THE REAL FOOD COMPANY

This is an era of so-called health and breakfast foods, and there is a host of them on the market. Some of these foods ready to eat, but many of them require preparatory treatment by cooking for a certain length of time. A few of the ready-to-eat foods are of some value as a side dish in the makeup of the menus of a day, or for a lunch, while many of them are comparatively worthless as a "real" food, in the full acceptation of the term.
Although we should simply eat to live, in order to fully enjoy life and maintain good health, it is an undeniable fact that too many of us really live to eat. We daily and almost hourly crowd out stomachs with a multitudinous variety of food stuffs that are more or less indigestible.
The process of perfect digestion, and the elaboration of food into blood, bone and muscle, for the maintenance of good health, requires an adherence to natural laws. A multitude of the maladies of mankind are caused, directly or indirectly, by the improper use of food.
The average citizen of this country is a "bolter." He "bolts" his meals two or three times a day, and suffers there from, during the interval between meals, from the consequences of his bolting. He may understand what, how and why he should eat, but his understanding availeth not, so far as his aiding the process of mastication and digestion is concerned.
The menu of a day very generally includes a goodly proportion of starchy food. This is seldom cooked enough to pass directly into the stomach for the gastric juices to act upon, but should undergo a preliminary process of thorough mastication. This means that one should eat slowly, chewing each mouthful of food until it is well mixed with saliva, then swallowed, without the aid of either hot or cold liquids to wash the food down into the stomach.
We are a nation of dyspeptics and dyspepsia is our national disease.
There are several million people in this country who daily suffer from over-eating, eating too often, and from the excessive use of starchy foods. The ordinary process of cooking does not convert to starch into maltose and dextrine, and the digestive process is thus greatly retarded. The result, if this practice is continued, is, ultimately, to cause chronic indigestion in one or more of its varied and aggravated forms.
It is not natural for civilized man to subsist on any one food product, even though that product contains all the needful elements of nutrition in proper proportion. As a matter of fact, there is no cereal, legume or vegetable, which, taken alone, contains a proper proportion of digestible nutrients to make a perfect food. Wheat is more generally used by man than anything else, but is not a perfect food in itself. The outer skin, or bran, is indigestible, even after passing through long continued, repeated, and varied processes of cleaning, boiling or baking. And it is also true that wheat, in the form of fine bolted flour, made into the finest of bread, is not a perfect food. It is literally true that man cannot live on bread alone, especially if the food nutrients thereof are taken from wheat alone.
A variety of food materials is not only needful, but necessary in making up a fairly well balanced ration of digestible nutrients for the proper and perfect nutrition of man. We cannot depend entirely on what chemistry proves in this relation, but must rely largely on the dietetic value of food materials, as has been proved by actual, long continued and repeated experiments, made under government authority, by a host of noted food experts, in this country and Europe, show the quality, quantity and proper combination of food nutrients, in various forms, to sustain life and keep all the bodily functions of man in good working order, no matter what his vocation in life.
The food we eat should be so prepared or cooked, that it can be easily digested and assimilated, even by the most delicate system. During the last decade, more has been learned from dietetical studies of food nutrition than ever before. It has been found that the starchy foods can be dextrinized by a prolonged high temperature in baking, and his discovery has led to the invention and manufacture of multiplicity of so-called "health," "breakfast," and "ready-to-eat" foods. However, very few of these foods are properly prepared and baked.
Very few manufacturers are ready-to-eat foods have been willing to publish a correct analysis of their finished product. But one or two health food makers have enough confidence in their foods to call for a government test. As soon as Per-fo was perfected, The Real Food Co., Ltd., requested Prof. F. S. Kedzie, chemist of the Michigan Agricultural College, to make a complete analysis. Prof. Kedzie's reputation as a chemist is worldwide. Prof. Kedzie reported as follows:
Lansing, Mich., March 11, 1902.
The Real Food Co., Ltd.,
Battle Creek, Mich.: 

Dears Sirs: The sample of your new product, "Per-fo," the "real food" given me for analysis, I have found to be composed as follows:

Per cent
Carbohydrates (starchy materials) including 10.38 per cent
dextrose soluble in cold water ...................................71.92
Protein ......................................................................15.31
Fat ............................................................................ 4.65
Crude fibre (cellulose) ............................................... 1.04
Ash, including 25 percent phosphorus ....................... 2.26
Moisture ................................................................... 4.82
Its best energy, as determined by combustion in a calorimeter, is 4,968 calories.

