Bridgeton pioneer., 1907-05-16
THE BAKERS DOZEN,
Two Different Accounts of the
Origin of the Phrase.
ONE PRoSAlC, ONE ROMANTIC.
The First Is Disappointing and unsat-
isfaetory, While the Second Is Pic
turssqus and Carries Rather Good
Moral With IL.


turssgus and Carries Rather a Good
Moral With II.
Everybody knows that thirteen is
bakers Dozen" but everybody does
not know why. The origin of the
phrase bakers dozen is commonly
attributed to a custom thss prevailed
among British bakers in the days when
severe penalties were inflicted upon
uadesmen who cheated their custom
srs with short weight or short meas
ure. 4 oxen cakes or rolls or loayes
might easily fall short of the stand
ard weight, so in order to guard them
selves against the risk of inadvertently
incurring 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 a make weight TO every doz-
en- cakes or rolls or loaves delivered to
4 customer. This explanation is un
satisfactory. 1t is disappointingly pro-
sale, and it utterly fails to account
for the fact that the bakers dozen" is
also commonly known as the devils
dozen"
A better explanation is to be found
III legend that gives the phrase an
American origin. 1t is not wholly de-
void of picturesqueness 1t suggests
the reason why bakers dozen" and
devils dozen" are synonyms. and it
carries rather a good moral with it.
The story is somewhat as follows: In
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 fat, oblong, orna-
mentally stamped, with caraway seed
literally besprinkled, crisp. toothsome
cookies familiar in 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
liberality. With him a dozen was n
dozen, neither more nor less; also a
pennyworth was worth a 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, 1853, Jan
Petersen sat in his shop, we'll stocked
with New Years cakes provided for
the expected demand of the morrow,
yI-hn n1d hoe oil
the marks of age and poverty that in
those days marked women out as
witches, entered, demanding a dozen
New Years cookies. Petersen care
fully counted out twelve cakes. "Here
are but twelve. I want doxen," re-
monstrated his customer. Twelve is a
dozen," said Jan. "On New Years eve,
tween rich and poor, thirteen is
dozen," shrilly insisted his queer Gus
toner. "Give me thirteen" But Pie
tersen would not. He argued that no.
body ever heard the like; that at all
times and on all occasions dozen was
dozen. Finally, finding argument of
no avail against the beldame's persist
ence, he told her to go 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 malevolent power. All his
New Years cakes turned stale and
moldy before morning, he lost his skill
as a baker, all his dough was so light
that it flew up the chimney or so
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
against such a combination of misfor-
tunes, but Petersen had money laid
| by, and Petersen was the most OBJ
stinate and phlegmatic of Dutchmen.
So he kept his shop open though no.
| body came to buy, and the scant i'll
made and Ill 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 no
fool He could see as far into a 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 to
the dozen and his mlsfortunes. But he
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 all gone, he
broke down and appealed to st. Mich
olas to help him. Instantly the rener.
able guardian of all good Hollanders
| appeared. The saint sternly rebuked
the trembling baker for the hard mar
rowness and self righteousness that
had given the foul fiend power ovel
him, admonished him to be more care
\ full in the future and concluded by
promising him one more chance to re
deem himself. The saint departed. Ii
l. <N AI... II