The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1909-12-02

JN~ASSc % s4s0t VI AAO u0A WIZ AA0-
likes certain kinds of food on the
ground that they are the staple
dishes of other countries. Rice is
q Chinese mainstay; it cannot be
good for him. Sauer kraut comes
from Germany; ct the Germans
eat it, he won't. The banana has
an inevitable association with the
organ grinder; the plum pudding
is English, don't you know. Away
with these foreign remnants; bring
him, waiter, a good patriotic meal.
Support home industries" he re-
marks, as he stirs the great Amer
lean coffee. There is a provincial
ism, a lack of catholicity about
this attitude which is appalling.
The best is the best, whether it be
prepared in Tennessee or Timbuk-
tn. In it's ultimate analysis, such
prejudice would be fatal. That
it is not held by the majority Of
Americans is proved by the exist
ence of the tariff. IF decent pride:
in their own products were suffi-
cient to conquer an occasional sa-
periority o f the foreign article,
what need to tax the latter? But
as restricted to the mere question
of food, the prejudice is merely
unreasonable. Variety is the spice
Of gastronomy; true banquet
should be procured from the ends
of the earth. The sprout of. Brus-
sells should mingle with the sau-
sage Of Bologna, and the reindeer
lie down with the pampered ele-
plant. Ifyour peacock havea ton
que, what matter it's nativity? Why,
there be irreverent souls that have
condemned lark pie, that have bias
phemed against caviar of Astrak-
han, that have dashed down the
finest Chateau Meudon that ever
blossomed on Californian heights.
They should remember the immor-
tai words:
1.-THE man that hath no Swiss
cheese in himself,
Nor is not moved by turtle con-
sOmme
Is tit for Boston beans and sue
cotash."
For in d NC ng homesickness,
there is nothing quite like A Mid
summer Nights Dream. The scene
is laid in "Athens, and a Wood not
far from it," but the Athenians are
pervaded with the spirit of rural
England. When one reads Of ga
bank where the wild thyme blows,
where ox-lips and the nodding vio-
let grows or Of "apricocks and
dew berries" it is easy to picture
the scene. But the sweetness and
the peace of the English landscape
seem reflected by the harmony Of
the play. There are rude hates
and quarrels in the comedy; one
highborn lady threatens to tear out
| the eyes of another with her nails;
but from the first it is obvious that
these difficulties will be removed.
1t is easier to believe in fairies
than in ghosts that rap tables, and
the interference of Oberon and Co.
in mortal affairs sounds natural
enough, when one has been eau
toned in youth against gathering
mushrooms, lest one disturb the
owners. Such rustics as Bottoms
company would be out of place in
Pipestone or Boulder, but Flute,
the Bellows Member, Shout the
Tinker and Snug the Joiner are
among my earliest recollections.
They are ''men I have met" When
petulant Hippolyta says of their
humble efforts to entertain "com-
pany:" "This is the silliest stuff
that e'er I heard" Theseus, you
will remember, replies: "The best
in this kind are but shadows; and
the worst are no worse, if magma
ton amend them" For exquisite
truth to nature, the portraits of these
"hardhanded" men may serve as
models; when on them is superim-
posed the refinement and courtesy
. of the gentIefolk, and over all the
! fairies, compact of poetry, one be-
gins to ask what have Tolstoi and
Shaw to offer in omparis o nj