As the Strawberry is one of the most beautiful and delicious, so it is also one of the most healthful and nourishing of all the whole family of fruits. For Reasons which are purely sanitary, the Strawberry ought to be played within the reach of every man, woman and child in the community; and even more bountifully to the poor, than to the rich. On all children’s health excursions, the bounties of Providence is the way of fruits, should be the principal dishes of the diet’ and chief among the chief should be the Strawberry. The same line of remark, however, applies as well to the poor father and mother who remain at home, as to the children who are transported by steamer or rail to the most romantic regions of our charming and noble Park.

Ripe fruit of all kinds, including apples, pears, peaches, cherries, plums, grapes, raspberries and strawberries (but the greatest of these is the Strawberry) which should be furnished in lavish profusion to all sick persons in private houses and public hospitals, to all asylums, retreats, homes, reformatories and charitable institutions of every name and character. As all sound and well ripened fruits – I say this is the distinction from mountains of immature fruits of a poor quality, which do a hundred times more harm than good – all fully matured fruits of an excellent quality, as they act as a curative to the sick, so they serve as a preventive to the well. They are essential service to the aged and inform as they are to children and the growing young. While they always afford pleasure to the palate, they are always invigorating to the digestive organs; they are a corrective of every ailment of the stomach; and are, in the highest degree, nourishing to both body and mind. All this holds true of the superior article of well-ripened fruits in general; but what the rose is to flowers, the Strawberry is to fruits-queen of the field!

According to the classification of the books, the Strawberry is the genus frogaria. It is told to us to have been brought by the ancient Romans into Italy from Mount Ida. This primitive Strawberry of the Romans (known among them as the arbum) was probably little more inviting than the sourest kind of our wild cherry. Pliny spoke of it so sour as that he would not make “two bites of it;” one at a time was quite enough.

While some men think that in every respect the world is growing worse, let me assure you, as the result of my studies, that it is my firm conviction that the fruits and berries are growing better and better with every age. New fruits and better fruits- these grow with the growth of civilization, and keep pace with the march of Time. It is maintained that Greece and Rome had poets and orators, and artists and philosophers, which our day does not surpass, and does not even equal; but believe me, that the best fruits of ancient times were but “sour grapes” compared with the improved variations which are enjoyed by us moderns.

Nor is any country in the world more favored in respect to fruits than our beloved and native country of America. The first medal for wines at the French Expositions was awarded to this country; and loads of grape vines are being shipped at the moment to France, from our state of Missouri. England produces fine Strawberries in her Lot houses, and on her high built walls. France produces excellent Strawberries out of doors. But no country, as a spontaneous out growth of nature, produces in such prodigious profusion such delicious Strawberries as the Unites States. Indeed, the aggregate crop of this fruit in this country is so much greater than that of any other, and the qualilty on the whole as produced by nature so much finer, that America may be said to be the home of the Strawberry.

The Annual yield of Strawberries in the US is simply immense. It forms almost the entire Spring trade of the fruit growers. Not only tons, but hundreds of tons, of Strawberries come and go, before any other fruit has appeared in any considerable quantity. Reaching as first from the extreme Southern Sates, before the month of April, they keep coming from point after point, further North until the latest day in June.

There are many varieties of the Strawberry but numerous as the different varieties are, there is not one that is not delicious. Almost every season produces some new seedling; and it is my confident conviction that varieties still fuller, richer and more highly flavored, while yet crown the labors and experiments of our enterprising growers. Mellow, succulent, and nutritious as the pulp of the Strawberries is now, delightfully fragrant as are its odors, and exquisitely delicious as its taste is to the palate-believe me, there is a “coming” Strawberry which will eclipse all the varieties which are now known; while American growers will still keep ahead of the horticulturalists of the world.

Preserved whole, in sugar, the Strawberry constitutes one of the finest and most delicious of our sweetmeats. Very large quantities are used in private kitchens and pubic cook shops in making pies, tarts and turnovers. Still greater quantities are consumed in the manufacture of jellies, marmalades, syrups, cordials and wines, ices and iced creams.

James W. Parkinson
Confectioner’s Journal
Philadelphia
April, 1875

The prow of Market Street presents a statue of a remarkable Philadelphian, quite legendary and beloved during the eras of Franklin and Washington, yet sadly forgotten in modern times. His name is Tamanend, the affable one, and graced the earth from 1625 to 1701. Chief Tamanend was a respected leader of a Leni-Lenape clan that inhabited the region destined to become The City of Brotherly Love. During the 1680s and 90s, Tamanend signed peace treaties with William Penn under the shady Elm Tree at Shackamaxon, now Penn Treaty Park just up river. Tamanend was known for his exceptional efforts at peace and friendship between the Native American tribes and the European settlers led by William Penn.

According to the plaque on the plinth, Tamanend stands atop a turtle, representing Mother Earth. The eagle, a messenger of the Great Spirit perched upon his shoulder, carries a wampum belt. This belt depicts a white man holding hands with a native man and recognizes the treaty of peace that Lenape leaders shared with Penn and his followers to Pennsylvania. That pact reads “To live in peace as long as the waters run in the rivers and creeks and as long as the stars and moons endure.”

Although Penn lived out his promise of Peace to the Leni-Lenape, successive generations of colonists were not so kind or generous and forced dispersal of this Native American tribe began. At the same time, the tradition of Tamanend was elevated to mythic proportions as colonists sought a native patron saint and began to call him “Saint Tammany” or “King Tammany.” By the 1770s, the legend of Tamanend or “Tammany,” became famous throughout the colonies from incorporated Tammany societies formed in his honor, with the chief symbolizing national unity in the face of the British crown. George Washington, John Adams, Patrick Henry and others attended Tammany Day festivities that were celebrated on May 1st, replacing the European tradition of May Day. Bells were rung to honor this man of exceptional integrity. Now I ask you, fellow citizens, to keep this tradition of Tamanend Day in your hearts and to ring a bell at dusk each year on the First of May to honor this man. By doing so, we recognize the spiritual communion with the earth and sea and sky that our native forebears respected so deeply. We also honor that Spirit within us to live in peace and harmony with each other.

BELLS RING OUT!

In commemoration of Chief Tamanend and William Penn’s peaceful agreement to live as friends in harmony, we are celebrating the Native People’s cuisine with a “Penn Treaty Parfait”. Housemade ice creams to be presented at the fête are all made from fruits and gourds indigenous to this area, including “Paw Paw Ice Cream,” which will be enrobed in toasted maple pine nut dressing, with a finale of homemade Penn Treaty Popped Corn (available at Shane Confectionery) flavored with black walnuts, molasses, and sorghum. We hope this puts a “wampum” on your appetite and reminds you of the virtues agreed upon three hundred and thirty years ago.

Although “Father of the Constitution” James Madison was rightfully famous as the Fourth President of the United States, more Americans are familiar with his wife, Dolley Todd Madison, First Lady extraordinaire and Ice Cream hostess.  This observation speaks volumes about the love of America’s favorite dessert, particularly over political matters, where favorite flavor trumps favored party.

The Philadelphia Connection

Dolley Payne, born in 1768 on a Quaker settlement in North Carolina, moved to Philadelphia with her family after the Revolution in 1783. Dolley enjoyed the lifestyle of a stunning socialite, and caught the attention of Quaker lawyer John Todd at a ballroom dance. The couple shared their quaint brick home at Fourth & Walnut Sts, near Independence Hall, with their two sons and Dolley’s younger sister.  Dolley was a spirited entertainer, preparing succulent meals using the freshest of ingredients purchased from the nearby High Street market.  The gaiety of their bustling lives in the nation’s first capital didn’t last long, however. Dolley became a young widow and mournful mother after losing John Todd and son William Temple to the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793.

Dolley met James Madison within a year after the tragedy; legend has it that third vice-president Aaron Burr, who once boarded at her mother’s house, introduced the unlikely pair.  Madison was seventeen years older than Dolley, perhaps a bit stiff to match Dolley’s vivaciousness at first.  Madison was also a slave owner, a direct contradiction to Dolley’s Quaker roots.  Despite their differences, Madison eventually wooed Dolley, and the couple wed in Charles Town, West Virginia, in 1794. After residing on Spruce Street in Philadelphia for three years, the Madisons relocated to Montpelier, his family’s Virginia estate.

