The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-12-23


IS ablaze. An open FIRE Of pine knots. be-
cause Of the chopping OF the wood and
shipping, costs as much as a fire OF soft
coal or OF perfumed wood. but the dry
wholesome tIrpentine odor from the resin
and the CHEEKY fame. white pink and
blue. burning 50 brilliantly. holds much
more benefit for worn nerves and sick
people"
The trade in pine knots and boughs. for
presents this Christmas, It is said, Will be
heavy
Northern Menus and Southern Dishes.
The average nOrtherner who attempts
to compile a menu to tickle the southern
palate usually makes a mess Of IL. Some
OF the bills OF fare from northern sources
that are from time to time to be seen in
southern publications are well calculated
not designedly, however. it is to be hoped
to make the southern housekeeper drop
ana expire from that tired feeling"
About nine times in ten the alleged south
ern dishes in the bills are pure hctions.
and almost without a single exception the
menu is unsuited to this latitude and to
the palates of people who know better.
No southerner in good health and in his
right mind ever eats "hominy with milk
and sugar" for breakfast: notwithstanding
the dish is undoubtedly safer than "sal-
mon, with egg sauce for supper. Hominy
In this part Of the country is dressed with
butter or a little of meat gravy, and is
eaten with a chop, or a steak, or bacon
and eggs, or broiled ham. etc. Hominy
thus served is a standard breakfast dish
in the south, and is fit for a king. 1t
needs no sugar or cream or nutmeg. and TO
put either on it is to commit a crime
against gastronomy. The same observa-
ticns apply to rice, the standard dinner
dish of the south, which the northern
menu-makers tell US to serve with cream
and sugar.
The cooking Of rice. by the way is an
art which has not yet been acquired in
the north. Properly cooked, each grain of
rice stands firm. dry and separate from
its fellows, yet Is as soft as a dead-ripe
fruit, and the whole mass as white as
snow. In the north they boil the grains
into a glutinous mass, utterly destroying
its beauty and individuality, and then
sweeten it. Sometimes southern folks
sweeten rice for sick people or ailing chill
dren, and call it rice pudding. Again, they
make a pillau of rice and peas; this they
call "hopping-joh and it is a food fit
for all upright and healthy men. Other
pillaus, made Of rice and chicken, or okra
and bacon, or birds, are distinctively
southern dishes, and the person who sits
down to either dish with an appetite has
reason to thank heaven for his good for
tune. Rice is also used in soups and
gumbo. But sodden rice. dressed with
cream and sugar. for breakfast-bah! Out
upon the inhdel who suggests it!
There are dozens and dozens of real
southern dishes that delight the souls of
those who eat them when prepared prop
erly-sugared sweet potatoes, guinea
squashes, corn fritters etc.-but the north
ern-built menus seldom or never mention
them. They tell us to eat hominy, with
sugar, for breakfast and salmon, with
egg sauce. for supper! One may well Won
der how he would get through the night
and where he would be the next morning
after following such directions. He would
need like some of the papers that publish
such bills of fare, to have a patent in
side" to stand the ordeal.
There are in the south, however, people
who pretend to like the northern bills of
fare. 1t is all pretense. They affect oat-
meal because the northern people eat oat-
meal. The northerners eat it merely be
cause they do not know anything about
hominy and rice properly cooked, and
their southern mimics eat it because they
think it is more toney. Such people, We
feel constrained to say, sacrifice both their
brains and their stomachs to style"
Under the Ban.
The announcement has been made by
Archbishop Corrigan of New York that
three secret societies. the knights of
Pvthias, the Odd Fellows and the Sons