Gilpin observer., 1899-04-13
PIE NOT so POPULAR.
sUccULENT DISH OUT OF
FASHION.
fis Founding = Lost Art-Ths People
Say That the Bakers Don't Make
Them as Good as They Used To-Big
Slump in Two Years.

Inc nOrSeleSS carriage and the cow
less butter have come. Automobiles
and oleomargarine are said to be rap
idly supplanting the best efforts of the
horse and COW. Scarcely has an ap-
pliance or an article of diet, a gar
ment or an animal been rendered in
nocuous and obsolete by modern i'm
provements that we find ourselves
wondering why we clung to the old
methods of working, eating, riding
and dressing so long. We invariably
find substitute that is better than
the original in some way. The pie is
becoming obsolete. Thus far no ade-
quate substitute has been found. If
we are honest we will not deny that
there was something incomparably
good in those succulent disks of lus-
cious fruit and fiaky crust that mother
used to make. Is pie building lost
art? Or is the falling off in pie con-
sumption due to change in the tastes
of the American people? There are
less than half as many pies devoured
in this country nowadays than were
required to satisfy less population five
years ago. Time was when the pie
WdsOn oudIeu Tie Win luC
brewery wagon and the fire depart
ment in racing through the streets.
The doctors were inveighing against
pies in those days, but the more they
inveighed the more pies were con-
sumed. 1t must be over 100 years
since Cowstetter's Almanac got off
that famous joke about the husband
who was always quarreling with his
wife because she didn't construct pies
like mother used to make" Canvas
back, celluloid, gutta percha, ostrich
outrage, hidden horrors and several
other terms of reproach were directed
at the pie by doctors and wits for the
express purpose of running the pie
out Of business. Societies for the sup
preston of dyspepsia made continual
war upon the pie. Specialists wrote
and even read papers tending to show
that pie-eating was responsible for the
prevalence of suicide and the overpro-
duction of red-haired babies. But all
to no purpose. The pie habit grew un-
til the reformers themselves fell into
the maelstrom and gorged them
selves with pie. With the disappear
ance of all organized opposition. how
ever, the piety of the American peo-
there was sudden slump in the
trade. Men and even messenger boys
In the downtown lunchrooms
began to call for milk toast. sand
wiches. hot tamales, wienerwursts,
spaghetti, everything and anything
but pie. Since, the pie-eating daily
performances Of the people Of St.
Louis have deprecated steadily. Time
was when $4,000 pies found way into
the popular abdomen here in q single
day. But now the consumption of
$4,000 is said to be a banner days
business. In the old palmy days of
care to face customer with less than
nine kinds Of pie. Apple, peach. lemon,
custard, gooseberry, cranberry. mince
and pumpkin were the favorites, and
enterprising confectioners and res
taurateurs kept grape, cocoanut, blue
berry, blackberry, strawberry, plum,
pineapple and even orange pies. The
most captious epicure could tell one
from the other by the initial cut into
the lid, and the exacting customer
with a mouth for pie" did not deign
to pause and consider whether his par
ticular brand of pie was in season.
This unreasoning demand for filling"
which was out Of season probably had
more to do with the downfall of the
pie than the doctors and the wits COM
bined. Enterprising pie founders be-
gan to flavor their product just as the
spry attendant at the soda fountains
flavor the soda. The use of different
fruit syrups" gave the factories a
full line" of pies at all seasons of the
year, and the stenciling of the proper
letter in the upper crust of the baked
article completed both the illusion and
the Identification. Even the more
conscientious confectioners began TO
use canned fruit for their pies. They
were driven to this by the unreason-
ing demand for fruits that were not 20
be had in the market. Good canned
fruit was followed by cheaper grade
known as "pie fruit" and the once
estimable pie began to fall rapidly
into i'll repute. The finding of collar
buttons, hairpins and other little ar
ticles Of no dietary value hidden away
in the secret recesses OF pies has
tendency to weaken the confidence OF
even a messenger boy. And SO 1t
came to pass that the pie has lost it's
grip. High-class hotels and restaur-
ants no longer think of putting for
ward anything but pies of their own
make, and even these are not popular
unless they are of rare workmanship
and replenished with the most satisfy
ing interior works. The pie-eating
class is not as large as it was. but it
is just as exacting and far more dis
eliminating than of old. For instance,