A HALF A CENTURY VEGETARIAN.
By F. W. Crosby
As PROBABLY no other family in this country have had a longer experience than ours, perhaps I may be excused if I relate some facts as to our being vegetarians. My father was a very conscientious man, and humane and tender hearted towards all, both human and brute. From about 1825 to 1836 he had much trouble, in winter especially, with a cough and bleeding at the lungs. In 1836 he came across the Poet Shelley's "Queen Mab," in the notes to which is an argument in favor of a vegetarian diet. My father had often said that if it ever became necessary to kill his meat he would quit using it. Being rather delicate, as I have said, he concluded to try vegetarianism. My mother also did so at about the same time. There was a large family of us and all were free to do as they wished in the matter. I was the first to follow my parents in the change of diet. We had removed in 1835 from the State of New York to the State of Michigan. Now whether it was the change of climate, or diet, or both, I cannot say, but my father never had any further lung trouble, and lived to almost ninety years of age, and had hardly an ache or pain for the last forty years of his life. My mother died last March from the effects of a bad fall, fracturing her leg and hip. She was ninety-one years and six months old, and in possession of unusual vigor, both mentally and physically. As for myself I may say that I have not given myself a fair show. First I was severely injured during my four years' service in the Union army. Surgeons have said years ago that I had no sort of excuse or valid reason for being alive. Well, I spent two years in the great forest region of Venezuela between the Orinoco and Amazon, where ten per cent of the whites die annually, had the fever of the country again and again, buried the third of my party, and came out weighing less than one hundred pounds. Moreover, in my business as a practical metallurgist I have twice been quite thoroughly saturated with mercurial fumes, enough so as to cause my teeth to drop out prematurely. But, despite all these drawbacks, there are few men, I dare say, who at threescore and ten enjoy life as well as I do. I have been abroad since last October, traveling alone, climbing mountains in Sicily, Lipari Islands, Italy, and Switzerland. Was attacked by a brigand in Sicily, stabbed severely twice, but I got the fellow, and he is now in prison. My wounds healed kindly. Now, I am giving these facts to show that vegetarianism is consistent with health and vigor. I have a son who is professor of mineralogy in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, who has been a vegetarian since early childhood. He is strong and healthy, and has done a good deal of original work in geology and mineralogy. Some of the effects of a vegetarian diet, as I have noted them, are these, hurts and wounds heal easily, recuperate rapidly from fatigue. I walked last week one day twelve miles and made a climb of five thousand feet and the next day walked nineteen miles over a very rugged road. Disorders of the bowels are extremely rare with those who abstain from meat and live wholesomely otherwise. Naturally, a vegetarian is temperate and clean. I note in a recent great walking match between Berlin and Vienna the winners were vegetarians. Before our Civil War I carried on bridge building. More than once I've had to put in piers in winter and I have seldom seen a man who could endure the wet and cold as I could, exploding the idea that meat, fat meat, is necessary to resist cold. A brother of mine, who was born after my442mother became a vegetarian, from infancy up was noted for his great strength, activity, and vigor. He never tasted meat nor spirituous drink. He was killed at Vicksburg in 1863. You may consider that I am a veteran in the cause, and have a great desire to see men live right. No flocks that range the valley free
To slaughter I condemn;
Taught by the Power that pities me,
I learn to pity them.
—Food, Home, and Garden.