The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1896-11-07
POUND CAKE VS. ASH CAKE.
A Parable and an Analogue.
Written for the Republic.


er was called corn, or maize
And the King had opened mills fol
the grinding of these grains, where
both were ground equally, without
price and without limit.
The land was fertile, yielding
both wheat and corn. but the great
er yield commonly was of corn, and
wheat sold at higher price among
the people, because it was scarcel
and made finer and whittier loaves.
Yet the two grains gave abund-
anee and happiness. If the wheat
lacked, the corn supplied the de
ticiency; if the corn was scarce, the
wheat came in answer to the call
for bread, so that no man suffered
of hunger in Felicia.
And the corn was every mans
crop. They who would not grow
wheat, grew corn, and they who ate
no wheat, were satiiied with the corn
ground freely at the Kings mills.
Both in quantity and price the
two grains thus co-operated together
to feed the people, without possible
ty of monopoly and extortion.
But Mammon, who distributed the
grains and the flour and the meal
thereof to the people, saw how he
could control the situation and make
a mighty deal in wheat 1.-THE scareer
grain and the more to be desired J, If
he could persuade the King to close
the mills against corn.
And SO he sent his professors and
his bankers and his scribes and his
lawyers to the King; and they said !;
80 King Wheat is the only food
fit for thy people. 1t abounds, it is
healthful, beautiful and sweet; it is
more desired of all men and nations !;
corn is food only for swine. There
fore, close thy mills against corn,
and allow wheat only to be ground
therein. So will Felicia wax greater
and greater among the nations; and
with wheat as the sole and single
staff of life, our people will live long
er, grow richer and richer, and be
come the happier as the delicious
biscuit shall on every table take the
place of the coarse and unsavory ash
cake!s
So it seemed wise to the King .
forthwith he issued his edict that
thenceforward no corn should be
ground in any of the mills of Fell
cha, which should remain open only
to the free and unlimited grinding of
golden wheat.
For "A time all things seemed to
work well. notwithstanding the
edict. But soon the people who had
eaten corn bread found that they
could not turn their corn into meal.
as the mills were closed to every
thing but wheat. They had to eat
wheat, or starve; and 10! by reason
of discrimination against it, corn be-
came almost worthless in exchange
for wheat, as everything else had
also become by reason of the mill
edict
And they who had eaten wheat
only, found that it had risen enor-
mously in price, not simply because
it had been made the sole staff OF
life, but because Mammon and his
men had cornered the wheat pro
duet, which had now become easy,
as this product was much less than
that of corn and as corn had been
excluded from the mills and the
bread market, and could no longer
come to the rescue Of wheat and its
consumers.
Thus it came TO pass that even the
Kings baker was sorely put to it to
furnish the accustomed loaves for
the royal table. All the Kings
household and retainers. who had
formerly been served with corn pone,
had now to be fed on Hour
So that with the royal gamers
bursting with corn, there was seant
bread on the royal table.
But Mammon d Co. had store of
wheat, and for awhile they cheerful
ly took the Kings orders or bonds
in exchange for wheat; but the PEG
pies orders for bonds were disdain-
ed, Mammon d Co., double-locking
their wheat bins against all popular
demands, insomuch that the people
starved, while the King feasted and
still kept a reserve or surplus oil
wheat by liberal issue of royal or
ders or bonds warranted to produce
wheat and nothing but wheat
At length when the people had
been driven to the last extremity.
and famine prevailed in the land,
even the Kings bonds were refused
for wheat by Mammon d Co., unless
he would also put in pawn his crown
his scepter and his throne.
And then the eyes and ears Of the
King were partially opened to his
PROSTATE people crying for the re-
opening of the mills to corn. I'VE
do not care for pound caker shrek
ed the people. ''Give us corn bread
lest we perish in the midst of oui
abundance"
But the sleek Mammon, with his
pogtly professors, his bloated bank,
ers, his greasy scribes, and his lusty
lawyers, talked day and night to the
king: "These ignorant and halted
ucated people do not know what ails
them, nor what they need, said
Mammon d Co. Besides. they are
hired to starve themselves and make
all this cutlery by these fellows who
raise such enormous crops of corn.
The corn producers alone will be
benefited by opening the mills OF
corn. just think what an enormous
pile OF money they will make if corn
be again allowed as breadstutf.
We, on the contrary, know all about
grain and bread, and from our very
position are utterly disinterested.
We neither grow nor grind any
thingW
Except the people and the Kingr'
interjected the Kings fool.
Scoring the unseemly interjec-
tion, Mammon d Co. went on:
THE people foolishly say they do
not want pound cake, and clamorfor
corn bread, but we who know. O
King, declare to you that corn bread
is injurious to the digestion, fit only
for hogs, and that pound cake, as
our experience proves, il far better
for human food. 1t is true that the
people say they can get no pound
cake, that it is beyond their means,
is scarce, etc. Yet as we can testify
conclusively there is plenty of pound
cake, for we have got it; yes, we
have abundance of pound cake and
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