make their selections; but, whenever parties entered whose means were
known to him to be limited, and yet whose "pride of family" and personal
vanity were in increased ratio to their decreased capital, he never
ventured even to suggest the class of goods taken by the wealthy, lest
offense be given. His rule was to show to such his very best goods
first. They wished to display "a notch above their betters." And so with
the cake question. Some of even the poorest families of New Englanders
doubtless eat more of this material than does the Royal family of
England, if it could but be known.

There remains yet another article of food to be proscribed. We refer to
the pork question. All ought to be good Jews on this subject. Their
prohibition is, we believe, founded on the intrinsic unhealthfulness of
the thing itself. Its use is universal in this country, and in the South
it forms the chief meat diet. This latter fact comes of their mode of
agriculture more than original preference. They devoted all labor to
cotton growing, and had their meat and grain to buy. The question with
the planter in laying in his supplies was what would go farthest, at a
given price, as food for his slaves. Bacon and flour were always found
to answer the economic query best. The West furnished bountiful
supplies, and readily floated these products to a market, where
competition was not only not thought of, but entirely out of the
question. Cattle and sheep raising (outside of Texas) had no growth or
encouragement among them. The planters soon fell into the habit of using
bacon on their own tables, and the result is, it has continued to form
the staple article for all classes there for several generations. The
darkies have rather flourished upon it, while the whites have suffered
greatly in consequence.

Its use undeniably produces scrofula, salt-rheum, tetter, ringworm,