The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1886-09-15
COFFEE IN WAR TINES,
SUBSTITUTE FOR THE BEVERAGE
IN THE SOUTH.

Using the Seed of the Sea Island Cot
ton - Advertised Receipts - Sor-
ghum as a Substitute.
Coffee had been almost the sole table
beverage of the South, and no privation
caused more actual discomfort among
the people at large than the want of it.
There was nothing for which they strove
so eagerly and increasingly to procure a
substitute. Few indeed were the sub
stances which did not first and last find
their way into the coffee pot. Wheat,
rye, corn, sweet potatoes, peanuts, dan
delion seed, okra seed, persmmon seed,
melon seed, are but few of the substi-
tutes which had their turn and their day.
"a fig for the difference between Rio
and rye" said the wits 'Eureka!
cried an enthusiastic. newspaper CORE
spondent. "Another of the shackles
which holds the South the commercial
thrall of the world is severed. Let South
America keep be2 Rio and the antipodes
its Java. 1t is discovered to be true
beyond peradventure that as a bev-
erage the seed of the sea-island cot
ton cannot be distinguished from the
best Java, unless by its superiority;
while the seed of the ordinary variety is
found to be nota whit behind the best
Rio" What a futter of excitement
and JOY it raised in many household
and doubtless the scene in ours was
typical-to find that the great national
plant, the very symbol of the Confed-
eracy, was indeed so many-sided! 1t
gave us greater confidence, if it were
possible to have greater, in the power
and possibilities of the South, now that
Cotton, the great King, had had another
crown laid on his brow. So opportune
was the discovery, too, that it struck us
as almost divine revelation, indicating
the interposition of Providence in our
favor. So eager were we to test it-or
rather to confirm it, for it was too good
not to be true-that we could not await
meal time. Residing in North Carolina
and up the country, we had never seen
any sea.island cotton, but Ithe prospect
of being confined to Rio was by no means
appalling. A pickaninny was forthwith
hurried off to the cotton patch then
sparsely fecked with newly opened Doles.
The apronful of precious stuff, now
veritable mamma, was hardly indoors be-
fore dozen hands, of all sizes and colors,
were tearing, picking at the discredited
fibre, in quest of the more priceless seed.
The Rio was made and drunk. Despite
the sorghum sweetening, the verdict was
unanimous in its favor. l hope that TIE
communication of this stupendous dis
covery to our neighbors added as i'm
mensely to our happiness as to our self
Importance. But if IN the last respect
we sinned, retribution could not have
been laggard. For although, owing to
sthe fact that happily the recollection of
disappointments and humiliations is less
abiding than the opposite feelings, am
unable to tell exactly why and when we
returned to parched bran, it is neverthe-
less true that we did.
Receipts for making "cofTee without
coffee" (when the real article was alluded
to, strong emphasis on the word left no
doubt as to which kind was meant) were
extensively advertised in the newspapers,
and inqome instances sold by canvassing
agents. But rye, okra seed, and meal or
bran held in the long run the popular
favor. Those who could afford an in
tinitesimal quantity of the real article,
counted out by the grain, to flavor the
substitute were the envy of the neigh
borhood. A cup of pure and genuine
coffee would IN the eyes of many have
been an extravaganza akin to Cleopatra's
famous draught itself. The contents of
small gourd, which held our entire
stock of the genuine article for many
months before the close of the war, must
have gone toward the making of an in
credible lake of coffee.
The few votaries of tea consoled them
selves as best they could on decoction
of raspberry leaves or sassafras root.
Some genius discovered corn fodder
the exact flavor of black tea. Sugar,
after the fall of Vicksburg, was almost
as scarce as coffee. But in sorghum the
people found a substitute which came
perhaps nearer a success than any of the
numberless makeshifts of the period.
Sorghum, or Chinese sugar cane, as it
was then known, had been raised to some
small extent in the State as early as
1857. 1t began to be largely planted
in 1862, and during the two succeeding
years its cultivation became general,
sorghum boiling adding another to the
great Southern festivals of corn shucking
and hog killing. 1t was about the sole
thing of which there was no. scint in the
Confederacy. Verify the land was "sub-
merged in sorghum 1t sweetened the
time; sorghum candy was the national
confection, sorghum ''stews' the national
festival. The strange crealSing hum of
the cane-mills peryaded the land Every
place was redolent of it, everything was
sticking with it Dagid D0dge, in At-
laHtie Moathty.