Page:The Poor Rich Man, and the Rich Poor Man.djvu/52

44 they have over the rich, in not being able to call the doctor for every finger-ache, or to keep a well-furnished medicine-chest in their houses. I am no wizard, but I can usually tell by the looks of the family whether there are plenty of labelled vials in the cupboard. The poor have many facilities for health over the rich; I speak of the comparatively poor—thank God, there are few in our country that would be called poor in other lands—few who cannot obtain healthful food, and plenty of it. They are not, like the rich, tempted to excess by various and delicately-cooked dishes; but, then, from ignorance or carelessness, they do not properly prepare their food; you have heard the old proverb, my child—its meaning is too true—'the Lord sends meats, but the devil sends cooks.' The poor man's flour is as wholesome as the rich man's, but his wife makes her bread carelessly, and it is sour or heavy, or eaten hot, and about as digestible as brick-bats. A poor woman, for want of a little forethought and arrangement, gets her work into a snarl; meal-time is at hand—her husband coming in from his work—children hungry—she makes a little short-cake, or claps down before the fire in a spider some half-risen dough—is it not so?"

"Dear me! yes, sir—but how should you know it?"

"A physician sees every mode of life, and learns much in his profession by observing them. Such bread as I have described, I have seen accompanied with cucumbers, Dutch cheese, fried cakes, and messes of meat done up in grease. Half the fine gentlemen and nervous ladies in our city would have been thrown into fits or fevers