Very respectfully,
FRANK S. KEDZIE,
Chemist State Agricultural College.

But one other ready-to-eat food company publishes a chemical analysis of their food product and claims any sort of a properly balanced ratio of protein to carbohydrates and for the proper nutrition of man. This company, one of the largest in the world, uses a single cereal alone, and its food is not balanced, from a dietetical standpoint. But Per-fo contains nine food ingredients, has a well balanced ratio of protein to carbohydrates and fat, and is the most thoroughly dextrinized ready-to-eat food in the world. It contains a proper proportion of food nutrients, perfectly prepared for immediately furnishing to all the bodily functions just what is needed to replace waste matter, restore wasted energies, promote and maintain good health and can duce to right living and thinking. Verily Per-fo is a "perfect food," and no other food product can approach it, from a poetic standpoint, in supplying the proper amount of daily nutrition to both the athlete and invalid.

HOW PER-FO WAS ORIGINATED.

About a year ago Hon. J. H. Brown, of Battle Creek, Mich., was in a very precarious condition. His physicians had long advised a surgical operation for a trouble that had made life miserable for several years. Three years previous an operation had partially improved his health, but for the last two years his condition had been gradually getting worse. For various reasons he refused to submit to another operation, hoping that time might in some way remove the cause of trouble.
Finally, last June his condition became so bad that he went to his physician and asked that an operation be made as soon as possible. Some of the best surgeons in Battle Creek handled the case, and Mr. Brown was on the operating table five days in succession. The result of his operation was that the patient improved somewhat, but otter complications produced nervous prostration.
It was under these conditions that his pastor, Rev. D. D. Martin, of the First M. E. church, in Battle Creek, undertook to cheer him and relieve his mind from a strain that was slowly but surely exhausting his vitality. He knew Mr. Brown had a practical chemical and dietetic knowledge of food products, and urged him to go out to his father's farm to rest and try a few experiments in making some sort of a health food. Battle Creek had become noted for its variety of ready-to-eat foods, and Mr. Martin's suggestion set the sick man to thinking along new lines. It was an opportune suggestion, and the line of experiments Mr. Brown immediately took up, as hi strength allowed, was no doubt the means of saving his life.
Instead of experimenting with a single cereal like wheat alone, which so many others had done, and which can not form a perfect food, this sick man studied out of a balanced ration of protein, carbohydrates and fat, and combined several cereals, legumes and vegetables, in order to make up a variety of food ingredients. No one cereal, legume or vegetable, taken alone, can by any means of manipulation be made into a perfect food. A variety is wanted, is needed and craved for by the civilized people of all nations.
Mr. Brown made a multitude of experiments, and finally was rewarded and much pleased to secure a combination of nine foot materials, consisting of cereals, legumes and vegetables, which, in a condensed form, cooked and read to eat, made up a well balanced ration for the perfect nourishment of the bodies of all classes of people, no matter what their vocation in life. There is no food in existence like it; none that possesses such real value in the variety of food materials and perfect proportion of protein, carbohydrates and fat, and these three food nutrients make up the leading elements in the mastication, digestion and assimilation of all foods taken into the human system.
Another of Mr. Brown's great claims for this food is that it is not only a perfect food, but is at all times ready to eat. Every housewife who tries this food will appreciate this fact. A complete meal can be prepared at any time, day or night, without seven so much as a "moment's notice."
There is an immense demand, which is steadily increasing, for a really perfect, ready-to-eat food in many thousand households throughout the land, and there are millions of other households to be supplied. Such a perfect food as Per-fo, not only fills a "long felt want," as a "real" food, in every sense of the word, but it greatly lessens the drudgery of housekeeping and is a boon to the housewife and cook. It hardly seems possible that a tired, hungry man can sit down to a complete meal of seven or eight different dishes of food, all combined and condensed into one dish, cooked and ready to eat. That he can quickly satisfy his hunger and arise greatly refreshed from his labor; that he can go out and perform his regular duties, whether of a mental or manual nature, without continually being impressed with the fact that he is the unfortunate possessor of a diabolical arrangement called the stomach; in fact, that he can eat, work and enjoy perfect health, provided he eats the new and only "Perfect-food." Yet it is true, unalterably true, that Per-fo alone is the only food that will accomplish these much-to-be-desired results. Per-fo is not only the best but the cheapest, food in existence that combines a proper proportion of food nutrients to maintain good health and keep all the bodily functions in good working order.
Mr. Brown is to be congratulated upon his success in evolving this perfect food.

