The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-06-23

look on the southerner as hopeless &C.
centric. They cannot understand how
anyone could possibly eat hot bread with
every meal. They have 1t possibly once a
week-to lock at-but they eat light
bread. And It is some light bread, too.
II is as different from the article that
passes In Birmingham as light bread as
angel cake Is from quinine. The reason
for their preference for bakers bread is
easily to be seen, but to one accustomed
to biscuits nothing hits the spot so we'll
as q pan OF smoking hot biscuits with
Juicy steak
An Indiana housewife can prepare Irish
potatoes for the table in more ways and
more appetizingly than anybody else on
earth. And the humble spud is staple
dish on every table In Birmingham the
potato Is boiled the fair part Of the skin
removed, and IL is placed on the table,
being more fit for bullets than human
consumption, but here 1t is different.
There are at least dozen ways of pre-
pairing irish potatoes, each one better
than the other eleven
People up here are missing a lot and
don't kno wit. The half brother of the
Irish potato, the sweet potato, is practi-
cally unknown. When they have rice
here they eat milk on 1t instead of
gravy, and II is cooked until each kerr
mel is ready to crumble. Grits is unheard
or. as Is sugar cane syrup.
Just one word more on the subject Of
eating. Housewives here excel IN the
preparation of Irish potatoes and buck
wheat cakes. On winter mornings when
the snow Is two feet deep outside, to sit
down before dish of brown buclswheat
cakes with eggs and breakfast bacon on
the side Is all that I. for one ask. Don't
ever get the idea that they don't feed
YOU well up here. for that would be
big mistake.
Attitude on Negro Question
The attitude of the average man here
ON the negro question is contradictory.
Wells county, in which Bluffton is To-
Gated, contains but one negro. Negroes
here are not tolerated, are not allowed
to live in the county. From time to time
they have made attempts to settle here,
but have invariably been forced to leave
by one means or another. Yet q man
from Burton will sit in the same seat
with a negro in a street car or railroad
train and think nothing of 1t. The negro
He Strengthened up with nothing in his
manner that would not be thought of In
the south.
People here depend for servants on the
Germans, who have settled in large num-
bers in Button and In the country adj
joining. The Germans are quaint peo-
pie and there are some famous charac-
tiers here who furnish amusement for the
entire town. They tell some of the most
laughable stories on them imaginable.
An instance will serve to illustrate.
An elderly German here who is team
ster was walking along Main street one
day, so 1t Is related, when he was seen
to intently regard something on the side
walk and stoop over as If to pick 1t up.
He straightened up with nothing In his
hand and a very red face:
Zach, but some peoples do spit like
nickles." he said, and was greatly puzzled
at the burst of laughter that followed
Bluffton is on the banks of the Wabash
river, famous in song and story. The
Wabash itself is a trifie disappointing. It
is sluggish stream. probably as large as
the Cahaba, and not navigable at Bluff
ton. movement is ON foot at present
to beautify the stream. and II Is probable
that something win be done in this re-
spect
Bluffton covers exactly one square mile
and claims the distinction of having
more paved streets than any other town
of its size in the United States.
Tt is said that the hospitality of the
south Is proverbial but IN no way Is II
surpassed by that of Burton people. Tn
Birmingham stranger, unless he had
friends. might live there 25 years and a
man who was not an acquaintance would
never speak to him. Here everyone
speaks to you whether they know you or
not stranger Is made to feel at home
and It is impressed upon him that people
here are never too busy to be accommo-
dating-and they are not.