Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-03-01
Sweeter Than Roast Pig

ally, of weather, because the eats we're think
ing of aren't available without sugar weather.
Maple sugar! Oh merry, marvellous month
of March!
Most maple sugar isn't maple sugar at all.
That is, it's just like politicians who masquer-
ade as Republicans or Democrats, as the case
may be. Not the genuine article. CONNER
caized, so TO speak.
'Ts true it's pity
And pity It's tits true
The pity is that to many of my fellow men
maple sugar must remain forever a sealed
book.
Maple sugar, Ike poetry and painting has
suffered the tragic fate of commercialiZation.
In these decadent times baser stuff crcu-
lates both in city and country, and men call
it maple sugar. but they know not whereof
they speak So glby they pronounce the
name, so dispassionately, though respectfully
and volubly, that quite unwilling they dis
play their ignorance and misfortune No
wonder the English language has fallen into
disrepute, when tongues waggle foolshly over
royal words,
Charles Dudley Warner, lamenting the van
ishment of the true fireplace, was moved to
say, "A cynic might suggest as the motto of
modern life this simple legend-Just as good
as the real.'" The essayist's sentiment APP
peals with the force and effect of comprehen-
sion to the man who remembers maple sugar.
/ have myself watched the windows of gro
Gerry stores at about this time of year for the
annual display of sugar cakes, and against my
better judgment have never failed to yield to
temptation l do not advise others to pass
by: l am not so bigoted as that. Let who
will purchase and partake, but let them not
lay the fiatterlng unction to their souls that
they have learned thereby tn immortal taste
of maple sugar. The grocer offered the cakes
like velitabe wares of trade,
And thought, as usual, would say
They were exceeding good,
Pure maple suger is undefiled by any taint of
commercialism.
I'm not blaming the storekeepers. I'm only
pitying the poor blokes who never tasted
maple sugar in sugar camp in a sugar
orchard in sugar country in the good old
days of real sport. l am not contemptuous
/ am merely a Marian. One cannot under
stand a Martian until one has been to Mars
incidentally nobody ever heard of Martian
who wanted to come down to earth. Maple
sugar. in short, does not mean in nv Ian.
guage what it means in the ordinary jargon
of the world. AS an interpreter can merely
suggest that amontillado, Mrs. Thrale's tea
the honey OF Hymettus the ambrosa of the
gods-these are as nothing these are bitter
and stale compared with the Incompatible
nectar of the sugar maple. All that the poets
and prosemen have sung and said in praise
of the aforementioned delights of the palate,
II 1t were gathered together, heaped up,
pressed down and running over, would be
damning with faint praise Even lambs dis
sertation would be ike sounding brass ana a
tinkling eymbal. Sweeter than roast pig,
sweeter far than honey ana the honeyeomb
is the fruit Of the sugar maple. Indeed, here
Is the one and only instance In which there
can rightly be no disputing Of tastes
There's beauty. TOO. IN sugar weather, baaulY
ln the sugar snow Exactly what sugar