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254 A G^BMAST COFFEE-PARTY IN 1862.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
¦ ¦ ^ It Would Probably Be Difficult To ...
the simple German , hospitality , -which .-could conceive no "better "way of showing honour to its guests than . _Tby presenting them with a
succession of good things to eat , and this in a real simplicity as far as possible removed from gourmandism or epicurism ( for of
neitherof these could I accuse one of the company ) . As soon as in the course of time ( some two hours perhaps !) coffee was finally carried
off , and a little stroll in the gardens had succeeded with the acmarshalled companiment to always our places of the and inseparable each bein knitting g presented , we with were a again tiny
plate and a dessert knife , great , dishes of " zwetschen-kuchen " were handed roundwith half glasses of white Khine wine . This said
, zwetschen-kuchen , I must by the by , explain to be a sort of open tart formed by a layer of pasteon which mussel-plums cut open
, are laid , the cut side upwards , and the whole baked in a vast tin > the cakes being afterwards cut up into slips , as were the others .
Here was a position for a true-born Briton ! A slice of open tart , and a steel knife to eat it with . The natives readily disposed
of the difficulty by assuming the functions of a knife and spoon to be identical—indeed , no other idea had probably ever occurred to
them—but my perplexities were great . First I endeavoured to cut the tart into suitable piecesand remembering that _" fingers were
made hefoxe forks , " tried to , make the one do the accustomed office of the other—butalas ! the faithless crust broke in the attempt
and made confusion , worse confounded . However , patience and a , bold face overcame the difficulty at last , though I fear the final
appearance of my plate , by no means so fairly cleared of fragments as my neighbours ' , whose _" frugal minds" would have considered it
a sin to waste a crumb , must have shocked my thrifty hostess . Then came another hour of ceaseless talk and anecdote ; some _^
times a dozen voices blending together ; sometimes one or two getting the predominance , but always gay , eager and good-humoured * .
One story that did its part to set the room in a tumult of cries of " amazement , pity , and wonder , was of some unlucky geese belonging
to a brandy-factory in the neighbo _\ irhood which had been discovered by the housewife one morning , to her great dismay , stretched lifeless
on their backs . Unable to trace this sudden slaughter to any cause , she was at least unwilling to lose all _advantage from her geeseand
set her maidens busily to work to pick off their feathers , which , task accomplished , all set about their daily business . By and by
past the kitchen window came a mysterious pit-a-pat , and lookingout , the good woman saw to her dismay her whole flock restored
to life—but , alas ! not to a state of nature!—marching past , a luckless regiment of Plato ' s men ! The truth came out—these
most immoral geese had been—not dead- —but dead drunk ; some spilt brandy having thrown temptation in their way—and soby a
righteous fate , they got plucked ! , By the time _$ _jll the exclamations d propos to this story had died
away , the twilight came creeping on , caps were anew deposited
254 A G^Bmast Coffee-Party In 1862.
254 A G _^ _BMAST _COFFEE-PARTY IN 1862 .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1862, page 254, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121862/page/38/
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