The Wadsworth dispatch. [volume] (Wadsworth, Nev.) 1892-1899, 1892-12-24

mild and moderate in most things-made
their Christmas Keeping a somewhat pro
longel festival, often taking more than a
week. INDUCING in all the good things
that they desired or could procure, and
consuming HI mount OF strong waters
that wonld have meant excess to any TEN
perainents less p%lle2matic than theirs or
had less time been taken in the cousum
ing.
The old Dutch family recipe books con .
tanned rules for many compounds requirl
ing delicate manipulation on the part OF
the cooks, as well as Il good deal of the
comprehensive faculty known IA 'judg
ment." Indeed one can but conceive the
greatest respect for the mental powers
OF the woman whose ''crullers'' and
wafies were always light and crispy. not
withstanding that baking powders and
egg heaters were things unknown. that
even pearl ash" was OF home manufac
ture, and the right quantity OF our cream.
which was to balance the alkH!i. as well as
its due degree of acidity. had to he deter
mined in each individual case. 1t IL not SO
very easy n Inatter to find n 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 Ill tnt GDtNtllIttnLn century ROOu
cooks were the rule rather than the excep
tioD among the wives and daughters Of
the well to do inhabitants of the New
Netherlands, and Christmas was the sea.
son upon which their hest powers were ex
pended.
English dishes Of about the same date do
not so fayorably impress the modern read
er. Boars' heads, blazing in rum. geese
aud .l..nln at,,H -. -. 1T. -
and huge joints of beef or pork were hanked
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 "ive-year old mutton. sodden with
cabbage aud vinegar" do not seem p~articu
larly attractive to modern palates. Grand
Sir l.oin," plum pudding and mince pies
descendants of the ancient meat pasty-
are almost the only dishes that have sur
vived the years and now appear upon our
Christmas tables. What digestions 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 st strength of the fluids which formed a
Christmas dinner of 200 years ago, and of
all the rough. not to say lin our Nineteenth
century eyes) disreputable merrymakings
which ollowed the dinner, one almost
ceases TO wonder at the Puritan revulsion
of feeling which led to an effort to replace
a season of glnttony and drunkenness by
one OF religious feeling and temperate fes
tivity, calling 1t 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
a 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 imptrt gayety To the spirits.
Rarely indeed was drunkenness known
among them The giving OF gifts was a
more prominent feature of Christmas time
with them than with the others Among
the English aud Dutch the gifts, ~irrespec
tive of toys to children, were nearly always
OF something TO eat or drink. A haunch
of yenisoi, or u cask of home brewed ale
was Il favorite gift in the parent isle, but
here was succeeded by "A turkey or a barrel
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 lluguenots, 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 tire prosecutions of Louis the