The First Lady

In 1801, newly inaugurated Thomas Jefferson appointed James Madison as Secretary of State. The Madisons moved to the Washington D.C., where they quickly became part of the city’s elite social circle. During the administration, Dolley undertook furnishing the White House with architect Benjamin Latrobe and was intimately involved in hosting social gatherings for the widowed President Jefferson and her husband.  Her flair for exquisite entertaining flourished during this time; cabinet members and diplomats were honored to be invited to White House parties to sample ice cream crafted by Presidential chefs under Dolley’s direction. One such “receipt,” in Jefferson’s own hand, can be found in the Library of Congress, and calls for “2 bottles of good cream, 6 yolks of eggs, ½ lb. sugar…a stick of Vanilla” to be made in a sorbetiere, an early style of ice cream freezer of French origin.

She became known for her exquisite social graces, lively conversation and enthusiasm for hosting great parties, her social prowess said to boost Madison’s popularity. A guest captured the animated ambiance:

“After tea was served, several guests played chess while another group preferred cards,’picking each other’s pockets in this genteel manner.’  The remainder of the guests mingled and enjoyed the refreshments:  ice cream, cake, cordials, punch, jellies, candied sugar, raisins, almonds and fruit.”

In 1808, Madison became the 4th President after defeating Federalist candidate Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.  Dolley Todd Madison set the tone as the nation’s First Lady, mastering the art of evening enchantment in the White House drawing rooms, offering military music and enticing refreshments, including coffee, tea, cakes and ice cream to the eager citizens.   A crush of visitors descended on the executive mansion to meet the Madisons on New Year’s Day: “The reception rooms became so hot that women appeared grotesquely disfigured as their rouge and pearl-powder ran down their cheeks with perspiration.”  {image of first White House Ice Cream delivery}

Second Inaugural Ball – March 1813 – Two-Hundred Years Ago

The democratizing of the office was hard work for both host and hostess, as witnessed by one observer at Madison’s second inauguration in March, 1813:

“The major part of the respectable citizens offered their congratulations, ate his ice creams and bonbons, drank his Madeira, made their bow and retired, leaving him fatigued beyond measure with the incessant bending to which his politeness urged him.”

It was at this very White House reception that Dolley Madison gained national prominence as the great democratizer of ice cream.  Previous to this point, ice cream was a dessert reserved only for the elite, as ice was an ephemeral commodity.  Sorbetieres were expensive to procure and generally owned only by the wealthy or commercial catering firms.  By opening up the doors to the White House and serving ice cream, cakes and sweets, Americans from all walks of life sampled foods that they might not otherwise have tasted.  “A contemporary account of a Madison dinner party noted,

‘Mrs. Madison always entertains with Grace and Charm, but last night there was a sparkle in her eye that set astir an Air of Expectancy among her Guests.  …a table set with French china and English silver, laden with good things to eat, and in the centre high on a silver platter, a large, shining dome of pink ice cream.’ ”

The pink ice cream was most likely a concoction of stored strawberry preserves drawn from the White House pantry; strawberry ice cream soon became a beloved flavor, equal in popularity to Vanilla and Lemon.  The first recorded ice cream recipe in the Colonies comes from 1744 at a banquet for Maryland’s Royal Governor Thomas Bladen in neighboring Annapolis, Maryland where “some fine Ice Cream which, with the Strawberries and Milk, eat most Deliciously.”

Dolley Madison – Popular Culture Icon

Dolly’s grand-niece premiered the first full-length biography of her esteemed aunt in 1886: The Memoirs and Letters of Dolly Madison featured her streamlined moniker. A new biography of Dolly’s fascinating social and political career was issued every decade; in 1909, Dorothy Payne, Quakeress; a side-light upon the career of “Dolly” Madison, substantiating her image as a virtuous example for American women.  The 1920s and the Sesquicentennial in Philadelphia brought the American Colonial Revival into full blossom.  Dolly’s legacy served to guide to the modern women, coupling the spirit of energy and progress with old-fashioned homemaking.  By the middle 20th century, Dolly’s name was used to brand hats, shoes, luggage and of course, sweets and ice cream.  The Dolly Madison Ice Cream Company, based out of Baltimore, used a colonial-style silhouette portrait of Dolly superimposed on moderne Art Deco signs and menus gracing soda fountains and luncheonettes throughout America in the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

Full Circle

The Todd House at 4th & Walnut Streets in Philadelphia, once privy to Dolly’s delectable homemade ice cream, was fittingly converted to a lunch counter during the Depression.  Large signage emblazoned upon the 18th-century facade proclaimed irresistible attractions: Air-Conditioned Luncheonette, Coca-Cola and Dolly Madison Ice Cream.  Eighty years later, the National Park Service has restored the building to its original appearance and is interpreting the life of Dolley Payne Todd Madison, the First Lady of America.

*Much material, including quotes and passages used in this Web-log were borrowed from Chocolate, Strawberry and Vanilla:  A History of American Ice Cream by Anne Cooper Funderburg (Bowling Green University Press:  1995).  Thank you to Ms. Funderburg for her scholarly research and publication.

The Franklin Fountain would also like to thank Julie Corredato for her invaluable editing and writing assistance with this edition of the Web-log.

In the 1950’s, Durham North Carolina was like most cities in the South: hot and segregated. At the time, the civil rights movement was already polarizing the nation, with the Montgomery bus boycotts in 1955 bringing to prominence such names as Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. In Mississippi, the brutal murder of Emmett Till that same year became an archetype of the horrendous nature of southern racism at its most cruel. Amidst the violence and racial tension, Martin Luther King Jr. founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in January 1957 and declared his commitment to nonviolence as the most effective methodology for the civil rights movement. The SCLC and King were to become iconic symbols of civil rights activism, and his nonviolent philosophy influenced many civil rights activists.

The lingering schism between the races was exemplified by the segregation of small businesses, schools, and other institutions. Because segregation was so prominent, it was the target for many civil rights campaigns during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1957, a small group of local blacks from Durham, North Carolina, organized to fight it in their hometown. Their target was the Royal Ice Cream Parlor, which had two entrances: one on Dowd street marked ‘White only’ and one on Roxboro street marked ‘Colored only.’

On June 23, Reverend Douglass Moore, who was a pastor at the local Asbury Temple Methodist Church, held a meeting to organize a small group of protesters for a sit-in at the ice cream parlor. Six members of the black community, Mary Elizabeth Clyburn, Claude Glenn, Jesse Gray, Vivian Jones, Virginia Williams and Melvin Willis who attended the church, agreed to be a part of Moore’s plan, which they planned to execute that same evening. At the time, two prominent black organizations in Durham, the Black Ministerial Alliance and the Durham Committee on Negro Affairs did not support the idea of a sit-in, but Moore and his six young followers were committed to their cause. When they left the church they had formulated a plan that they hoped would yield the most effective results: Instead of trying to enter through the door on Dowd street they would use the door on Roxboro street and pass through the divider that waitresses used to move between the white and black sections of the ice cream parlor. The protesters took this route and entered the white section where they seated themselves in two booths and waited to be served. The staff firmly refused. But the protesters continued to order ice cream until the manager told them to leave. To this demand, the protesters responded by ordering yet another round of ice cream until the manager threw up his hands and called the police.

When the police arrived, officers confronted the protesters in both booths and tried to compromise. They were told if they simply left now, the manager would not press charges and they would be free to carry on as if nothing had happened. The protesters, keeping calm amidst the chaos, explained to the police officers that they just wanted to be served some ice cream. Miffed as much as was the parlor’s manager, the police decided they had no choice but to arrest every one of the young protesters and haul them off to jail. There were seven arrests made on charges of trespassing that day, for which the coverage in Durham newspapers was mixed. The Carolinian, an African American publication based in Raleigh, printed the story on the front page, while other mainstream newspapers such as the Durham News and Observer downplayed the story’s significance.

