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Show H ini'i'icvini:s ov vooi itLToitM I All reformers have a notoriously hard time of It M k no matter what brand of reform they uro curving, M , but the food reformer fares the worst of all. Man M I will ch.inge his political views, alter his religious bo- M I Ucfs, wear a different style of hat each joar, sliuvo H , a loi.g ihcrlshed moustache or go to great pains to H grow a beard, but when it comes to bis dally food he H " ' is stubbornly hard to change. You may prove to him M '' that what ho is eating Is harmful and expensive, that H his diet may be replaced by Items which will cost less, H taste as well, be more easily digested and more beue- H ' flciul. lie will agrco with you in theory but when H meal times come his orthodoxy asserts Itself and H lie returns to the old food. Some of tho Orientals H hao been quite right In making the stomach the seat H of tho affections for in nothing is man quite so con- rHl.uit ns In the affection ho nl.ijs holds for the food of his youth. H It has taken more time to Introduce new foods H into the world than to propagate new religions, H cli.injjf i lie forms of government or build great cities. H Take puittoes as an example. In the latter part of H the ICth leiiturj Spanish explorers found the potato H crowing near Quito and Introduced It to Spain About H the same time returning Unglish colonists brought it H to Ihigl.ind from what Is now North Carolina and H the first potatoes in Hurope weie planted In 185G on B the big Irish estate which Queen Ullznbeth had Just B given to Sir Walter Ilaleigh. Sir Walter, who was H -one ot tho bent press agents of his iluy, became a H ,,. food reformer and during the rest of his busy life U preached the lrtucs of potatoes. Ho succeeded in H having them served nt the royal table once. The B guests were polite about It and nibbled at the new BBb dish, but Queen Elizabeth, who was a good politician, ! did not repeat the experiment. Ten years after Sir BBa Walter began his campaign he received the first re- BBh cognition, when a heibal published in London con- H tallied a brief mention of the Virginia potato. It H was included in a section devoted to rare nnd freak H plants. The fact that potatoes were eaten by Indians H juujudlccd the Englishmen against them and they H looked on them much as wo look on birds nest soup H something rather cuilous and interesting but a H food we would l.ithet see others eat than to eat H A hall a century after the first potatoes were H 'V planted in Iiclaud the) wole being used by eonfec- H t loners and fancy bakers. Hut there was great dlf- H ference of opinion as to whether or not they were H fit to be used as food. H Strangely enough tobacco and coffee wero In- H V Iroduced into England at about the same time as pn- H v tutoes ami while every effort was made to discourage H i the use of tobacco and coffee, the campaign against H thorn bail no effect. Pious King James threatened H r " tho usors of tobacco with the knout, excommunication H i nnd capital punishment with no result except to m.iko H J smoking a secret vice King Charles II, mado equal- M " l.v detei mined efforts to stamp out coffee drinking, H because cofteo (It Inking meant cofleo houses and cof- B iu houses mtunt places vvlieie men congiegatu to- M 'v , Ketlicr and that meant politics and stratagems direct- !1 t'd against the crown. .Me.unv lillo man eminent men ij tried to encourage tho use- of potatoes with littlo suc- M J I cess and the drinking of coffee and smoking of to- B bacco Incieased each jcar at a rapid rate. Stephen B ffl ijlini rocks In Sunaet. |