The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-12-10
'PoSSUM MEAT.

1t Is difficult, says Colonel Watterson's
Couriar-Journal, TO determine whether
President Roosevelt's statement hat pos
sum meat Is delicious is a mere disinter-
ested but not dispassionate observation
based upon recent gatronomic reVelry or
n guileful bid for. the Foraker delegates TO
the next Republican convention, but in
View of the fact that the statement Is
true il is hardly fair to charge the execu-
tive with ul.erior political motives. Very
probably he was not contemplating the
licking of the gentleman from the Buck
eye State, but merely licking his chops
when he paid his generous compliment to
the little animal that is associated not
only In tho popular imagination, blu also
In the pot. with sweet "taters."
At this time of the year It is customary
for the poets to sing OF the golden rod
and the f~rost-palnted leaves OF the autumn
woodlands. The 'G2ssum and the yam
have never received their merlted share
of attention from the bards. Perhaps Judd
Mortimer evils and Frank Stanton occa-
sionally let the autumn leave and the
golden-rod take care OF themselves aud
give the 'possum q paean or so, but gem
orally speaking he is sadly sighted by
makers OF fieetlng verse. This is due
largely to the fact that much Of our poetry
that is CLOSE to the soil" fs ground out in
New York Where poets move and have
their being In a forest OF skyscrapers and
subslst upon coffee and sinkers, ham and
Boston, - and Welsh rabbits, in the order
mentioned. They know nothing OF the Joys
Of battening upon a fat 'possum wreathed
in yams and almost afioat In his gravy.
If they did poetry would be born within
them and not made by grinding toll. II Is
In the South that the sweet potato and
possum reach their rarest perfection.
Perhaps none but a Southerner can fully
appreciate the feelings of the old negro
whose response to his master who said he
should say potato" and not "tater' was,
Dem aIn't po'taters; dey's fat taters. =
Fat taters and fat 'possums comminsling
form a dish the like of which the .noblest
Roman OF them all never served of a
symposiac and washed down with old Fa-
lernlaa. Preferably 'possum should be
cooked over a wood fire in a log cabin and
seasoned with the odorous blue smoke OF
hickory and ash as the lid Of the ven
is lifted now and again to give a glimpse
Of the promised Wand to those who wait
with whetted appetite for the coming
feast. With the 'possums and taters there
should be served either the ordinary Ken
lucky corn p%one-if u an adjective may
be not Improperly applied TO anything SO
rnre-or the Olympian "cracklin' bread
Of the hog-k!lllng season. In Justice to the
'possum Il must be said that neither corn
pone nor cracking bread Is necessary,
but II serves we'll not only to mop up tue
gravy. but also prevent the possurl
and the vans from melting In the mouth
too rapidly for the flavor to be enjoyed
in the fullest. ,
in the woodlands of the Pennyrile district
of Kentucky and they reach perfection
about the time the perfumed pawpaw be-
comes so ripe that it falls from the parent
stem and feposes in all of Its golden
beauty In the orange-tinted leaves that the
earth has first claimed as tribute from
the trees for her enrichment. OF late
the woodman who does not spare the
tree has eneroaehed upon the great pos
sum nurseries of Western Kentucky until
there is danger that the most succulent
race Of 'possum upon the globe may be-
come almost extinct. but there are .still
patches Of primeval forest here and there
In which the pawpaw fiourishes and the
'possum feeds upon the food that Provi-
denoe set aside for his especial benef1t.
If the President never ate a Kentucky
statement is an anti-Foraker utterance,
but II he should chance to sit IN at a dis
cussion OF one from the Pennyrile district
he could but forget politics entirely in his
enthusiasm for 'possum.