Smyrna times., 1886-09-29
Can the Eastern Shore Girl Make
POne.

One of the best newspaper articles of
the period was written by that able
young journalist. Charles W. Dashiell,
and published couple of weeks ago in
the Baltimore Sun. Mr.. DashielTs
theme was " The Eastern Shore Girl"
and his article is a highly appreciative
one, constructed with the skill of an
artist and containing some mastery
touches. But it follows the straight
and practical line of the truth and
never wanders away into sentimental
by-paths. He describes "The Eastern
Shore Girl" as he knows her, and no
man knows her better, and no man has
right, nay, q duty to appreciate her
more highly than he. Mr. D. is mar
ried man.
The article has been generally copied
by the country press and except in one
instance is endorsed in it's entirety.
The bachelor editors of the Centreville
Observer, alone, give it a qualified en-
dorsement, and allege that the Eastern
Shore girl of to-day, with all of her
gifts and graces. her varied capacities
and her numerous accomplishments is
incompetent to perform the culinary
operation known as making a pone.
II the Observers assertion be true, the
Eastern Shore girl, whatever else she
may, can, might, could, would or
should do or be-whatever may be her
moods and tenses-is not what she
ought to be. Pone is largely and par
tlcularly an Eastern Shore bread. in
digenous to our soil, developed from
the roasted corn of the aborigines and
the hoe-cake of the negroes. TO say
an Eastern Shore housewife, or the
trained daughters of an Eastern Shore
housewife cannot make a pOne, is as
derOgatOry to them as it would be to
say of an artist he does not know how
to mix colOrs, or of printer he doesn't
know his cases, or of a preacher he
does not know the catechism.
But is the Observers statement true q?
We think not
In the first place, Of the three wit
nesses, the married man who testifies
she can, and the two bachelors who
allege she cannot, the formers evil
dence is incompatible the most
weighty. In fact, it is rather presum-
tuOus for these old bachelors to write
anything at all about the Eastern
Shore girl, and least of all to presume
to know anything about her pone-
making abilities. OF course no Eastern
Shore girl has gone to making pones
and tOting them around to the Office of
the Observer for the use of its edi-
tors. They are not built that wav.
They make their p0nes for their faith
ers, and brothers, and, bless them. for
their husbands, don't they, G. w. D.?
We fear our friends will never eat an
Eastern Shore girl first. We assure
them there are plenty of Eastern
Shore girls that can at the same time
play the piano with one hand and
make a pone with the other, or make
a pOne with the left hand while trim
ming a bonnet with the right.
Cannot make pone!
Why, men and brethren, should
Charon happen to get a copy of the
Observer in his pocket and by chance
drop it on the other side of the Stvx
whence it should find its way into
Elysium, what a CONSERVATION the
! statement would cause in those happv
fields amongst those dear old grand,
mothers and great grandmother who
/ In the long ago used to make the great
round pOnes, and bake them in the
/ great iron ovens on the hearth bv put.
ting Goals under the ovens and heapine
them on the top lids They would be
for returning to their first Paradise tC
chide their degenerate daughters anC
teach them pOne-making and when
they got here, and found that the o.
SerCer'S charge was all wrong, they
would take measures to have the Oh
serCer's editors haunted the balance OF
their days.
Yes, the Eastern Shore girl cal
make pOne.
And she can make any other disl
that is fit to go on an Eastern Shore
mans table, except one, alas alas
except one.
She cannot make a JOhnny-cake.
But that is not the Eastern Shor,
girls fault. The progress Of civiliza
ton in the kitchen has deth-oned thu
royal Johnny whose sceptre was tn,
oaken or hickory cakeboard anC
was the fireplace. When the cool
stove entered the front door of tn,
kitchen, JOhnny-cake quietly took hi
departure by the back door. No Eas
tern Shore girl would insult the mem
ory of this sovereign of the fire-plac,
on the hearth of the cook stove.-Eas
ton Ledger