Fruit has but a very small per cent, of proteid for tissue building, its great value being for chemical changes, bulk and energy. It is rich in chemical substances for purifying the blood, mineral water suited to the uses of the body, and distilled water for dissolving the sediment that settles in the arteries, producing old age from the stiffening of the joints and the inaction of the vital, organs. The judicious use of fruit, providing other destructive or injurious habits are checked, preserves the freshness of the skin, the natural action of the digestive system, and if enough living cells are supplied with it from other food for repair and growth, it keeps up the full vigor of the cell life, freeing the blood from its usual burden of dead material without depleting it. Fruit is also antiseptic. Injurious bacteria cannot develop in the digestive tract when the excretory-organs are not clogged by excesses and plenty of fruit is used. Most kinds of fruit are utilized by the liver, kidneys, bowels and skin in an effort to free the system of refuse, while the bulk of the pulp absorbs and carries poison away with it. When a greater amount of fruit than can be passed through the intestines is indulged, the bulk with its load of poison, if retained long, produces gases, resulting in intense pain in the bowels. If nature does not rally to afford relief, artificial means must be resorted to, but good judgment in the use of food is much wiser. The habit of giving children a whole melon, a pan of apples, or a dozen bananas at one time is not only foolish and dangerous, but it cultivates an abnormal appetite and bad judgment. Fruit should be served as a part of every meal instead of being eaten without consideration at any and all times as is so customary at present. The proper use of fruit will do much to emancipate women from the labor of cooking as well as establishing a normal appetite and a more refined taste. Nothing is more beautiful and pleasing than fresh fruits and green vegetables artistically arranged upon the table. The time and labor spent in changing fruit from a wholesome food to a poisonous and useless mixture is pitiful. If the poor deluded woman, perspiring over a kettle of apple butter or peach preserves lived in India, missionaries would be sent to enlighten her regarding the great sin she is committing in preparing mixtures nearly as abnormal as the changing of the golden grain into deadly alcohol, but she is one of us and we like "the dram," so we rebel against her higher education. Women can aid the temperance cause by gradually substituting tempting fruits for rich and unhealthy combinations that cause fermentation in the system, creating the restless craving that demands stimulants. If a mother will deny herself tea, coffee, condiments or sweets for one week she will have much more sympathy and patience with those who are expected to easily check stronger habits of indulgence. When a boy has been allowed to overeat from early youth he has no judgment to control his appetite in any way, hence the great necessity of beginning the temperance reform by educating the mothers in the chemical value of food and the proper amount for nourishment. Eminent physicians are already advocating the fruit cure for the liquor habit, as it overcomes the abnormal craving for intoxicants in a natural way, while preserves, fruit butters, jam and sweet pickles foster intemperance.

Nature prepares fruit in great diversity, and nearly every variety may be selected according to the amount of acid required, as the sweet, semi-acid of the acid orange, apple or peach. Too much acid fruit produces an over-acid condition of the system, hence judgment must be used in selecting the most suitable kind. The semi-acid varities are best suited to general use, and may be more freely indulged, while the acid and the extremely sweet kinds serve for pleasant variations.

The sweet varieties of juicy fruit and "nature's preserves" - dates, figs, raisins and prunes - contain a large amount of sugar and should be used in simple, pleasing preparations, instead of the old-fashioned preserves that are so injurious. As the dry varieties are more condensed than the juicy fruits that are largely water, they should be eaten in smaller amounts.

Lemons

Lemons are valuable as an antiseptic, but better results are obtained from the use if one or less each day than from half a dozen at a time by spells.

Ripe Bananas

Ripe Bananas contain enough starch and sugar to give them good nutritive value, especially when served with cream without sugar. They are called the "food of the wise men of India," and many of these men live long, retaining the freshness of youth. They should be thoroughly xipe, better if the skins are turning dark. After peeling, scrape off the pith adhering to the fruit.

For preservation, fruit may be dried or it may be canned by being heated at a temperature just below the boiling point in a double boiler, to prevent setting the chemical properties free and dissolving the fibrous tissue so necessary for bulk in the system as well as retaining the shape of the fruit. Some of the fruit at present is canned with this precaution. As little sugar as possible should be used with cooked fruit, and if the juice is desired thick, a few pieces of the softened fruit may be put through a collender and the sugar added to it before pouring it over the rest of the fruit.

For general use fruit should be served in the natural state, care being taken to select only that which is ripe and sound. For variation fruit salad with cream dressing, fruit jellies moulded with gelatine, iced fruits and simmered fruits give all that could be desired without resorting to laborious unhealthy mixtures.

A wineglass of fresh grape, orange or berry juice, without sugar, is of great service in preparing the stomach for dinner. A very little lemon juice diluted with water, unsweetened, may be used part of the time.

The chemical and nutritive value of fruits will be found in another chapter. Special recipes will not be given, as any woman can originate pleasing ways of arranging or combining fresh fruits for salads and jelly moulds suited to the tastes of the family, and judge at all times what preparations in common use will prolong life and what will hasten old age and death.

Fresh fruit should be served without sugar as a rule. Even berries serve a better purpose without the usual mixture of cream and sugar. They are delicious picked up separately with a silver dagger and conveyed to the mouth. Oranges should be cut into halves and the pulp dipped out with a spoon, or they may be peeled and separated into small sections and be lifted with the fingers. They may be cut in small sections also.

Lemons should be sliced and used as a relish in the place of pickles, hot pepper sauces, etc. The thin slices being lifted to the mouth with the fingers.

Pineapples

Pineapples may have their juice extracted by a little sugar or may be sliced and chilled with ice, being eaten from the hand without sugar.

Dates

Dates may be served naturally or may be stuffed - the seed being taken out and a nut meat put in its place. They are lifted from a flat cut glass dish with the fingers and eaten very slowly.

Grapes And Raisins

Grapes And Raisins are served in luscious bunches upon the stems from which they are picked as they are eaten, the seeds and sometimes the skins being discarded.

Cherries And Red Currants

Cherries And Red Currants are lifted to the mouth by the stems, from which they are taken artfully by the teeth.

Apples, Pears, Peaches, Apricots, Etc

Apples, Pears, Peaches, Apricots, Etc., should be served on a fruit plate with a silver fruit knife. They may be pared and eaten in small pieces, or eaten without paring as desired.

Bananas

Bananas should be served naturally or with the skin rolled half way back. They may also be sliced and served with cream. After the skin is removed it should be scraped with the back of a knife, removing the pith, which is hard to digest.

Cantaloupes

Cantaloupes should be cut in halves and filled with chipped ice, or they may be sliced in sections and served. The pulp should be cut out with a teaspoon.

A whole watermelon, if large, need not be served at once for a small family because of the belief that the cut portion cannot be used as it absorbs poison. If properly cut, in round slices, the part left in the ice-box can be covered with oiled or plain paper, which adheres easily, then the outside trimmed well before using from it again. The unbroken film prevents poison from being absorbed deeply, while too much pulp in the system may become clogged and absorbs a much greater amount of poison from the intestines than could possibly be absorbed from an ice-box, besides overtaxing the kidneys to dispose of the water. A medium sized piece of melon at the beginning or the close of luncheon or dinner is of great value in hot weather to prevent suffering from heat and sluggishness of the excretory organs. It may be served in many attractive ways.

Dried fruit may be soaked, shaken free from water on the outside and eaten raw or it may be simmered.