Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-05
GATES OF YESTERYEAR

Stun about the do1ngS or the Llcorlce trust
The Lieorice Trust. hey? l didn't know
there was one. Didn't know. in fact. that
there was such a thing licorice any
more.
Haven't seen or heard of a piece of lie
orice for twenty years. Licorice? Excuse
me for calling it that. 1 regard it as
middle-aged affectation on my part to call
it licorice. Us fellers used to call it lick
IRISH when I was a tykc, and I guess lick
rish ought to be good enough for me now.
'I can't imagine what's become of all the
lickrish. 1 never see any in candy or drug
store windows In my day it was common
thing for the drug stores to have their Win
dows heaped up with huge bundles. tied up
like faggots. of lickrish root. Member
lickiish root? That sweety. bittery SUN.
that came in sort o crooked and gnarled
twigs that Young 'uns. used to take to like
cats take to catnip? Looking back to lick
IRISH root now l can't figure out just why
we used to dote on it. AS I remember II,
lickrish root had really sort of mean,
acrid taste. and it tasted woody and PUPPY
very soon otter the first juice was squeezed
out of it. And yet the boy known by his
mates to have three OF four twigs of lick
IRISH root in his pocket was tagged around
by d beseeching horde of begging COM
panions l can remember that whenever L,
by some odd mschance. got hold of whole
cent all my own. as boy, I'd think ana
study for a long time as to whether I'd in
vest the penny In couple of twlgs of lick
IRISH root or a horsecake and the lickrish
root generally won out.
'Then there the made-up hckrlsh-
those black sticks. that tasted like shoe-
backing and that were called lickrish
candy. I believe. We used to think mighty
we'll of those. too. They were as black as
ink on the outside. black and shiny. with
one end of the stick hattened out with the
makers round stamp, and they cost cent
apiece Underneath the outside lacquer or
varnish--must have been lacquer or var
nish-the ickrish candy was sort OF yal-
lery and muddy looking, and 1t had the
consistency of mud, too, and was power
fully gritty in its feel to the teeth. It sets
my teeth on edge now TO think how gritty
those sticks of lickrish candy were But
how appetiZing the lckrish candy sure did
taste in the old days! We used to like par
ticularly to eat lickrish candy in schoof,
because it made out lips black, and TINS
would annoy the teacher Any possible
thing that we could frame up to annoy the
teacher was of course the biggest kind Of
hit with U.S. Noticing our black lips, teach
er 'ud ask us what we were eatlng, ana
we'd reply bold as brass. 'Lickrish. Then
she'd inquire. frigidly, by what right we
=
where we had her. We'd come right back
with the reply that we were eating the lick
IRISH candy for a cold-that we were eating
it on the advice or prescription OF our
mother This was never by any chance
true, of course but it gave us sort OF
edge on teacher. She couldn't very we'll
come down on US for something that our
mother had advised us to do, and we mad
her That's why we nearly always saved
our lickrish candy to eat in school,
Another great advantage in connection
with the lickrish candy was this: BY eat
ing it and getting our lips and the corners
of our mouth black. We could make some
of our boy pals-the younger ones that
looked up to us as 'vice-ridden persons-be-
1ieve that were chewing tobacco. wee
take great pains to allow our lips to be-
come very black with the stuff for that very
purpose. Some of our suileless. credulous
admirers of the younger set were then
bound to ask us the question:
Hey whatchoo chewin'?
Jaw terbacker, O. course we'd reply,
in ba ad. offhand sort of way. as we'd ex-
pectorate evily at a mark, and then they d
secretly admire and envy us. and we'd
gloat over the fact that we'd impressed
them with our horrible viciousness.
"D'ye recall those 'ngge-headS, with red
candy eyes, that the little around-the-corner
shops used to sell for a cent about quar-
ter of a century ago? l don't see those any
more either and | wonder if they're still
made They were made of lckrsh candy,
too. The lickrish candy of which the niger
heads was made was very hard, quite in
capable of being bitten through. and they
really were not intended to be bitten
through, for that matter. They were in
tended to last Il long time. They were in
tended to be sucked in fact, and l recall
that it 'ud take about half day to get
through with one of them. You'd put one
of them in your face right after noon din
ner say, and along toward supper time
you'd have it reduced to the size of a
small marble. and then it nd be softened
up so that you could finish 1t up with your
tech. You'd have it out of your mouth a
good many times. of course. to enable you
to talk, and you'd hold it at such times in
one of your red inittened hands. and the red
wool from the mitten nd stick to the wet
Niger head but that wouldn't make any
difference. You'd go right on with ii. red
wool and all. for the palate of youth isn't
dainty. and even if you'd drop your niger
head on the ground a few times you'd pick
it up and keep right on working on it, grit
and all.
There were a lot OF things that us fell
lers used to be able to buy for cent that
I never see the young uns of today buy
ing. Those hOrsecakes that 1 mentioned
while back, for example. What's be-
come of those horsecakes? They were
called horsecakes for a very obvious rea-
son-because in a crude sort Of way, they
were made in the shape Of horse. They
were supposed to be gingerbread. those
penny horsecakes. but they didn't taste
very gingery. They seemed to be COM
DOSeQ OF IlOidSSeS ana d SOTt
OF creamy clay. AS I remember 'em. they
were really more like sweetened mud than
anything else l can now imagine. One OF
'em was really a large meal for even a
hungry, growing boy. One OF those horse
cakes couldn't have weighed much less
than pound, for the dough was Of a
marvelously heavy consistency, what with
the thick molasSes and the long time those
horsecakes kicked around, banked up in
the cases of the little shops, before they
were changed into pennies. We'd general
ly. with the perversty of kids, fall for the
horsecake about half an hour before meal
time, and then we'd reach the table with
out a particle of appetite for legitimate
food, and our mothers 'ud ask us what
allied US, and IL we were sick, and then
we'd own up that we'd eaten horsecake
lust a little while ago, and then she'd look
dispIeased and tell us that if we got sick
it 'ud be our own fault and try to make
us eat our regular food, anyhow-great
old habit of mothers of our generation. to
try to make stuffed young 'uns eat wheth-
er they wanted to or not-and pretty Of
ten we would make her prediction good by
getting the stomach ache from the horse
cake I can't understand, looking back
upon it all from this distance, why we
didn't die out of hand every time we ate
a horsecake. 1 wouldn't eat one of those
horsecakes of my boyhood right now for
a $1,000 note, and Pm not throwing away
chances to pick up 81 600 notes, either.
sticks