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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (May 24, 1907)
W s V ' MAY 24, 1007 The Commoner. 13 fa MH 4 . '41 j$ j1- V 6' - R 4 """SUP J AK! - v r t WMb Kb r vf 4 ' Just Thonghts This department fs in receipt of a request from a young friend who lives in Perry, Oklahoma. He writes: "Please don't laugh at me in ridi cule, hut in the May 10 issu6" of The Commoner in your. 'Just Thoughts' you spoke of crawdad tails being. good eating. I am a boy of sixteen, and if there is anything I love to do it is to eat. One day, during the absence of my mother, I prepared and served some frogs' legs to the boys. Now I wish you to tell me how you prepared the narrative of Mr. Crawdad for eat ing purposes. Our Oklahoma ponds are alive with them, and if there is anything savory about their caudal appendages please tell me how to prepare them. By the way, we are especially fond of sassafras tea and are sorry when mother says 'enough.' " We are awfully afraid that a boy whose "taster" is equal to liking sassafras tea is not going to appre ciate the delights of the crawdad diet. It has been,so many years since the writer prepared crawdads for eating purposes that he fears he has forgotten. But the formula "was something like this: First" catch your crawdads, selecting the ones of average size. After mercifully killing the crawdad by shoving a knife blade through its head, ampu tate the tail At the point where it joins the hody. After carefully washing and rinsing the tail through a couple of waters, drop into a ket tle of boiling water which is slight ly salty and boil for three or four minutes. Remove from the water and as soon as cool enough to handle without blistering the fingers, re move the shell. Drop the white meat Into a skillet containing enough boiling grease to float the crawdad tail and skim out in about thirty seconds. If this is the right way thecrawdad tall will come -out of the grease curled up like the shrimp meat you buy at the fancy grocers. This done, any bgy will know how to perform the rest of the operation. Epicures say that the best way Is to drop the live crawdad into boil ingvwater, just as-lobsters are boiled. This is cruel, and no boy with half & heart will do it Wonder if this young- Oklahoma friend knows how to cook a wild duck when he is out on a hunting trip? The formula is good for chickens, plover, snipe, or any other edible bird that is not too bigr Be fore starting on the hunting trip put an onion in one pdcket and an apple in another. Also some salt and pep per. Then get your duck. When you get so hungry you think you just can't wait any longer for some thing to eat, prepare the duck. Dig a hole in the ground big enough to bury about three ducks the size of the one you have, and build, a fire in it. The idea is to prepare a good bed of coals. Clean the duck thor oughly, bu you need not remove all of the feathers. Rub the salt and pepper inside of the bird and then put in the apple and the onion Close up the bird and then put it inside of a big ball of stiff clay that has been well kneaded. The mud walls should be about two inches thick. Then put the big ball of mud in the bed of coals, covering it up well and adding more fire on top. When the duck Is cooked the mud walls will have cracked and the sav ory steam arising will tell you that J the meal is ready. Pull the ball of baked mud from the fire, break It open and take out the duck. The skin and feathers will come off with the clay. The apple and onion in side of the duck will have given an' indescribable flavor to the flesh. Pish may bo prepared the rame way, omitting the apple and onion. A young lady friend in Fort Smith, Arkansas, who says she enjoys read ing The Commoner every week, and especially the "Whether CommSn or Not" department, seems to have grasped in a measure one of the dangerous tendencies of the times. She submits the following: There was" a poor fellow one time Who-had spent his very last dime, And tp get him a meal He attempted to steal, And was giyen three years for his crimje. A stockbroker couldn't refrain From "taking" two millions in grain. 'Twas easy, Indeed, The jury agreed, To see that the man was insane. commencement, anxl aa he listens ho wonders if the gray hairs are really showing very plainly over his tem ples, and if ho looks as old to the little girl ajj his own father did to him long years ago just about grad uating time. My, my! How the years do fly. Only yesterday she came homo from kindergarten her face lighted up with joy and her littlo hands grasping the first littlo picture she made under the Instructions of the pationt young woman who presided over the de partment. Only yesterday she was making paper chains and sorting out colored beads. Only yesterday she Tvas cutting out paper dolls. And now she is fluttering around in an agony of joyous anticipation, watch ing the finishing up of her graduating gown. A little girl no longer, but a young woman almost. A young woman looking into tho future with joyful expectancy, seeing great duties to be performed, great wrongs to right. We used to write "funny jokes" about tho "sweet girl graduate." But that was before Old FatherTime had ripped off a few years and brought ono of them to our own household. The point of view makes all the difference in tho world, doesn't it? The Cost of a Piano fchould not bo reckoned entirely unon whnt vnn IpnytOBotlt, A veryJmportnnt factor, o tho yearn iiiifln, jji wimtyuu pay uj Kccpitin ortior, it rid moro Important Mill is tho length of crvico and tho dcKrco of satisfaction it gives you. GABLER PIANOS Wo" have heard, during the last eight or ten years, a great deal about tho "kings