In court the following day, the six protesters and Rev. Moore were found guilty by the judge of trespassing, and each was fined $10. However, the protesters were not ready to let that be the end of their struggle, as they hoped their actions would challenge the very constitutionality of the segregation law. They made an appeal to the Superior Court where attorney William Marsh, Jr., defended them before an all-white jury and a full courtroom. Virginia Williams, one of the protesters, recalls that the protesters were not offered seats in court but instead made to stand before a row of seated, white police officers. Presently, Marsh requested that the police officers give up their seats for his clients, and the officers did so ‘with an attitude,’ allowing Rev. Moore and the six young protesters to share the bench.

Although their plea was not guilty, the Superior Court judge ruled against them, and the protesters had to appeal to the North Carolina Supreme Court. The Supreme Court was no more yielding, and ruled to uphold the charges against them. In one final attempt to make their voices heard, the protesters boldly appealed their case the U.S. Supreme Court, but it refused to hear the case on the grounds that the protesters rights had not actually been violated. On July 15, 1958, the protesters were fined a total of $433.25 and faced with the realization that despite their plight, segregation laws in Durham had not budged. Despite this, the Royal Ice Cream Parlor sits-in led to the first court case testing the legality of the segregation law, a pioneering event that may have paved the way for the widespread 1960 Greensboro sit-ins that were considered pivotal to the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.

In Greensboro, North Carolina in 1960, Jim Crow laws were in widespread effect. Though the African-American Civil Rights Movement had led to some successful desegregation (notably within the school system thanks to Brown v. Board and Swann v. Charlotte), “separate but equal” was still the norm with respect to the vast majority of businesses in Greensboro, and the rest of the South.

On February 1, 1960, at 4:30 pm, Ezell Blair (now known as Jibreel Khazan), Franklin McCain, David Richmond, and Joseph McNeill – students at historically black Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina (NCA&T) – walked into the Woolworth’s store in Greensboro. They browsed the drugstore section of the store, and purchased a few toiletries each. The students then proceeded to sit at the lunch counter –a section of the store clearly marked “For Whites Only” – and waited to be served. Though they sat there without incident, and were not harassed, they also were not served. The manager of the store attempted to persuade them to leave, but could not. When Woolworth’s closed an hour later, the four students left quietly.

The next day, the four students returned, but this time they were accompanied by sixteen other NCA&T students, who sat at the lunch counter for most of midday. They were not served, though white customers sat and were served around them. That night, the four initial demonstrators mailed a letter to the President of Woolworth’s, asking politely but firmly that he end his company’s policy of discrimination. The demonstrators were almost immediately endorsed by the NAACP.

The sit-ins continued, with participants numbering more than 300 in less than a week. The Greensboro Record reported on February 2 that the students were “seeking luncheon counter service, and will increase their numbers daily until they get it.” Blair said in an interview that “Negro adults have been complacent and fearful… It is time for someone to wake up and change the situation… and we decided to start here.” The NCA&T football team began to turn out to demonstrate, partially in the hopes of warning off any hostile action by white dissenters, and the Congress of Racial Equality dispatched a field representative to help organize the demonstrations. The major newspapers in Greensboro, the Record and the Daily News, appeared to be solidly on the side of the black students – their editorials argued for the cause with vigor.

On February 6, a fake bomb threat was called into the Woolworth’s store. Shortly after, the store was closed in the interests of public safety, and all demonstrators were ushered out of the store. Both blacks and whites at Woolworth’s that day appeared to be relieved – the tensions inside the store were incredibly high, and it was stunning that there were no significant incidents. The lunch counters would remain closed for three weeks, though the rest of the store re-opened on February 8. When the counter re-opened, there was no sign indicating that service was to be segregated.

A temporary truce seemed to exist between the storeowners and the demonstrators. When the counters reopened, there was no disruption of service – the students had turned to negotiating with the storeowners and the government, now that they had proven that they could mobilize if they needed to do so. On February 27, the Mayor of Greensboro formed the Mayor’s Committee on Community Relations to study and attempt to fix the race relations issues that existed in Greensboro. Meanwhile, sit-in demonstrations continued across the south.

On April 1, the Committee reported that their efforts had failed – the storeowners had been wholly unwilling to compromise and integrate even a small portion of their lunch counters. Later that day, black students returned to the streets, picketing in front of stores and returning to their seats at the lunch counters.

The next day, the lunch counters were shut down again. For several weeks, a few picketers stood in front of each store that refused to integrate its lunch counters, maintaining a constant presence in the minds of Greensboro citizens. Segregationists held counter-pickets, which usually included signs meant to intimidate the black demonstrators. There were claims that the white counter-picketers were paid by the Ku Klux Klan, but naturally, there was no solid evidence that this was the case. Regardless, there was no violence, and no one was arrested.

On April 21, black students went into Kress’s, another store that had closed its lunch counter, and sat at the counter anyway. 45 students were arrested for trespassing. Though this news was covered by the press, it did little to affect the movement, and the students did not court arrest again.

By mid-May, several other cities had integrated their lunch counters, including Nashville and nearby Winston-Salem. However, Greensboro’s storeowners remained strongly opposed to integration, arguing that those that supported the black students did not patronize the stores, and most of their clientele favored continued segregation.

Finally, on July 25, without any fanfare, three black students sat down at the Woolworth’s lunch counter and were served. The newspapers covered the event briefly, but it was a quiet story – a column the next day, and no pictures to speak of. Despite the seemingly casual nature of the event, it was carefully organized and negotiated by the black student leadership, the Greensboro Mayor’s office and the storeowners.

The sit-in campaign was eventually successful not because they had succeeded in making a moral appeal to the storeowners, but because it was economically impossible for the storeowners to fight the sit-ins. Though Greensboro would not fully integrate until several years later, the NCA&T students’ success with the sit-in campaign would inspire continued participation in the civil rights movement among individual students.

The nonviolent occupation of a public space, or sit-in, dated at least to Mahatma Gandhi’s campaigns for Indian independence from Britain. In the United States, labor organizations and the northern-based Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) had employed sit-ins as well. As events in Greensboro began to draw attention, SNCC moved swiftly to associate itself with this civil rights tactic, and over the next two months, sit-ins spread to more than 50 cities.

Particularly significant were events in Nashville, Tennessee, where the King-affiliated Nashville Christian Leadership Council had been preparing for this moment. Back in 1955, King had reached out to the Reverend James Lawson, a civil rights activist and missionary who had served in India and studied Gandhian satyagraha, or nonviolent resistance. King urged Lawson to relocate to the South: “Come now,” King said. “We don’t have anyone like you down there.”

Working with King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Lawson in 1958 began to train a new generation of nonviolent activists. His students included Diane Nash, James Bevel, and John Lewis, today a U.S. representative from Georgia. All soon would assume prominence in the civil rights movement. At these training seminars, they agreed to stage a series of sit-ins at department store restaurants. Blacks were permitted to spend money in those stores, but not to eat at their restaurants.

The Nashville activists organized carefully and moved deliberately. But when the Greensboro sit-in began to draw national attention, they were ready. In February 1960, hundreds of their activists began the sit-ins. Their student-drafted instruction sheets captured the personal discipline and dignified commitment to nonviolence they would offer the world:

• Don’t strike back or curse back if abused.

• Don’t block entrances to the stores and aisles.

• Show yourself friendly and courteous at all times.

• Sit straight and always face the counter.

• Remember the teachings of Jesus Christ, Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Martin Luther King.

• Remember love and nonviolence, may God bless each of you.

Typically a lunch counter would close when a sit-in began, but after the first few incidents, police began to arrest protestors, and the subsequent trials drew large crowds. When convicted of disorderly conduct, the activists chose to serve jail time rather than pay a fine.

Nashville was an early example of how Jim Crow could not survive exposure. The legendary journalist David Halberstam was just beginning his career, and his reports for the Nashville Tennessean helped attract national media attention. The sit-in movement spread throughout much of the country, and soon Americans across the nation were stunned by photographs like the one that appeared in the February 28, 1960 New York Times. The caption read: “A white man swings an 18-inch-long [46-centimeter-long] bat at a Negro woman in Montgomery. She was injured by the blow. The attack occurred yesterday after the woman brushed against another white man. Police, standing near by, made no arrest.” On April 19 of that year, a bomb exploded at the home of the Nashville students’ chief legal counsel. Some 2,000 African Americans swiftly organized a march to the City Hall, where they confronted the mayor. Would he, Diane Nash asked, favor ending lunch-counter segregation? Yes, came the reply, but, “I can’t tell a man how to run his business. He has got rights too.”