THE PER-FO FACTORY.

The factory of the Real Food Co., Ltd., of Battle Creek, Mich., is at La Grange, MO. It is a fine location, in a noted health resort town, and the factory is located on the bank of the great Mississippi river.
The plant consists of a large and very complete flour mill, with another building fully equipped with the best costliest baking machinery. The flour milling machinery and process is very complicated, and no other flour mill in the country can compare with it.
The material used in making this food is all cleaned, milled, thoroughly blended and conveyed over to the bake shop by machinery. The roller mills, attrition mill, grain cleaners, steamers, separators, purifiers, generators, bolters, swing sifters, dust collectors, etc., in the flour mill are the latest and very best for the purpose designed. No mill in the world makes such a variety of flours, which even includes legumes and vegetables. This complicated milling process requires an expert miller, and Julius Kramer fills the position to the entire satisfaction of the company. 
The general arrangement for manufacturing the various flours and the process of perfecting food was laid out by J. H. Brown, the originator of Per-fo, and the contract given to the E. E. Hollister Co., of Quincy, Ill. E. E. Hollister personally designed the plans and took entire charge of the construction of machinery equipment. The company were fortunate in securing Mr. Hollister's services for this work, and no better man could be found in the country for this purpose. Both Mr. Hollister and his foreman millwright, Charles F. Brewer, are well known experts in mill construction and equipment and gave their entire personal attention to all details of the building of the Per-fo factory.
No food factory in the country has such a complete equipment of the latest and best machinery for manufacturing a ready-to-eat food. The Werner & Pfleiderer dough mixing machine is the heaviest and most powerful in the world. The one installed in the real Food Co. factory mixes four barrels of flour in each batch, and requires about eight horse power to operate in making up the stiff batches of dough. This machine is the actual exhibit sample shown in machinery hall at the Pan-American exposition at Buffalo last summer. It excites wonder and admiration in all who see it in operation. There is no dough mixer in the world to be compared with it.
The Werner & Pfleiderer double deck draw-plate oven for loaf baking is far superior to any other oven in existence. The cut shows how perfectly and conveniently it is operated. No peel oven can equal it under any condition. From 230 to 250 loaves of Per-fo are baked at a time, each loaf weighing four pounds. Not a single loaf is scorched as the temperature is under perfect control.
It would require the whole of this issue to enumerate and describe all the various and complicated machinery now installed in this factory. The work of manufacturing is, in reality, a continuous process, and works out perfectly. Some entirely new and experimental machinery was installed and has given complete satisfaction from the start.
The immense "Ferris wheel," or reel oven, occupies nearly all of the three-story building. The picture shows some of the men at work near the top and about thirty feet from the ground. This oven contains about 148,000 brick, besides the many tons of iron and steel work in its equipment.
One picture shows up the swing sifters, elevators and spouts on the third floor of the flour mill. Another view is of the various grain cleaners, separators and duct collectors.
A glimpse of the engine room is seen, which contains a large and small engine, feed water heater, dynamo, etc. The smaller engine is used to run the baker machinery during the night-also the elevator and dynamo.
Per-fo is the only food that is really passed through three baking processes, and thus completely dextrinized. The last process involves a peculiar treatment in the granular form.
William H. Hamilton, president of the Real Food Co., until recently has been the proprietor of a large retail grocery and crockery store in Battle Creek. He is one of the representative businessmen of the city. He was born in Canada in 1864. He went to Jacksonville, Mich., in 1879, and was there engaged in business with his father until 1886, when he removed to Adrian and embarked in the grocery and crockery business. His residence in Battle Creek dates from June, 1894, at which time he bought out the old establishment grocery business of Allan Raymond at his present location, where he was since continued, having met with abundant success and patronage. Mr. Hamilton occupied two stores, one of which was stocked with a full line of staple and fancy groceries, flour and provisions, and the other with a complete line of chinaware and crockery, one of the best stocks in this line between Detroit and Chicago.
