The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1885-01-07
Suppose We Had No Sugar.
TCOrnbfil MagaziuP.l


Besides the natural sweets, we have taken
TO producing artificial ones. Has any house
wife ever realized the alarming condition of
cookery in the benighted generations before
the invention OF sugar. 1t is really almost
too appalling TO think about So many
things that we now look upon as all but
necesseries-cakes, puddings, made dishes,
confectionery preserves, sweet biscuits, jel-
lice, cooked fruits, tarts, etc.-@ere then
practically quite impossible Fancy at
tempting nowadays to live single day with
out sugar; DO tea. no coffee, no Jam, no
cake, no sweets, no hot toddy before
one goes TO bed; the bare idea or
il is too terrible. And yet that was
really the abIect condition Of all civilized
world up 70 the middle Of the Middle Ages.
Horace's punch was sugarless snd lemonless;
the gentle Virgil never tasted the cOngeDiaI
cup of afternoon tea; and Socrates went
from bis cradle to his grave without ever
knowing the flavor Of peppermint bulls
eyes. How the children managed TO spend
their Saturdays, or their weekly obosus, is 8
profound mystery. To be sure, people had
honey but honey is rare. dear sud scanty;
10 can never have filled one-quaster tue
place that sugar fills in our modern Aztec
tons Try for q moment 20 realize drink
ing honey with ones whisky and water, or
doing the years preserving with pot OF
best Narborine, snd you get at once COM
mon Ineasure of the difference between the
two as practical sweeteners. Nowadays
we get sugar from cane and beet
root in abundance, while sugar maple and
palm trees Of various sorts stcrd consld-
cradle supply TO remOter countries. But
the childhood OF the little Greeks and Ro-
mans must have been absolutely unlighted
by single raw OF joy from chocolate creams
OF Eyerton coffee The consequence OF eX-
ceesive production of sweets IN modern
timesis, of course, that We have began to
distrust the indications afforded us by the
sense OF tssts in this particular SIS 10 the
wholesoBness OF various objects. We can
mix sugar with anything We like, whether il
had sugar in it TO begin with or
otherwise, and by swsetening and flavor
ing we can give false paiataolenes5 to even
the worst and most indigestible rubbish,
such as plaster of paris, largely sold an
der the name OF s1gsred almonds to the IN
genuous youth OF two hemispheres. But in
untouched nature the test rarely or never
fails AZ long SIS fruits are unripe and uuht
for human food they are green and sour; as
soon az they become soft and sweet, an1
usually acquire some bright color as o sort
of advertisement of edibility. In the main,
par the accidents Of civilization, what ever
is sweet is good TO eat-nay more, ia meant
to be eaten; it IL only our perverse folly
that makes Us sometimes think all things
bad for us, and all wholesome things nasty.
In a state OF nature the exact opposite is
really the case. One may observe, too, that
children, who are literally young savsges
in more senses than one, stand nearer
the primitive feeling In this respect
than grown.up people. They unsfectedly
like sweets; adults who have grown more &C.
customed 10 the artificial meat diet don't, as
a rule, care much for pudding, cakes and
made dishes. MAY venture parenthetic'
ally TO add, any appearance to the contrary
notwithstanding, that am not vegetarian,
ard am far from desiring to bring down
mon nav devoted head the imprecation pro-
noupoeo against the rash person WHO wcull