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Show --Bjafi2tf?S3i2?!inTOn o 'X 1 &.v I r:--;.-M.-- I will flclent f.r nt loBRt a couple of plug for the twxIcHt n) of four or five cents. The iiewpaier have given prominence this year to the exploit of n Indiana farmer farm-er who hns raised a pumpkin large around as a wagon wheel and welghlnf? 15n pounds. However, How-ever, the record In pumpkin growing Is claimed by a Colorado planter, who gets credit for producing pro-ducing a few years ago a ptiti;o-kln ptiti;o-kln weighing more than 300 pounds. Cranberries are a Thanksglf-lng Thanksglf-lng commodity the price of which fluctuates widely In different years. And yet we feel that we must have them, almost without regard to price, for If Thanksgiving Thanks-giving Is incomplete without the turkey, certainly the turkey Is Incomplete wlihout the crunber-ry crunber-ry sauce. Cranberries are cultivated culti-vated to any gxtent In only three stales, namely, MasnaohusettB, Wisconsin and New Jersey, and the producing area being thus restricted re-stricted It naturally follows that when there comes a lean year . 1 I , . I V. .J,U t.AM. rles Is quickly reflected in the price. However, cranberries are never so very much of an extravagance ex-travagance because It requires such a modest portion to make up a batch of cranberry sauce. When cranberries are plentiful they sell wholesale whole-sale a low as 2 per barrel, but a few years apo. when hre M.ja.'SLxinae, ih price went as high as t'iO puTtarmT -- The business side of the problem of supplying a Thanksgiving dinner for the American people la by no means tbo least Interesting phase of this subject The city of Chicago alone receives re-ceives during the week or ten days before Thanksgiving as many as half a million turkeys, valued In the aggregate, at wholesale prices, at much more than a millions dollars. From Cape Cod, Mass., the greatest cranberry growing district, dis-trict, there are shipped each autumn more than one-third of a million car loads of cranberries, and the major portion of this harvest finds Its way to Thanksgiving dinner tables. Many car loads of celery from Michigan and other stntea swell the total cost of our Thanksgiving dinner to millions. jgm TEA 1)1 LY growing In slgnlft-tVrll' slgnlft-tVrll' -K entire year by year and In the "i'1 fHtne of Its appetizing attri butes the American Thunks- f giving dinner has become very murh of an Institution. It might ulmost be said that it has become more of an Institution In-stitution than the American Thanksgiving, Itself. At least If the feast docs not overshadow over-shadow the holiday at homo it does In foreign parts. For, bo is known, the American Thanksgiving dinner Is now eaten "around the world." "J""""""" and In these detached realms of American soil or sentiment the dinner Is decidedly the most Important feature fea-ture of the program, for, of course, there Is no football game and 110 matinee such as many Americans rely upon for Thanksgiving diversion, and In the case of many of tho exiles who observe ob-serve Thanksgiving oversess there is not even a Thanksgiving religious service such as is universal uni-versal at home. It Is not merely, either, that the officers and men of our army and navy have Introduced tho Yankee Thanksgiving dinner to benighted lands long In Ignorance of Its delights. To be sure the epicurean bluejackets and the lads In khakl have been responsible for much of this gastro- , nomlc "missionary work," but It Is also a fact that American diplomatic and consular officials, and Indeed all classes of Americans resident abroad, have done their share to preserve all the traditions of the Thanksgiving dinner as a reality In every transplanted home. Kspeclnlly. where there Is a little "American colony" In an alien environment, is the Thanksgiving dinner right Jealously guarded. Hut whereas tho American Thanksgiving dinner din-ner has been winning Its way around tho world it hns likewise come to enjoy more and more prestige at home. The one Jnrrlng note In any present-day eulogy of the Thanksgiving dinner is to be found In its greatly increased cost over the exiK-nBo Involved for a corresponding menu a few years since. No person who grasped the Import of the "high cost of living" issue n the recent political campaign can fall to realize that the matter Is a very grave one to the average aver-age housekeeper, and especially when It obtrudes ob-trudes Itself In