The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1907-06-28
THE BAKERS DOZEN.
Two Different Accounts Of the
Origin Ct the Phrase.

Origin Ct the Phrase.
ONE PRCshic, o.: ROMANTIC.
She First Is Disappointing and Unss:-
is;actory, While the Second Is Pic.
turessue and Carries Rather a Coco
Moral With 1t.
Everybody knows that thirteen is
''baNers Dozen" but everybody doe;
ot know why. The origin Of the
ph:a Sc "buker's dozen" is commons
attributed to IL custom that pre- ,.lilel
amunr British bakers in the Gays when
sete.e penalties were inflicted upon
trade%n!en who cheated their custom.
ers With short weight or short meas
Mi. easily fail short of the stand
ard weight. so in order to guard them
selves against the risk of inadvertently
mourning the Penalties of the short
wei, statutes without going to the
trouble of weighing everything they
sol,! the bakers ADDED an extra loaf OF
roll as 4; make weight to every doz-
en- cakes or rolls or loaves delivered t.,
I, g.. :i.ei. This explanation is I'LL
sati factory. 1t is ,!isarpointingly pro
sale. anl it utterly fails to account
for the fact that the bakers Dozen l.,
also commonly known as the devils
dozen"
A better explanation is to be founl
iii le"e1ld that gives the phrase all
American origin. 1t is not wholly de-
void of pictuIesqueness. 1t suggests
the reason why bakers dozen and
devils Gozen" are synonyms, and it
carries rather Il 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 see>i
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 just man. bu
his justice was never tempered WIFI
liberality. With him a dozen was !,
dozen. neither more nor less; also !;
pennyworth was worth a penny. an
he parted with no pennyworth of his
save in consideration of penny had
and received in exchange.
On the night Of Dec. 81. 1868. Jan
Petersen sat in his shop, we'll stocked
with New Years cakes provided for
the expected demand of the morrow
when a little old woman bearing al.
the marks of age and poverty that in
those days marked women out Al.
witches, entered, demanding u dozen
New Years cookies. Petersen care
fully counted out twelve cakes. Hero
are but twelve. l want Dozen" re
monstrated big customer. Twelve is a
dozen" said Jan. ION New Years eve.
tween rich and poor, thirteen is Il
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 al:
times and on all occasions a dozen was
a 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 baker, all his dough was so light
that 1t flew 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 Il combination of misfor-
tunes, but Petersen had money laid
by, and Petersen was tue most oh
stinate and phlegmatic Of Dutchmen
So he kept his shop open though no
! ~SAS >eAA1S W CuSs eAAA IAC oNdhI.' IL
made and i'll 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 misfortunes. But he
would not violate his life creed: "A
dozen is 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 vener
able guardian of all good Hollanders