing Company. 
SALESROOMS in every city in the world. 
