The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1899-08-05

The horseless 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 chung to the ola
methods of working. eating, riding
and dressing so long. We invariably
find a substitute that is better than
the original in some way. The pie is
becoming obsolete. Thus far no aoe-
uuate substitute has been found. Ii
we are honest we will not deny that
there was something incomparapiy
good in those succulent disks OF lus-
cious fruit and f1aky crust that mother
used to make. Is pie building iost
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
wagon shared the honOrs with the
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
1 rio con-
| sumed. 1t must be over 100 years
since Cowstetter's Almanac got OH
that famous joke about the husband
who was always quarreling with MS
| wife because she didn't construct pies
like mother used to make" Canvas
back. celluloid, gutta percha, ostrich
outrage, hidden horrors and severai
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 continue
war upon the PIE. Specialists wrote
and even read papers tending TO snow
that pie-eating was responsible for th'
prevalence of suicide and the overpro
duction of red-haired babies. But al
| to no purpose. The pie habit grew un
ltiI the reformers themselves fell int
the maelstrom and gorged them
selves with pie. With the disappear
ance of all organized opposition, how
ever, the piety of the American PEG
nile began to flag. Three years az
there was a sudden slump in tn
trade. Men and even messenger boy
lin the downtown lunchroom
began to call for milk toast, SAND
witches, hot tamales, wienerwurst
spaghetti, everything and anythin
but pie. Since, the pie-eating dali
performances of the people of 5
Louis have deprecated steadily. Tin
was when $4,000 pies found way I'M
the popular abdomen here in a sing
day. But now the consumption
$4,000 is said to be banner day
business. In the old palmy days
the commercial pie no shop wou
care to face a customer with less tina
nine kinds of pie. Apple. peach, lemo
custard, gooseberry, cranberry, min
and pumpkin were the favorites, al
enterprising confectioners and re
taurateurs kept grape, cocoanut, Diu
berry, blackberry, strawberry, plul
pineapple and even orange pies. II
most captious epicure could tell o.
from the other by the initial cut In
~ the lid, and the exacting custom
IN with a mouth for pie" did not DEL
er to pause and consider whether his pa
at ticular brand of pie was in seasr
n, This unreasoning demand for "fllin
e. which was out of season probably h
st more to do with the downfall OF t
e. pie than the doctors and the wits co
n bined. Enterprising pie founders
ne gan to flavor their product just as
he spry attendant at the soda fountai
In flavor the soda. The use OF differ'
in fruit syrups" gave the factories
Ike "full line" of pies at all seasons OF
le- wear. and the stenciling of the pro-
he letter in the upper crust of the bal
article completed both the illusion
the Identification. Even the m
conscientious confectioners began
use canned fruit for their pies. II
- were driven to this by the unreas
.u' ing demand for fruits that were not
ny be had in the market. Good CAM
~ fruit was followed by cheaper gr
MS known as pie fruit" and the o
lna estimable pie began to fall rapi
VIII into i'll repute. The finding of co
ma buttons, hairpins and other little
MS ticles of no dietary value hidden az
her in the secret recesses of pies has
de- tendency to weaken the confidence
Inn even a messenger boy. And so
lol- came to pass that the pie has lost
ago grip. High-class hotels and rests
ants no longer think of putting
ward anything but pies of their
make, and even these are not pop
the unless they are of rare workman
,ars and replenished with the most sati
lear ing interior works. The pie-ea
It. class is not as large as it was, br
I of is just as exacting and far more
Igal eliminating than of old. For insta
OBJ no pie connoisseur will attempt to
, in gotiate a pie in which cabalistic s
the are stenciled in the lid. He must