The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1883-05-26
MEXICAN HASH.
Less Bibles aud More Cook Books. with
10000 Well Instructed Cooks, the want
.f the People In Texas and the Repnb-
no---Railroad Eating Houses.


ne---Railrond Eating Houses.
OF all things that strike fellow hard
while travelling through Texas and Mex
mn 10 the primitive eating house along
AIR Inc of railroads place that the
hungry traveller visits but once, and then
he carries lingering remembrance OF il
iii he dies. More cook books and less
b,bles is the want IN tina, region for Tue
resent. and 10000 well instructed cooks
would do more good for the suffering
humanity there than all the missionaries
that ever vert to convert the heather.
The gay traveller from the north, who
believes that he can tackle anything III the
hash" line feels his insignificancc when
he makes a break for u Texas eating
house. When the heavy man OF the tram
calls out twenty minutes for dinner or
Fifteen minutes for supper the hungry
traveller rushes IN and storms the citadel OF
rub. Poor, foolish mortal; he knows not
what he is doing, and While his eyes wan
der in the hope of finding something
pals,abe. he weakens at the sight before
hin, but he must fill up on something.
80 he goes in and loads himself down
With deadly cargo of corn beef, pork aud
bits of old boots, the growth of many
yesrs. In his reckle3sncss he even tackles
l,,k h,, fut i1f ~ "a
that traveller eats more than one piece of
railroad eating house pie. There is some.
hing about 1t that fellow never bankers
after when he has once tried il. Railroad
eating house pies are like dried apples,
rery thin, but liable to expansion. After
you eat one and drink glass OF some
hing, the pie gets sociable, and gradually
1mprcsses upon your mind the fact that
yon will not feel lonesome as long o. it
zmyels with you. And you never do for
within a short time after You have made
lis acquaintance the buttons on yonr pants
lan not meet their notes and demand an
extension. You soon feel sleepy, but the
corn beef and pie are not sleepy, and then
your trouble begins From that on you
have n circus all TO yourself. II is airoci-
Gus the way they dish you up a steak A
,enderloln. the way they place IL on the
liable, seems as though It was cut from the
hOrn, or very close TO the tail. Bat that
which strikes the traveller in these regions
az The most surprising thing Of all is the
lack Of pure milk. One would suppose
hat in Texas above all places on earth,
where cows and cattle are the chief
crop" milk would flow as plentiful
rs water and that every mud hole was a
Ssih tub of pure cream! But the contrary
Is The ease, and i, Is A fact that most OF the
milk used in the state Is condensed milk,
brought from New York or Chicago
while ia many Of the border towns burro
milk is extensively used.
Itls generally conceded that both Tex
sns and Mey,cans on the border are light
caters, and yet what they eat would Kill
the average Yankee in short time. They
pepper everything, and that to such an ey-
rent that one feels as though he was get
Ting outside of dose of iorked lightning,
or the entire Mexican republic. The PAIN.
ful remembrance of my first Mexican
neal fingers with me to this day, and had
died from tho effects my body would
have be II sufficiently cmbalmed to last
he journey home.
Some Of those Mexican dishes strike an
American as "What is IT." and after he
has tried few of them he knows that ii
is, Chilli" that is anything but chilly,
indeed, as it Is atrociously hot; "tortillas"
Aifd "tomalOs," composed OF something
trpm the regions of Danes Inferno, al
though they tell you they are made Of corn
neal and pepper; "hog and hominy," and
AeFefal sther kinds OF stuff that IL not at
sli agreeable to u Yankee stomach.
when IN Rome do as the Romans do" is
xn old time adage; so beng III Mexico
lhought would be Mexican, when any
hing eatable was around. When fellow
y hungry he is not so particular on what
Nc Nils up, but 1 recollect a particular &C.
YasioD, and sitting down to table IN the
AOiel, we were served according to the
Mexican mode. The first course was
bread without any butter, and the second
WAS butter without any bread. The third
r0urse was very simple, consisting Of
pothpicks and water. But the fourth
sourse was "a what IS it," and when we
5und out it came very near breaking US
ali up" 1t was great steaming dish of
bud smelling snail" AS irIghtful ex-
nnple of slowness, the snail Is q wonder
hl insect, but In justice to the snail let 1t
ee SAID that he is fully up with the aver
age Mexican, and on this particular occa-
SaOn, especially when his odorlferous quail
ilies were taken into consideration, we
thought that after all the snail was not 30
AOw as We had imagined. He is great
lAvorite with the Mexicans; is cultivated,
fed and fattened, lives on the "lat of the
land and 70 nx,nnlat 81 ,n,tu 81 ,N,,,.i