The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-04-20
- AMERICAN CORN IN EUROPE.
Agent Murphy's TirsIsss Efforts e Get
Europssns 90 Eat Johnny Cake.

Agent Murphy's Tireless Efforts e Get
Europeans 20 Eat Johnny Cake.
The recent appointment by Secretary
Rusk of Charles }. Murphy to be a special
agent of the Agricultural Department In
Great Britain, France and Germany, re-
calls an interesting story and marks the
first step in the sustained and determined
effort which the Agricultural Depart
ment will make to introduce American
corn into Europe for use as breadstufi.
Special Agent Murphy's duties will be to
use means at his discretion to bring
before the public OF Europe the knowledge
of the virtues of corn bread and the
other food products of the great
American staple. Murphy has been well
known In Berlin, London and Paris for
the last three years as "Corn Cake
Murphy" He derived this sobriquet
from his long-continued and earnest eff
forts to convince the skeptical foreigners
that Indian corn is good to eat. He went
abroad for the express purpose OF intro
ducing corn among the European peo-
ple, and for three years he has labored
constantly to this end, expending his
own money and time in the effort. While
dining at the Hotel Metropole in London,
a party OF Americans were very much
surprised to have the waiter place upon
the table q great dish of hot Johnny
cake" the little round, Drowned
and fragrant cakes that you find upon
any table to-day south Of Mason and
Dixon's line. There was also big "cone"
OF hot "egg bread" that delicious COM
bination OF corn meal, eggs, and q yeast
powder that ravishes the taste of south
ern breakfast. Accompanying this un-
looked-for donation was a card upon
which was written: "With the compli-
ments of Chas. J. Murphy" 1t was
learned subsequently that it was MUIR
phys habit to surprise visiting Americans
with delicious corn bread, especially II an
Englishman or two or a Frenchman or
German happened to be at table.
Murphy had with him an old Virginia
darky as cook, and she prepared all the
specimens of corn bread with all the art
in her power. He visited oil the promi-
nent cooking schools in the United King
dom, prepared before the principals and
pupils the various products of corn, from
blanc mango down to Johnny cake and
cornstarch pudding. But the Britons
were slow to relish the new food. They
seemed to be unable to get rid of the idea
that they were eating horse feed.
"They call me a crank" he said, bitter
iy. al have tr ed to get an opp rtunity
to ex sibit our corn food products at the
exposition, but the director general has
snubbed me, and treated me with actual
rudeness. have spent all my MONEY H.
these efforts OF the past two years, be-
lieving that the time must surely come
when they will recognize our corn. Then
our farmers would be benefited and ths
half-starved poor of Europe would find a
veritable Godsend in the bread made from
our corn. I have no mercsnary interest
in the matter. Inn working for what
believe to be Q philanthropic end, and ii
is hard to be treated like q long haired
crank with flying machine or the elixir
of life.
There was something touching in the
story Of this man and his apparently
fruitless endeavors in q good cause, but
the tide was about to turn, and In his
favor. One day he received a letter from
Secretary Rusk of the Department of
Agriculture. "Uncle Jerry" had heard
OF his efforts and his object, and the OBJ
ject was directly in line with a policy
which the Department of Agriculture had
determined upon. Would Mr.. Murphy
uCSCpb VIC POSt Vi bpSSldi hSCht Va thO dC-
partment at a salary OF 5000 per year,
and would he continue his efforts to find
q great foreign market for corn which
the Kansas farmers were using for fuelf
The first thing that Murphy did after ac-
cepting the place was characteristic of
him. He posted of to Edinburgh, where
an exposition was in progress,
and pledged $1,000 OF his years
salary as payment for some space at the
exposition. Then he put in $500 addi-
tional of his salary for cooking apparatus
and began the manufacture Of Johnny
cake and corn bread on large scale, much
to the delight of the candy shops, who
found Murphy's corner in the building
very attractive about lunch time. Thil
effort had an immediate and important re-
suit The Edinburgh Gas Company be-
came interested in the matter and agreed
with Murphy to furnish every cooking
school in Scotland with a gas stove upon
which to cook the corn bread. Then
Murphy visited other great cities in Great
Britain and has created vigorous demand
for corn meal.
Some time ago the Agricultural De-
partment received a cablegram from Ber-
lin announcing the fact that Murphy had
succeeded in interesting the German
Government in corn meal, and that fair
trial will be given to the cereal. with a
view to recommending corn meal for gen.
eral use in this time of scarcity OF bread
stuffs on the continent. This welcome
news Is of far more importance to the
American farmer than appears upon the
face of the bare statement, for 1t means
that vast quantities OF corn will be shipped
from the United States this winter, not
only to Germany, but to the other coun-
tries on the continent that are also suffer
ing from short crop OF breadstuffs this
year.
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