The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-08-26

of cats abounded there. whether the lisland was named after Thomas IT. Cat or Fuss c. Cat. or Carrie Chapman lCatt; also what was the annual output of kittens.
 Now. Desoto and his outfit of staff
 correspondents. to-wit, Garcilesso, De La Vega, Bledma, Alonzo de Carmona,
 and the gentleman from Elvas, omitted no detail of discovery calculated to
 thrill red blooded reader If cats had i been found in Alabama these pencil showers of Hernando's gang would have handed us columns of gory stuff about lcat-fights, caterwauling, cataracts and catsup, with photographs of cat dis iputes where there was much short hair and the ground torn up with the photo of the catastrophe to the cat
 that was licked
 /! As showing the analytical character
 of the write ups of Desotos reporters, witness the fatal battle of Maubila, and the subsequent disaster to the priests and monks with the command.
 Every adjective and two-thirds of the adverbs in the Spanish language is | employed. Says Garcilesso: Upon the ruins of Maubila the Spaniards passed the first night in confusion and pain, sending forth groans and cries that fell upon the distant air like the rav- Iings of the damned In every direction
 
 lpresented. In the slowly receeding fires Ipiles of brave Mobili ms cracked, and 1 fried upon thc glowing coals. Upon the great square pyramid of bodies
 smeared with blood and brains lay still
 unburnt."
 Outside the walls hundreds lay in the sleep of death, still hot from their Hast desperate exertions, and copiously bleeding from the large orifces made Inv Ia and evyordS and disco1Oring the beautiful grounds upon which they had so often sported in their native I games. All the Spanards were wound ! ed, except the holy fathers and were, besides exhausted, famished and intox- Heated with the most fiendish despera- tion
 The priests, monks and best informed Ilaymen went into convention to de-
 termine the propriety of substituting lcorn meal for flour in the celebration of the mass. They decided that bread made of pure wheat, and wine of the | juice of the grape were required for lconsecration. After this the fathers, in llieu of the chalices, chasubles, and oth- CT sacred ornaments which had been consumed by fire, made some robes of dressed deer skins, erected rude altars and read the introitus, and other pray CTS of the mass on Sundays and feasts, emitting the consecration. This unusual ceremony was denominated the dry mass (See Garcileesso pp. SIP, 331. Biedma pp. "A, 78). This same author
 in lamenting the destruction of the priestly parphernalia, says few pages further along in the same chapter: Upon the whole journey from Tampa bay to this place (Maubila) they had passed much of their leisure time m gambling. This vice was common to all class those of rank often bet high, stalking their money Jewels. horses. effects, and even their female slaves! rife fire of Maubila destroyed their cards They now made others of parch- ment, painted them with admirable skill, and loaned these packs from one company to another, continuing to gamble under trees, upon the river banks, and in their rude huts.' \ All the flour and articles necessary for religious worship was lost by the battle and fire Seventeen hundred dangerous wounds demanded immediate attention It was often that soldier had dozen severe ones, with barbed arrows ranking in his flesh. But one surgeon of the expedition survived, and he was slow and unskilled Everything lin his department was devoured by the terrible element. Those who were slightly wounded administered to those whom the Indians had pierced deepest. IThe soldiers OQeneu I16 pOultS Ol oCihC { of the savages and with the fat ob-
 tained bound up the wounds with i bandages torn from the garments of I the soldiers who were killed.
 I (Portuguese narrative page 722, Garcil-
 esso, page 725, Bedma, page 759
 This report of an Italian battle where only S2 Spaniards were slain shows that I the news gatherer of that day was Jim Dandy. It also shows that the priests and monks of that time were as narrow as any of the clergy of latter date i and that they didn't know real, good l bread when they saw it. An old black nanny, had she been present at the ! convention of the priests and monks, | could have produced ashcake. hoecake, i fapiacks, or fatted bread. that would
 have knocked flour bread galley west. It,s the fellow who is not used to eating l good bread made from meal and made just right, who yowls for his biscuit 1 made of emasculated wheat. and white ] kaloin.
 Pipe clay is the best friend of the mod | ern white miller. l have seen carloads ! of it in some of our leading western l mills Nobody has observed any miller 1 adulterating corn meal. as people do not I expect bread from that staple to be snow 1 white The people on this continent were l far superior in physical perfection and l digestion to the Europeans at the dis l covery by DeSoto and vet those Indians i for countless generations had never eaten | a spoonful of flour or any other product | of wheat. Corn bread was the staff or ! life to the Indian.
 l He marched on it, he fought on it., 1 he lived on it. Just as many toothsome 1 dishes can be made from corn as from I wheat and then some. In ante-bellum ] days the white folks in the big house 1 served biscuit on the table but the ne- l groes and poor white trash lived on corn bread, so that eventually biscuit
 eating began to be a hall mark of ''qual- 1 ity folks"-iust as the emerald sager
 from Pun,Sinville thinks people take him ! for a mrrionaire because he is running
 a Ford car
 The European war will bring corn l into it's own again, and will probably i make darker and better bread of wheat
 and then we will begin to hear less of l indigestion. chronic stomach troubles
 and other ills of the digestive organs,
 real and imaginary. It may be that it
 will absolutely grow unfashonable to be I interned at Johns Hopkins institute. <