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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 1906)
THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAN, PORTLAND, . OCTOBER 21, 1908. 43 FBANK. BAUMS IS THE CHERUB A GIRLy OR A BOY ? STOFSY FOR. CHILDREN THE WIZARD sfOL THE LAND 2f OZ FATHERGOOSE So AND John Oi 2 U I NEW-VQNDER (JoliDDough Hcnirfs hi iiicuiuud. HE baker awoke at 3 o'clock, and soon after-ward came downstairs yawning and rub bing his eyes in his accust o m e d manner. For it is a real hardship to arise in the mid dle of the night and go to -work, and M o n s ieur Jules sometimes regretted he was such a skillful ba ker; for any other profession would have allowed him to sleep until day light. But the bread and rolls and gingerbread must be fresh and warm by breakfast time, or the people would be sadly disappointed; and the only possible way to get them ready iyas to start the work at 3 o'clock. First, he lighted the big swinging iainps, which made the room bright as day, and then he built the fires in the great furnaces. Presently these last were roaring in a very business-like manner, and as soon as he heard the roar, Monsieur Jules began to whistle. It was his custom, and kept him from .getting lonesome when he worked. Next' he kneaded the bread, formed it into loaves, and placed them in long rows upon the slabs ready for the ovens. The rolls were then raised and .kneaded, and it took a longer time to get them ready than it had the bread, for they were small and quite daintily shaped. But at last the im portant task was completed, and while they were rising and the ovens beating Monsieur raised his ginger bread and cakes. Somehow, the work progressed very swiftly this morning, and after a time tlie baker found he had a good hour to spare before the ovens would be ready. Then an idea struck him. 'Why, today is the Fourth of Jnly,'' he thought, "and that is a National holiday. I think 1 will make a ftie gingerbread man, such as I used to make in Paris, and put it in the shop window to attract attention. These Americans like enterprise, and they have never seen a gingerbread man, for I have not made one since I came to this country." With Monsieur Jules, to think was io act, and scarcely had he spoken these words when he began to gather his material together for a great hatch of gingerbread dough. For he resolved that the man he was about to make should be big enough and fine enough to arouse the wonder of all beholders. He began by filling a great bowl .with flour, and ihen rubbed into the flour some butter and laxd. "That will make it short," said Monsieur, "although it is to be a tall man." Then he added some molasses. "He will be a sweet, fellow," thought the baker, smiling at his own pleasan tries. Then he shook in the ginger and several fragrant spices, and be gan mixing the dough into one great mass. "It is too stiff," reflected the baker, a few minutes later. "My man must not be stiff, for that would ren der him disagreeable." He laughed at the whimsical thought, and glanc ing around, saw the brown, bowl that Madame had left setting upon a into the mass of dough he was pre paring for his gingerbread man ! Monsieur merely noticed that the dough had now become the proper consistency, and mixed easily. Whistling' merrily, he presently spread the huge batch of dough upon that Monsieur was forming with such care;- it was, rather, the figure of a typical French gentleman, such as may seldom be met with elsewhere than on the boulevards of Paris. It was. interesting to watch the figure grow; interesting, of course, to Mon sieur Jules, as there was no one else in the bakeroom to see. The man appeared to be dressed in excellent fashion. Monsieur made him a collar and shirt front of white MO.VSIEVR JVLES GAVE A SCREAM OF TERROR A.VD THEN HE TURNED AND PIED." corner of the table. It was nearly full of the' precious liquid, and Mon sieur Jules, with ' his mind intent upon his work, never stopped to won der how it came there. Perhaps he thought he had himself .unconsciously filled the bottle with water. Anyway, he dumped all of the Essence of Vi tality the Great Elixir which could never be duplicated in all the world the high table "and began" rolling it and working it into the shape he de-. sired. Ah, but Monsieur Jules Grogrande was a true artist, although a baker! Under his skillful hands the ginger bread man slowly . but surely took form ; and the form was fully as large as that of a well-grown 14-year-old boy. But it was. by no means a bov ! -4 ! fjfflf? j bread dough, which looked very beautiful in contrast to the brown gingerbread dough of his clothes. Then with- a lump of dough carefully kneaded he formed the man's neck tie, making a very artistic bow, in deed. A waistcoat of fashionable cut was nest added. The buttons on the man's coat were white lozenges, and to represent shoes the baker mixed his - dough with licorice, until the shoes seemed as black and shiny as if freshly polished. You would have loved to see, could you have been present, the delicate skill with which the. clever baker carved the hands and fingers of his man, using a small but sharp knife, and patting and rounding each dough finger into proper shape. He even clipped from a sheet of transparent celluloid the finger nails, and pressed them carefully into the dough at the ends of the fingers. Who but Mon sieur would ever have thought of such a thing? ' Eut, after all, it was upon the face that the baker exercised his best skill. As a sculptor forms his models out of elay, so Monsieur pressed and squeezed and molded his. pliant dough, until every. feature of the gingerbread man became wonderfully lifelike. Of course the face w-as made of white dough, with just a trifle of the pink coloring mixed