Washington sentinel., 1854-04-02
Tall Corn.

We grow q tall corn I" in America. Th
world is beginning to find it out Every yea
brings the fact more and more home to the per
ceptive and digestive faculties of all civilized
humanity. Like all great truths, it did not gair
credit at once. True, everybody sees it here
with his own eyes, but not so on the other side
of the water The first accounts of the pro-
| ductiveness of our western prairies were read
by the Bucking ghamshire farmer with as much
respect as the fish stories of the sailor Sinbad
1t took even the highest dignitaries of the land
long while to get fairly up to a level with the
actual fact. Even at this day there is an ear
of corn in the British Museum which enjoys a
very distinguished consideration as a Curl
osity. 1t divides attention, we do not say
equally, but certainly fractionally, with the
Nineveh Bull and the great Kohinoor. 1t is a
perfect marvel to our good cousin John Bull ;
and yet it has but very simple history, and is
not very extraordinary ear of corn after all.
1t reached its present distinction something in
this wise:
In the month of January, l847, at certain
dinner party in London, at which Lord John
Russell, Lord Morpeth, and many other distin-
guished men were present, the conversation
tarned upon the Irish famine; and the remark
was made by Lord John, that he rejoiced that
SO good Substitute for the native breadstuff
had been found as Indian corn. Turning to
Mr.. Bates, the American partner in the heuse
of Barring, Brothers, his lordship went on to
say, "Why, Bates some of the cobs have
t,celoe or fourteen rows of grain on them. Mr..
Bates coolly replied, Yes, my lord, / have
seen from t,centy to tacenty. to,v rows on cob"
That is rank yankeeism," was the pleasant
retort of the premier, and the whole company
shouted in approval. The burst of incredulous
merriment over, Mr.. Bates bought his peace by
q wager of a dinner for the company all round
that he could produce such an ear. "Done,
| exclaimed Lord John, and the bet was cGnched.
The dinner passed of. Mr. Bates returned
home, but not entirely at ease. lie had done
strange thing; for the first time in his life he
! had made an engagement he was not abso-
lutely certain of his ability to fulfil. He had
msgivings that he had rashly pledged the hon
| or of his country. 1t had been long sincehe had
| looked upon an American crib; and however
patiently he winnowed the corn-ucopia of his
memory, he found that the cobs of his early
days had gone glimmering, through the lapse
of time, among the things that we're, and were
now so far off that he couldn't count the rows.
He was, as Plautus would say, redactus ad IN
ritas-in yankee parlance, hard up" But
fortune favors the brave. 1t happened that a
| friend OF ours dropped In the next day at the
counting-house of the Barings. Mr.. Bates,
with frightening face, hailed him, and made
known his difficulty. You are safe" was the
response; "if live to get home you shall
have even bigger ear than you have prom
| ised,n
| Our friend c. soon returned, and straight
way wrote to Messrs. Rogers & Reynolds, OF
Lafayette, Ind, telling the story, and begging
them, for the honor of the country, to come to
the rescue, and turn the tables on Lord John,
showing him what Yankees could do. In the
July following Mr. c. received by express
from Lafayette a nicely arranged box contain
| ing six ears of horse-tooth corn, two of which
had twenty nine rows, two hiry-one, and two
THlRTY-Two. The box was forthwith addressed
to ~. Bates, esq, care of Messrs. Barring, Bro.
& Co., ship by Black Ball line, care of the
Liverpool house" 1t reached its destination,
and Lord John Russell, first lord of the treas
ury, third son of the late Duke of Bedford by
the second daughter of George Viscopnt Tor
rington, and lineal descendant of Lord William
Russell, the martyr Of liberty, acknowledged
the cornn The dinner was won. Joshua Bates
did not perpetrate "yankeeism," and the
British museum holds the trophy. Pire la re-
,uIJioue IN Y (Iourier