This “right” to discriminate lay at the heart of the struggle. Meanwhile, the bad publicity stung the businessmen of Nashville, as did the stark contrast between the dignified, nonviolent black students and their armed and all-too-violent opponents. Secret negotiations began, and on May 10, 1960, quietly and without fanfare, a number of downtown lunch counters began serving black customers. There were no further incidents, and soon thereafter Nashville became the first southern city successfully to begin desegregating its public facilities.

In 1962 the Civil Rights Act passed in Congress (which makes it illegal to discriminate against anyone based on the color of their skin in private businesses like soda fountains and ice cream parlors).

Friends and Followers:

We thought it appropriate to begin this New Year with a story, so very true, that dates back to 1913, exactly 100 years ago.  For if certain events of that banner year were to be erased from the history books, The Franklin Fountain might never have come into existence.

In the mid-1970s, in their modest twin home on Baltimore Pike in Media, Pennsylvania, Rob and Carole Berley had decided to open a small antiques shop specializing in matted magazine covers and advertisements from the early 20th Century.  A few years earlier, the young couple had begun visiting antique shops and shows, exploring a common interest in Americana from previous eras.  They stumbled upon a cache of old Saturday Evening Post magazines from the 1910s and 20s being jettisoned from a boys’ club in western Pennsylvania.  They bought the grouping, enchanted with the illustration art which graced the covers and contents within.  Soon they were discovering more examples of the Golden Age of Illustration, and they began to collect what they could afford.

Early in the Bicentennial year of 1976, they had some exciting news to share:  Carole was pregnant.  The birth of their soon-to-be Berley boy, Ryan Nicholas, would hasten their impetus to open the antiques shop in their home, as it would allow Carole to take care of their baby while Rob attended medical school in Philadelphia.  Their store would be known as The Saturday Evening Experience, an homage to the weekly journal so popular throughout America in the first half of the 20th Century.  The shop sign, hand-painted by Carole’s sister Bonnie in the style of prominent Post illustrators Norman Rockwell and J.C. Leyendecker, featured a whimsical bald Rob sitting in a wooden bathtub reading the magazine (presumably as he did every Saturday night).  When the paint dried, Carole’s Dad, “Bud,” and Rob hung the sign outside the Berleys’ home storefront in Media.

Around that same time, Rob and Carole were offered an original painting for the December 28, 1912 issue of The Saturday Evening Post done by Joseph Christian Leyendecker, one of their favorite illustrators.  It featured one of Leyendecker’s iconic New Year’s babies turning the page on the New Year in a book of resolutions, as a canine companion looks on.  The year 1913 was especially meaningful to Carole and Rob, as both of their mothers were born that year:  Bella Douglass Sprowls and Amelia Lakstun Berley.  The painting was an investment for the young couple that helped give birth to their new business venture and would eventually provide inspiration for their sons’ business nearly thirty years later.

The Berleys lived on Baltimore Pike for eight more years while customers and curiosity-seekers came and went.  In 1980 a second child was born, Eric Douglass.  Both Ryan and Eric grew up in the living room of “the old house,” as it came to be known, living cheek-by-jowl with the antiques shop, lots of old magazines, the painting, and the realities of a small family business.  As the operation evolved and grew, Carole took on more space in a cooperative antiques store in Chadds Ford and closed the Baltimore Pike shop when the Berleys moved their residence.  Yet the old magazines would have an interesting way of being recycled back into circulation and a few decades later, The Saturday Evening Post would arrive on their doorstep once again . . .

In 2003, Ryan and Eric were twenty-somethings with college degrees in hand, looking for adventure and a new, meaningful career.  The family had purchased an 1898 building on Market Street in Philadelphia a few years prior. The Berley Brothers came up with an idea and before long were planning to open a soda fountain business there.   For the name, they looked to Benjamin Franklin, the local Philadelphia icon whose print shop had been located directly across Market Street from the planned soda fountain.  Father Rob suggested that the typeface he had used in designing their antiques shop sign might work well for the new business.  In an old book, the boys saw a Saturday Evening Post cover featuring a regal soda jerk mixing a drink, illustrated by E.M. Jackson in 1922.  This was an exciting breakthrough for the boys in conceptualizing their soda fountain.  The lost craft of the soda jerk was to become the focal point of The Franklin Fountain.  Another connection was provided when they learned that Benjamin Franklin printed The Pennsylvania Gazette (the historical antecedent of The Saturday Evening Post) begun in 1728 and published nearby in Old City.  It all fit together perfectly, as if it were a beautifully concocted phosphate from the golden age of the soda fountain, a beverage whose most important ‘secret ingredient’ may have been the year, 1913.

Resolved to correct mistakes of yesteryear, we promise to uphold the values of our company through friendly service to our customers, creative yet old flavor ideas re-imagined in our kitchens and through storytelling of our personal, local and region’s past. We resolve to stay committed to sourcing in our nearest locales and to using the highest quality ingredients. We’ll scratch tried flavors whose followers were few and promote the interests of neighboring farmers with crops of newly flavored cones. We’ll expand our dairy free offerings throughout the year and begin shipping more products from The Franklin Fountain to our loyal customers. We resolve to promote catering to good young couples becoming engaged and married with fine sundae bars and chocolate favors. We promise to expand our shipped Shane Candies to homes and businesses alike. We’ll promote healthfulness and cleanliness within and stewardship beyond our borders. We’ll advance our candy and ice cream services to neighborhoods and wholesale partners who believe in quality sweets made locally with integrity and the flexible understanding of catering to every chef’s timing and size needs. Benjamin Franklin, at the age of twenty, wrote down these thirteen virtues in order, perhaps, that we may read, recommit, and resolve to uphold in our new year.

1. “Temperance. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.”
2. “Silence. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.”
3. “Order. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.”
4. “Resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.”
5. “Frugality. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.”
6. “Industry. Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.”
7. “Sincerity. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.”
8. “Justice. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.”
9. “Moderation. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.”
10. “Cleanliness. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.”
11. “Tranquility. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.”
12. “Chastity. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.”
13. “Humility. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.”

At your service,

The Berley Brothers

Ryan and Eric

We hope that the enchantment and instruction of the season is evergreen, and that you may delight in peaceable, charitable, and glad modes of being. It is with merry hearts that we alert you that we’ve been working as persistently as benched elves in preparing new desserts and confections to bring happiness to your tongue and being.

Foremost, we have new ice cream flavors at The Franklin Fountain, which we believe will enliven you to shriek with seasonal joy. Hear this– Peppermint Stick Ice Cream returns once more to our dipping cabinets,bringing a cool taste to the snow-color’d ice cream it haunts. You may also have this flavor in Peppermint Stick Ice Cream Sandwiches, a delicious treat concocted by our culinary sorceresses.

We will also be featuring a new sundae: A Christmas Carol Crunch. This elaborate dish features ‘Cheery’ Rum Raisin Ice Cream, Fresh and Sticky Pudding Cake, spiced and rum-spiked Currants, topped by candied English Walnuts, and pools of housemade hot caramel sauce. It is spooked thricely by Dickensian Christmas spirits, and we suspect that it would go over quite well at one of Fezziwig’s Christmas parties.

Breaking news! The votes have been tallied from last month’s Phosphate Election and the people have spoken with clarity of mandate. “Taft, A Winner!” has proven its namesake with a landslide victory. As for the fare of other phosphates on the ballot, Governor Woodrow Wilson’s “Wilson Punch” placed second, Eugene Victor Debs’s “Wonder Worker Tonic” placed third, and poor Theodore Roosevelt placed last with his “Teddy’s Favorite” phosphate concoction, which was, by the admission of many in terms of its ingredients, was a bit hard to stomach. We congratulate President Taft, and hope he will lead our divided nation well in these next four menu years with delicious and unifying chocolate soda, crushed strawberries, and variable seasonal ice cream. Hail to the Chief!

