The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-06-05
THE BAKERS DOZEN.
Six OF One and Seven of the other OF
the Two HaIf-doHens II Contains.

bakers Dozen" but everybody does not
know why The origina Of the phrase
bakers dozen" Is commonly attributed
to acustom that prevailed among British
bakers in the days when severe penalties
were inflicted upon tradesmen who cheated
their customers with short weight or
short measure. A dozen cakes or rolls or
loaves might easily fall short of the stand
ard weight; so, in order TO guard them
selves against the risk of inadvertently
mourning the penalties of the short-weight
statutes, without going to the trouble of
weighing everything they sold, the bakers
added an extra cake, or roll or loaf, as a
make-weight, to every dozen cakes, or
rolls or loaves delivered to a customer.
This explanation is unsatisfactory. 1t is
disappoinungly prosaic, and il utterly
fails to account for the fact that the
bakers dozen" is also commonly known
as the devils dozen"
A better explanation is to be found in a
legend that gives the phrase an Ameri-
can origin. 1t is not wholly devoid of pic
turesqueness; il suggests the reason why
bakers dozen" and devils dozen" are
synonyms, and it carries rather a good
moral with it, The story is somewhat as
follows: In the middle of the seventeenth
century the most famous baker in the
New Netherlands was Jan Petersen, who
had come to Fort Orange from Amster-
dam, and was the first man in the new
world to make those fiat, obong, orna-
mentally stamped, with-caraway-seed-
crally-besprinkled, crisp, toothsome cook
les, familiar to all old New Workers who
were children in the days before all the
old Dutch customs sank into disuse. I'M
der the name of New Years cakes. I"
Petersen was a just man, but his in
stinct was never tempered with liberality.
With him a dozen was dozen, neither
more nor less. Also, a pennyworth was
worth a penny, and he parted with no
pennyworth of his save in consideration of
a penny had and received in exchange.
On the night Of Dec. 81, 1858, Jan Pieter-
sen sat in his shop, well stocked with
New Years cakes provided for the ex-
pected demand of the morrow, when a
little old woman, bearing all the marks of
age and poverty that in those days mark
ed women out as witches, entered. de-
manding dozen New Years cookies.
Petersen carefully counted out twelve
cakes Here are but twelve. l want
Dozen" demonstrated his customer.
Twelve is a Dozen" said Jan. ION New
Years Eve between rich and poor, thlr-
teen is a Dozen" shrily insisted his queer
customer Give me thirteen" But Pietor-
sen would not. He argued that nobody
ever heard the like; that at all times
and on all occasions, a dozen is dozen.
Finnaly, finding argument of no avail
against the beldame's persistence, he told
her to go to der tuyfeP' for the extra
cooky. Probably the old woman took his
advice, for she left the shop, and from
that instant Petersen found himself pur-
sued by some supernatural and malevo-
lent power. All his New Years cakes
turned stale and mouldy before morning.;
he lost his skill as a baker, all his dough
was so light that it flew up the chimney
or so heavy that it fell through the oven
his journeymen robbed him; his wife de-
veloped a critical disposition and tongue
hung in the middle; his children went
wild, and his trade went elsewhere. Few
men could have fought against such a
combination of misfortunes; but Petersen
had money laid by. and Petersen was the
most obstinate and phlegmatic OF Dutch
men. So he kept his shop open, though
nobody came to buy, and the scant, ILL
made and ill-baked stock he was able 70
provide for it moulded on his hands.
During three years, on each successive
New Years eve, the old woman reap
peared In Jan Pietersen's melancholy
shop, demanding the thirteen cooky
Each time she was sent anew to the devil.
Jan Petersen was no fool. He could see
as far into a milestone as any man in the
New Netherlands. Almost from the first
he had been convinced of the connection
between his refusal to count thirteen to
the dozen and his misfortunes. But he
would not violate his life-creed: "a dozen
is dozen. A man has done his whole
duty toward God and toward his neighbor
when he has kept strictly to the letter Of
the law" But at last, when his savings
were all gone he broke down, and ap-
pealed to st. Nicholas to help him. In
stantly the venerable guardian of all good
Hollanders appeared The saint sternly
rebulxed the trembling baker for the hard
narrowness and self-righteousness that
had given the foul fend power of him.
admonished him to be more careful in the
future, and concluded by promising him
one more chance to redeem himself The
saint departed In walked the old woman
with her demand for the extra cooky to
make UP her dozen. 1t was handed to her,
and she vanished, crying, THE spell is
broken; from this time on thirteen As a
Dozen" Jan Petersen never forgot his
lesson. Through a long and prosperous
career he always gave thirteen to the
dozen. and ascribed his success to that
practice. So his custom became the GUS
tom of his trade, and thirteen was the
bakers dozen"
To-day the liberal practice has long
since been abandoned, and the bakers
dozen" Is but memory kept alive by a
phrase. For now we have all reverted to
Jan Pietersen's selfish and narrow creed
dozen Is a uoNGn Cui 1uAy lONdiu
our neighbor is fulfilled when we have
rendered unto him all that we can't de-
Gently withhold from him, and nations
and individuals alike hold their duty to-
ward themselves paramount to their duty
toward their neighbors and make the
strict letter of the law the supreme rule Of
life and conduct. For a conspicuous exam
pie, here is the United States earning the
damnation OF the barren fig tree by con-
Quoting Itself. In the presence of a crime
being perpetrated within the shadow OF its
gates-a crime that II could stop by the
lifting of a finger, a crime that Il Is bound
to stop by every law OF honor, OF philan-
thropy, OF common charity ana common
decency, IN strict accordance with old Jan
Pietersen's creed of "a dozen Is a Dozen"
with a single, short-sighted eye to its own
sacred. present, passing material in
terests."