The company count themselves exceedingly fortunate to secure a man of such unquestioned integrity, wide business experience and acquaintance, quick and correct judgment and an almost inexhaustible capacity for work, to head their company. He has large plans and large hopes for the enterprise and will spare no effort to put the product upon all the markets of the world. Mr. Hamilton will now give his entire time and attention to the business.
Professor W. L. Shuart, the first secretary of the company, is a Michigan man. His early life was spent upon a farm near Ann Arbor. When a youth he began his work as a teacher in the district school, afterward completing a professional course at the Michigan State Normal school. Since that time he has been very successful. Prior to his removal to Battle Creek, Mich., a year ago, Professor Shuart was superintendent of the city schools of Hillsdale during a period of ten year. His scholarly attainments, his most pleasing address, his experience in superintending and guiding the work of others, will all add greatly to his efficiency in his present position.
Dr. John W. Baird, treasurer of the Real Food Co., Ltd., is a native of "historic old Pike," having been born and reared in Louisiana, Pike County, Missouri. His father is one of the pioneers of the town; was engaged in the mercantile business in which he raised his boys to manhood. They then embarked in the dry goods business for themselves, known as Baird Bros. John W. Baird desiring to enter professional life, chose for his profession osteopathy. He graduated from the Missouri School of Osteopathy in 1899, and went to Michigan, locating in Battle Creek. He has had marked success in his profession. He has two important reasons for investing largely in the Real Food Co., Ltd. One is because he feels that the company is putting upon the market a food that will be a great blessing to all who use it; another is that he is convinced that the enterprise will be splendid financial success.
Rev. D. D. Martin, pastor of the First M. E. church, Battle Creek, Mich., is the man who conceived the idea of getting up a "perfect food" and urged a friend of his to make some experiments. He has been one of the chief promoters of "The Real Food co., Ltd.," and also coined the word "Per-Fo," which is bound to become a household word throughout the country. Mr. Martin is yet a young man and a very busy pastor. His business capacity is noticeable, in that ha has already been instrumental in building four churches and two parsonages, and among the best in the conferences to which they belong. He is a graduate of Hillsdale College, an earnest student and a fearless and forceful speaker. His congregations are uniformly large, and increase during the length of his pastorate. He is interested in the success of this enterprise because he believes it a good thing for humanity, and, incidentally, because ha has considerable financial interest in the company.
To Rev. John W. Crouch is due the credit of the real Food Company locating its factory in La Grange. Rev. Crouch for a little more than three years has been pastor of the First Baptist church at Battle Creek, Mich. During this time he has become interested financially in one of the food companies in that city and his investments have proven highly profitable. He became intimately acquainted with the other members of the firm, and when he learned that a new company was to be organized to manufacture a new food, Rev. Crouch began at once to turn the attention of these men toward La Grange. He told them of the large unoccupied building in this city that was just suited for the business. He pointed out the excellent advantages of the town as to location and health. Centrally located as it is, Chicago, St. Paul, St. Louis, Kansas City and other large cities could be reached in a few hours travel by rail, besides the great advantage afforded by the great Mississippi. The men grasped the ideas and two weeks later four of them in company with Rev. Crouch visited this place to investigate, with the result that the four men found everything just as he represented.
Rev. Crouch is a product of La Grange, having come here with his parents about twenty years ago. He attended our public schools and then the college from which he was graduated in 1890. After leaving college he taught two year, then entered the journalistic field for two or three years, finally abandoning that for the ministry. He graduated from Rochester (N.Y.) Seminary in 1896, and then returned to La Grange and taught here in the college for two year. Perhaps no young man ever left La Grange with more warm friends to admire him than he did Rev. Crouch, or John Crouch, as everyone here knows him. By this act of securing the factory for La Grange he has become a great benefactor to our town, thus showing he has never lost sight of the welfare of this place.
