Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-09-02
AROUND THE CITY
BY MAMIE LANCASTER.

: get the way his old commander looks.
either in nature or metal.
Then he swung himself in front of
the bronze private that forever guards
the north front of the granite base.
+, I was one of though it seems
queer that / ever was youngster,
fstrong snd steady on my legs, like
that,
II didn't seem to occur to him to re-
sent the fate that had made one SOL
uier hero on a pedestal and the
ether a cripple on sticks He was salts
fed TO be "one Of them"
x x *
THERE come times when this column
takes on the dignity of woman's
page III this case the honor is due to
a backgrounds archaic craving for hoe
cake His bewiidered little madam,
| who simply never heard Of the thing,
/ sent a hurry call to her dearest Ann
woman" in the same spirit doubtless
/ that caused the adagc man TO advise
any port in storm. but luckily--to
/ quote another adage man--she hit the
nail on the head.
! There are many ways of not know
/ ing how 10 make a hoecake. They are
I found mainly in cook books One will
/ tell you; Take equal measures of corn
Z
There is no -four in hoecake
Another begins, with the infallibility
of cook books and dictionaries: Beat
two eggs briSkly---''
A hoecake knows no eggs
Another starts out with To a quart
of cornmeal seasoned With salt add hot
waiter
Water Should be cold
Another steers clear of the aforesaid
errors to slip up in the baking, which
should be done in a stovepan similar
TO those used in Southern fireplaceS be-
tore the Civil War"
The recipe lady means the iron skillet
ON legs which Dixie cooks used to place
ON a bed of hot Goals shoveled from
the fireplace and in which they baked
every sort Of bread--~eXcept hoecake.
Carnpone. light bread and biscuit
went into a skillet like that, and even
in later years when a certain brown
Louisa had put the lid on and banked
IL with more hot Goals she would go
to the spring, pick a chicken or spank
ono of her human chocolate drops
without the least apparent interest in
what was going on inside the skillet.
After that she might take a leiSurely
drink from the gourd floating ON top
OF the water tub, go to the door and
pick her paSsle OF chips and then
Saunter TO the hearth, lift the lid with
poker and find the bread done to
-golden-crusted TO look at and
something delicious TO smell. But she
didn't cook hoecake that way.
She knew better.
Her hoecake wasn't a pan at all, but
a disk of iron as smooth as glass and
as black as the ace of spades. TO be
properly historic, of course, it should
have been the back of field hoe, such
as was used in early settler days--but
the disk was bought in store along
with waffle irons and muffin rings.
When Louisa baked a hoecake she
propped the iron disk before the
fire and while it was getting hot got
her dough ready-oornmeal salt and
water from the tub. Having spooned it
to a pattycake consistency. she slapped
the dough OH the hot disk. poked her
finger in the center to let the steam
escape. set it before the fire. went away,
to come back now and then TO revolve
the disk so that the crust would brown
evenly all around. and when done off
she would slip the delicious thing, slit
it in the middle and butter-and send
it TO the table sizzling hot.
And that's the way to bake hoe
cake.
ON a rainy day woman was walk
- ing along path that trimmed
circle of grass. A scrap Of illustrated
paper caught her interest and she
stopped 10 pick 1t up and lay It care
fully on the dripping grass. Then she
passed on.
Another woman Just behind. curious
to see what could have caused such
careful treatment, stopped in turn to
look down at the bit of paper. which
was really a ieafiet, soiied and creased
from the tramp of many feet.
On 1t was the picture Of a head
crowned with thorns.