The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1908-06-03
THE LoWLY ONION. -
odora, Joys, Virtues and superss!s:oH&
of the Punnent Bulb.


"A London real estate agent says
that the smell of onions cooking IN
an apartment house is source OF
annoyance to the great majority
of the flat dwellers. In the novels
of George Gissing there are con-
slant illusions to the smell of fried
fish in the houses where his half
starved authors and poverty strick-
ZEN women were obliged to live.
Now, as it seems, one onionized fat
makes whole house wretched.
There are boarding houses so
charged with the smell of rank
cooking perpetrated for years that
the very walls emit it, as In tho
memorable pension where Rastignao
became acquainted with Vautrin,
but the onion is not here the chief
offender. The smell of onion soup,
dear to the Partisan concierge, still
fingers gratefully in the nostrils OF
tho American after many years as
he thinks wistfully of his student
days. No rcilective person as h6
climbs the stairs of an apartment
house is offended seriously by smell
of onions as he passes door. He
thinks of the glory of beefsteae
smothered in onions, of onions
cooked in cream, of onions dry, but
unfolding their hearts, of fried on
ions as side dish for heroes. H6
thinks and sighs, for his own Ara
bella cannot endure the smell, not
knowing that fine line, "fhusband
and wife defying tho world with
mutual onion"
The ancients frowned on the bulb
as food and classed it with garlic
and lecks, as of an acrid nature, Of
unwholesome juices. "When tWice
boiled they give little nourishment,
but when unboiled they do not
nourish at all" says Paulus Aegine-
ia, and Burton, advising as to the
diet of the melancholy, dismisses
the onion as troublesome to tho
head.
The people at large pay no heed
smiles at the conflicting opinions
of dietists the onion is healthful
when plainly boiled. AS child he1
was taught that it was good for a
cold. These same ancients thought
highly of it as a medicine. 1t occa-
sions rapid growth of hair, it.
breaks hard tumors. Chewed, it IL
beneficial in paralysis of the,
tongue. It is eminently rubefa-t
cient. Its juice is useful in suffuL
sion and dimness of vision from
thick humors. Dioscorides recom~
mends it as cataplasm with salt
rue and honey for the bite of o mad
dog. There are many today who be-
lieve that onion juice is of assists
ance in deafness. Italians in tha
north end heat the insides of little,
onions and stuff them in achingl
ears of their children. They leavet
them there for weeks. An onion
put under the pillow will bring
dreams of the loved ono. The thick
ness of It's skin determines the mild
ness or severity of the coming wins
ter. But to dream OF onions Is q
bad sign. In some countries it pre4
sages sickness. What says the homea
ly poet2 All
To dream of eating onions neanA
Much strife in thy domestic gcenSes
Secrets found out or eiso betrayed
And many falsehoods mndo and said-
The French maiden looks for.
ward to marriage that che may read
the ingenious novels of her coun3
try. Are there not American maid
ems who would fain be wives that
they may eat onions without the
thought of disquieted, too fastid-
ious wooer? Happy the man that
finds onel Else, like the children
of Israel, he will remember tear-
fully the Egypt of bachelorshiPsi
"the cucumbers, and the melons,
and the leeks, and the onions, and
tho Garlic."-Boston Herald. ~ 4