The gold leaf., 1892-12-22

mild and moderate in most things-made
their Christmas keeping a somewhat pro
longed festival, often taking more than a
week, indulging in all the good things
that they desired or could procure, and
consuming an amount of strong waters"
that would have meant excess to any tenn.
peraments less phlegmatic than theirs or
had less time been taken in the consllm-
ing.
The old Dutch family recipe books con-
tained rules for many compounds requir-
ing delicate manipulation on the part Of
the cooks, as well as good deal of the
comprehensive faculty known as "judg,
ment." Indeed one can but conceive the
greatest respect for the mental powers
OF the woman whose "crullers' and
waffles were always light and crspy not
withstanding that baking powders and
egg beaters were things unknown, that
even pearl ASH was of home manufac-
ture, and the right quantity of sour cream
which was to balance the alkali as well as
it's due degree of acidity, had to be deter
mined in each individual case. 1t is not so
very easy matter to find Il good cook even
in these days of ''perfection ranges and
all manner of ready made preparations to
help her. Yet it appears to be a fact that
early in the Seventeenth century good
tion among the wives and daughters of
the we'll to do inhabitants of the New
Netherlands, and Christmas was the sea
son upon which their best powers were ex
pended.
English dishes of about the same date do
not SO favorably impress the modern read
er. Bears heads, blazing in rum. geese
and ducks simmering in their own grease,
and huge joints of beef or pork were fanked
by meat ''pasties," by rolls of boned veal
hidden in layers of pork fat and then
roasted before the fire SO slowly that the
fat was all absorbed in the meat, and sad
dies of ''five-y year-old mutton, sodden with
cabbage and vinegar" do not seem partcu
larly attractive to modern palates. Grand
Sir Loin," plum pudding and mince pies
descendants of the ancient meat pasty-
are almost the only dishes that have sur
vlved the years and now appear upon our
Christmas tables. What digestons and
what heads must these old time English
have possessed
When one reads of the enormous quantity
and solidity of the viands and the amount
and strength of the fluids which formed Il
Christmas dinner of 200 years ago, and of
all the rough, not to say Tin our Nineteenth
century eyes) disreputable merrymakings
which followed the dinner, one almost
ceases to wonder at the Puritan revulsion
OF feeling which led to an effort to replace
season of gluttony and drunkenness by
one OF religious feeling and temperate fes
tlvlty, calling it THANKSGIVING" and hold
Ing 1t In advance of the season which, from
the time of the Romans and perhaps before
them, had been kept as a heather festival,
and still retained some of its old character
istics after it had been adapted to the new
religion.
The French were ever more temperate
than their neighbors and very early mani
tested the talent which has made them the
tutors of all the rest of the world in table
matters.
To the French Huguenots Christmas was
day OF rejoicing, thanksgiving, family
festivity and neighborly greeting They
drank almost no strong liquors, and their
mild, pure wines served but to aid diges
ton and impart gayety to the spirits
Rarely indeed was drunkenness known
among them. The giving of gifts was
more prominent feature of Christmas time
with them than with the others. Among
the English and Dutch the gifts, irrespec
tive of toys to children, were nearly always
of something to eat or drink A haunch
of venison or a cask of home brewed ale
was favorite gift in the parent isle, but
here was succeeded by a turkey or a barre!
of cider, while among the Holland colo
nists some special forms of cheese and
cookies or a few bottles of choice i'm
ported wine were most usual
The Huguenots, whether from thrift or
native taste, were prone to offer gifts of
more permanent value. They were poor
of course, most of them having had to
leave their possessions behind them when
flying from the prosecutions of Louis the
Magnificent - SO their gifts were seldom
costly, but e have survived even til.
today in the possession of their descend
ants-cohweb laces made by delicate
fingers, painted fans and screens and EN-
broidered footstools and cushions
The United States, being the most cos
mopolitan of all nations has a right to
adopt the best customs from all the world
and has freely availed itself of the privi
lege.
To the roast beef and plum pudding of
old England it has added the Jolly Santa
Claus of Holland, the gay present giving
of the French and the solemn Christmas
music of the Germans. If there be other
! good things elsewhere, let US appropriate
them all Are not we the universal,
| Yankee nations"
| HELEN EvERTSoN SMITH.