The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1894-06-22

GUY plepaleu III tlle Iol III VI polll'St
and was not used in the other shape as
an article of daily foo until the fifth
century BIC.
In the days Of the Homeric heroes Il
table was considered handsomely spread
if meat, bread, and wine were set upon
| it s'abundant measure
Thus the ninth book of Odyssey
runs:
How sweet the produc OF 'acefu reiyr.
| The heaveI. tau.ht poet, and enchanting strain
The wel-illed palace, the perpetual feast,
A land rejoicing, and people bessd.
How goGly seems it ever to employ
Mans social days in union and in Joy;
| The penteous board hi III h'apad with Gates
divine,
And DER the ioam:ns bow | The laughing wine.
Bread, in comparison with meat, en-
bodies in certain degree, the contrast
between civiliz titan and barbarism.-
The first thing placed before the guest
was bread. When Odysseus enters the
palace Of the Pheacian king to seek
protection. Alcinous welcomes him
| bids his favolite son Laodamas rise, of.
fer the stranger his seat, and place be-
fore him the 'well- polished board
the oft mentioned small extra table
for one person. Then the poem con-
tinues:-
The table next in regul.r order spread
The .l.tterng CAN'T rs ra heap'd with bread
Bread also played similar part in
historic Hellas. 1t was not only used
in its coarser forms as daily food for
the common people, but was consider
ed indispensable by the well-to-do and
the wealthy; nay certain kinds Of bread
were almost numbered among dainlies.
The most famous ely of bakers
the Vienna of Helene antiquity-was
Athens, where the famous Achilles
bread was produced. Ever at that
period manufacturers christeued their
produces by the names of prominent
persons, either contemporary, historl-
cal, or mythical. Not only the streets,
but the most trivial articles of daily use
were named for great men.
We know very little concerning the
preparation of the Greek breal The
ovens We're very similar to to those of
the present day. Many kinds of bread
were baked on spit. The circum-
stances that the bread which the Tnra-
clan prince Seuthes set before the
Strategos of Nenophon's army was ex-
pressly designated as ':sour" his led
to the inference th,t this was not uni
| versal.
In marked contrast to the customs
of Rome, it was the common practice
of Greece to sell breal in the market
place. The bakers, manly prosperous
| tradesmen, offer their wares in huge
piles and distribute them to the bread
women, whose reputation, in point Of
courtesy was similar to that of Lon
don fish-wives. Aristophanes evident
| w studied these models of coarseness
| and borrowed from their flood of talk,
cynicisms and lmpertinences which, in
Il suitable passage, produced the most
irresistible effect. Fortunately in an:
cient Helas it was not the girls ard
women who were exposed to the tom
CUES of these market Myare, but the
men, for the Greek, who had Ii tie else
to do, would not be restricted IN the
privilege Of making his purchases him.
self.
To describe the position occupied by
bread among the articles of food pos.
sessed by the Greeks, the following
facts may be mentioned:
At the monday meal, eaten toge,h
err by the Spartans, wheat bread wa
served only occasionally as speola
delicacy.
But Scion who, compared with Ly
curgus, represented the more refined
habits of life, also ordrsad that whea
bread should be served only on specia
occasions 10 the citizens " no dine(
daily in the Trytaneium at the public
expense.
So much for Ifel.as.
We will now turn to the second grea
centre of civllz ltion in ancient times
the Roman empire.
In republican Rome, every house
hold, even the smallest, baked brea,
needed for its own use, just as tn
princes did in the days of Homer
Later, under the empe ors, VIII n tier
We're IA number of bakers, families 0
he better class still stuck to tn, cd
fashioned custom. They had plen'
of slaves to do the work. Arlstocral;
Roman houses hid, close beside tn
kitchen, separate plac, for bIkin
called a pistrin", which rea ly means
mill; for this baking place ais contlin
ed the machinery for crushing tn
wheat, which was no longer done, us il
the days Of Homer, by hand-miils. Th
Roman mills were usually worked b
horses, donkeys, or mules, but often al
so by slaves who, by INSTRUMENTATION o
, other misconduct, had forfeited thel
masters favor. Sent to the pistrina,
was form Of speech as we modern
= use in the tread-mill" or to Siberia.
Ill