Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 February 1916 — SCUTS GET HAGGIS [ARTICLE]

SCUTS GET HAGGIS

Men in Trenpjies to Live on Food of Warriors. British War Office Gives Official Reo> ognition to the National Dish of Bcots—Famed in Song ■ - and Story. London. all over the world should thrill with delight at the news that the war office at last has given itß official recognition to their national dish, the haggis. With the laudable object of making the trenches as homelike as possible to the Scottish troops, Mrs. Porter Brown of No. 16 Holland road, Kensington, is raising a fund to provide for them real Scotch haggis in bulk. If this does not bring to them the scent of the heather and the music of the burn nothing will. The haggis is one of the few national dishes which has retained its splendid isolation. Except maybe on Burns nights or at private gatherings of exiles from north of the Tweed it is seldom seen in England. To Scotch whisky and shortbread, especially the former, the Southron has taken very kindly, but to him the haggis is still an alien, probably because it is still too strong for his more delicate stomach. For the “great chieftain o’ the puddin’ race,” as Burns calls it, is tc the Sassenach a fearful and wonderful wild fowl. It Is made of a- sheep’s heart, liver and ltfngS, With some ol the smaller intestines. These are seasoned with pepper, salt and onions, and the whole is chopped up fine,-with suet and oatmeal. Then the mixture is rammed into the membrane of a sheep’s stomach and boiled. And this it is which has helped to make Scotland what she is today. Says Burns, addressing the haggis: But mark the rustic, haggis fed, The trembling earth resounds his tread, Clap in his walie nleve a blade. He’ll mak’ It whlssle; An’ legs an’ arms, an heads will sned Like taps o’ thrissles. Evidently not bad stuff to fight on. And now Mrs. Brown’s fund is to be recognized by the war office. Her rich and rare puddings are to go to the front with the sanction of the powers that be; and “Jock” and “Tam” once again will ait around their well beloved dish all hot from the pot. And when they have eaten of it, woe betide the “boche” that comes within striking distance of their “walie nieves.” There will be dirty work. For, as a Scotchman will tell you, there is all Scotland In Lb® haggis. There Is Bannockburn and nodden Field and the Forty-Five.® There is the wind in the heather and the plunge of the salmon stream. With a bit of haggis on his dirk the Scot can see in its stream the banks and braes o’ Bonnie Doon and the bonnie, bonnie banks o’ Loch Lomond. He will feel his foot once more on his native heath, and there will be sparks. But, as a brither Scot would add, their “nieves” would be all the more “walie” if Mrs. Brown would only see to it that a proportionate quantity of mellow “Old Orkney” were sent to stir into the haggises.