Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 April 1895 — To Clean Fruit. [ARTICLE]

To Clean Fruit.

As day by day it is proved to us that bacteria make the larger proportion of the air we breathe, the water we drink and the world in general, one is disposed to instant revolt; no self respecting human being is willing to own himself at the mercy of these invisible foes. Modern science has its drawbacks, and is responsible for the wholesale fear in which many people spend their days. Caution, however, is another matter, and belongs to all w’ho own common sense, and it is specially required in dealing with modern dirt, which is in many cases synonymous with bacteria at their worst. The human animal is, unluckily, an extremely dirty one, and the fruit which has passed through the hands of the great unwashed may better never be eaten without cleansing. Street dust itself holds foul forms of dirt, and when to this is added the handling of scores of people, it is plain that these surfaces unwashed are not fit for any rational human stomach. Even strawberries must not be exempt, but they must never soak; only let water run on them, a wire basket being the best method of securing its immediate passing off. Grapes require the same treatment; but in either case only enough should be done at once for a meal.