Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1903-04-02
A WEEPY BUSINESS.

A young mana mere youth-stili
within the enchanted circle of years
where unreal things seem real and the
glitter of life is dazzling-sits weeping
day by day in a Boston garnet. Now
and then he has half a mind to give
the whole thing up. men he goes to
the window and looks out while,
only TO go back and weep. And on
these sad days when the sodden air
settles down like a wet blanket, he
closes his window, goes down the long,
steep, darkened stairway into light,
still weeping. He is an artist; yes;
but an artist in horse-radish. He it is
who supplies the hotels and restau.
rants with horse-radish-real horse
radish, not half turnip-and he who
scrapes arL CRATES horse-radish must
needs weep.
Up in horseradish kingdom the win
dows are curtained with the dust of
time and the brown light peculiar to
the garnet softens into mellow tone
the old rafters and shelves. Within
its old walls one expects to see a man
as ancient as the color of the walls
with light of his eyes as dim as that
of the windows. Only a short time
ago such a one might have been seen
with head bowed with so years, and
with hair dull white, as though the
dim light of the attic had stained it.
For years and years he patiently
scraped and ground, his patrons in
creasing from few to many. One day
he began to speculate over a helper.
Soon a boy was becoming a master in
horseradish, and when the old man
died the young man held his secrets.
That is how it is that the young man.
after canvassing the hotels and restau-
rants each morning for orders, returns
to his attic to mediate and to weep
as he CRATES on the eternal grind OF
life.
Once the work was done by hand,
but increase in business has made i'm
perative a machine in the very apex
pounds an hour, a quantity which
would take whole day to CRATE by
hand. When the machine is going full
blast on a humid day this little peak
of an attic becomes torture chamber
with the fumes. and there is nothing
for it but to close the window, lock up,
and seek the open. All our best horse
radish comes from the middle west.
Perhaps its soil is especially adapted
to horse-radish perhaps the central
state farmers are more skilful in cut
ture; but this young merchant, though
blindfolded, can instantly tell il
piece comes from New England or the
west. The New England root does not
hold its strength as long. Horse-raj-
ish raising has become a very profit
able business in certain sections of the
middle west, whose farmers realize as
high as $500 an acre from this crop.
The western horse-radish root is well
developed, with few pits; while the
wild horse-radish must be scrapej by
hand with the righr sort of knife.
Each morning with a wooden buck
ct on each arm, the horse-radish mer-
chant goes forth to his hotel trade,
while the orders of private families are
delivered in glass. One class of Gus
toners comes to him, men taking the
cure for rheumatism.
When sweet cider Is in season these
sufferers hobble up the stairs to drink
deep of cider in which horseradish has
been mixed. The horseradish mer-
chant declares he is no medicine man,
but he says the men edo say" it does
them good.
The busy months Of the horseradish
grinder are those of the oyster. Ev-
cry month win an "R" means horse
radish, right in the center of half
dozen choice blue points, with ice and
lemon. Trade is dull in the months
without the r. but, unlike most mer-
chants, it is only when trade is bad
that the horseradish man ceases to
weep.