Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 89, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1910 — Defending the Pumpkin. [ARTICLE]

Defending the Pumpkin.

Mrs. Anne Royall, who wrote “Sketches of History, Life and Manners in the United States,” 1826, declared New England to be “the soil of human excellence.” In Boston, she declared, “the human mind has reached perfection.” Sarah Harvey Porter, in her account of this energetic woman, says that all New England pleased Mrs. Royall. She even defended the New England pumpkin pie. As to pumpkin-eating, she writes, they do make pumpkin pies in the fall; but they have plenty of everything else. Let those who have traveled there say if their tables do not abound, and they are able to furnish them. But why is a pumpkin worse than any other vegetable, pray? It is not from necessity that the Yankees eat pumpkins, but from choice. Why may not a pumpkin be as good as a cymlin or a sweet potato or an opossum? Pumpkin pies are fully as palatable as potato pies. Although I never eat either. I have tasted them, and I see no difference. The cost is the same, I believe. Perhaps it would be better for other people to try the pumpkins, if their land would bring them. It may be owing to this article of food that the Yankees excel and are taking the lead in everything.