Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-11-25

hole OF the monarch, and the all-DOta-
to banquet became the climax Of the
French chefs art and an event in the
history of this most eventful period.
1t was the day of the great Lavois-
ier, whose achievements in the world
Of science and interest in agricultural
chemistry gave him more than nation
al fame and authority. To win him to
his cause Parmentier gave in his honor
great feast in Paris, where every
dish was made Of potatoes and even
the brandy and liquors produced from
them. Many of the distinguished men
of the day gathered at this banquet,
which was deemed one Of the most re-
markable in history, and the glory OF
the potato reached its climax. But
alas for the vanity of earthly honors
from potato fields to thrones. The
king lost his head and the potato its
valuable eyes, which were no longer
planted two in a row as enterprisingly
as the horticulturists recommended in
the high noon of it's favor. Neverthe-
less, a vegetable with eyes was not TO
be despised, especially when capable
Of repeating itself in some 600 or more
species through the use Of them. It
came out from it's eclipse in France, as
elsewhere, and by good breeding began
to recommend itself to royal horticul-
tural societies and men Of science and
learning Of all lands. Even before its
fluctuating fortunes in France 1t fig
ured in the history of nations and was
borne across seas and continents by
scholars and explorers, who gave 1t an
honorable place in classic literature as
we'll as foreign soil.
In various Spanish books Of the six
teenth century the introduction Of po-
tatoes to the Spaniards by voyagers
from Peru received elaborate notice.
Humbolt describes their place in the
New World at it's earliest discovery.
Sir Walter Raleigh honored the North
Carolina and Virginia potato tubers
not only by historic notes, but by cul-
tivation on his estate near Cork. Ger
ard, in the first edition Of the Herbal"
not only gave the potato plant and flow
er the distinction of frontispiece, but
of glowing paragraphs wherein he de-
scribed il as "a foode, as also a meate
for pleasure, equal in goodness and
wholesomeness unto the same, being
either roasted in the embers or boiled
and eaten with ollie, vinegar and pep
per, or dressed any other way by the
hand Of some cunning in cookerie." In
Johnson's day it figured in the Para
disus." which one of his closest friends
and associates put FORTH and the sug-
gestive names, Triumph" Excelsior"
Climax" "Bountiful," Beauty Of He
bron," which it achieved in the vege-
table world in it's different varieties
show the bright side of it's history,
which no French scorn Of its early
American characteristics can long
cloud.
In the vegetable world, as the hu-
man, you can't keep good thing down.
Even the grafters have not been able
to destroy the virtue of the native va
riety, though they have diverted 1t
from the path of duty in some very
significant cases, as Mr.. Maule's fa-
nous experiments clearly show, Craft
ing it on the tomato was one of the
best Of these horticultural expert
ments, and most fit, considering the
struggle both vegetables had to hold
their place on the life stage. Yet the
potato came near losing its eyes in
the operation not to mention the re-
pellant attitude of the tomato toward
the union A recent writer must have
this experiment in mind when she
writes the humorous lines:
"A soft, round potato,
OF extra large size
Loved rosy tomato
And made such fierce eyes
That frightened to death
Was Miss Rose from the first,
And when she refused him,
He boiled till he burst"
The writer calls this a vegetable
tragedy and shows a garden full OF
them, which blind and stupid man
abets through ignorance of affinities
here as in his own kingdom. Only the
superior wisdom of the plant and its
determination to die rather than be
mismated prevents the same crooked
ness of things in vegetable as in hu-
man gardens when grafters and
matchmakers get hold of them. One
fragrant cause of the trouble in the
tomato and potato families may be due
to the influence of a bad name which
at different periods of their existence
mixed them up with that mischievous
apple which was supposed to have
ruined us all. At any rate, it is signif-
icant that both of them in their sup
posedly poisonors estate were known
by that name, one as the apple Of the
earth and the other as the love apple,
which under it's rosy rind held all the
qualities of death and destruction that
followed in the path of both love and
apples as the Eden tragedy presented
it.
OF course, with such an ancient de-
cree for the connection, human and
vegetable tragedies might be expected
to run side by side. It is clear, how
ever. that both the apple and the po-
tato are inclined to forego any claims
to such honorary connection with
mans good or bad fortune, and leave
it to the banana and it's golden rind
to mix itself up with the fall of man
i'm these days. Moreover, the recent
decision of the learned professors, in
annual session at Yale that there were
no apples in Eden, nullifes the stigma
which unkind nomenclature may have
attached to the excellent esculent
which Johnson's friend introduced into
his "Paradisus" as a crowning luxury,
needing only the help of a good cook
to bring it to the throne. This last
point needs no discussion since the
triumph of Parmentier, but even in or
dnary hands the potato holds an es-
tablished place in the daily menu that
no other vegetable can match. 1t has
even been known to compete with the
daily bread in the needs or tastes of
creatures who live by eating, though
not all stand by it as frankly and
stoutly as the little tot from the
Emerald Isle, who persisted, despite
threats and punishment, in praying,
give us this day our daily tatos." as
a substitute for the bread she despised.
1t is supposed that the good mealy
| Irish potato held first place in her
prayer; but as America introduced 1t
to Ireland along the line of Sir Walter
| Raleigh's returning colonists, no re-
| Elections from Cork need shame the
American potato in the estimation of
good livers.
The patriotic defender of home pro-
ducts is quite right when he asserts
that the American potato permits of
| no comparison, whether boiled baked
fried, scalloped, Clipped, mashed or
served with its jacket on" Parmen-
tiers secret Of converting it into
brandy and liquor is all that is needed
to make it grander in the land than
the sheaf of Joseph, to which all the
others did Obeisance. There are in
| dications. too, that i'm some of those
dry regions where orange rinds serve
as whisky jugs, and bulldogs eat re-
pOrters, a great necessity, which is the
mother of invention, will wrest the Ii
| quOr juice from the bosom of the po-
| tato, and no French chef surpass the