Evening Star Newspaper, November 1, 1931, Page 92

@ plain glass of soda water, they decided to mix their drinks.” F two mischievous boys hadn't dropped a dipper of ice cream into a glass of soda water, just to see what would happen, one day back in 1872, you might not be order- ing your favorite ice cream soda at a marble-topped counter today. If another curious youth hadn't insisted on Wi some chocolate sirup on his ice cream, one night in Two Rivers, Wis,, although the pro- prietor insisted that it would ruin a perfectly good dish of vanilla ice cream, the sundae might also be missing from the current menu. Jce cream sodas and sundaes had to be evolved exactly like cther foods. People had to develop a liking for them, just as they some- times do for olives. A Ice cream itself, the plain undecorated mix- ture, is old stuff. One hundred and fifty years, at least. An Italian by the name of Florin, who had a little shop along the Bay of Naples, served it to the ladies and gentlemen of his city in the eighteenth century. A London con- fectioner named Gunton got the same idea at gbout the same time. France also had the frozen idea just as early. By 1774 the couri favorites were served cream doces when they went down to Versailles to hear g$he fountains piay. 'HE first record of the sale of ice cream in America is connected with & man named Hall inp New York City. Jacob Fussell, though, George liked ice cream, and came frequently. Berners put a large scoop of vanilla ice cream in a dish and set it before the boy. Then George had his grand idea. On the back bar he saw a bottle of chocolate sirup, which was used in making chocolate sodas. “Put some of that chocolate sirup over the fce cream.” the boy suggested. The owner of T i Y THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, NOVEMBER 1, 1981, And how a little girl in Two Rivers, Wis., . gets credit for naming this drug store dessert of beer couldn’t compete with ice cream blan- keted in chocolate. Meantime George Hallauer was very popular. “He's the person who thought up the dish,” the people told one another when he passed. After a few days customers in other par- lors started to ask for the new dish. At Mani- towoc, not far away, there was a confectioner named George Giffy. He was angry at the new business venture. He called on Berners to tell him a few things. “What in the blazes do you mean by put- ting soda sauce on ice cream?’ he asked. “The practice will put a parlor owner out of busi- ness. It's giving too much for a nickel.” His own customers wanted decoraied ice cream and he couldn’t afford it. i Berners smiled and prepared one of the new dishes for Giffy. He like it. His expression changed. He started to get ideas for new sauces to put on ice cream. It would be a great game, only . . ‘There was the expense. He got around that by announcing that he would serve the concoction for a nickel only on Sunday. Some days later a little girl came into the Giffy shop. She wanted ice cream “with stuff on it,” she said. The proprietor explained that he served it only on Sunday. - “Then it must be Sunday, because I want that kind,” the child said, nothing daunted. Giffy like the name of Sunday. After all, he had to call the new confection something. He would list it as a “sundae.” Soon all the ice cream parlors around Two Rivers and Manitowoc were calling the new Glass salesmen were the next to become in- terested. Sundae dishes were made. NE year later the decorated sundae came into its own with enough frills and furbe- lows to shock an old-fashioned dish of ice cream. Jennie Flip Sundae, Goldfish Sundae, Sunshine Sundae, Two Rivers Sundae, Silver Creek Sundae . . . People demanded marsh- mallows and nuts and fruits and whipped cream and sometimes a whole sliced banana. For five years there was a rush of new names for the enlarged menus. Names of towns, race horses, actresses, professional sportsmen, trees and flowers were popular. The waiters in the pariors didn't always know what the patrons meant by a mere name, but since every ome “‘Then it must be Sunday, because I want that kind,' she said. Giffy liked the name of Sunday.” knew what he wanted, customers could explain. Lots of people had simpler tastes, though. “Give me a float,” was a common expression. A ball of ice cream would be dropped into a tall glass of milk, a few crackers put on the plate on which the glass stood, and the whole dish would be sold for a nickel. The “float” was probably the start of the milkshake idea, with which crackers are still served. The ice cream soda, invented several years ahead of the sundae, came into existence in much the same way. One rainy day, in New York, John Robertson and Francis Tietz were walking down the street. They went into Kline’s confectionery, But ine stead of ordering a plain glass of soda water or a dish of ice cream, as sensible patrons always did, they decided to mix their_ drinks and spice them up a little, “We want some ice cream,” Francis said. - “And soda water,” John added. “Bring along some pineapple and cherries,” Francis added. “A little ginger ale and make it . John put in. o ped aghast as he saw what they did. They dumped the ice cream into the sods water, a thing which had never been done be- fore. They flavored some of it with berries. Then they tried pi pple. sald it was good. xt M é Somebody at the next table called & waiter. “Please bring me what those boys are drink- ing,” he said. Home port of the ice cream sundae at Two Rivers, Wis., where an adventure- some customer first ate ice cream with & topping of sirup. Bottled soda water, which had to be opened with a screwdriver, did duty for the sodas. It had been developed in colonial times. A Centennial Exposition was held in Phila- delphia in 1876. Two years before that Robert M. Green had exhibited his soda fountain ap- paratus at Franklin Institute. From that time on he was in the market to sell the fountains. When the Centennial came along he rented a space to exhibit his apparatus and sell cream soda, just exactly as people rent spaces today, at the county fair. He wasn't selling ice cream soda. Just cream soda, a flavored, carbonated drink with one or two teaspoonfuls of cow's cream. i People were fond of the drink. They bought it in large quantities. One day Green ran short of cream. Not far away was a man who had a concession to sell ice cream. Green tried to buy some plain cream from the man. He didn’t have any, either. But he made a valuable suggestion. He told the soda man to take some ice cream, let it melt, and put it in the soda water, Green did it. It hit the spot. The demand for the new drink Was s0 great that there wasn't time to let the ice cream melt. There- fore, it was put in the glasses as regular, solid lce cream. The crowd held a regular jubilee. Ice cream sodas had started in earnest. It was after sundaes and sodas had become popular that some one discovered that instead of decorating ice cream with a blanket of chocolate and nuts and fruits and whipped cream it was possible to freeze the cream with fruits and flavorings in it. The list on the menu card grew longer. People began to wonder which kind they should take, instead of depending on a flavored blanket to disguise the ice cream. Elaborate sundaes started to disappear. The men at the fountains rejoiced. They were harder to serve anyway. But ice crecam sodas didn’t lose any custom- ers. Especially the chocolate ones. Not even when milkshakes and other drinks started to appear. . Simple Test Aids Canners Tx»m 1931 cherry season came through with & perfect record so far as the canners of the New York-Pennsylvania-Ohio district are con- cerned. The cherry has been one of the fruits caus- been greatly increased because of the expense of processing the seized shipments. Growers have been at great to pre- vent infested cherries from the can- neries, but there has been no reliable test which has been at all efficient. The