Hon. J. H. Brown, superintendent of the factory, originated the new food, Per-Fo. For a long time he has been an invalid, and is troubled with insomnia, as well as nervous prostration. It was during the middle of a night that he worked out the formula and combination of a balanced ration of these various food materials that are manufactured into Per-Fo. It was 2 o'clock in the morning that he conceived the design and made the original sketch of the Per-Fo trade mark label that is now so familiar to our people. He also suggested the name of the company, "The Real Food Co., Ltd.", by which title it is incorporated under the laws of Michigan.
Mr. Brown, as stated above, has been in poor health for a number of months and has been spending his time here since the first of the year drinking our curative mineral waters and trying to overcome the internal diseases from which he has been suffering. He has given a portion of his attention to the superintending of the factory.
Mr. Brown is a gentleman of much ability in various ways, being well educated and having had much experience in newspaper work along agricultural lines. His editorials an descriptive articles have appeared in many of the leading agricultural papers of the north. For some years he was chairman of the live stock commission of the state of Michigan. Being a constant student of foods during most of his life he had long conceived the idea of producing a balanced ration for man, and as a result discovered Per-Fo. His knowledge of chemistry enabled him to study out the food properties of each grain and in this way he was successful in producing the perfect food. 
The general management of the factory, which includes all purchasing, contracting, shipping, etc., is in the hands of our townsman, C. C. Crouch, whom everyone here knows well. He is now owner of a grocery store, which for many years has enjoyed a prosperous business. He is vice-president of the La Grange Pearl Button Company, which is doing a good business and has proven a great boon to our town. Being in the prime of life, Mr. Crouch is just the man for the position, s he is conservative, careful, and a man of good judgment. The fact that he has been highly successful in his own business is in evidence that he will rightly manage the factory's interests. Starting in life with but little of this world's goods, he has, by good business methods, accumulated a goodly amount for a man of his age.
Above is presented a likeness of George Rufus Davis, who was born in Adams County, Illinois, January 28th, 1869. He received his early education in the common schools of that county and attended La Grange College for three years. In January, 1891, he was married to Miss Nellie C. Stewart. For two years he taught school in Adams County, and came to La Grange in 1892 to study law under the tutorage of the well known law firm of Tate and Jeffries.
At the March term of circuit court, in 1894, he was admitted to the bar after passing a highly creditable examination under a committee and attorneys appointed for that purpose. He immediately located in La Grange for the practice of his profession and for several years served in the capacity of city attorney for the town. In 1897 he was appointed by Governor Stephens to the office of prosecuting attorney of the county to fill the vacancy caused by resignation of Samuel B. Jeffries, who had resigned to accept the position of assistant attorney general of the state.
Mr. Davis also is licensed to practice in all our state courts, including the appellate and supreme courts. He is a member of the Hilbert-Anderson-Smith-Davis Abstract Company that has during the past year completed a full and up-to-date set of abstract books of all the real estate in Lewis county. The Real Food Company, Limited, has employed Mr. Davis as their local attorney and already he has rendered valuable legal services for the company.
During his eight years legal work in Lewis County, Mr. Davis has established for himself a large practice. His clientage includes many of the best citizens of the county. He is a close student of law, careful adviser, and never neglects a case when employed by a client. The court docket at each term always contains George R. Davis' name as attorney in a large number of important cases, which is strong evidence of his recognized ability. His practice has not been confined to Lewis County alone as he has been employed in a number of important cases in adjoining counties.
Mr. Davis is a staunch democrat and has rendered valuable serviced to his party by delivering a number of strong addresses at various places in the last tow or three campaigns. He is a good reasoner and always advances strong arguments when before a jury or an audience.