The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-06-29
AMERICAN LIVING.
Contest Between This
Country and Europe.
Superiority of our Food. Products Both
in Quality and Variety.

One Of the commoncst and best effects
of foreign travel upon our people is to
make them aware of the exceptional
blcsscdncss Of their own lot rs citizens
of this happy land, and bring them home
more contcntcd than when they left.
In going across the ocean on a Hamburg
steamer, in company with many native
born Germans going over to revisit tho
vatcrland, it vas wonderful to hear them
declare, with united voice, that much rs
they loved the old country, they preferred
the new world rs a residence. All were
coming back after n few months absence.
The profusion of fruits, vegetables,
and provisions generally enjoyed with us
can never be appreciated fully until after
\ heightened s%ojourn in foreign lands.
Only think of the void that would be
made in our larders by the absence of
just two of our summer vegetables, viz,
corn and tomatoes, and yet this is virtu-
ally the case in Europe. Summer vcge-
tables I call them, although by the pro-
cesscs of drying and canning they are
now become almost equally plentiful and
indispensable in winter. 1t seemed so
strange to be asked by an Intelligent lady
in London for a description of Indian
corn rs a vegetable, and be requested to
give some idea of how it tasted. At the
same lady's table it was remarked as a
TACT not to be disputed that "to cat fruit
IN London was like eating gold"
Sweet-potatocs arc also exceedingly rare
and high-priced in England, while in
Germany they arc neuer seen. In the
latter country green peas are brought to
table, indeed, but generally spoiled by
having carrots chopped up and cooked
with them into a mess that is mawkishly
sweet. and frequently mushy.
With us it is not unusual, in the coun-
try, to see from seven to nine vegetables
upon the dinner table at once (all raised
in ones own gardcn), which to q Euro
pean would seem an inconceivablc cxtrav-
agance.
The variety of our breads and break
last cakes must be equally amazing to
foreigners, for cold rolls or brodchcn, fire.
quently stale at that, come upon the ia
bic from years end to years end in soil
tary state, and no one ever seems to
think change among the things desira-
bic or attainable. Truth to tell, the
German brodchcn are excellent and
wholesome; so exceptionally well baked
that q house-keeper brought q specimen
All the way across the ocean to show her
cook how beautifully Drowned was the
crust, and how thoroughly done the
:rumb. And yet she despairs of ever
,eeing the precise duplicate on our side
If the ocean. The knowing say this is
because of the difference between our
stoves and the German brick ovens, the
latter being capable OF a regular even
neat, the results of which are unattaina-
ole by any other heating apparatus.
While all over the German Empire
they have the like good bread, yet each
city seems to have its special form of roll.
ia ASooS IL II AIuCh SllluilCI Iudu Ill
Berlin, and, if possible, better, round,
with a division through the middle. The
pre-eminence in the manufacture OF bread
seems given, by universal consent, to
Vienna, therefore to that city it must be
conceded; but in all of the good rcstau-
rants of any large German city their rolls
of white bread are faultless to the
strangers palate.
Going from Berlin to London in two
days, the inferior displays upon the
bakers counters there were actually pain
full, through force of contrast. For the
very basis of health and good living
seems to rest on good bread, and it was
evident that this the poor Londoners did
not have. Their loavcs looked dark,
heavy and coarse, compared to the fair
dainty brodchen left behind, and the
sight produced a real sense of discomfort.
But oh, the horrors of the German
black bread, apportioned to servants and
the lower classes generally, which they
actually eat spread with lard!
The poorest people in America must
needs be at the point of starvation, or
submitting to the rigors of an arctic win
ter, before they could touch a morsel of
such fare.
We are told that the French peasant
counts himself happy if he can taste
meat once a week, and the Italian bliss
fully basks in the sunshine while fed up
on a similar meagre diet. While we,