Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-05-14
ONE PROsAlc, ONE ROMANTIC.
The First Is Disappointing and unsat-
isfactory, While the Second Is Pic-
turesque and Carries Rather a Good
@ Moral With 1t.

ure. a dozen cakes or rolls or lOayeS.
might easily fall short Of the stand
ard weight, 50 in order to guard them
selves against the risk Of inadvertently
mourning the penalties of the short.
weight statutes without going to the.
trouble Of Weighing everything they
sold the bakers added an. extra loaf or.
roll as make weight to every doz-
en- cakes or rolls or loaves delivered to
q customer. This explanation is un.
satisfactory. It's disapp ointingly pro-
sale, and it utterly falls to account
Tor the fact that the bakers DOZEN is
also commonly known as the devils
dozen. Z 5
"a better explanation Is to be found
In a legend that gives the phrase an
American origin. 1T is not wholly de-
void Of picturesqueness. It suggests
the reason why bakers DOZEN and
devils dozen" are synonyms, and it
carries rather q good moral with it.
& The story is somewhat as follows: In
the middle Of the seventeenth century
the most famous baker IN the New
Netherlands was Jan Petersen, who
had come to Fort Orange from Amster-
dam and was the first man In the new
world to make those fiat, oblong, orna-
mentally stamped, with caraway seed
literally besprinkled, crisp, toothsome
cookies familiar III the days before all
the old Dutch customs sank into dis
use under the name Of New Years
cakes" Petersen was a just man, but
his Justice was never tempered with
1liberaIity With him dozen was a
dozen, neither more nor less; also a
pennyworth was worth penny, and
he parted with no pennyworth Of his
save In consideration OF penny had
and received In exchange.
On the night Of Dec. 81, 1858, Jan
Petersen sat In his shop, well stocked
with New Years cakes provided for
the expected demand OF the morrow,
when a little old woman bearing all
the marks of age and poverty that in
those days marked women out as
witches, entered, demanding dozen
New Years cookies. Petersen care
fully counted out twelve cakes. Here
are but twelve. / want a dozen, re-
monstrated his customer. Twelve is a
dozen" said Jan. On New Years eve,
tween rich and poor, thirteen Isl a
dozen, shrilly insisted his queer Gus
toner. Give me thirteen. 3 But Pie
tersen would not He argued that no.
body ever heard the like; that at all
times and on all occasions dozen was
q dozen. Finally, finding argument of
no avail against the beldame's persist
ence, he told her to 60 to der tuyfel"
for the extra cooky. Probably the old
woman took his advice, for she left the
shop, and from that instant Petersen
found himself pursued by some super
natural and maleyolent power. AL his
New Years cakes turned stale and
moldy before morning, he lost his skill
as baker, all his dough was so light
that It few up the chimney or 50
heavy that It fell through the oven,
his journeymen robbed him, his wife
developed critical disposition and a
tongue hung In the middle, his chill
dren went wild and his trade went
elsewhere. Few men could have fought
against such combination OF misfor-
tunes, but Petersen had money laid
BY, and Petersen was the most OBJ.
st1nate and phlegmatic OF Dntchmen.
So he kept his shop open though no
body came to buy, ana the scant, i'll
made and LII baked stock he was able
to provide for it nodded on his hands.
During three years on each success.
sive New Years eve the old woman
reappeared In Jan Pietersen's melan.
choly shop, demanding the thirteenth
cooky. Each time she was sent anew
to the devil. Jan Petersen was nc
fool. He could see as far into mill
stone as any man In the New Neither
lands. Almost from the first he had
been convinced Of the connection be
tween his refusal to count thirteen t.
the dozen and his misfortunes But ht
would not violate his life creed "a
dozen Is a dozen. a man has done
his whole duty toward God and toward
his neighbor when he has kept strictly
to the letter OF the law But at last
when his savings were oil gone, ht
broke down and appealed to St Mich
Olas to help him. Instantly the veneer
able guardian OF all good Hollanders
| appeared. The saint sternly rebuket
the trembling baker for the hard mar
rcWness and self righteousness tina
had given the foul fend power ovel
him, admonished him to be more care
ful In the future and concluded b.
promising him one more chance to re
deem himself, The saint departed. Ii
walked the old woman with her de
mand for the extra cooky to make ul
her dozen. It was handed to her ant
she vanished, crying: The spell il
brokenI From this time on thirteen Il
q dozenp Jan Petersen never forgo
his lesson. Through d long and pres
porous career be always gave tIirteel
to the dozen and ascribed bis success
to that practice. So bis custom becam,
the custom Of his trade. and thirteel
Vas the bakers DOZEN