The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-09-13

.iSht7. we can see Salvador ROsa admir-
ing them rs they sleep under the green
OAK Tree, their heads on a dead deer and
the high rock above their heads. Or we
may get old Teniers to draw them for Us
/ Samoiing with torn and greasy cards for a
gold crucifix or a brass pot, or reveling at
tue village Inn, swag geriug, swearing
drunk or tpsy, playing at shuifie-board
/ he only point in their history worth re-
cOr1ing IS that they were destined to be
asked to every dinner party for 400 years.
Ihey were Des Quatre Meudicans. simply
preceding the bonbons, as we see by the
following verses:
Once on a time, in the brave Uenry's age
Four beggars dining underneath tree
Combined their stores, each from his wa let
drew
Handfuls OF stolen fruit, and sang for glee.
So runs tbs, story: "Garcon, bring the carte,
Soup, cutlets-stay mind. e mateiote
And Charles-a pint OF Burgundvs hest
Beanie,
In our deep glasses. every joy shall float.
sand, Garcon, bring me from the woven frail
That turbanet merchants from fair Smyrna
sent,
The figs with golden seeds, the honeyed fruit.
That feast the stranger in the syrian tent
600 fetch us grapes, from all the vintage rows
Where the brave Spanisrds gayly quaf the
What time the azure ripple of the waves
Laughs bright beneath the green leaves of the
vine.
"Nor yet, unmindful of the tabled scrip
Forget the nuts, from Barcelona's shore,
soaked in Iberian oil, from olives pressed
10 the crisp kernels, adding one charm
more.
"Ihe almonds last, plucked from a sunny tree,
man way up Lybanus, blanched as snowy
white
As Leilss teeth, and they will fifty crown
Ihe oeggars' four-fold dish, Tor us tonight.
"Beggars are happy! then let us be so,
we We buried care in wines red glowing sea,
mere let him soaking lie-he was our foe
JOY laughs above his graye-and so will
1t was from that love of contrast. then
twas y ,, which is part of all'luxury, that
the table OF the Quartz Mendicans" was
made TO serve like the olives ut dessert.
Perhaps the tillip which walnuts give to
wine suggested it. 1t was a modern
French rendering Of the skull, " made to
do duty as drinking cup. 1t is part of
the hive kernels of corn at n Pilgrim din
ner, without that high consciousness
of New England. 1t is a part. perhaps, of
the more melancholy refrain, BE merry,
be merry, for tomorrow We diel" 1t is that
warmth Is warmer when we remember
cold; 1t is that food is good when we re-
member the starving; it is that bringing IN
OF the pleasant vision of the four beggars
under the tree-as a picture, perhaps; at
any rate, there 1t is-moTal at your pleas
ure.
The desserts of the middle ages were
heavy and cumbrous affairs, and had no
especial character. There would be q good
deal of Cellini cup, and Limoges plate,
and Palsy dish, and golden chased goblet
about it, no doubt. How glad the col
lectors of today would be to get them
nd IL IL,
cakes and poisonous bonbons. The taste
must have been questionable if we can be-
Heve Ben Jonson, who tells of the be-
ribboned dwarf jester, who, at a lord
mayors dinner, took q flying header into
a dish of custard, 10 the infinite sorrow of
ladies' dresses; he followed, probably,
that dish, in which the dwarf, Sir Jaffrey
Hudson, was concealed, and they both are
after Tom Thumb, who was fishing about
in a cup of posset, a thousand years ago.
The dessert is allowed by all French
writer's 10 be of Italian origin; and we
read that at the Maitred hotel, before the
Italian dessert arrived probably intro
duced by Catherine de Medici and the
Guisesl, that they gloried in mountains of
fruit and sticky hills of sweetmeats. The
elegance was clumsy and ostentatious.
There was no poetry IN it, Paul Veronese's
picture of the Marriage of Cana will
give some idea of the primeval French
dessert. The later fashion was of those
trees and gardens, and puppets, abused by
Horace Walpole but Frenchmen delighted
in seas of glass, hower-beds formed of
colored sand, and little sugar men and
women promenading in bowling green's
We get some idea of those magnificent
fetes of Louis XIV. at Versailles, from the
glowing descriptions of Moliere.
Dufov in lS05, introduced ''frizZled
muslin into a slice of fairyland;" that is,
pe 10 ira rii n mic n to NIL
and trees for the center of has dessert. And
these palaces and temples were said 10
have been of perfect proportions; his trees
of frizzled muslin were admirable. 1t
sounds very much Ike childrens' toys just
now.
He went further. Dufoy, having ran
sacked heaven and earth, air and water,
he thrust his hand into the fire, and made
harmless rockets shoot from his sugar
temples Sugar rocks were streWn about,
with preCipiCes OF nOuGat and glaciers OF
vanilla candy, waterfalls OF spun sugar.
confectioner in 1905 had to keep his wits
about him, for after every victory of Napo-
leon he was expected TO do the whole thing
in sugar He was decorator, painter, arch
itect. sculptor and florist, icer-yes, until
after the Russian campaign, and then
thew had had enough of ice. No-thus we
see that the dessert has always been more
for the eye than for the stomach.
The gOOO innings Iildt nave bbeH sdlQ
over the walnuts and the winei The pretty
books written about claret and olives
one author says that if all the good things
which have been said about the gay and
smiling dessert could be printed IL would
make pleasant anecdotic little pamphlet
of / 900 odd pages!
We must not forget all the absurditles Of
the dessert. The prince regent. whose
tastes inclined to q vulgar and spurious
Orientalism, at one .of his costly teasts at
Carleton house lad channel OF real water
running round the table. and IN this swarm
gold and silver fish. The water was only
let on at dessert.
These fancies may be sometimes par
odied in our own time, a the bon
bon makers of Paris now devote their
talents TO the paper ahsurd+tes OF
har!eduins Turks, Cinnamon, and all
the yagaries of fancy-dTess bail
with which the passengers of steamships
arnuse themselves. after the captain din
ner. This is not that legitimate dessert.
Al which We now find ices, disguised as
natural fruits or copying = rose; al the
most beautiful forms in the world are now
reproduced in the frozen water or cream,
as healthy as 1t j. delicious. in the famous
icllv. with ,narasChino. or the delicate bon
hons with the priceless hqaeur, or better
still. that eau lie menthe cordial, our own
green peppermint. which after ali. saves
u bv one mouthful from the horrors OF
indigestion and adds that thing more e1-
ouisIte still" 10 the perfect deSscrt-a good
nights sleep NJ. r. w eHEE" oop.
Vulgar Little sam Jones.