Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1917-10-30
Sweets and sours.
(Boston Herald.)

Is sugar something We cannot DO
without, or merely an article OF luxury
which may be excluded from our dietary
at will and without Inconvenience? The
historians of commerce have much to
say 10 that regard, and ''lest We for
get" admonition turks In some of their
disclosures. Time was when the world
had far less use for the ''sweet tooth"
metaphor than It has today. Sugar was
costly and 10 demand-think of It'll.
only for medicinal purposes. Not until
the 18th century did the growing resort
to tea and coffee bring 1t into vogue.
Then began the movement which en-.
throned sugar In popular favor and
finally lowered the planet with what
has been called its ''candy age" In
the interval national councils conferred
and parliaments legislated concerning
sugar: bounties were granted In the
interest of its production and export;
periods of elation alternsted with periods
of depression In the sugar market. But
sugar went on gathering strength and
seemed to have reached it's apogee when
nearly seventy beet-sugar factories we're
in operation in the United States alone
and Michigan could say OF her "sugar
BOWL" 30 miles In diameter, that 1t was
turning out 140,000,000 pounds OF
grsnulated sugar every season.
Note that there are other "condi-
ments" which we shall reflect upon the
moment the rising scale of prices
threatens to cut them of. Remember
the case of ealt, so ancient that 1t
figured at Homerc banquets, as well as
In sacrificial offerings from the earliest
times; the case of pepper, 5000 pounds
of which were demanded by Alaric as
part of the ransom exacted from Rome;
then the more modern instances OF
mustard, vinegar, capers and dozen
other kinds of dressing which every up
to-date cook is expected to have In his
repertory. Is 1t mere Inheritance, or
some primordial necessity of our phys.
ical constitution, which thus commits
us to sours and sweets? The blood
needs salt Is constituent, probably be-
cause 1t got It's earliest shaping from the
lowly life of the deep sea. Sugar occurs
in many fruits which have been part OF
mans food from the beginning; some
sugars are tissue builders. But after
all allowances have been made, there is
left residuum of mystery that s'outly
resists the solvent of habit, custom or
prejudice. We consume sweet pickles
and sour pickles and like both. Why do
we Ice oysters and pepper our soups.
lemon-juice our fish and sugar our
strawberriesp Whence so many person
al preferences, differing In the same
family and by no means the same for
different com mmunities and peoplesP
"The Highlander fourishes on oat-
meal, which the Sheffield iron worker
would rather starve than eat the fat snail
which the Roman country gentleman
once priced now crawls unmolested in
the Gloucestershire peasants garden;
rabbits are tabooed In Germany: frogs
are unspeakable In England; sauer-
kraut is detested in France, and many
races and gangs are quite certain that
they would die II deprived OF meat"
The contradictions which Carpenter
thus emphasizes are valid also for the
various condiments that are called in to
supplement food. They should at least
help us to distinguish between elements
of nutrition and "mstters of taste"
The rights of palate and stomach In
days of shortage are scarcely coordinate,
and the due subordination OF the one to
the other is surely the part OF wisdom.