The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1900-06-12
The Great American Cereal at
the Exposition.
'TICKLES PARIS PILATES.
Mr.. j. H. McKeeyer Writes an Interest,"
ing Letter Concerning the Efforts
to POpularize Corn.
PARIS, May 25, 1900.

the corn belt of the west share with
those around Denison this feeling of
anticipation and they should be thor
oughly alive to the good which may
come from this feature. 1t carries
with it the possibility of an increased
price for corn so as to place it where
never again will the Crawford farmer
burn his orn crop for fuel rather than
sell it because it is cheaper to do so
than to bay coal. In an effort to bring
about this condition of affairs the corn
kitchen has been established at the
fair. In a room on the third floor OF
the agricultural annex, a building de-
voted exclusively to the exhibits OF
American farm implements, corn serv-
ed in half a dozen different ways, is
being dispersed free to all who will
come up to the high counter and make
their desires known no matter whether
they speak English. French or Chinese.
The more that come, the better they
like it and ere the fair is over they
hope to feed thousands every day. The
place is not for the American abroad,
he already knows what good things
can be made from corn, but it is the
visitor from the countries of Europe
who is the special object of its hospi-
tality.. Once giving him a taste of
corn prepared as a food for a it is
hoped that when he goes home he will
want more. and buying it for himself
increase the export trade in this com
modify until America shall feed the
world.
The kitchen is not large, for this
room is set off from the larger r of
the top floor of the building by a par
tial partition through which a wide,
iag-draped doorway is cut and out of
which the most savory odors come to
greet the visitor as he mounts the
stairway. Inside a high counter
forms three sides of a square in whose
hollow all the process OF preparation is
to be seen. Busy at a gas range is a
typical southern t'auntie" whose smil-
ing face beams from beneath a red
bandana turban and whose robust form
is encircled by q huge apron. All that
she does is to bake gold and brown corn
cakes and she is kept.busy all OF the
time for this is probably the most pop
ular dish of all those they serve. Next
to hers stands another range upon
which a uninterrupted chief and his as.
sistant prepare soup, hominy, f%rltters
and bake the various breads, for they
make three out of the corn. To serve
these the individual portions r plac-
ed in dainty dishes and given forth by
q man and a woman, both colored. One
who has never enumerated the differ
ent ways of preparing corn would be
amazed at the variety of the dishes
which they serve here. OF course the
corn cakes ani syrup are the staple
but following close after are corn bread
and cor soup, a very excellent one
too. In addition to the ordinary corn
bread cut in yellow cubes, there's corn
pone. Boston brown bread made from
corn and white bread from corr flour.
Fritters and fried and boiled hominy
may complete the second cours and
then comes Indian pudding with sauce
I and a blanc mango Or custard tremb'
ling in pink and white molds under its
accompanying dressing. Crisp pop.
corn always fills great glass bowls or
the counter. These jars too have de
lightfdlly wide mouths so that no mat
ter how big a handful of the corn one
takes the list is not going to stick il
taking it mt. Butter, syrup and sugar
with a glass of water are served with
the dishes so that every facility is Of
fered to make agreeable the foreigners
Introduction to a food which he con
4 siders too base for mans use.
1t is a funny sight to see some of tn,
French men try the corn for the frs
time. The other day a trio of then
came up and with every show of diff
dence they finally approached thu
counter at one side. The colored waite
Sinside asked them what they would
have-think of a negro talking French
They. of course, didn't know, SO corr
cakes were suggested. AT this stag
one of them baked and said that nom
need be brought for him. but tn
others stood for it. When the littl'
plates, with their three crisp and ten
der discs of meal upon them, were pu
down, became at once the objects O
int ,pse scrutiny and of animated ges
ticsulation and debate. Finally on
man picked up cake in his finger
and nibbling the fragment which ha'
not broken off of it's own weight pre-
nounced it all right. A patriotic love
of those same corn cakes was dismay
J ed at the %unprepared state in whicl
they were being devoured and sugges,
AL "a that eon,o h,ftoc and svrnn. whic'