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Story
August 7, 1904
Pine Bluff Daily Graphic
Pine Bluff, Jefferson County, Arkansas
What is this article about?
An article refutes the theory that animal-based diets are necessary for vigor and courage, citing rice-eating Japanese soldiers' endurance and bravery, as well as courageous vegetarian animals like horses and elephants. It argues against strict vegetarianism but highlights benefits amid meat industry issues.
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OCR Quality
95%
Excellent
Full Text
A VEGETABLE DIET.
There is a theory, which with many people has become an established belief, that a diet of animal food imparts vigor and force and inspires courage. The vegetarian, it is asserted, lacks these virile qualities in his best development and his life is likely to be barren of achievement or substantial results.
We do not know what convincing arguments or demonstration can be brought to sustain this theory, although many people believe it thoroughly, but there has recently been put in evidence a very pertinent and pugnacious fact that seems to work its entire refutation. That fact is the fighting and persistent rice-eating Japanese. The average Japanese soldier never eats strong meat, and it is no part of the rations furnished by his government. He can live and march and fight on a few handfuls of rice and a little dried fish a day, and no theorist can rightfully gainsay his courage, his patriotism or his power of endurance.
The herbivorous animals are not all lacking in courage. The Spaniard would have to give up their favorite sport if that were true. There is nothing more spirited than a horse, nothing with greater power of endurance than the camel or the mule. Even the huge and long-lived elephant, having both strength and courage, is a strict vegetarian. The great man-like apes, the gorilla and orang-outang, much fiercer than the human species, live mostly on fruits.
The meat-eating animals have the murderous instinct, or at least the propensity to kill more strongly developed than other animals, but it is not that the meat makes them bloodthirsty, but because they must kill in order to live. The flesh-eaters are destroyers and natural enemies of the rest of the living kind.
This is not intended as an argument for a strictly vegetarian diet, says the Nashville Banner. The various forms of animal food contribute greatly to man's pleasures and with moderation to his health, if they are not necessary to his existence, and there is no good reason why such forms of food for the men and women who prefer them should be abolished.
The point we make primarily is that the Japanese soldier overthrows the theory that the vegetarian lacks vigor and courage. He is a live argument in behalf of a vegetable diet, and the lesson he teaches may afford consolation if not profit to many Americans in these days of beef trusts and packing house strikes.
There is a theory, which with many people has become an established belief, that a diet of animal food imparts vigor and force and inspires courage. The vegetarian, it is asserted, lacks these virile qualities in his best development and his life is likely to be barren of achievement or substantial results.
We do not know what convincing arguments or demonstration can be brought to sustain this theory, although many people believe it thoroughly, but there has recently been put in evidence a very pertinent and pugnacious fact that seems to work its entire refutation. That fact is the fighting and persistent rice-eating Japanese. The average Japanese soldier never eats strong meat, and it is no part of the rations furnished by his government. He can live and march and fight on a few handfuls of rice and a little dried fish a day, and no theorist can rightfully gainsay his courage, his patriotism or his power of endurance.
The herbivorous animals are not all lacking in courage. The Spaniard would have to give up their favorite sport if that were true. There is nothing more spirited than a horse, nothing with greater power of endurance than the camel or the mule. Even the huge and long-lived elephant, having both strength and courage, is a strict vegetarian. The great man-like apes, the gorilla and orang-outang, much fiercer than the human species, live mostly on fruits.
The meat-eating animals have the murderous instinct, or at least the propensity to kill more strongly developed than other animals, but it is not that the meat makes them bloodthirsty, but because they must kill in order to live. The flesh-eaters are destroyers and natural enemies of the rest of the living kind.
This is not intended as an argument for a strictly vegetarian diet, says the Nashville Banner. The various forms of animal food contribute greatly to man's pleasures and with moderation to his health, if they are not necessary to his existence, and there is no good reason why such forms of food for the men and women who prefer them should be abolished.
The point we make primarily is that the Japanese soldier overthrows the theory that the vegetarian lacks vigor and courage. He is a live argument in behalf of a vegetable diet, and the lesson he teaches may afford consolation if not profit to many Americans in these days of beef trusts and packing house strikes.
What sub-type of article is it?
Curiosity
What themes does it cover?
Moral Virtue
What keywords are associated?
Vegetable Diet
Japanese Soldiers
Vegetarian Animals
Diet Theory
Courage Endurance
Meat Eating
Beef Trusts
Story Details
Story Details
Refutes the belief that meat diets provide vigor and courage using Japanese soldiers' rice-based endurance and examples of brave vegetarian animals, while not advocating strict vegetarianism but noting its viability amid meat industry problems.