The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1896-09-09
POund-Cake VS.. Ash-Cake-A
Parable and Analogue.

HAh 'S ~
staff of life.
In Felicia the Lord had provid-
ed two grains for bread, and one
of these was called wheat, and the
other was called cornor maize.
And the King had opened mills
for 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
greater yield commonly was corn,
and wheat sold at higher price
among the people because it was
scarcer and made finer and winter
loaves.
Yet the two grains gave abund-
ance and happiness. If the wheat
lacked, the corn supplied the def
ciency; 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 satisfied with the
corn ground freely at the Kings
mills.
Both in quantity and price the
two grains thus co-operated togeth-
er to feed the people, without pos
sibility 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 mighty deal in wheat
(the scarcer grain and the more to
be desired, if he could persuade
the King to close the mills against
corn.
So he sent his Professors and his
Bankers and his Scribes and his
Lawyers to the King, and they
said:
ooh, Kingl 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"
"Thorefore close thy mills
against corn, and allow wheat only
to be ground therein: So will
Felicia become greater and
greater among the nations; and
with wheat as the sole and
single staff Of life, our peo-
pie will live longer, grow richer
and richer, and become the hap
pier as the delicious biscuit shall
on every table take the place of the
course and unsavory ash-cake."
So it seemed wise to the King,
and forwith he issued his cdict
that thence forward no corn should
be ground in any of the mills of
Felicia, which should remain open
only to the free and unlimited
grinding of golden wheat.
For time all things seemed to
work we'll, 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
everything but wheat. They had
to eat wheat or starve; and 10! by
reason of discrimination against it,
corn became almost worthless in
exchange for wheat, as everything
else had also become by rbason of
the mill edict.
And they who had eaten wheat
only found that it had risen enor-
mously in price, not simply be-
cause it had been made the sole
staff of life, but because Mammon
and his men had cornered the
wheat product, which had now be-
come easy, as the 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 it's 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
to be fed on flour.
So that with the Royal Carriers
bursting open with corn, there
was scant bread on the Royal
Table.
D 1F..... q. ~ Lo,I n ,t1>.o