into it to make it re semble real flesh. But the wavy hair that surrounded the face was of gin gerbread' dough, as its brown color, after it had been baked, would be quite natural and lifelike. Among the things brought from Paris by the Grograndes was a pair of excellent glass eyes, and Monsieur Jules rummaged in a drawer until he found them, and then pressed them into the dough face. And now it pos itively seemed that the. gingerbread man was looking at you, and the eyes lent-its face a gentle and kindly ex pression. "There's something lacking, how ever," murmured the baker, looking at his work critically. "Ah! I know it's 'the teeth!" Teeth for a gingerbread man! But nothing -was- easier to represent, once their absence was. noted. Between the lips of the man our baker pressed two rows of small white candies, and l ! . "Merciful keavest! did you speak, John Bough." it was wonderful to remark the pleas ant smile that now lent its charm to the face. With a sigh of satisfaction in the result of his work, the baker at last declared his gingerbread man ready for the oven. . "And it is my masterpiece!" cried Monsieur Jules proudly. '.'Never, even .in Paris, have I seen so perfect a man of dough. He is well worthy to have a name, and I will call him John Dousrh, which will be appropriate, in deed"!" But the great ovens were now glow ing brightly, so Monsieur filled them with bread and rolls, and watched them carefully until the big and lit tle loaves were all. done to a turn. The cakes and cookies came next, and by the time that dawn arrived the front shop -was stocked with heaps of the warm, fresh-smelling loaves and rolls, and trays of delicious cakes and buns, hot from the ovens. Then the baker came back to his gingerbread man, which he first placed gently upon a great iron slab, and then slid it all into the open door of a perfectly heated oven. With great anxiety Monsieur watched the oven. ' The dough was perfectly mixed, the workmanship was most excellent. Would the bak ing turn out to be as perfect as the rest? Much good dough may be spoiled in the baking. None knew that better than Jules Grogrande. So he tended the oven with nerv- THES SUDDEN IDEA wife, who was color blind and could not distinguish a golden flask from a silverone! Monsieur Jules, who knew nothing i "HE WILL BE A SWEET FELLOW,' THOLCHT THE BAKER." ous care, and finally, at exactly the right moment, the baker threw open the oven door, and drew out the sheet of iron upon which the grand ginger bread man rested. . He was baked to perfection! Filled with pride and satisfaction, Monsieur bent admiringly over his great creation; and as he did so, the gingerbread man moved, bent his back, sat up, and looked about him with his glass eyes, while a wonder ing expression crept over his face. "Dear me!" said he, "isn't it very warm and close in this room? The Great Elixir had accomplished its purpose. . The wonderful Essence of Vitality, prized for centuries and closely guarded, had lent its marvel ous powers of energy, strength and life to a gingerbread man! And all through the stupidity of a baker's of the Arab's flasks, or of the Great Elixir, glared wildly into the glass eyes of the gingerbread man. He was at 'first sure that his own eyes, and also his ears, had played him a trick. ' "John Dough John Dough!" he speak? Merciful you speak, John cried, "did you heavens ! Did Dough?" "I did," said the gingerbread man, struggling to rise from, the slab, "and I declare that it is warm and close in this room!" Monsieur Jules gave a scream of terror. Then he turned and fled. A moment later he staggered into the shop, tossed his hand above his head, and fell in a heap upon the floor being overcome by a fainting spell. Madame, who had just come down stairs and opened the shop, gazed upon her husband's terrified actions with an amazement that prevented her from moving a limb or uttering a sound. What in the world could have hap pened to Jules? Then she received the greatest shock of her life. From out the door of the bakeroom came a gingerbread man, so fresh from the oven that the odor of hot gingerbread surrounded him like a cloud. He. looked neither to right or left, but picked Monsieur's tall silk hat from off a peg and placed it care lessly upon his own head. Next he caught up a large candy cane from a showcase, stepped over the prostrate body of the baker, and so left the shop, closing the front door behind him. Madame saw him parsing the win dow stepping along briskly and swinging the cane in his left hand. Then the good lady imitated her husband's example. She gave a shrjjl scream, threw up her hands, and tumbled over unconscious. aft JcdDdljo . QDGogjD Sfflft tflUU "Ijnitr fil bkilful hands bread maa slowly but form. the gluger urely took Several millions of children between the ages of 6 and 60 have come to expect a new story from L. Frank Baum each year. Six years ago he gave them the "WIZARD OF OZ, which has since, been published in five different lan guages, and besides was dramatized and played upon the stage in every prominent city in the United States, run ning' successfully for a period of five years. The story for this year is JOHN DOTJG-H AND THE CHERUB, which beean in this paper last Sunday, and will run each Sunday for twelve weeks. JOHN DOUGH AND THE CHERUB" abounds in unique Baum charac ters, and also contains a deep mystery to.be solved by the children themselves, viz.', Is the -Cherub-a girl or a boy? Chick, the Cherub, is one of the two most important personages in the book, but the author has failed to state whether or not the 3roungster is a girl or a boy.' . The children are left to decide for themselves. Begin with the first chapters, . and do not miss a word of this great story. "EE LOOKED. NEITHER TO RIGHT OR L.EF T."
