The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-03-02
,Trgs MOTHERS DoueHSUTs.
True story Retold By Eugene
Field.
From the Chicago DGGly Nercs.

3 hang smart, anu 1gneSs Luto BAKER was
-, about the smartest boy the old town
- turned out. Well, he came by it
..,nrslly. Judge Baker was known all
.-s- Western Massachusetts as the sage Of
Tl.inheld. and Lute's mother-she was a
rsuogg before the judge married her-she
I'D more faculty than a dozen Of your girls
-,usdavs. and her cooking was talked
.hout everywhere-never was another
man as folks said. could cook ike Miss
ss[er. The boys-Lute's friends-used to
tsn0 around the back porch of mornings
s-st 10 get some Of her doughnuts; she was
.iwsvs considerable and liberal to growing
Rvs Maybe Lutte wouldn't have been SO
soooniar if it hadn't been for those dough-
MS and maybe he wouldn't have been so
smart but for the good things his mother
~ into him. Always did believe there
was pietv and wisdom in New England
yctuals.
,rsT. was valedictorian; then he taught
scbool a winter, for Judge BAKER
ssid mat nobody could amount to much in
he word unless he'd taught school a spell.
Int was set on being lawyer andso pres
srtly he went down to Springfield aud read
and studied in Judge Morris office, and
Judge Morris wrote letter home to the
Bakers once, tes:ifying to Lute's "probity"
and ''scumel,H things that are never heard
tell Of except high up in the legal profess
sion.
How Lutte came to get the western fever
can't say, but get it he did, and one win
fer he up and piked off to Chicago, and
there he hung out his single and Joined
literary social and proceeded TO get rich and
famous. The next spring Judge Baker fell
of the woodshed while he was shingling it.
and il isrred him SO he kinder drooped aud
p!ned round a spell and then one day up
and died. Lutte had to come back home
and settle up the estate.
Wien be went west again he took a wife
witt him-Emma Cowles that was every
body called her En- for short pretty as
picture and as likely girl as there was in
The township. Lutte had always had a
bankerlng for En- and En- thought there
never was another such a young fellow as
Lutte; she understood him perfectly, having
fung 10 the choir with him two years. The
young couple went west we'll provided.
Lutte and En- went to housekeeping in
Chicago. EN- wanted to do her own work,
but Lutte wouldn't hear of it: so they hired
i German girl that was just over from the
4 vineyards of the Rhine country
Lutte" says EN-, ''HuIda doesn't know
much about cooking"
80 I see." says Lutte feelingly. "She's
green as grass; youth have to teach herr
Huda could swing a hoe and WELD
spade deity, but of the cuisine she knew
somewhat less than nothing En- had lots
Of patience and pluck, but she found teach
ng hulda how to cook a precious hard Job.
Lutte was amiable enough at first; used to
laugh it off with cordial bet that by aud
By EN- would make IA famous cook
Of the obtuse but willing immigrant.
This moral backing buoyed En- up
considerable, until one evening in an UNI
guarded moment Lutte expressed a pining
for some doughnuts like those mother
mskss, and that casual remark made En-
unhappy; but next evening when Lutte came
home there we're doughnuts on the table
beautiful, big, plethoric doughnuts that
fairly reeked with the homely, delicious
sentiment Of New England. Lutte ate one.
En- felt hurt. II guess it's because I've
eaten so much else,n explained Lutte, ''but
somehow or other they don't taste like
mother'sn
Next day En- fed the rest OF the dough-
nuts to poor mau. who said he was starry
ing. Thank you, nlarm." said he, with
his heart full OF gratitude and his mouth
full of doughnuts; 81 he'n't had anything
as good as this since l left Connecticut
twenty years ago.n
That little subtlety consoled EN-, but still
she found it hard to bear up under her
apparently inability to do her duty by
Lutes critical palate. Once when Lutte
brought Col. Hi Thomas home to dinner
they mad chicken pie. The colonel praised
It and passed his plate a third time.
~, but you ought to eat some Of
mothers chosen pie" said Lutte. Mother
never puts an under crust in her chicken
pies, aud that makes 'em jucier."
same way when they had fried pork and
potatoes: Lutte couldn't understand why the
flesh of the wallowing, carnivorous west
ern hog shouldn't be as white and firm and
sweet as the meat of the swill-fed yankee
PIX. And why were the Hubbard souashes
50 tasteless. and why was maple syrup 80
very ditferentl Yes, amid all his profess
aonal duties, Lutte found time to note and
remark upon this and other similar things
and OF course En- was, by implication at
hast, held responsible for them all.
AND I'm did try so hard. 80 very hard, to
crrect the evils and to answer the hyper-
critical demands of Lute's foolishly petted
aud spoiled appetite. She warred valor-
ou'y with butchers, grocers and buck
Herers; she sent down east to Mother
BAKER for all the famous family recipes;
,Ie wrestled 10 speech and in practice with
that awful Hulda; she experimental long
and patiently; she blistered her pretty face
ana burned her little hands over that
MNehen range-yes, slow. constant mar
HIdom that conscientious wife willingly
injured for years in her enthusiastic deter
ulnatlon to do her duty by Lutte. Dough-
uul' chicken pies. boiled dinners, layer
saSeS, soda biscuits, fapjacks. fish balls,
SdAed Deans, squash pies, corned beef hash,
tIleu apple sauce, currant wine, succotash,
uown bread-how vigorously EN- toiled
Wer them, only to be rewarded with some
guei reminder Of how mother" used to do
.uese things. 1t was terrible-a tedious
nartyrdom.
LIte-mind you-Lute was not willfully
.uei; no, he was simply and irremediably
T mo idiot of a man, Just as every
aIfled man Is, for spell at least. But it
''gke Ems heart all the same.
n ., uute mother came to visit them when
ou'll nrst child was born, and she lifted a
~ Any deal OF trouble off the patient wife
II t H,u MISS Baker always liked En-; had told
u r1o minister three years ago that EN- would
Nae saAe Lutte good Christian wife. They
nIueu toe boy Moses, after the old judge
oO" was dead, and old Miss Baker said he
c+tuiu nave his gran'pa's watch when he
s s,' 70 be 81. Old Miss Baker always
Ne 0y EN-; maybe she remembered how
,5 ooio Judge had talked once on time
nOout his mothers cooking For all married
sb iVn are, as have said, idioticallY cruel
RoIuI mat sort Of thing. Yes, old Miss
s I%er T. oraced En- up wonderfully; brought
ho N.Y. VI dried catnip out west with her for
oaoy taught EN- to make salt-rising
IA ~ Told her all about stewing things
Ss ar trolling and roasting things; showed
Ra 10" TO tell the real Yankee Goldfish from
~ Oo.S gounterteit-O, she Just did EN- lots of
M M did old Miss Baker!