University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1913-03-24
A "CORN BREAD ERA COMING
Colonel w. P. Moore, Who introduced the
Muscle-Building Food Into Illinois,
Gives Recipe for Running City.

Five hungry college boys sat dow.
to supper in Mother" Flanders
boarding house in Jacksonville, III
They had arrived a few hours before
and expected the next day to enrol
as students in the little college which
stood on the highest point of the vii
lage site-"the HILL" as it was called
by the town people and the students
One of the boys had come from
Knox County, Mo. Newark, the near.
est town, was 80 miles from the Missis.
sippi and farther than that from a
railroad. For this was fifty years ago
The country was still unsettled. Ev-
en- today the town is miles from
the nearest railway station.
You can imagine then that this boy
felt a little bit homesick the first
night any distance away from home.
Perhaps it was the first time his feet
had been from beneath his mothers
table at mealtime.
Each of the boys had developed
enormous appetites, especially the lad
from Missouri. He had Travelled far
ther than the others and the substan-
tial meals at home, too, were large in
his memory. You know how big
mothers mince pies can grow and how
sweet flap-jacks and sorghum become
when you can't get them. This boy
had favored his tongue for corn bread
plain, old-fashioned corn bread,
made out of buttermilk and plenty of
meal.
When the landlady brought in a
plate filled with large light biscuits,
steaming hot, as white and flakey as
angel food-well, most of the boys
would have swelled their chests and
given little whistle as if to say, I'm
more than satisfied" But the Mis-
souri, lad was disappointed. The plate
passed him four times. He ate pork
and beans and jam, and that was all
no bread and butter.
Corn Bread or Nothing.
Il was raised on corn bread and
that's all 1 like" he whispered to the
boy next to him as he shuffled his feet
in bashful uneasiness.
Mrs. Flanders-big-hear mother
ly woman-was always disturbed
when 'her boys" didn't eat what she
prepared. She was never long in
learning the reason.
Corn bread-she had never heard of
it. 1t must be made from hominy, she
thought. A few days later a letter
went to a mother in Knox County,
Missouri. 1t carried postscript:
please send recipe for corn bread
at once"
This is the story of how william
Pike Moore introduced corn bread in
to Illinois. He believes that he per-
formed a public service in doing so.
The facts are that Pike Moore still
thinks that corn bread, in both the
real and the abstract sense, is a good
thing. He talks as if he were 60
ing to introduce corn bread into the
city administration when he becomes
mayor of Columbia in April. Light
bread, good to look upon and pleasing
to the taste, but not real builder of
nerve and muscle-not any, thank
you. He wants the substantial food
that the strong men of Knox, the wise
men of Boone and the fearless men
of Clark County were reared upon.
Frankly, it is Mr.. Moore's opinion
that the city water and light plant un-
der the past administration has been
a sort Of light bread affair. He thinks
that it is not giving the public all
that it should. He intends to change
its constituents so it can do corn bread
work, he says.
Why He Is Colonel
He is also an advocate of municipal
ownership.
Now Pike Moore is commonly
known among his friends as Colonel"
Moore. He also looks like a colonel,
wears a colonel hat and walks like
But he is not a colonel, he
says. A big smile breaks the stern
lines of his mouth as he explains it.
"Jim Hudson is responsible for
that. He said I had to be called
Colonel He started it going and
now everybody in Columbia calls me
Colonel Moore.
There is an old saying that anyone
who at some time has been a captain
in any army is entitled to the title
of colonel in his older days. Now, I
was the captain of company of mill
tia at one time. Yes, I was the cap
tain of a company in Missouri at the
time of the lynching of Bill Young,
the desperate Of Clark County, and
the acknowledgement issued orders for
Dur company to respond at the time the
mob was organized. But the order
was recalled before we wero roadv