| Show f tan TaM a III IC Corn 0 r i i we grow grov tau tail tall tan corn in america the world ivorid is beginning to end find it out every year brings the fact more and more home to the perceptive and digestive faculties of all civilized humanity like ike all great truths it did not gain credit at once true everybody sees it here with his own eyes but not so on the other of the water the first accounts of the productiveness of our western prairies were read by our Bucking hamshire farmers with about as much respect as the fish stories of the sailor sinbad it took even the highest d dignitaries agnit aries arles of the land a long while to get fairly up to a level with the actual fact even at this day there is an ear of corn in the british museum which enjoys a very distinguished tinel tinei shed consideration as a curiosity it divides attention we do not say equally bit certainly fractionally with the nineveh bull and the great Kohin it is a perfect marvel to our good cousin john bull and yet it has but a very simple history and it is not a very extraordinary ear of corn after all it reached its present distinction something in ibis this wise in the month of january 1847 at a certain dinner party in london at which lord john russell lord morpeth and many other distinguished persons were present the conversation turned upon the irish famine and the remark was made by lord john that he lie rejoiced that so good a substitute f for dor 0 r the ry native ati V breadstuff had been fo indian corn turning torning to mr bates the american in in the house of baring brothers his lord ship shiy went on to say why bates some of the cobs have twelve to fourteen rows of grain on them to which mr dates bates coolly replied yes my lord I 1 have seen from twenty to twenty four rows on a cob 2 that is a rare Yanke elsm was the pleasant retort of the premier and the whole company shouted in approval the burst of merriment over ove Mr bates ates il bought his peace by a wagar of a dinner for the company all round that he could produce such an ear done exclaimed lord john and the bet was clinched the dinner passed off mr bates returned home but not entirely at ease ile he had done a strange thing 0 for ahe the first time in his life he had made an en engagement aeme 6 nt he was not absolutely certain of gis ris his ability to fulfill fulfil ful fil he had misgivings that he had bad rashly pledged the honor of his big country it had been long since he looked upon an american crib and however patiently he winnowed win the cornucopia corn of his hi memory he found that the cobs of his early days had gone glimmering through the lapse of time among the things that were wera and were now so far off that he count the rows ile he was as plautus would say refat redact ad iii ili vitas in yankee parlance ar lance gardup hardup har hard dup up ay but fortune favors the trave brave brave it happened that a friend of ours dropped in the next day at the counting house of the Ba rings mr bates with brightening face hailed gim sim him and made known his difficult difficulty you are are safe 11 was I 1 the response if I 1 live to get home TO yon von n shall have even a bigger bigger 0 ear car than you have promised our oar friend G soon returned and straightway wrote to rogers reyn old of lafayette indiana telling them the story and begging egging li them for the honor of the country country to come to the rescue and turn the tables on lord john showing them what yankees could do in the july following mr G received by express from lafayette a nicely arranged arranged L box conta containing inin six ears of horse tooth c corn two of which had twenty nine rows two thirty one onland and two thirty two the box was forthwith addressed to J bates esq care Baring Brother co ship by black ball line care of the liverpool house it reached readied its destination and lord rohn john ohn rus sell first lord of the treasury third son of the late duke of bedford by the second daughter of george viscount torrington torn agton and lineal descendant of lord william Russell the martyr of liberty acknowledged the corn the dinner was won wort joshua bates didlot did not perpetrate a and the british museum holds the trophy |
