New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-06-25

as a matter OF course and courtesy
would say to the hostess, you don't
mean to tell me that I am TO be de-
prived Of the corn bread / have been
looking forward to ever since | thought
of making this visit? Why, my dear
madam, have been dreaming Off
and the thoughtful guest was invaria-
bly, interrupted with, "Here. Sukey,
bring in that pan of corn bread; | felt
certain Mr.. Blank would call for it,
How anybody can get used to eating
white bread is beyond me-"
Still in Use in South
Corn bread has gone out of use in
the United States in the last quarter
of a century for no other reason in
the world than because it has gone out
Of style. Yet a Northerner will go
down TO Atlanta, or Charleston, or
Savannah, or New Orleans. or Jackson
Vile. or an fastener will go to 81.
Louis, or Kansas City, or Omaha, and
beam like a schoolboy with new ball
when he finds corn pone or corn muffns
or corn bread on the hotel menu. He
might have had it in the North or East
Just as well, but il would not occur to
him TO look for it at home.
In the long ago, when schoolboys IN
the United States wore belted jackets,
there was always a place, above the
belt and between the shirt and the
outer garment, for the storage or nuts
crab apples, marbles, balls, tops,
strings and corn dodgers, specially
designed and incrusted bun, in the IN
terror of which a loving hand would de-
posit lust enough butter 10 take away
the dryness without soaking through.
These were sometimes eaten, sometimes
traded, and sometimes thrown with re-
markable velocity and precision, when
the teachers back was turned, across
the schoolroom. Persons in the line OF
the projectile's course and for whom
they were not intended lodged them,
fact that may be of value to the phIlol-
ogist. In time any hunk Of corn
bread came 90 be known, IN familiar
language, as a "dodger'
Many Uses Taught in Europe
But prosperity and desire for So
cial standing operated toward the de-
popularization of corn bread over an
area of the country where it had been
used almost exclusively for decades. In
the late sos the production of corn so
greatly exceeded the home consumption
that the price went down almost below
the point Of profit for the farmer. Al
about this time an agitation sprang up
throughout the corn belt which infu-
enced Congress 10 send a special COM
mission 10 the French international Ex-
position of 1890 for the special purpose
Of promoting the greater use Of corn IN
domestic use. The commission was
headed by Clark Z. Carr, of Illinois. an
old friend and neghbor of Abraham
Lincoln. Mr.. Carr had served as Con-
sui General in Paris, and the Indian
corn kitchen which he established
was no minor attraction on the Champ
de Mars throughout one OF the bright
est of Partisan summers. This exhibit.
showing as it did an almost innumer-
able variety of ways in which the ce
real might be used in the preparation
of food, did much toward popularlzing
it abroad.
r. might be a good stroke OF policy
for all concerned If Congress should
appoint. not one. but a large number
of commissions at this time to show
how cornmeal may be used as a substi-
tute for -four. Such a movement would
be no less enlightening. il would seem,
TO residents Of the United States than
10 those Of other lands. II corn were
used as il should he used in the kitch-
ems of the world -four would be selling
At a much lower price barrel than il
Is to-day.