LADIES' PAGE.
A FLOWER FAIR in Trafalgar Square sounds rather like a pantomime dream, but it is to be a reality from June 20 to 26 inclusive. The British Ambulance Committee, which is entirely British, founded by Mr. Bradley Peyman, has equipped and maintained since that fateful August in 1914, 120 ambulances, constantly employed in carrying French wounded from danger to safety. Shell-wrecked ambulances must be replaced, and the wear-and-tear of nearly four years made good: and the task is not a small one, so we have the Flower Fair in the Rose month. Sir H. Veitch, who is responsible for the general direction and arrangement of the floral effects, has evolved the charming idea of erecting little creeper-clad houses to shelter the stalls and their well-known saleswomen. Gifts of flowers, vegetables, or fruit are begged, and should be sent to Miss Astley, 23A. Bruton Street, London,W. It is certain that the show will rival some of the best rose exhibitions ever seen. Amongst those opening it on successive days are Mrs. Lloyd George, the Duke of Portland, Lord Charles Beresford, the Countess of Selkirk, and the Marquise de Chasseloup-Loubat. Famous military bands will perform in the Square. On Naval Day, June 21, Lady Keyes and the wives of other well-known naval men attend to sell. On Saturday, the 22nd, prominent Labour representatives intend visiting the Square. There is no charge for admission. The British Ambulance Committee beg the British public to make this Flower Fair a huge success; they would have us remember that each flower we buy will help some dying or wounded poilu to safety and rest.
An alarming report has been issued on the dirty and unwholesome state in which a great deal of the milk consumed reaches the public. Even in the soldiers' hospitals—nay, even at Infants' Welfare Centres—milk was found full of unwholesome bacteria, actual germs of disease, and particles of dirt! The report adds the information that such contaminated milk is largely prevented from being sold by State supervision in the United States, and that wherever such precautions have been taken a very marked result in diminishing infant mortality has been obtained. We have a right to claim similar attention from our authorities in a matter where we are unable to protect ourselves. Milk is the only—that is, the sole—food suitable for infants up to a certain age, six months at least, and a very important, even essential, part of the diet of older ones; and if it is brought to us in the dirty, unwholesome condition described (which is not necessarily perceptible to our own senses in look, smell, or taste) we have no chance of keeping the precious little ones in health. Why is not that done for us by our public authorities that is done by the American Government in securing clean milk from healthy animals?
Milk contains every element of nourishment; it is not a drink, but a real food, supplying fat, sugar, proteids, and mineral matter in proportions approaching those required by the body. It ought to be known by all house-wives that skim-milk, when it can be obtained, affords almost as much nourishment as fresh unskimmed milk. It does not do as food for a young baby, who takes no other sort of food but milk, and so needs it whole; but for older children, as nothing is taken in the skimming but the fat—which they get in other ways—skim-milk is excellent food. It makes sweetened cereal puddings, of course, but it will also turn into excellent soups, either as it is or half water, thickened either with a little flour, or with oatmeal, sago, tapioca, maize-meal, or rice, seasoned, and flavoured with onion, tomato, potatoes, cabbage, fish, or cheese, according to what we can get at different times. Salt ought not to be put into a milk soup till it has boiled, or it curdles. A beaten egg is a splendid addition.
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