of finance." Now isn't it about time to pay a few tributes to the "queens of finance, ' three millions of wffom are perform ing" financial stunts every week in the year that wduld make Gates and Rockefeller and Morean and all tho rest of the "kings" look like three"! plugged dimes in comparison. The -queen or nnanco" is tne wife of an average worklngman who draws the average pay-of h'is craft. She has an average of about $10 a week with which to work, and with this she pays rent, provides plenty of nourishing food for the family of from three to six people, dresses herself and tho children shoes, clothing, hats, underwear, stockings, etc. pays the doctor's bills, gives a little to the unfortunate about her, provides amusement for the little ones and puts by a few pennies now and then for n rainy day," Wouldn't you like to see Mr. Rockn feller or Mr. Morgan providing for their families, and doing it fairly well, on $10 a week? Wouldn't it make them exercise their business acumen to the limit to have things come out even? The average Amer ican housewife is the best financier in the world, and don't you forget it when you go to talking about busi ness managers. Let's see, it was year before last, wasn't it or was it the year before that when mamma took the little girl in short dresses by the hand and walked with, her to the schoolhouse to be jwith her during 'the first lew minutes of the first day of scEool? Really, now, it dqes not seem as if it were over three or four years ago, at most. And now when the father returns home in the evening he finds the sitting room cluttered up with white dress goods and paper pat terns, long strips of lace, lace me dallions, Insertion, ribbon, and all that sort pf thing things that the average man knows very little about in the raw state. For the last two weeks all he has heard at the sup-, per table was talk about class par ties and class plays, and class day exercises, and thesis, and oration, and graduating dress. He just has to sit there and listen while mamma and the little kindergarten girl of yesterday talk about preparation's for Answers to Correspondents "Dermatologist":- -Some complex ions are improved by a moderate ap plication of soap and water. "Superstitious" Of course wo be lieve In signs. We know ono that costs us at least a dime every time we pass it with the missus. "Queen of Diamonds" We can not help you. We never play cards because it's too hard work. "Spuds" It strikes us that pota toes planfed in the full moon would be awfully hard to cultivate and dig. How would you get there? "Uneasy" We tried lard and red precipitate when we felt the symp toms you describe. "Cook" We like our pies open faced. "Fannie" Wo-will answer your question when you- tell us why an apple turnover is always better than an apple pie made from tho same batch of materials. "Hamlet" Do we believe in ghosts? We certainly do. If we did not see one walk about 4 o'clock every Saturday we would bo in bad shape over Sunday. "Friendly" Her name is Lottie, but she seldom hears it. "Susanno" Sew the bias pfeces to the gore, tucking tne ruffles easily over tho appjique and letting the bishop sleeves droop gracefully from the neckyoke. Maybe it is from the singletree they ought to droop. We always get mixed on these things. Modern Definitions Congress A place where they make appropriations of money wrung from the people. Federal Judiciary Men who have usurped the congressional function of lawmaking. Traitor A, man who objects to being robbed by special Interests. Undesirable Citizen One who does not-think your way. Brain Leaks , - - The man who "Ays' high" usually falls hard. Flattery puts fat in the head, not on the bones A real hungry man looks with sus picion on a chafing dish. When a man says: "Now tell me exactly what you think' he means that he wants you tell him just what he thinks. Tho traveling evangelist has one advantage over the local preachers. He doesn't have to stay and reap tho criticism of his words and methods. ' " PATENTS 8CODRISD OK 1TJ5K KKTUKNJ-I). Irren wnnrl n In Tl-ntMII Tllir.iA nni. Hook, jind Wat of InronUnrw Wanted, sontfreo. EVAJSS, WH.UISNS ,fc CO., Wfuhltigton.D.O PUZZ THE PUZZLE THUT PUZZLES THE PEOPLE. A dollur'g -worth ofnnnjwtnent for'a dime. Bond lOcin Stamps to PUZZ PUZZLE CO.. Cheit. Hill, Phlla., P. whllo neither tho highest nor tho lovvont prices, nro unsurpruMCrt by any Instrument mndoln America or ISuropo in tho cr,vJco and saltefuctlon -they glvo for each dollar . oxpondod. Tho "OAHLKIt "Vf '1 JH ni'noiw, and tho no-lewi-famou "GAHLKIt WOllKMANSlIU"' makes that tono permanent through Rcnoratlori aftor rrenuraUon of use. A OaUIer Is cheapest UKOAUH1S BEST. Investigate. Ernest Gabler & Bro. ESTABLISHED 1854. r - 500 Whltlock Ave, Bronx Borough, N, Y. City, OPPORTUNITIES ALONG A NEW LINE Today tho grot opportunities in farming, in cattle raising, In timher and in commefefal lines are in the country and in the towns along tho Pacific Coast extension, of the CHICAGO, Milwaukee & St. Paul RAILWAY - It has heen a long time since. , .... . a transcontinental railroad has been built. It -will probably- be' . a longer time, after the comple-" -tion of this one, before another one is built. It is worth your while to investigate these open ings. This can best be done-by a personal visit. Such a trip is made inexpensive by the low rates via this railway to North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho and Washington. If you are Interested, write for infor mation, asking specific ques tions. A letter and a descrip tive book and map will be sent , by return mail. ' "." " V.'L'TSTABH, General' "Western Agent. ;v Omaha, Neb, -' "- ii t 4 1 i '4 K PI t vr V :V4tii,WiLSfa;J 'l