Show UPON A DIET OF PRUNES what makes you so quiet a tall girl who displayed a big enameled flag pin asked a short one as they met at the lunch counter has your best beau enlisted or has some dear friend gone to santiago neither answered the short gi girl I 1 pr illing herself up on the high stool but why do you think I 1 am quiet because you are I 1 never saw anyone so changed the last time I 1 saw you was just joist after christmas and nobody could get in a word edgeways you talked so fast no now you have next to nothing to say and when you do speak you speak so gently that I 1 can scarcely hear you the whole expression of your face has changed chah ged and I 1 must say its for the better your complexion is lovely your eyes bright and there is such a spirit of content about you Is it love no answered her companion laughing guess again but you never could so ill tell you what has wrought this change in me it love its prunes prunes exclaimed the tall girl ordering an oyster pate a slice of strawberry shortcake with plenty of cream and a bottle of ginger ale yes prunes answered the other walter bring me a big dish of stewed prunes some bread and butter and a glass of milk mercy what a luncheon exclaimed the tall girl if what you like why dont you take your meals at a second rate boarding house where they have stewed prunes for the first course at breakfast the same for thac tha last course at luncheon and prune pie for dessert at dinner I 1 can give you the address of one laugh all you want to rejoined the short girl but prunes have made a new girl of me not only physically and mentally but morally serve as a sort of atonement for your past do they asked the tall girl what a mischievous rogue you used to be I 1 can cant it believe th that a t prunes are responsible for this change no go tell that to the spaniards out with it iti i what has changed you 1 I tell you it was pruines pru ines insisted her companion you remember how nervous and run down I 1 got last winter I 1 was either down in the depth of despair or up on the mountain tops of hilarity cant you call to mind how bow I 1 was up to all kinds of pranks teasing everybody making fun of everybody sparing nob odys feelings it if I 1 could get a laugh and make others laugh and dont you remember how nolay noisy I 1 used to be and how uneasy everybody felt when I 1 was waa around not knowing what I 1 would do or OP say next yes I 1 thought you would well im completely changed and prunes did it do tell me all about it urged the tall all girl and a nervous woman sitting next to her listened eagerly for the reply well I 1 went out to chicago about that time it was in february I 1 think and I 1 was wag in such a state that mv m friends sent me to a well ell known chicago physician he said at once you need prunes young women woman and I 1 said you mean pruning tor for my family Is in always insisting that I 1 had grown wild it all came from overwork no he sud said 1 I mean prunes you need a prune diet set you straight and then he told me he had proved the prune to be a 4 moral agent and that european authorities on dietetics were discussing his discovery at that very time and making experiments I 1 asked him to tell me all about Ws his discovery and he said that he had made the prune an object of special study and knew it to be a preventive of crime he was at one time connected with a reform school tor for boys and when he found that he was right in believing the prune to be efficacious fica floa cious in moving the school youngsters to obedience these boys were exceedingly unruly and had rebelled against everybody and everything tending toward the reformation of their morals finally the doctor fed them once a day on prunes for a week and at the end of that time they were well mannered and docile he said that the change in them was the most wonderful thing he had ever witnessed though hot hard to understand I 1 said that I 1 thought it was waa but he explained that the prune has a certain medicinal property which acts directly on the nervous system it makes me laugh to hear people say she has a bad heart or he has bas a vitiated mind when people arent honest and true and pure i the nervous system dyste m nine times out or of ten is out of order and prunes win will cure them thein but how did you take the prunes inquired the tall girl with a great show of interest well well I 1 kept a stone jar full fall of stewed slewed prunes on hand and five or six times a day I 1 would go to it and et wt i three or tour four in german households such crocks of prunes have stood for medicine chests for a hundred years the german housewife provides the jar of prunes and the members of the family dip into it at all hours of the day just as a family of po white trash in the south dips into a common snuff box the first thing in the morning and the last at night I 1 took a drink of prune juice and how iti it made me sleep this was prepared by adding a