The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-10-23
Topeka Restaurants Lose Faith
in Old Reliable Prune.
BeefSteak SmOthered in Onions
a Mate No Longer.
HAVE WAY TO DISGUISE THEM
Little Cream Covering Enough
to Tempt Poor BOarder.
Prunes Still Hold Full Sway on
Vaudeville Stage.

That the prune is a doomed article
of diet is the belief of Miss Nora Hal
bower, a former Topeka girl who is a
graduate in domestic science from
Kansas State Agricultural college and
at present one of tho managers or the
Lazarus cafe in Columbus, Ohio.
Prunes have been joked about for
the last 5 years and travelling men say
they have slowly but surely been
eliminated from the bill of fare in
every hotel in the United States. While
the prune is a plain unSoph1St1cated
article of diet containing the same
kind of starchy nourishment that the
apple or peach affords, the fun that
has been poked at it on the vaudeville
stage and in the Sunday supplement
has sounded it's death knell.
Peoples appetites are largely Great
ed through Imagination and when a
hungry man sits down before the
snowy linen table cloth and glances
through the menu. does his soul crave,
his mouth water for, and his heart
stewed, or boiled? Never. He HES
himself to thoughts of beefsteak
smothered in onions and should an
innocent little dish of stewed prunes
be carried in with the dinner as a
dessert, the enraged diner angrily
waves his napkin and snaps, 'Prunes!
Take 'em away and bring me some
apple pie"
Advertisers know that we taste
things through our imaginations, and
wordy pictures of golden, dripping,
delicious honey" or ''buttercrust
bread" any combination of words that
calls picture before the imagination.
Can anybody page the man who has
seen an advertisement for 'Stewed
Prunes, fresh from the boX?"
Blame 1t on California.
THE marketable prunes of the
United States are generally grown
in California" said Topeka restau-
rant keeper today. when ripe they
resemble a plum somewhat and many
are sold as California plums. When
dry the prune takes on black
wrinkled luster and the growers as
sociations in California-of which
there are a great many-have been
simply selling them over the country
and never advertising a line about
their qualities"
These same associations below in
print about the "Sunkist oranges,
sweet as Heavens glow, Ripened on
the Tree, ETC." You hear lots about
the sweetness and aroma of California
raisins, but nary word about prunes.
Because the company that would at
tempt to increase the sale of prunes by
a national advertising campaign would
go to the wall in no time.
Boarding House Prunes.
The popular boarding mousse Is sup
posed to have prunes for dessert for
three times a week until the patrons
grow wan and yellow and have to take
pink pills. Wise boarding house own
ers never insult their boarders by put
ting prunes on the table.
They make them into delicious ice
cream and create little "doin's'' with
whipped cream dobbed on them, and
the last man is rapidly disappearing
who can say that he was driven from
his happy boarding house by deluge
of the succulent prune.
All of which goes to show the ter
rifle cost of the old prune joke to this
particular California industry.