The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1943-06-03


The great American who wrote
of these youngsters and other typ
ical Americans spent his life an
alyzing the whims and foibles OF
our pot l,ellied citizenry. Born
Samuel Clemens, he moved from
farm to riverboat; from gold and
silver mines to the deep pile of
ROYALTY rugs, and from tempera-
mental idosyncracies to plain
horse sense. In his ramblings and
writings, he barred the souls OF ju-
yeniles and adults alike.
You can read Mark Twain
Man and Legend by Delaney
Ferguson (Bobbs-Merrill: So, and
get lot of background on this
sage of Americana. But, IN these
days of rationing when you don't
know where your next potato is
coming from, you might be par
ticularly interested Cat least your
appetite wild in the menu avail
able in the backwoods when Mark
Twain visited his uncle In the
middle 40's:
Fried chicken, roast pig; wild
and tame turkeys, ducks. part
ridges, prairie chickens; biscuits,
hot batter cakes, hot buckwheat
cakes, hot white bread hot rolls,
hot corn pone; fresh tomatoes,
peas, Irish potatoes, sweet pota-
toes; buttermilk. sweet milk, 'clab-
her. Watermelors, muskemelons,
cantaloupes - all fresh from the
garden; apple pie. peach pie'
pumpkin pie, apple dumplings'
peach cobbler."
All of which should start a
"back to the farm" movement.
Not a biography, but a first
hand, honey dissertation on the
advantages of rural life and its
attendant knowledge OF gardening
is Bertha Damon's "a Sense OF
Humus" (Simon & Schuster: $25O .
Primarily the book is full OF
garden lore, canning, recipes, and
good old prescriptions for escap-
lists who are fed up with city life
in this war-torn world. And you
sure do escape when you accom-
pany the author into Hannah
Sprague's "Kitchen and Butt'ry."
There you sniff and smell the
glories of a farm cellar from
away-back- when, stored with the
goods of nature. Witness the
following contents of Hannah
Sprague's basement:
From the rough joists dangled
a few launches of hard-drled
beef, hams and slabs of bacon fla
vorous from sweet corncob smoke.
On hanging shelf racks were pig
homemade cheeses, glass Jars OF
many-colored fruits, and tumblers
of Jams and jellies. On the earth
stood barrels full Of corned beef
and salt pork; kegs OF vinegar and
cider; tubs of eggs packed close IN
salt or in grain to keep; big crooks
full of butter put down in sep
arate. layers of "butter salt" and
cheesecloth after each churnlng;
stone jars of piccalilli, and Gu
cumbers in brine. Pins of POTA-
TOES, carrots, parsnips and yell
low turnips.
up in the attic nuts, or!eo
apples and pears and blueberrles,
corn braided by its husks, punches
of sage and savory
Did you ever see an unoer-
rationed farmer?
Thanksgiving FRENCH
THE story of U. S. military air.
l. craft in action today is impress
sively presented in Reed klnert
americas Fighting Planes in Ac-
ton" Macmillan: $3.50. Kinert
does both the text and the ORA
matte action sketches, many In
full color. , :,
Here is complete record OF
all American planes on the ma
tons training fields, patroliinee
the shorelines and oceans against
enemy attack, and over the word $
far-flung battlefronts. What they
look like. how they perform, what
they have already accomplished
and are expected to, and how they
compare with allied and enemy
aircraft-all these things are EN-
bodied in the brief but vivid &C.
companying text.
Far from being trite textbook
on aircraft, this is the dramatic
story of the mighty Grammar
Avenger, which made its debut II
the Battle of Midway with deadly