connection with a holiday repast which ought to be an occasion for care'free feasting feast-ing Instead of domestic perplexities. The one consolation, If not compensation, la - ""j'atlon Is to be found In the knowledge - mmm- Thanksgiving dinners in this day and generation are vastly better than the like holiday holi-day spread of years gone by. It Is riot so much that the dishes that go to make ui the Mil of fare for the November holiday have been greatly Increased In number or variety. Your hearty diner demands on Thanksgiving the essentials es-sentials such as turkey and celery and cranberry cran-berry sauce and pumpkin pie, which were the stand bys of the feast In the days of his father and his grandfather before him. The point Is that some of the eatables are unquestionably more fiavory than were their counterparts of several decades ago, and with all due respect to the kind that mother used to niBke some of the modern recipes seem to put It all over the old timers In garnishes and the preparation prepara-tion of puddings and pastry, etc. And, speaking of the changes that have come about, take the rase of the toothsome turkey, headllner of the whole holiday menu. It would be futile to try to convince the high liver of the twentieth century who revels In bis milk fed or chestnut fed turkey from Ilhode Island or the middle west, that his forefathers ever enjoyed anything so delicious. Certainly turkeys have Increased In size, too. Judging by the average weight those that find their way to market. However, this latter development develop-ment Is clearly traceable to the tendency of turkey raisers to devote themselves almost exclusively to the Itronze. the largest of the tlx standard varieties of turkeys. However, there are two sides to this turkey story, and the housewives who preside over mall families are the ones who have had brought home to them the disadvantageous side of this boom In the sl.e of turkeys. With the big bronxe birds weighing from 16 to 36 pounds apiece and usually nearer the latter than the former figure crowding the market It Is becoming every yesr more difficult for the buyer of a family of two or three people to find a satisfactory six. seven or eight pound turkey. It really begins to look as though the small families would be driven to ho'els on Thanksgiving or elue be compelled In take In boarders or entertain all their friends at the Iioliday dinner Turkey buying, too. Is the phase of the Thanksgiving marketing where the incre-d tost of living nxt severely pinches the man with the stationary Income. A dweller In any vt our large cities msy comtier himself decidedly de-cidedly In luck these days If be succeeds In getting a tender turkey at Thanksgiving for 15 cents per pound, and he Is much more likely to be asked any figure up to 3s or 40 rents pr pound, which prices have prevailed every Thanksgiving In recent yars In the New York and I '.os to n markets for the choicest birds. The people f the central wet have an advantage ad-vantage ever eastern twrk caters, because jm- f " t , : ik " - t f J . ' i - M backbone of ' '"'."rr""7. 1' f- a Jhe country " - V" I ,. re the great . v xAiaLgj-frffll centers of the . ;.-,'-s j: l turkey Indus- ' try. although ,n doul,,ta fWWjaVYvc zjsat- ,CH" surprise t a tsjcyyter some of our readers to learn that Texas leads all the other states In the fulon In the number of turkeys produced. 1'roxlmlty of the market to the rural district dis-trict whenee It draws Its supply of holiday fowls is a highly important consideration nowadays, now-adays, because the mistress of a city home can ro longer purchase her Thanksgiving turkey tur-key from a farmer who drives up to her door marketing the products of his own farm. All the turkeys are handled nowdaya through commission com-mission merchants, which means, of course, that there Is a middleman's profit to be paid by the ultimate consumer. Another secret of the present high prices of turkeys Is found In the fact that the live birds are shipped long distances. If they are transported by express the expense Is considerable, and If they make the Journey by freight the trip Is nearly as costly, Inasmuch as the live birds are sent by freight only In carload loU, which Involves IV'&'-V 1 ,n rental of a special "v v tyi'e of cnr 'or ,tle our" k ",,y and p8jr for tne " 1 WTy ervlces of a man who la 1 I - X'. Bent BlonK ,0 fced the 11" if7 birds en route. T'Uwlngto Ihe m.rsvh-' . -Juitfi lng price