quart of boiled water to every pint of prunes and al allowing lowin them to simmer to shreds after straining a little lemon juice was added but no sugar this drink allays fever and is fine for a cold prunes that are to be eaten as a medicine should be simmered at least three hours and without sugar how long did you take the prune c ure cure before you began to be beak benefited interrupted the nervous woman with evident em embarrassment oh I 1 been at it more than a fortnight when I 1 felt like a new creature how aa was I 1 affected why I 1 slept like a log ate three square meals a day and strangest of all tny ray whole bearing and manner changed I 1 afew gre as gentle and mild mannered as my very gentle antle mother could wish and my attitude toward people changed too I 1 feel like disturbing everybody and stirring up people wherever I 1 went and hurting people just to see aee them squirm now I 1 feel perfectly amiable toward everybody and everything except spate spain id like to kelp crutch spain of course but to get back to the prune cure in a mouth month I 1 began to get plump my complexion cleared up my eyes grew bright my mind clear and best beat of all I 1 have a nerve left in my body now I 1 can stand any amount of hard work annoyance worry without going to pieces I 1 dont see what anyone wants to JOW joto a dont worry circle fot for when prunes cost only 7 cents centa a pound it requires much less mental and physical exertion to eat than it does to atteno attend club meeting and I 1 for one am sure that the pl prune i i cure beats the dont worry circle it at their own object i oh by the way she rattled along theer cheerfully fully 1 I shall tell you another thing about the prune it can change the most throat splitting whisky into the most delicious beverage imaginable so my brother and his friends SP my brother had some men drop in to see him one night and he came out into the room and said 11 what have vou got for the fellows fello wa to drink Is there any beer 11 not a drop said I 1 theres nothing here except that bottle ot oc whisky I 1 got at the grocers which you said was too mean to give to a dying spanish soldier then something popped into my head and I 1 said never mind you go back with your friends and ill soon own bring in something ile he did and as an soon as he was out of sight I 1 got out that bottle of mean whisky and a bottle of thick prune syrup that I 1 eat on griddle cakes I 1 poured some of the whisky in a glass and an equal quantity of prune juice and made a rickey it was simply delicious my experiment was a success and so I 1 made them for the crowd and I 1 wish you could have heard ohbee men my brothers eyes nearly popped out of his head and his friends said it was a shame to use such delicious whisky in dickeys ric keys I 1 asked if they would like a little straight and told them that I 1 happened to have a little of a rare brand and as an it was decoration day would treat what do you think I 1 did slipped out and filled some liquor glasses witha with a mixture of that bad whisky and thick prune juice and I 1 wish you could have heard those men they said it was the finest whisky ever tasted and it ran down like oil and was so penetrating my brother looked uneasy until he saw they were in dead earnest and smacking their chops for more after the last man had gone he poked his head in my door and said in the most puzzled way what in the devil good night dearest I 1 answered we have a lot of that brand left it was but that bad whisky mixed with prune syrup but you yourself admitted that my treat had the flavor of great age so run along and let me so go to sleep by jove ashes a star atar I 1 heard him say as lie he closed my door and then he le fly some pyrotechnical language that made me wonder if schley really would bombard defenses soon or not 1 I 1 tell you the prune is 19 a great moral agent it drives dries away fits of depression makes one sweet tempered and kindly disposed and helps a nervous person to get hold of herself to regain a normal equilibrium if you dont believe it try it you already see eee what wonders it has worked in me 1 I do answered the tall girl emphatically and you owe much to the prune much more I 1 fear than you doto do to yur your early sunday school I 1 rein remember ember myself now that as a very small girl when I 1 bew became amo thoroughly unmanageable my mother used to give me three prunes which never failed to bring me to my senses as an she expressed it by the way I 1 take your telling me of the moral effect of prunes as a personal favor why why flashed an engagement ga gement ring in front of the short girls eyes and let me tell you one thing when I 1 set up housekeeping im going to see that thi the bead of the house gets get prunes plenty aplenty a 11 and eff tie they both went leaving the nervous woman on their right sitting with eyes sod and mouth both wide open as she watched them disappears disappear new york sun |