The Washington herald., 1914-08-27
Flavor.
d. EsIoRN .. HAYNEs.

ny EMORY ). HAYNES.
The favor of green corn, for instance. Not the
corn that one buy in the city market. That has
lost its favor That loss is the very subject of this
lament. Flavor is something that appertans to green
corn fresh plueed from the living stalk and boiled
while you wait 1t is doubtless the spirit of the
corn and that it is departing this life the favor
the psyche of the mortal plant sautes you. Sweet
spirit how welcome you aret
Flavor can never be boxed and shipped. No ex-
press train moves quick and fast enough to trans
port it, Flavor begins to breathe its spiritual
life upon the garden air the moment you pluck the
corn. And though you may carry flavor in your
careful human hands along the path and to the
boiling kettle yet it is going, going every minute.
At the dinner table it attains its apotheosis Flavor
fills the room it sautes every expectant uostril it
satisfies every taste 1t is exquisite and overmaster
ing.
The same is true OF about every garden product.
Flavor, that delicate adjunct of apples from your
own trees, and from apples that you eat standing
under the trees that favor was never shipped to
England nor across continent 1t is wonted to its
natal farm and survives the effort to remove
it beyond the farm gate Cold storage may preserve
the apples beauty, but alas, the favor Under
the old tree, eating slowly you exclaim That tastes
like homer
No doubt the amateur farmer pays double for
all that his vegetable garden produces. He could
buy cheaper in the market. But he could not buy
the favor, the of freshness the understandable
taste of the newly created fruits of the earth No
epicureans banquet in Caesars palace ever gets it.
1t is the tribute that the soil pays him who planted
and now reaps. 1t is the glory of the harvest.
There is not vegetable not a fruit than can
preserve its favor beyond few hours. The tropi-
cal products that brought from over seas do not
bring along with them their real flavor 1t is as if
these wonderful things of growth gave notice IF
you would know me, come where live and do
obedience to me"
1t ought not to be that the city man seeks the
country alone for fresh air Flavor is an equal good
In the town hardly any edible but is counterfeit in
its taste. In a week of rural vacation one should
make many discoveries to how growing things
really do taste. 1t is a cheat upon him when manu-
factured preparations and preserved" things from
his own city market served to him among the
hills. The seller of country board" himself holds
his guests in secret derision. He knows how diff
terent the real thing tastes. and rather looks for
ward to the departure of the last guest that he may
himself return TO his table redolent with favor
Is not favor what seek when we say, of a
proposed vacation The change of scene is what
We need:' Pictures of Mount Washington NAV be
ever so accurate. But the picture is not Mount
Washington. The moving picture meets ts-tyrant
His name is Flavor. The perfume from the hem
locks and oaks in the morning, the sheen of leaves
that glisten in the dew the aroma from fresh-mown
helds high up the mountains shoulders the all
Pervading spirit of the great landscape of freedom
these are things that escape the picture No one
ever painted the real Niagara. No portrait of the
ocean was ever made. Has not every valley a soul
And only as you walk across its spaces do YOU meet
he greetings of this soul of the valley
| am quite persuaded that there is spirit in !
hings living similar to the spirit in living men. No
one ever defined the perfume Of flowers 1t has no
scientific terms The SALVATION of the corn, addressed
% taste, is equally mystery. Taste is itself won
Ter of the Creators own invention Taste is the
of hunger, and hunger is the king of life
1t is this power in growing things, which eludes
Ill scientific statement. which draws US men, As if
pirt answered to spirit Just now the orchards are
'ervaded with young favor 1t hovers over the
reetoPs. 1t sinks softly down to meet YOU and then
.udes you as coy as a bevy OF elfs 1t invites YOU
o lrnger till the autumn, when apples will be ripe.
indeed the whole landscape is thronged with beck
ming harvest favors