The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1873-10-09
THE RoMANcE OF THE BREAD BAs-
KET.
By MRS. AMELIA e. BARR.

r "a
IF we had no ambrosia but what the poet
give us, this would be a starvsd world. How
did the fret Geld OF ripe wheat look to the
man who had Sinned himself out of Eden
What did the young winds say among tn,
yellow, bearded heads |? Did they tell of tn,
Joy OF harvest. and sing the great truth. toe
dimly apprehended even yet, that seating
bre' in the sweat of the brow is not the
sentence of an angry God, but the promise
offs sympathizing Father, appointing for ali
the sorro VS. OF lite one serious. certain com.
ortGr-- work? Many are the songs of Lar-
vest, now. but who will sing US the first one ?
r- Aud such teeming harvests as were then
gathered out of the warm. generous bosom
eftne young zearth What amazing grana-
rieS there were in ineveh, and Babylon, and
Egypt And what wonderful vitality this
grain must have possessed; forI have seen
growing under English skies wheat whose
seed corn was taken from the cerements of
mummy that may have known Joseph, or
bowed before Pharaoh.
Equally fertile was that 'Iand of wheat
and barley" whose blessed acres were once
the favored fields fall the earth. Consider
1ts size and It's immense population in Solo
men'stinae, and yet Solomon could give Hi
g ram !, king of Tyre, ''year5 by year., 20, 900
measures of wheat for food for his house
hold" ii le YGaEraavu
"a From the rich champaign country In the
north Of Africa, wheat was transplanted to
the fertile fields IF Sicily. The sacred chap
let Of corn ears is as old as the foundation
z OF Rome it was the first crown worn In that
s city oflost gods and god like men. Acca
Laurentia, the foster-mother of Romulus.
crowned him with it, abrother OF the first
priesthood instituted in the new state-'the
twelve guardians of the corn.felds."
At what time wheat was nrst grown in
England Is pot known. Caesar says he found
corn gro wing on the coast, but he does not
say OF what kind and it is only within the
Aast century that wheaton bread has been
abundant and cheap enough to become the
universal and ordinary food of the people.
The mAnkS OF st. Edmund's Abbey IN tie
eighth century-and monks had always
the best of eVerything-ate barley. bread.
At Colchester, in 1896, an inventory taken
which Is still extant, shows that though
every family had little store OF from TWEEN.
ty to hfty pounds ofbarley or oats, there was
very little wheat found and even at the
end OF the last century. Eden tells OF a bow
searching the market town Of Carlisle in vain
for wheaton bread. Since. that time, low
ever, the wheaton loaf Las come to be among
he manufacturing laborers of England the
one thing positive ; and for the future. be.
tween them and their great dread-having to |
change the white Loaf for the Lrown-stands
America and the teeming transatlantic gra-
aries "7s
Baking precedes the period of history but
how soon leavened bread was used cannot
be known. Chaldea claims the discovery.
and 1t is certsin that the CLadean bread
was famous for its excellence. Egypt was
acquainted with the process, for Moses.nter-
0icted 1t during the Passover. Plipv saws
that in bis day The Frenched used yesst
made from fermented malt, but this method
was either forgotten or little practised until
the French bakers in the seventeenth centu-
ry universally adopted it. The Faculty OIL
Medicine declared 1t bad for the health. and
Louis XIV. prohibited it. But progress
WheL backed by sell>lnterest or qualification.
VIII nave way land the popular taste tri-
umkhed over both king and doctors. Pnblic
bakers, though important functionaries in all |
ancient nations, never flourish In Anglo Sax
on communities until circumstances of unu.
sual growth compel their service. When the
gre manufacturing city of Manchester,had
population oil 90 ,OO0she had rot one bakers
store, and In all the smaller towns of Eng.
land every household makes It's own bread
Sweet, wholesome and serviceable to prov
erS, the four main points In its manufacture
are acknowledged to be: First, setting an
the sponge at once Second, having iron pans
with V"ry deep sides to prevent the escape o.
the car6onc acid gas from the baking LOAF /: |
Third, thorough and careful firing Fourth,
Tree exposure on every side to a current of
cool air wnen taken out of the oven, in order
to prevent the warm vapor which rises from !
hot bread condeneing on the loaf When the
family bread Is bought from a public baker
there is ne better way of deciding on the |
excellence of different makers than by put-
ting piece OF bread in a saucer and pouring |
clean water overit The bread that absorbs
the most water and weighs the heaviest is the |
best bread. .-r....,...-.1 tsf
Barley has an ancient and homo, able line.
age as wheat. although 1t has become the
'olack sheep" ofthe cereal family. Its ma
tive land is Syria or Egypt, perhaps the la
ter, as we read in Exodus tx, 81, that 18th.
fax and the barley" were smitten In the
nlanmp Of hni L.