Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1893-09-09

loss CT few specimens would not be
missed and could easily be spared.
Africa's sons, then, may rejoice in the
fruit of their native land, for, by all
accounts, the watermelon originated in
Africa, and to the present day it is
confidently affirmed by travellers that
the largest and finest melons in the
world are still grown in the heart OF
the Dark Continent Both to African
and Caucasian, however, the taste for
watermelon is natural rather than ac-
quired. Men must get used to oysters:
the taste for TOBACCO Is acquired only
by long. and sometimes disagreeable.
practice; the love of the Goldfish of New
foundland, of the Holsters of Massa-
chusetts Bay, and the vipers of the
Apennines must be cultivated, but all
human beings take naturally to the
watermelon. and, it must be added, al
most as naturally to the stealing as to
the eating. A prominent authority on
the subject, dealing with it in epicurean
fashion, says that the best way to
enjoy watermelon is, first, to steal it;
secondly, to put it in the spring until
dinner time, thirdly, to take it out,
break it open by pounding it on a rock
and eat only the heart, one watermelon
being deemed moderate portion for
one man.
Extent of the Business.
II this were the case and such usage
so far as eating were to prevail in the
sections to which the watermelon is
shipped, the business would certainly
increase to far greater proportions than
at present. Even now, when it is as
yet only in its infancy, the watermelon
business is something enormous. Dur
ing the season of last year one road
alone. according to the Globe-Demo-
crat, brought over l 800 car loads into
st. Louis, while probably three times
that quantity altogether arrived in
this city. The stupendous nature of
the business may be guessed at, but not
estimated, by the reflection that every
large city in the North takes and eats
watermelons quite as literally
as the metropolis of the Mis-
sissippi Valley. Some statistician with
a keen nose for exact figures has esti-
mated that at the very least calculation
there are annually raised in the United
States alone 10000, coo, 600 watermal-
ons, and when to this immense aggre-
gate are added the immense quantities
produced in Mexico, Central and South
America, in the West India islands, in
South Europe, in Palestine, in Turkey
in Persia, India and China, to say
nothing of the product of Africa, some
idea of the Importance of the water
melon as a factor in the worlds food
supply may be gained. Watermelon
may not be particularly nourishing
fact, scientists tell us that it is not
but, as Amateur Scientist Sam Weller
once remarked in reference to veal
pie" it is very filing for the price,
and, after all, no inconsiderable por-
ton of the human race regards filing
as of somewhat more consequence than
nourishment.
AS a factor in commerce the water
melon. however, is by no means de-
spicable. Millions of dollars change
hands in this country every year for
and in consideration of watermelons.
Thousands of people make a part or
the whole of their living from the ma
tional prediction for this delicious
fruit. TIE growers have sometimes
made fortunes, but the growers are not
| allowed to monopolize the benefits
arising from its production. The La
borers who do the actual work on the
watermelon plantations live by means
of the melon, so also do the swarms OF
men who perform the labor of harvest
ing the melons when ripe. After being
forwarded to market, three or four sets
of people make the whole or part OF
their living out of the melon: restau.