The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1900-05-05
sTRANeE ZINC cUsToMs
Long and short sweetenins a. az Ado
janet to CORee In Southern
Tennessee.

VemmeBsees
Talk about strange eating customs
In strange lands, said Promoter Pim-
ley. III bet a hat can pick up as many
uncanny table habits between here and
the Mississippi liver as you can find in
China and the Malay archipelago put
together. When I say that I'm not
thinking Of naked, grssshopper-eating
Digger Indians, if there are any Digger
Indians east Of the Mississippi, but Of
respectable, ~Godfearing participants
in what's called our glorious American
civilization.
Last month, for instance, Ihada deal
on that took me to southern Tennessee
to look at some land, and Mrs. Pimley
went with me for the sake Of the trip.
The man who owned the land turned
out to be afwoman, q widow, who, be-
sides the 1000 acres I was looking at,
was reputed to own some 10000 more
and to be worthin the neighborhood Of
three-quarter of a million dollars. But
she wasn't aproud woman. We stopped
at her house the first night we were
in the town. It was a two-story farm
house that hadn't been painted for
a hundred years, and what furniture
there was in it had come over at some
period between the May1ower and the
Santa Maria and wasn't worth its
transportation at that. We removed
the traces of travel from our faces and
hands with the aid of a tin basin and
soft. soap out behind the house, but we
didn't stop to find fault with our toilet
accommodations with supper ahead Of
us. We hadn't seen a dining a since
breakfast and were as hungry as
wolves.
The widow had evidently laid herself
out on that supper. She'd got some
fresh beef, which we knew was a rarity
in those parts. 1t was a steak and
she'd fried it. Did you ever taste fried
steak? Don't. And there were salera-
tus biscuit as big as grape fruit and as
yellow, and boiled potatoes and a plate
in the middle of the table containing
what we decided was cake. This last
and ourselves divided the awed atten-
ton of the eight children at the table.
It was the coffee, however, that was
our downfall.
"Miss Pimley, d'you take long Of
short sweetening in your cotfee?"
hostess inquired as she vas about to
fill my wife's cup.
Now, two marked characteristics of
Mrs. Pimley are a Discrimination to
faunt her ignorance and a fondness
for plenty of sugar in her coffee. She
considered for a moment and said:
"Long sw~eetening, if you please" as
though she'd been accustomed to the
expression from her earliest youth.
Our hostess took down a stickyloOk-
ing Jug from an adjoining shelf and
poured a quantity of very black mo-
lasses into the steaming cup. There
were several flies in the molasses and
two or three other insects whose iden-
tity could not be determined, and when
they rose to the surface she carefully
skinned them off with a spoon.
1 didn't wait to be asked. If "long
sweetening'' meant molasses "short
sw~eetening'' mightmeanplain sugar, or
it might mean no sweetening at all. !
looked at Mrs. Pimley who was giving
a correct imitation of Lots wife. Per-
haps also she was waiting for more in
sects to come up.
"Short sweetening for me, if you'll
be so kind" I said, smiling delightedly.
Our cOmplaisant hostess rose from
the table and set the molasses jug back
| on the shelf. Then she took down a
large cake of maple sugar, bit off a
lump and dropped it in my cup of cof-
fee.
Somehow both Mrs. Pimley and my
self entirely forgot our coffee until it
was too cold to drink; and we declined
to think of putting our hostess to the
trouble Of refilling our cups. And for
breakfast we drank milk, And during
the rest of our short stay in Tennessee
we stuck to a diet of fresh eggs at the
local hOteI.-N. Y. Sun.