The San Francisco call., 1908-11-14
Hunting TrufIes


IiOw many juniors have ever
thought how the delicious under
ground mushrooms known as truf-
aes are procured?
Some 90 or 60 years ago Monsieur
Rousseau OF France made the discovery
that they were found only under Ger
tain kind of oak tree. and these trees
are now known as truff1e oaks. Science
has since demonstrated that the trufiie
can be grown artificially also
Trufies of an inferior quality are
found in England. but the best trufies
in the world come from the department.
OF Vaucluse, France, 100000 pounds
being annually marketed from that
place. Paris alone using from 100000
tc 5000 600 francs worth each year.
Trufie hunting begins in November
and ends in March, and the method
pursued is both unique and interest
ing. II is participated in by the rich
and the poor. for different reasons; by
the former for amusement and by the
latter FOR prodt. and is aided by pigs
and dogs
The peasant who starts out TO hunt
truf7es will carry a stick in one hand
and two bags in the other; one OF the
bags is empty. for IL is intended for
the trufHcs; the other contains the
aeorns. The whip Is for the purpose
cf accelerating pigSy's movements, as
she is not very energetic IN the morn
ing When she gets to the place where
the savory trufies grow. however, she
gives a srunt Of satisfaction and starts
off on & brisk trOt; then she stops and
begins to dig vigorously with her snout.
scattering the dirt and stones to the
right and the left. when. suddenly. the
peasant man, who has been watching
ho~ frrN araFr e
rap with his stick Piggy at once
stops digging and turns her attention
to rnunching the two or three acOrns
which her master throws on the ground
before her in payment for her work
The peasant then picks out OF the
hole. which piggy has made, a fine
tTuffie as big as a hens egg.
II the mamma piggy happens to have
a young family about a month old. the
little roasters are taken along French
pigs are so well trained especially on
the artificial farms. that they viii dig
until they find the trufie, and then
look up into their masters face in an
ticipation OF the reward-the three
acorns.
When dogs are used. they discover
the places IN which the trUfies grow
by their keen scent. and point out the
places; but they do not dig, and for this
reason the old men or women prefer
to hunt with pigs. while the younger
people prefer the dOgs, not Objecting
to the exercise Of digging. Sheep dogs
and the Bassett hounds make the bsgt
trufHe hunters
->~~-~~@>~~>~~>~--.~>.>~.~-
century. but stand apart from the liter
ary movement or merely suggested
what was to come long after. we ind
the Queen Anne essayists as the char
acteristic literary workers at the be-
ginning OF the eighteenth century, and
on either side of them the poets OF the
classic age, of whom Pope was high
priest. and the author or Robinson Cru
soc. the despised teller of tales, who
was to be the fOrerunner OF a literary
movement greater than any we have
yet seen The classic age ended with
Goldsmith. and the romantic movement.
first perceived in Burns, really took
definite form as movement In the Tyr
ical ballads of 1898. Scott was the
popuIarizer of the romantic movement
in both verse and prose. That move
ment reached its climax in 1880 in
Hugo and Dumas
In that year Balzac inaugurated the
realistic movement, whose forerunner
was Jane Austen; but it is Dickens
who. beginning in 1895. really made it
as popular as Scott had made the rO-
mantle movement by the WaverIey nov
els. And while the romantic move
ment was aristocratic. the realistic
movement. going back 10 the despised
Robinson CrusOe, was highly demo-
cratic.
In Tennyson we find a poet who made
the romantic thought into works OF
art that the people could appreciate;
and in Longfellow we see much the
same thing done for the realistic poet
~. though Walt Whitman. a very i'm
perfect artist, is the high priest OF the
democratic idea in poetry.
If we can only fix these dates and
periods and dominant eras OF thought
in our minds. we shall have a frame
work in which we can 1T all the vary
ing phases of modern English Htera-
ture.