The Idaho World

New Charitable Institution.—Some philanthropists in New York city have lately originated a new charitable institution, which they have launched upon the rather uncertain sea of experiment under the singularly ineuphonious title of "The Diet Kitchen." Its object, as stated in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, is to "establish one or more Diet Kitchens in each of the existing dispensary districts in that city, for the purpose of furnishing skillfully prepared food to the sick and destitute; and especially to provide outcast children, and children of ignorant, drunken and poverty-stricken parents when sick, with milk and such proper and nourishing food as their physicians shall prescribe." The names of many prominent ladies in New York are said to be associated with the movement, and very sanguine hopes are entertained of its usefulness and beneficial results; and the idea is certainly one in praise of which too much cannot be said. The amount of suffering which such an institution could relieve, if conducted by humane persons, earnestly bent upon the good of the unfortunate, is incalculable; but their management generally falls into the hands of the Philistines, and is used by them to make money, albeit the intentions of the originators, and of those who furnish the means to carry them out, are of unquestionable goodness. But if the object of the "Diet Kitchen" should fail—if it should transpire that dyspepsia and gout do not figure prominently amongst the diseases of which the destitute, orphaned and outcast children, who are cared for at its expense die—still it will probably not be suffered to pass away without utilization. The greater demand for chalk, occasioned by its increased consumption in the manufacture of milk for the "nourishment" of the children, et al., aforesaid, will most likely open up a splendid opportunity for some philanthropic Jim Fisk or pious Daniel Drew to turn an honest million or two by getting up a corner in that article. Or the Young Men's Christian Association may turn it into an engine for electing Patterson, Colfax, Harlan and other Christian statesmen to office. The clamor of Christian trumpets with which the institution starts out, makes the latter hypothesis seem the more probable.