The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1902-06-05
"SUGAR AND MOLASSES."

To THE EDITOR OF THE JOURNAL.
In The Journal of May 1st | read
with considerable interest Capt Par
trldge's remarks and queries on sugar
and moasses. have no direct answers
to make, or questions to raise, except
ing to offer some doubt if 1.-The good
brown sugar of old times can ever be
| brought into favor again. Our folks
have passed the brown sugar age, and
no longer have tall, pretentious bowl
containing white crushed" for com
pany and the minister, and another
bowl, decorated with green pansieS and
red buttercupS, filled with colored
muscavado for common family use.
The plate or sterling sugar dish may
now be flied from the same barrel the
cook uses, unless the family be quite
fastidious, in which case there may be
cubes instead of grannles in the ster-
ling reservoir. Even on shipboard |
have seen no brown sugar used in a
long time, though we use about a
thousand pounds of graduated IN a
year. At this time we have a black
crew, and if they were not allowed as
much white sugar as they can use it
would be case OF abuse. But sailors
on all American vessels are now fed
much better than captains We're forty
years ago, when all hands used 'long-
tailed sugar. in their coffee and when
canned milk or canned cream was un-
known to the fraternity Though |
have eaten nothing in the last score of
years that tasted so good as bread and
moIasses did forty years ago. | cannot
now think of anything that would be
good if sWeetened with molasses. eX-
cepting possibly sour apple pie, and
am not sure if even that would be like
those that grandmother made
When | had become a good sized i'll
tant | was once allowed to make a trip
seasick. homesick and pork-sick, and
slyly and often Wept mixed tears and
stuff over the lee rail. Sour bread and
boiled salt pork, with black tea and
molasses, was a new diet to me For
more than a week at one stretch | ate
nothing whatever and the burning
ambition that had to start out gave
place to a passionate desire to get back
to be with mother and have some good
bread and molasSes. One day while
slept the cook fried a half barrel fun of
molasses doughnuts. When aWoke it
was to wonder if | was still dreaming
or had died and gone to my reward.
The cook was a poor cook, but a very
good friend. Starting from the con
dition of positive inner vacuum, | ate
as many of his highly colored sinkers as
| could possibly hold and carried a
supply of them back to bed for further
consideration. Oh the willing and
cheerful saccharine appetite of youth,
Only last year saw a case OF it where
it might not have been looked for: we
had passenger on board-a scion of
Boston's royalty-his people being kings
VI
yachts. He was far more easily fed and
satisfied than amy common sailor on
board and his fayolite dish was a cup
of very common molaSSes beside his
maple syrup OF which we had a supply
| will tell You of another youthful eX-
perience OF mine which occurred not SO
very many years after the fisherman in
cident: while the sweet taste was yet
strong, the taste of tobacco unknown,
and the natural appetite of strong and
healthy youth had not been overcome
OF depraved. | was mate of Il vessel
on a voyage to Brazil. The captain was
the most rigid economist that ever dis
graced his birth place-in sight of Bel
fast. He and the cook understood each
other all too Well-the meauness of the
one was only equaled by the la2iness
of the other. From the start there was
never bit of pastry OF of any other
sweet thing whatever on the table. My
previous experiences before The mast,
lldu not all DteH SWeeteutu, Dul UlleTt
had always been an occasional dish that
would serve to keep a Maine boys
sweet desire from complete starvation.
In this new case my watch below
brought only dreams of pie, and in my
vigils on deck longed for gingerbread.
The sweet fruits of Brazi, brought some
relief, but did not satisfy. | ate un-
sparingly of those tasteleSs stringy,
tropical sweet potatoes for what little
sweetness they contained. From
Brazil we came to CienfuegoS and load
ed cargo of molaSSeS for Portland.
then thought there would be sweet-cake
in the rations: but no-the flour was
low and it would spend farther in the
form of sour bread | then invented a
dish that must make one sick to read
of: basted my hash, beans, yams and
sweet potatoes all over and literally
with raw molasses. Long before we
reached Portland, however the pre-