The activity outside the prescribed gymnasium exercises and any
supplementary work consisted of awaking very early in the morning
and doing considerable writing upon my typewriter. The agitation
of this nutrition investigation has involved an immense amount of
correspondence to keep the interest stimulated, and for the exchange
of information between the interested parties; hence in addition to
serving as test-subject, there was always much else to do to keep from
getting hopelessly behind in the work.
The writing began anywhere from four to six in the morning in winter,
which was the season of the test, and continued until about seven or
eight, when the exercises were commenced and continued until finished.
Meantime the mail of the morning had come in and frequently demanded
immediate attention, which used up the time until between twelve and
one o'clock, when a first-class appetite had been earned (no craving
of hunger or "all-goneness" in the common form due to the persistence
of habit hunger), and this insured a keen appreciation of taste and
fulfilled all the requirements of a healthy digestion. The afternoon
was always busy, sometimes with a lengthy walk around town, or a game
of billiards when the weather discouraged outside work. The evenings
were strenuous or restful, and were usually employed with conversation,
reading, or a lecture.
Fortunately the simple food selected continued to be agreeable to the
end, and cost an average of only eleven cents per day. When it was
given up to accommodate the service furnished by social meals it was
missed, the habit of supply having become somewhat fixed and expected
by appetite.
In London, in search of the lowest possible economy, the author has
subsisted on about half the cost of the Yale supply; and it is entirely
possible to those needing strictest economy.
INFLUENCE OF SUGGESTION
A friend of the author, who is an enthusiast in regard to the
profitableness of an economic nutrition in assisting the strenuous
life, went to lunch with a generous host in New York the other day,
when the following conversation about the lunch to be ordered was
heard. It partook of Wall-Street brevity, which is thought to be
necessary in the rush of a midday snack or meal.
"What will you have? What! only a baked potato and a bottle of ginger
ale? All right for a starter; but what are you really going to have?
Nothing more! what is the matter with you? Come, now; tell me what
you want for lunch? Stocks are badly off, but I haven't reached the
starvation point yet. Don't treat me like that when I'm trying to treat
you right and white. Brace up, old man, and have something to eat."
The intermediate replies can be imagined as in an overheard telephone
conversation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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