of turkey and H'Jiiy, an occasional shortage of uPP'y " although - iynf there la no prospect of Yfcljl B turkey 'anl'ne thls year has Induced an Int VO- creasing number of fam- (iXXWS'i'J'f jiiell all over the coun-j coun-j try to substitute chicken, f ick or goose for the regulation Thanksgiving owl. The co..t Is much less and the satisfaction satisfac-tion equally great once a householder has freed himself from the tradition that Thanksgiving Thanks-giving without turkey would not be Thanksgiving. Thanks-giving. Then, too, the increasing number of vegetarians and persons who have adopted a diet of nuts or other meat substitutes, have devised some very Ingenious proxies for the Thanksgiving dinner non meat dishes that even simulate the appearance of a turkey. However, these new-fangled dishes can scarcely scarce-ly be recommended as cheap, owing to the amounts of nuts and the number of eggs the recipes call for. In the face of soaring prices In so many food lines, It Is gratifying to note one Thanksgiving Thanks-giving indispensable, the cost of which remains re-mains virtually unchanged. This Is our old friend, the puiiipklu. dear to youth and old age alike. In the form of the pumpkin pie. No lerson has ever attempted to "corner" the pumpkin crop, and probably no person ever will undertake such a miracle. The fact that the great golden globes with their luscious "flllln"' can be raised In every section of the t'nlted States, and that. too. without any trouble, once the vines are planted. Is doubtless doubt-less responsible for the moderate prices that always prevail. Probably there Is no town or city In the country where a good sized pumpkin pump-kin cannot be purchased for 60 cents, and In most American markets one may buy a small pumpkin an orb of Joy with ammunition suf- I; I & Menu of First Thanksgiving Feast i What did our Puritan ancestors dine on at their first Thanksgiving feast? Surely thev did not set the standard which Is being followed fol-lowed today on the Thanskglvli.g dinner menus. We know that some things were lacking that they must have greatly missed. There could have been no butter, cream, milk, cheese, or any dlsb that Is principally made with milk, because there were no cows In New England until K23, when John Wlnthrop, later their worshipful governor, brought over four cows from England. The butter and cheese that they took with thera on the Mayflower were long since consumed. I hardly think they had chicken pie for the feast, for the fowls were served as a rare delicacy for the sick. They muid have had egps for tbtlr jles and puddings. pud-dings. Hlnce tbey raised pumpkins they might have had pumpkin pies, if they made them with water. In the ocean there was great abundance of fish, oysters, and othr shellfish. Of course, there was none of their national dish, prime roast beef, no veal, lamb, mutton or pork. There was plenty of deer, which would be a good substitute In venslon. Hut they had one thing that we like better than anything else on Thanksgiving day. Wild turkeys were very abundant In the wood and fields about Ply- mouth, and the Indians went out and shot a Isrge number of them, and made them their contribution to the feast. Ckivernor Pradford says In hi history that they were delicious to eat How fitting It Is that the bird that Is the crowning glory of our Thanksgiving board should have been the fsvorlte meat of that historic his-toric first Thanksglvlg dinner! There were, doubtless, onlona. beets, parsnips, pars-nips, ratbage or colewort. squash, and perhaps other vegetables, for a good variety of seeds were brought over from Holland. Perhapa there was succotash, and the Indians must hsve made It, for It was something that the Pilgrim cooks bad never heard of before, and we know that they learned later from the In-dlnis In-dlnis how to make If. Now, what did they have for dessert, I wonder? I think they may have had some sort cf pudding with huckleberries huckle-berries for plums. I doubt if they had much sweetening for their pudding and pumpkin pies, as their stock of sugar and molasses was very limited. Perhaps they had a substitute. There were fine wild grapes Id the woods, and they had doubtless dried a store of wild strawberries, straw-berries, cherries and plums. Tbey surely did not have any ml nee plea, since the Pilgrims thought rnlnce pies were very wicked, and savored ot Romanism. 80 they condemned thosa who afterward taade and at tbetn. |