We have some important news on the Shane Confectionery front– the Shane Ordering Form has been made public and ready, with a period-authentic visual aesthetic. You may visit http://shanecandies.com/confections/ to view and engage it, or you may pick up a physical form on site at Shane Confectionery or The Franklin Fountain. From its folded pages you may find and select from an array of goodies and bon bons, available for READY SHIPMENT across the land! Chocolates, buttercreams, jellied fruits, clear toy candies– there is an extensive list that you may choose from. We hope that your eyes are cast over our out-rolled catalogue of wonders.

We have some Christmastime news for you at Shane’s: our famed Clear Toy Candies have been featured in a wonderfully written article in GRID Magazine. You may find the exquisite prose and marvelous photography in the link below.  Please give this terrific piece of journalism your sharpest focus.

We will also be featuring a limited edition trio of truffles to be sold as a set this month: “The Gifts of the Magi.” These truffles are made with the very same ingredients that were gifted to the Christchild over two millennia ago. The frankincense and myrrh used in each respective truffle are imported from the Holy Land, and the third is a golden honey filled truffle gilded with authentic gold leaf. You will not find such an assortment anywhere in the West, and we encourage you to follow the eastern stars to their hallowed magnificence. To describe the flavor is a holy mystery and as special as a true sacrament.

We shall also be offering for the first time “Postcard Cookies”, thick sugar cookies topped with an edible icing of images of antique postcards. A truly unique Christmas Cookie, handmade by our Philadelphia Friend, Author, Historian and Decorative Arts specialist Jennifer McGlinn. Her partnership on these cookies is new to Shanes! To read more about these treats and her books, see this link: http://jennifermcglinn.wordpress.com/

Additionally, in keeping with our Pennsylvania German traditions at The Fountain, we also sell Springerle Cookies (made using hand-carved wooden molds at The Springerle House in Strasburg, PA) in four traditional flavors at both locations.

The requested confections were more and many (like presents under the tree) this year and our copper overfloweth at this time of Celebration:

TAKE NOTICE:

if you are caught stealing from the candy jar, old St. Nick will be sure to bring you some Coal Candy from Shane’s.  Hundreds have already been made and shipped out for stuffing the naughty ones among you…

We will also be offering special Hanukkah Candies. Historically, while celebrated by observant Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jews across the world, Hanukkah was traditionally considered to be a minor festival within the Jewish world. It wasn’t until 1876 that

Rabbi Issac Wise of Cincinnati popularized the festival and underscored the metaphoric spiritual truth that the light of the spirit is victorious over surrounding darkness, and that it should increase successively with appropriate earnestness of conduct and deed. Wise’s teachings on the subject and the championing of its core message are both a story of personal conviction and a tale of the evolution of religious life and Jewish identity within America. We salute him with a Shane Confectionery assortment of blue, white, and silver Jordan Almonds the colors of talliot, and bagged gold-and-silver wrapped chocolate geld. For our patrons of Hebrew lineage or identity, we hope to gladden your eight day festival with these goodies.

If you can’t make it into Shane’s this season, we hope that you can stop by any number of locations which carry our products, like Metropolitan Bakeries, Capogiro Artisans, Arden Theater, or the Terrain at Styer’s Nursery in Glen Mills, PA or Terrain in Westport, CT.

We wish you everything the goodness in your heart desires.

May There Be Peace On Earth and Peace Within You,

The Berley Brothers and Staff

Select Ballot above to cast your vote

Election ends November 13th

In this special edition of The Berley Brothers Web-Log, we have dispatched our straw-hatted pressmen far and wide to give unto you, our loyal readership, the most esteemed journalistic coverage of the 1912 election that we possibly can. And whatta rarity of a horse race it is! Four noble specimens are competing for a cushy seat in that ol’ ovoid office: current President William Howard Taft (hoping to be elected to a second term), New Jersey Governor Thomas Woodrow Wilson, former President Theodore Roosevelt who is seeking a non-consecutive third term in a newly established political party, and the red-flag waving socialist Eugene Victor Debs. By land, what a comeuppance! Before another word is stitched, it is with stern dutifulness that we inform you that our reportage knows not the curved bias of any hurled bowling ball, nor do our paper’s pages contain the sickly jaundice or yella’ canary feathers that you’re liable to find in the issues of a Hearst paper, which ain’t fit for the flooring of a birdcage. No-sir-ee, we here at this newspaper outfit and web-log trade are interested solely in the facts at hand. I’m the darndest muckraker you’ve set your sockets on, and I’ve worn a cow’s hide of shoe leather chasin’ down the dirt roads of this great nation of yours in pursuit of this foursome of highest-office-seekers; from campaign stop to campaign stop and convention floor to convention floor, and I’ve had a beeping symphony of Morse coded telegrams ringing in my ears that’ve sizzled through the wiry webbing of telegraph lines laced continent-wide. So, I hope to exhibit to you a view of the world as it was, if you’d only be so obliging as to peer through this chronoscopic lens to see just what the year 1912 was all about. And from there, I can give you a glimpse of the platforms that each of these men running for the Presidency held.

So here we have it– the temporal acreage of the year 1912. Well, it looks like it certainly inherited a doozy of activity. The world and the nation are changing at this time. Let’s take a look around, shall we? How about we stuff our luggage to skip off to the great land of China? It’s a straight billiard’s shot on the other side of the globe. Well, it appears that there’s some commotion there. The land is perfumed with the fragrance of lotus blossoms and opium smoke, the latter thanks to the salesmanship and bayonets of the British Empire, which picked up a few bouncy “spheres of influence”, like Hong Kong, for instance. But it appears as if there is unease amongst the inhabitants. In 1911, we saw the Wuchang Uprising in the Hubei Province on account a’ people bein’ upset over a railway crisis. This here was a catalyst for the Xinhai Revolution. And whuddya know? The Qing Dynasty, which’d been in charge for 268 years prior, was ousted. On New Years Day of 1912, the first-ever Republic of China was declared, with Mister Sun Yat-sen followin’ the good example of Georgie Washington by bein’ the first president.

What else’ve we got goin’ on ‘round the globe? Well, the Italians and the Turks of the Ottoman Empire appear to be embroiled in a spat. The Italians seem to be fighting for seizure of the grand ol’ cities of Tripolitania, Fezzan, and Cyrenaica, which are presently under Ottoman rule. And, look at this! The Italians used an aeroplane for military purpose when conducting reconnaissance flights over Libya. That makes ‘em the first ever to do such a thing. And, look at this… the Balkan League ain’t especially pleased with the Ottoman Turks either, and they’re preparin’ for attack.

How ‘bout our own country’s military squabbles and domestic brouhaha? Well, how ‘bout in the Philippines? Now, y’see, back ‘round the turn of the century, a whole ‘lotta Filipino natives sought political independence from the Spanish crown. The rebels called themselves “Katipunan”, meaning “gather together” in the Tagalog tongue. Well, eventually they seceded from the Spanish monarchy, but that’s where Uncle Sam steps in, see? We had ourselves a dust-up with the Spaniards ourselves. We fought ‘em for their possessions in the Pacific, and we played for keeps. Madrid sued for peace, and in ‘98 President McKinley had the Treaty of Paris drawn up, and we got “indefinite colonial authority” over Puerto Rico, Guam, and, yeppers, the Philippines. Problem is, the Filipinos weren’t so keen on the idea. They seemed to think we were illegally invasive, and that we were takin’ advantage of their natural resources like sugarcane for the profit of the American Sugar Refining Company. Which is ridiculous. America would never invade another country for its natural resources, but only to spread freedom and democracy.  Anyhow, these Katipunan continued to fight for years thenceforth, up until now in 1912, even, suffering anywhere between 34,000 to 1,000,000 casualties. Now, this is where our current President William Howard Taft comes in. Y’see, in the 1890s, Taft sat plumply on the United States Court of Appeals of the Sixth Circuit. But in 1900, since-assassinated President William Mckinley plucked up Taft (which was quite a feat) to have him serve as the Governor-General of the Philippines under the Second Philippine Commision, which served as an interim government for the islands. In 1902, Taft visited Rome to meet with Pope Leo XIII to negotiate the purchase of the Philippine lands from the Roman Catholic Church. In 1904, Taft was again uneasily plucked by then-President Theodore Roosevelt (Roosevelt was sworn in as President following the assassination of William McKinley) to serve on his cabinet as Secretary of War.

