The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1886-03-05
NUMBER 81
THE ONION.
The Father OF VegetabIcs-Its Antiquity
and Its Origin.

lhert Is mule uOubt mat the onion II
the oldest vegetable known to mankind.
The native plant, the allum cepa. the
parent all cultivated onions, is not q
native of this country. CortcZ. when
relating incidents of his brilliant con.
quests in Mexico, is reported by Hum
bOldt 10 have said he saw onions in the
market place of the ancient TenOchtit-
Ian, and that the McNicanS called these
onions XonacatI. But carefully inquiry
shows that the name XOnacatl does not
apply 20 our cultivated species of album;
In the seventeenth century ON V one sin.
Gle album was reported from Jamaica,
and that Was on species: and il was in
the garden with other vegetables from
Europe. AcoSta. in his Natural His
tory of the Indies. says expressly that
the onions of Peru were brought from
Europe. 10 Europe, then. we must 90
on the track oi the first onion. Any
European will say that onions have al
ways been cultivated there.
Shakespeare mentions the onion. In
his Midsummer Night Dream. Bot
tom, u weaver. giving final directions To-
Ounce. the carpenter. Flute. the bel
lows member. SnOui the tinker and
Slraveling the tailor all humble folks
who are about ia present Il play before
the duke and his party. after telling
them To 90 home and attend la this. that
AMI the other. SAYS:
And most. dear actors. eat no on
ions. nor garlic, for we.are to utter sweet
breath: and do not doubt hut 10 heal
them say il is
SWEET COMEDY.
When Helena. al the close of "All :
Well That Ends Well. finds AT the
same time her husband and her mother.
the old Lord Lafcn cNclaims:
Mine eyes smell onions: | shall weep anon
In the Introduction To the flaming
of the Shrcw." The lord. sending in
structiOns Ia his page la enact the part
of wife To the dTTnkard whom they are
about Ia bcfonl. says:
Bind him and she'd tears,
And il the hoy have not n woInans gift,
To rain Il shower of commanded tears.
An onion will Ito well for such shift
Shall We find our first onion in En-
gland? No it, very name tells us that
il j. no native. Onion i merely the
English way of pronouncing the French
Oignon. and by the French at some
time or other, the onion bulb was
brought into England. Chaucer, writ
ing 800 years ago. mentions the onion
aS Il wcll-known domestic vegetable
Another 800 years takes lis back Ia the
Norman Conquest. and think we NAV
take another 200 and say that 1000
years ago the onion was making its
way into England. A thousand years
sweeps away the history of England.
and leaves Il small island. torn with the
strife of lis recent Saxon cOnquerors.
and harraSscd with sen pirates, an is
land almost unknown 10 the nations on
the continent. Another 900 years and
Britain is I'm island lying far away from
civilization.
back To the border land between an
cient and modern history Another
thousand and IA few years more and we
hear the groanS of the Hebrews in
Egypt as they drag the heavy stones for
the massive forts of Ramses and Pithom
or make their daily tale of bricks under
the sharp gaze of guards who stand
over them with rods. Then
\ Successful CONSPIRACY
is made, and the Hebrews under Moses
and Aaron throw of the yoke of Pharaoh
and defeat him on the shores of the Red
Sea: and we hear the songs of triumph
of these cmanripatcd slaves aS they take
their first steps in freedom. t'nthou"ht
of difficulties appear. The journey 10
the Land of Promise is not one lone
holiday of pleasure. Some present pri
vatiOn> seem harder 10 bear than the
late fearful slavery. and. praisin~ the
good old times. obey rcvile Moses and
ask him. bitterly. who shall give It's
flesh To eat? We remember the fish
which we did eat in Egypt freely. the
cucumbcr> and The melons. and the
leeks and The onions and the garlic"
Anf these onions whose flavor could be
better remembered than the hardships of
tyranny. Can they he of the same spe-
cicS a. our onions of to-day? Certainly
they are. They are grown in Egypt to
this day. and called now, by the very
name used for them by masters and
slaves when Israel WAS there i'm bond
age.
Seven thousand years have passed
since the building OF the first pyramid.
Yet even then Egypt was I'm old coun-
try: lis people civilized Ten thsrIsand
years ago the onion was brought into
Egypt. and from where? II was brought
from India. History can tell lis no
more. The sacred writings of the Hin
docs and the oldest records of the Chi
nese mention the onion as Il cultivated
plant, but always cultivated. If we
would find our first onion. we must
leave history and try some other line of
inquiry. We join the botanists and
continue our search. and we find our
selves climbing the mountains of Az
ghanistan and Beloochistan, and en-
ploring the table lands behind the
Hindu Kush mountains. And there. i'm
the birthplaces of mankind. we find
our onion-the album cepa-from
which have sprung all the onions grown
all over this wide world. On the mon
uments of Egypt the onion is called
batzel the name it goes by in Egypt at
the present day. -NeW York Sun.