VEGETARIANISM VERSUS FLESH-EATING

VEGETARIANISM VERSUS FLESH-EATING.

The corroborative details concerning the recent seventy-mile walking match in Germany which have come to hand from Berlin, make the fact all the more apparent that the victory of the vegetarian competitors was conclusive, and both the military authorities and the sporting journals are discussing the matter with much interest. The judges who passed their verdict upon the condition of the arriving competitors were all flesh-eaters, and yet they pronounced all the abstainers from flesh to be in “very good condition,” and the only meat-eater who arrived to be “much exhausted.” This result was attained in spite of the fact that all the sixteen flesh-eaters were amateur gymnasts, whilst the vegetarians, with two exceptions, were not so, and, like the winner, were engaged in sedentary occupations at the bookkeeper’s desk. The winner, Karl Mann, had been declined as a recruit by the German army because of extreme short-sightedness and curvature of the spine, before he became a food reformer. The German emperor’s officials interviewed him at the war office for three-quarters of an hour, and officially requested him to submit a full report to the army medical department. His diet consists chiefly of dried fruits, such as figs, dates, prunes, apricots, peaches, etc., fresh fruits, some raw vegetables, scones made of rye meal, butter, milk, and cheese.