The year 1912 saw another island war in which the United States was involved: The so-called “Negro Rebellion” or “Little Race War” in Cuba. Many black Afro-Cubans, descended from slaves during the centuries of slave trading, lived in poverty and squalor on the island. They worked daylong and into the night chopping sugarcane with machetes for piffling wages. The “Independent Party of Color” was formed by Evaristo Estenoz to support the betterment of life for these workers, and they took armed revolt against the Cuban government, led by president José Miguel Gómez y Gómez. In 1912 William Howard Taft sent in a detachment of 688 marines to assist Gómez in putting down the rebellion. They arrived at Guantanamo Bay on March 13th. The rebels were outnumbered and outgunned, and Estonoz was killed by Cuban government forces on June 27th. 3,000-6,000 Afro-Cubans were killed, and the Independent Party of Color was dissolved.

Now then, what was going on in America? Well, a number of things. In 1912, New Mexico was admitted as the 47th State in the Union, and Arizona became the 48th. On April 14th, the RMS “Titanic”, A British passenger liner, was sunk in the middle of the icy Atlantic Ocean after it was struck by an iceberg that was noticed too late, and its iron side was torn asunder. 1,500 lives were lost on that infamous day, and the survivors numbered little over 700.  On March 1st, Captain Albert Berry became the first man to jump from a plane in a parachute. He leapt 1,500 feet from a Benoist pusher biplane and landed in Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. In the streets of New York City on May the 6th, suffragettes marched openly down the street, carrying American flags, sashes that said “Votes For Women”, and banners repeating the colonial call “No Taxation without Representation”. This year, Fenway Park opened in Boston and Tiger Stadium opened in Detroit. The Boston Red Sox beat the New York Giants in a thriller of a game. By 1912, hundreds of thousands of immigrants were streaming into America through places like Ellis Island, many of them Italians from the Campania region of southern Italy, Sicilians, Irish folk, Jews from Eastern Europe and the Russian Pale, Armenians and Greeks from Constantinople, and a slew of nations around the globe. Indeed, as the sonneteer Emma Lazarus had put it, we accepted “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Industry was booming and monopolies had power structures as vertical as the skyscrapers they erected. This is a topic of much heated discussion amongst the voting populace.

So, let’s get to it, shall we? Let’s meet out four contenders…

William Howard Taft

First and foremost, William Howard Taft is a Yale man. He comes from a strong family. He is a descendent of Alphonso Taft, who served as Secretary of War and Attorney General under Ulysses S. Grant. Taft is also versed in the legal tradition of our country. He earned his Bachelor of Laws from Cincinnati Law School in 1880. If anyone knows how to eat Cincinnati ice cream, it is William Howard Taft. In 1890, President Benjamin Harrison appointed Taft to be the Solicitor General of the United States — he was the youngest and the largest to fill that position. We’ve already gone over Taft’s experience as the Governor-General of the Philippines between 1900-1904, and mentioned that he was Roosevelt’s Secretary of War between 1904-1908, where he temporarily became the Civil Governor of Cuba. He personally dined with Castillo to negotiate a peaceful end to the revolt. In 1907 with the signing of the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty the United States was granted permission to construct the Panama Canal. President Roosevelt delegated this to Taft’s War Department. By 1908, Roosevelt wanted Taft to run for the Presidency as his successor, but Taft was at first reluctant, since he really wanted to be a Supreme Court Justice instead. After some arm-bending, Taft complied and ran for President, defeating the populist Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan. Taft has been less forceful than his predecessor with executive power, saying “the President can exercise no power which cannot fairly be traced to some specific grant of power in the Constitution or act of Congress.” He is more soft-spoken than Roosevelt, and is quite adept at negotiation and compromise. He is not progressive enough for progressives with the tariff rates and not conservative enough for conservatives who favor big business. Taft has filed nearly twice the amount of anti-trust suits to break up monopolies as did his predecessor Roosevelt in his two terms in office. But Taft is not a bragging man. In fact, he is somewhat humble to a fault. His efforts to please all sides can sometimes leave him alienated, even in his own Republican Party. Which is not to say that President Taft does not know how to maneuver, for he is very clever in this regard. He is a man who can quell trouble. In 1911, when railroad companies were threatening to raise prices by 20%, Taft threatened them with the Sherman Antitrust Act, and they settled down. On April 12th of this year, Taft also created the United States Chamber of Commerce to offset the rise of the labor movement. Taft also introduced the Corporate Income Tax, growing federal receipts by many million dollars.

So, President Taft is a complicated man. He likes to please many sides, but simultaneously he can seem indifferent to certain interests and operates under his own will. He has accomplished many things throughout his political career for good and ill, but you cannot call him a man who does not pay attention.

Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson wears frameless spectacles and has neatly-combed hair. He is an intellectual and you can see the machinery of a vast repository of information behind his eyes. He is a Southerner, having been born in Virginia the third of four children. His father was a slave-owner and a chaplain for the Confederate Army. Wilson recalls that in his early boyhood he got to stare up into the face of General Robert E. Lee. Wilson was sickly as a child, and his mother was very over-protective. His interests turned to the pursuit of scholarship and civic study. His graduate studies were at John Hopkins University and his dissertation was entitled “Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics”; he received a doctorate in political science. He then turned to pedagogy, teaching at Bryn Mawr College, Wesleyan University, and after some years he snagged himself the presidency of Princeton University. From here, Wilson would go on to be elected as the Governor of New Jersey as a Democrat.
Wilson has some rather stark views on the structure of the American government. He seems to view its present alignment as outdated and insufficient. “What’s with all these checks and balances?” he wonders to himself. It’s so slow and tedious. He thinks the parliamentary system of European counterparts much more favorable than all this bicamerality of legislative houses, and distance between the Executive branch and the Legislative branch, and so on… what America needs is “power and strict responsibility!”

Wilson is not, as of now, a supporter of Women’s Suffrage. We here at The Berley Brothers Web-Log disagree with this stance, although our position is far from a popular one. Many of the persons within our employ are of the female persuasion, and we think it would be right proper for them to be able to cast a vote. We hope you keep this in mind this November.

As for the Race Question, Wilson is equally unvocal — his campaign staff is segregated, and we suspect that his White House would be as well. Wilson is running under the slogan “New Freedom”, but we question whether that freedom extends to all, or only the sanctioned. The freedom of Benjamin Franklin’s imagination seems far more spacious, indeed.

Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt, for whom umpteen snuggly toy bears owe their namesake, is unquestionably one of the most charismatic men in American political history. He will forever be remembered as a chief reformer who ushered in the progressive era in his first two terms in office. He was an avid “trust buster”, who broke up many monopolies in the world of industry who had a stranglehold on the American market and who squashed competition. He is an outdoorsman who strode the American frontier on horseback, living in his earlier years as a cowboy in Dakota, swinging lasso and all. He wrote articles on frontier life for magazines on the Eastern seaboard, and he even spilled the details about how he hunted down three outlaws who stole his riverboat up the waters of the Little Missouri. But, let it be known, Teddy Roosevelt is a native New Yorker and was a frail asthmatic child in his youth. His upbringing was economically privileged but difficult because of his ailments. He was often bedridden, but he absorbed as much adventure as he could through the world of books. He was home schooled, and excelled in a variety of subjects. His father wanted to strengthen Teddy bodily, so he encouraged that the growing boy take up boxing lessons. Teddy boxed the world over, even taking a trip to Egypt to throw-down on the desert canvas in 1872. When he came of age to go on to academia, Teddy went to Harvard University, where he edited The Harvard Advocate. From there he went on to study at Columbia Law School, but dropped out when offered to serve as a New York Assemblyman. We mentioned Teddy’s various adventures as a huntsman and cowboy in the wilds of Dakota and Missouri, but he returned to public life to serve on the United States Civil Service Commission, and later he became the New York City Police Commissioner, where he reformed the department, made the .32 Caliber Colt revolver a standard-issue weapon, and cracked down on widespread corruption within the ranks. He also read muckraking documentary photographer Jacob Riis’s book How the Other Half Lives, and attempted to deal more directly with the suffering and poverty that scarred the city.  Roosevelt was also the Assistant Secretary of the Navy under William Mckinley and helped prepare the American Navy for the Spanish-American War. Additionally, when the U.S. invaded Cuba, Roosevelt resigned from the Navy and volunteered to fight in-person on Cuban soils with a group of Harvard friends, forming the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, or as the newspapers dubbed them, “The Rough Riders.”

So, T.R. can throw a punch, shoot a gun, lasso a steer, and fight crime. Where does he stand on the issues? What’s so different about his campaign in 1912? Well, first of all, let me tell you boys and girls, the game has changed. Former President Roosevelt has had some very public disagreements with President Taft for a number of years now. Heck, it’s all over the papers. They’ve bickered back and forth like they’re on a playground. But, y’see, that was all well and good, until ol’ Roosevelt decides to challenge Taft for the ‘12 ticket on the Republican Party! The Republican Convention was held in the Windy City of Chicago on the week of June 18th. Taft (recall, this gent can maneuver around as good as anybody!) tried to pick himself up some delegates earlier, and he cozied up to a great stretch of party organizers in the Southern States. Now, see, Southerners ain’t particularly keen on ol’ Roosevelt, on account a’ back in ‘01 Roosevelt dined with the black activist Booker T. Washington who was advocating the advancement of his people’s condition within the fabric of American society. Booker was the first black man to publicly dine with a sitting President in the White House. Now, the fairer minded of you would think that this was a marvellous advance, but this sent the South into quite the whirlwind and they haven’t since recovered, so they hold a grudge against noble Theodore Roosevelt. Anywho, back to this Convention. There was an out-and-out schism in the Republican Party. The chairmen kept seating delegates for Taft, even in California where Roosevelt had won the primary. So Roosevelt challenged the credentials of just about half the folks there. On June 22nd, Roosevelt in anger had his Progressive-minded delegates walk from the convention. The remaining delegates seated the incumbents of Taft and Vice President James S. Sherman.

So, what’s Roosevelt done? Something rather historic. He has created a whole new political party, The Progressive Party. They reconvened in Chicago in August with over 2,000 delegates. Roosevelt has adopted Women’s Suffrage into the new party platform, and suffragette and Hull House founder Jane Addams gave a stirring speech at the convention offering her endorsement. Addams is a philanthropist, philosopher, reformer, and pacifist, and she lives in a “Boston Marriage” with her fellow-activist Ellen Gates Starr. Other planks of the party platform include a National Health Service, Social insurance, an eight hour workday, farm relief, worker’s compensation, a minimum wage law for womenfolk, and a federal securities commission. Roosevelt has even been campaigning in stark new methods, making his campaign candidate-centered instead of party-centered, he is speaking directly to the public through speeches, phonographic recordings, and newspapers, and he is advocating more direct action of the populace in the decision-making of the democracy. Goers to the convention broke out in song of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “Onward Christian Soldiers”. Indeed, he is a fiery candidate with some ideas in his head, and he has the wherewithal to change the political game.

And what’s more! In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the former President was about to deliver a speech when he was leaving his hotel, he was fired upon by saloonkeeper and would-be assassin John Schrank, who later claimed that the ghost of President William McKinley had appeared to him in a dream, and instructed him to kill Roosevelt for seeking a third term. The bullet passed through the fifty-page speech that was in Roosevelt’s jacket pocket and a steel eyeglass case, and entered into his body between some ribs. The former President remained standing, noticed that he was not coughing blood (although his shirt was soaking with it), and he decided to deliver his speech as planned. He announced to the crowd that he had been shot, and that “it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose!” The former President spoke for ninety minutes while bleeding profusely.
Now that takes some conviction.

Eugene V. Debs

Socialist. Red. Traitor. Champion of the workingman. Eugene Victor Debs, the Hoosier from Terre Haute, Indiana, has been called many things in his lifetime. He certainly is a polarizing figure in the American political scene, and is a practiced agitator and radical– terms he would not shy away from but wear emblematically. Debs is proud of the red flag, in fact, he wrote: “A vast amount of ignorant prejudice prevails against the red flag. It is easily accounted for. The ruling class the wide world over hates it, and its sycophants, therefore, must decry it. Strange that the red flag should produce the same effect upon a tyrant that it does upon a bull.”

Eugene’s parents emigrated to America from Alsace, France. He dropped out of high school to take up employment at a railyard, painting cars and cleaning them out. Next, he worked at a wholesale grocery school for four years. From here, he went on to become a locomotive fireman. He joined the trade’s union, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, even serving as a delegate at the organization’s national convention. He went on to be an associate editor of their publication, The Fireman, and became active in steering the group towards more collective bargaining measures. He eventually left the Brotherhood, which he felt was too passive, and he went on to found the American Railway Union, which successfully struck the Great Northern Railway in 1894.

Also in that year, Debs participated in and eventually led the Pullman Strike, which struck the Pullman Palace Car Company. There was a dispute in worker’s wages, and after the banking Panic of ‘93, worker’s wages were threatened to be reduced by 23%. 80,000 workers refused to handle Pullman cars or cars attached to them. Grover Cleveland sent in the United States Army to break the strike. Thirteen strikers were killed, thousands were blacklisted, and there is said to have been $80 million dollars worth of damages. Debs was sent to federal prison for contempt and was eventually represented in court by up-and-coming lawyer Clarence Darrow.

While in prison, Debs remembered having read the novels of socialist utopian author Francis Bellamy. He eventually read a great amount of socialist and communist material, including Karl Marx’s “Das Kapital.” Once out of prison, he founded the Social Democracy of America project, and later the Social Democratic Party of the United States. He was the candidate for the Socialist Party of America in 1904, 1908, and now in 1912. On Theodore Roosevelt, Debs calls him “a charlatan, mountebank, and fraud, and his Progressive promises and pledges as the mouthings of a low and utterly unprincipled self seeker and demagogue.” His words are equally unkind for “Injunction Bill Taft” and Governor Wilson.

Ultimately, Debs is a Romantic, with a poet’s heart and a snowball’s chance, but, by golly, if he doesn’t put up a fight. And give a punch of a speech. He states:
“There is growing every hour a new consciousness of the purposes of BEING, and there is such a healthy, hearty, emphatic enthusiasm in it all as promises vast changes and uplift for humanity. The converging streams of races are now neighborly and accessible; superstitions are being overthrown, and the People are being prepared.”

So, dear reader, this is a sampling of the global scenario as we see it, these are the issues, these are the events, and these are the players. Just as daylight progresses with the turn of the Earth, it is our fervent wish and deeply felt expectation that humanity will progress apace. We trust that you will cast your vote with wisdom, and we ask that you contribute your best efforts for the betterment of human family and the world in which it resides.

Reporting for The Berley Brothers Web-Log,
Jeffrey T. Heinbach

And whether you stop into the doors of The Franklin Fountain at 116 Market or to Shane Confectionery, we have ample new goodies to bring delight to your countenance!

First, we would like to re-introduce to you the seasonally-arriving HOT MENU!!! Yes, yes, the time is nigh for luscious drinks of award-winning European Drinking Chocolate, made with Noel Chocolate from the City of Lights! We also have our beloved Hot Milkshakes, which draws in customers from every nook in the nation. Would you care for a Hot Caramel Pie Shake? A homemade slice of warmed apple pie is heated ‘til the filling sizzles, then slabs of Franklin Vanilla Bean Ice Cream are derived from our dipping cabinets and placed into a milk bath malt cup. From there the to-be shake is subjected to the whirr of a stainless steel spindle until it is mashed up into a smooth consistency. The heated pie is placed into the tasty vat, and hot caramel is drizzled atop it, dotted with puffs of house-prepared whipped cream. Do TRY! And have a go at our other Hot Menu items available for purchase while the air is crisp.

The Franklin Fountain will also be offering whole pies for sale. These baked goods are simply marvels, I tell you, the chefs of our kitchen work miracles to create these exquisite fruit pies and goodies. Order ahead for Thanksgiving along with Pints and Quarts of seasonal flavors (mind your P’s and Q’s!). Also, it is worth mentioning, that if you happen to be by Greensgrow Farm in Kensington, they will be carrying cartons of our Franklin Ice Cream.

As you have probably noticed from the barrage of political advertisements and the apoplexies of friends and neighbors with the mention of Presidential candidates and congressmen, the political season is upon us once more. Since we here at the Fountain dwell in a pocket of space-time displaced a century backwards from the “present” of our readership, we have focused the lot of our attention onto the historic 1912 Election. We will describe the political scenario as well as the stances and arguments of the four men who ran for the Presidency in that year in a special segment to be found after the conclusion of the standard section of this web-log entry on Nov. 7th. But, in the meanwhile, we would like to get the stars and stripes bunting off of the shelves and promote a few items of germane political stripe. First of all, we will have for offer “Political Pops”. These include clear toy candies made from antique molds featuring the likenesses of President William Howard Taft, who ran for re-election in 1912 on the Republican Ticket, and former President Theodore Roosevelt, who also ran for President in 1912 for a third, albeit non-consecutive term on the newly-found Progressive Party ticket.  Taft candies will be colored “red” for the G.O.P. and Roosevelt’s likeness cast in “green” for the Progressive ticket.  Select which figure you think is worthy of your esteem, vote, and nibble.

Also, beginning on October 30th until Election Day on November 6th, we will be offering, once more, our “Nutter Butter Pecan Ice Cream”, made with “Nutter-Butter” cookies, to honor our city’s mayor and routine Franklin Fountain customer, the honorable Mayor Michael Nutter. Over the years, Mayor Nutter has been a kind and dutiful patron of our store, and a good and loyal friend. He has also worked very hard to maintain the functionality of our city, and to see that it achieves the beauty of its potential. Why, he was there with the Berley Brothers to cut the ribbon at the Grand Opening of Shane Confectionery!  He was with the Berley Brothers to officiate the re-opening of the Race Street Pier, and he will be with us in future times to either partake of our yummy desserts or to engage the citizenry to better our community. We salute you, good sir, and endorse your efforts.

There will be yet another promotional event in early November. Goldenberg’s Peanut Chews, a historic Philadelphia-born candy first introduced in 1917 by Romanian Jewish immigrant David Goldenberg, will be stopping by the Fountain grounds with loads of their red-and-blue wrapped candy bars to distribute freely. Haven’t you ears? FREE CANDY! We will be offering these chewy treats, once supplied to soldiers of The Great War so that they may have nutriment of protein and sugar, to the assembled masses arrived to taste this gooey goodness.  

We have received another preservation award! The Pioneer America Society has bestowed upon us an award for our hard work and elbow grease in restoring Shane Confectionery into the shape and aesthetic that it had been in 1911. Again, we couldn’t have done it without our staff, our contractors, our architect, our creative director, the Shane family, or anyone on the team who helped us with this laborious task.

There are two more mentionable milestones that have occurred in the recent past. The historical marker for the Aitken Bible outside of Shane Confectionery has been placed and officialized with much to-do and celebration. We even had a bible cake! As it is written… “these words, take to heart…” …and stomach!

Another feat that we are most proud of, and has been a year in the making, is the placement of the wrought-iron “Shane Confectionery” hanging sign on our building’s façade. This sign was designed by the creatively brilliant artist Emily Malina, and was crafted by a team of iron-workers. The seashell motif brings especial elegance to the block, and reminds us of our connection to the Delaware River, which was a source of trade, food, and travel for centuries gone. Once more, our kudos and gratefulness go out to those who made this a reality.

Do you happen to subscribe to the vegetarian ethos which discludes ovo-lacto consumption? Do you dine on meals akin to those found in the recipe-book  No Animal Food published in 1910 and written by Rupert H. Wheldon? Is your diet very like that of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the London-educated lawyer from Hindustan who is working as a social reformer in South Africa? Well then, we have some very good news! We have a wide array of new items to accustom your ethical boundaries! We have traditional and seasonal Coconut Cream based flavors, Toppings and now vegan milks are available upon request, we have cashew milk for shakes (not too sweet, yet very smooth and flavor neutral) and coconut milk for Hot Cocoas and espresso drinks (it is said to be silky, sensuous, and delicious.) So please, vegetarian community of all degrees, patron our shop and try our new menu selections which are in abidance with your code of morals.

Well, that’s about all for now. Once more, Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family, and we request that you take a moment to pause about all the wonders in your life.

The Berley Brothers and Staff

One Final Pause: Please consider filling out our short and simple survey about our forthcoming publication to commemorate 10 years in business! We’d love to hear from you and gear our message to your discerning tastes! https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/25332F7

P.S.- Check back soon for our 1912 Election Coverage!

WE GIVE THANKS

Words of thanks begin in the heart
They begin as a kernel of light
the selfsame spark that brought forth All
and in which all is contained. Roots penetrate
through emotive soils, wet with blood and experience.
Through pulse and ventricles luminous fibrils root
drinking in the blots of pain hid in scarred-over fissures
Like lightning forks roots dig through
the dense sky of heart.

A sprout emerges

The root system networks and complicates
It finds drink in pockets of gleeful surprise,
subterranean lakes of maternal bonds,
wellsprings of valued friendships and garnered skills

The leaves of Thanks unfold, their vacuoles starry
Pillars of spiritual daylight shimmer and connect
The cosmos bleeds magnetism and love.
A bud opens and words form on the sayer’s lips:

We give thanks for the quilt of pastureland
blanketed over rumpled hills
thick with the stalks of oats, maize, and hay
stalks that are laid on anger planks
and are met with the scimitar blade
of the chaff knife.

We give thanks for the branching biographies
of our departed ancestors, whose hands first sparked
flintfire, who first chiselled wheels,
who first navigated seas from foam-splashed deckboards
with unsure hopes of survival
who first enunciated speech of instruction and of passion
who first sowed seeds and who first whittled spears
who first smelted bronze, iron, and steel
who first taught us to keep pedalling,
you won’t fall over, you’re doing great.

We give thanks for November colors.

The fire-truck reds of residual glucose in
down-fluttered maple leaves, the blond writhe
of dead grass, the pearlescent tone of ice floes
travelling down musically-lapping rivers
the comforting of pumpkin skins
bulging from the ends of vine stems
the heap and clump of hovering
cloud banks
colored like muskox wool
moving through the vast expanse of eyes’-upward-glance
like milk billows in tea.

We give thanks for November’s smells

the acidic reassurance of spice-steeped cider
the middair deltas of flowing scents
contributed from Slippery Elms, Black Oakes, Bigtooth Aspens, Shagbark Hickory
the rising aromas of hand-prepared chocolates cooling on marble
the holy odor of leaf piles

We give thanks for November’s sounds

the noise of rain on storefront windowglass
the secretive murmur of backyard brookwater
the lone goose call bounced off of placid pond mirrors
the diffused crackle of hearthfire
the exchange of political argument over cafe tables

We give thanks for the outfanned display of turkey feathers in dun outfit
and their crude simulation by dayschoolers
who slime their small and innocent hands with paint
and press their spanned imprint onto construction paper
for classroom assignments
happily they doodle little turkey faces
with crayon or marker

We give thanks for our family
that we may gather peaceably at a table
enjoying kitchen-made vittles

We give thanks for our friendships
delicate, precious, and as intricate as
the webbing of a spider’s web in chill air

We give thanks for what we have
We give thanks for what we have done well
We give thanks for who we have
We give thanks for who we are
We give thanks for what we have been given
We give thanks for the desire to give
We give thanks for the desire to nurture

We give thanks to the issuer of light
we give thanks for the issuance of love
We give thanks that we may love
We give thanks for our humanity
We give thanks for the scribbly pathway of every atom of us
in whose trace the calligraph of God’s name is inscribed
We give thanks for the newborn cry of every living being
in whose fear-drenched shriek the name of God is uttered
We give thanks to the eternal Source.

Thank You.